If you can get customers and prospects to subscribe to informational updates from your business, you can build a brand loyalty bond that’ll be hard to break. The trick is to give people information they can use.
Text subscription is a service that businesses provide to send information via SMS to people who opt in to receive it — pretty simple. It’s the same concept as a newspaper or magazine subscription. Those businesses monetize subscribers by selling ads to people who want to reach them. Businesses that offer text subscriptions monetize their efforts by gathering contact information from people who might be current or potential customers, which they can use in campaigns or sales outreach.
Text subscriptions work so well because SMS is an ideal channel for marketing communication. Nearly everyone has a cell phone — 97% of Americans and almost 7 billion people worldwide — and everyone with a cell phone has SMS. Of course smartphone users also have access to apps, but you have to convince people to download them, and apps often include unwelcome trackers.
People look at 99% of text messages, usually within 15 minutes of receiving them. Email lacks the same immediacy, and open rates for email marketing messages are much lower than for SMS. SMS messages also have high engagement rates.
From a budget perspective, text messaging is incredibly affordable. Messages sent through Plivo cost half a cent in the US, and similarly low amounts elsewhere in the world, and you pay only for what you send — there’s no additional subscription cost to use the service.
What is a text message subscription?
Text subscription is a service that businesses provide to send information via SMS to people who opt-in to receive it — pretty simple. It’s the same concept as a newspaper or magazine subscription. Businesses use text message subscriptions for a variety of purposes, such as:
- Sending out coupons and discounts
- Announcing new products or services
- Sending appointment reminders
- Sharing breaking news or updates
Text message subscriptions are a great way for businesses to stay connected with their customers and keep them informed. They're also a convenient way for customers to receive information from their favorite businesses.
How to use text message subscriptions
Starting up a text subscription service is a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. You need to create valuable content to gain subscribers, but there’s no point in creating content unless you have subscribers.
You will likely need to put time and effort into developing your text message subscription service for several months before you see a payoff. Don’t offer a subscription service unless you can offer something that recipients will value.
What kind of content provides value for subscribers? A subscription with a regular cadence can be anything you know a lot about and that they need to know about, too. You might be able to alert subscribers to something new about your product or industry.
Ideally, each text message should offer some actionable advice they can use to overcome some challenge or problem. You can also offer early access to new products or services, or first access to new content.
But your text subscriptions don’t have to be on a daily or weekly cadence. You can send text messages to opted-in subscribers with notifications about things like
- Flash sales
- Subscriber discounts or other special deals
- Surveys (make them short — ideally, a single question per outreach!)
- Shipping notifications
- Suspicious account activity
- Feature updates
Opt-in is critical.
Before you send a single message, you must get recipients’ permission to send them messages, even if you already have their phone number. That’s not just good advice — it’s probably the law. Different countries have different rules. In the US, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) covers opt-ins, while in Europe it’s the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
You can obtain permission in several ways:
- Though a number provide via an online form
- Via text message that includes the opt-in keyword
- In-store, point-of-sale signup
- Opt-in button on a mobile web page
- Interactive voice response (IVR) opt-in via phone call
Give people a way to sign up at points they’re most receptive to interactions with your business, such as overall service signup and as part of the purchase process.
When people opt in, send a confirmation message that lets them know what to expect from the subscription. They should already know what kind of content to expect — that’s probably why they signed up. Let them know how often they can expect your messages and tell them how they can opt out, should they choose to. You should store recipient opt-in records electronically so you can show compliance if you’re ever audited.
And so is opt-out.
Make it just as easy for customers to opt out of a subscription as it is to opt in. Give recipients a keyword (such as STOP) they can send in reply to your messages to tell you to stop sending them texts. If they opt out, then the opt-out confirmation message you send in reply should be the last message they receive (until and unless they opt back in).
While getting permission is critical, opt-ins aren’t the only restrictions you should be aware of — additional regulations where you are might include things such as prohibited sending times.
Once your concept and your content are set you can let people know about what you offer. Post about it in your other channels: newsletters, social media, your website. Include samples of the kinds of messages you’ll offer so people can see the value of the service.
Best ways to use text subscriptions
The best way to use a text message subscription will vary depending on your business type and customer behavior. However, there are a few common ways that marketers have implemented text message subscriptions with success.
1. Promotions and discounts:
To increase sales and boost customer loyalty, send subscribers exclusive discounts or special offers. Use customer data to send personalized messages and offers, making the communication more relevant and effective.
2. Event reminders:
Notify your audience about upcoming events, sales, or new product launches to boost attendance and participation. You can also send appointment reminders to reduce no-shows or late arrivals.
3. Customer engagement:
Share valuable content like tips, tutorials, or product usage ideas, or collect feedback through surveys to improve products and services.
4. Loyalty program:
Keep subscribers informed about their loyalty points, rewards, and how they can redeem them.
5. Order updates:
Finally, build excitement for product delivery with real-time order status, shipping information, and delivery notifications to enhance the customer experience.
These are a few marketing-focused ideas, but there are dozens of other ways to use text subscriptions. Local governments use text subscriptions to send road closure notices, emergency alerts, and weather updates. Consider your business needs when you craft a strategy for your text subscription program.
How to send text messages using Plivo’s SMS API
Once you’re ready to talk to your subscribers, all that’s left is to integrate the sending process into your existing applications. Integrating SMS into your applications makes more sense than pasting together a messaging pipeline that relies on pumping your subscribers through a service like Zapier to an expensive texting service. We’ve created quickstart guides that show you how to send text messages using Python, Java, or any of five other web development languages. If you’re interested in the technical details, they’re a great place to start. You should also read up on best practices for text messaging.
With Plivo, you can automate reaching all your subscribers in bulk, or you can pick a subset of subscribers to reach out to, such as people in a single country or region or those who spend the most.
Plivo offers global reach, with the ability to text people in virtually every country on Earth. Plivo messages enjoy high delivery rates thanks to the Premium Communications Network we’ve put together over more than a decade. And we offer white glove support to make sure our customers are satisfied.
Conclusion
Ready to launch your own text message subscription? Get started with Plivo’s user-friendly SMS API. In five minutes or less you can start sending messages to your first subscribers. Learn more by requesting a trial of Plivo’s platform.
