How to Gather a Contact Database for SMS Messaging: The Basics
If you’re trying to figure out how to build a contact list for your SMS Messaging campaign, you’ve come to the right place. Whether you’re just getting started with creating and distributing messaging strategies or you already have some experience under your belt from doing it in another department, this article will get you on the right track. Think of this article as a resource for the fundamentals of gathering a contact list for your SMS Messaging campaign. It covers everything from why you need one in the first place, to what different types of lists there are and which ones might be best for your purposes. Read on to discover everything you need to know about contact databases, their various types, and how they can help you achieve your messaging goals.
Why is it Important to have a Contact Database?
Communicating with your customers through one-off emails or social media posts is fine, but it has its limitations. You can’t nurture leads over time, build a relationship with them, or easily segment your audience by interest. Doing so requires a contact database. Messaging is an automated tool that allows you to communicate with as many or as few people as you want at any given time. It can be used to nurture leads over time, build a relationship with them, segment your audience by interest, and deliver personalised content based on their individual needs and preferences. In order to do all that, you need a contact database. If you don’t have one, you can’t fully take advantage of the power of SMS Messaging. Without a database, you can’t send effective automated messages. You also can’t use the tools that allow you to segment your audience by interest. If you don’t have a contact database, you can’t build a relationship over time or deliver personalized content. You can’t nurture leads or build a relationship with them. And you can’t use SMS automation to deliver personalized content.
By Asking for Permission ONLY When Needed
You can’t start collecting people’s phone/mobile numbers, and email addresses when they appear on your website. This will result in an extremely long, unwieldy contact list—if you can even get people to add their information to the list at all! Instead, start with a low-pressure form that allows people to opt into your database. Your form should make it clear that you’re gathering information for a database but that you won’t be messaging people just yet. If you have an online course or a live event coming up, you can ask people to sign up for SMS updates. Or if you’re running a webinar, you can collect phone/mobile numbers, and email addresses from your audience to invite them to a follow-up webinar or to a discount on your online course.
Create a Contact Database During Live Events
When you’re hosting live events, such as webinars, workshops, or free summits, you can use your sign-in sheet as an opportunity to collect phone/mobile numbers, email addresses and other information from your attendees. You can use this information to build your contact database. You can invite attendees to enter their phone/mobile numbers, and email addresses to receive a free gift, such as an ebook or online course, or to be added to your messaging list. You can also ask them to enter their name and other information to be added to your database. You can also use a live polling tool to gather information about your attendees during your event. This can include everything from their job title to their core challenges and goals.
By Tracking the Activities of Your Audience
To create a contact database, you can also track the activities of your audience by using a tracking pixel on your website. By tracking the activities of your visitors, you can collect information about who is visiting your site, what they are reading, and what their general interests are. All of this information can be added to your contact database, which you can then use to send triggered SMS to your visitors down the road. By adding new leads to your database, you can then send triggered messages based on their interests, needs, or stage of the sales funnel. You can send messages to people who are in the research phase, who are considering a purchase but want more information, or who are ready to make a purchase.
By Gathering Information from Social Media
Finally, you can build your contact list by gathering information from social media. You can use Facebook Custom Audiences, for example, to create a list of people who have been your customers, have visited your website, or have engaged with your content on Facebook. You can also use Lookalike Audiences to expand your reach and find new customers who are similar to your current customer base. By gathering information from your social media pages, you can also send triggered messages to your followers based on their interests and needs. You can send messages to people who want to learn more about your products or services or who want to buy them.
Conclusion
Everything we’ve covered in this article is important, but they’re all just the basics of gathering a contact database. There are plenty of other ways you can build a contact list that we didn’t get a chance to mention, such as using an event sign-up form to gather information, creating an automated form on your website, or using a pop-up widget. By taking these basic steps to create your contact database, you can then take full advantage of the power of SMS Messaging. You can fully take advantage of automated messages using SMS API for customer engagement and nurture. You can use the tools that allow you to segment your audience by interest. Likewise, you can build a relationship over time and deliver personalised content based on their interests and needs.
