We love being able to share secrets on this blog about how brands are growing their SMS marketing databases, and more importantly how you can use this information to grow your own SMS marketing databases. Want to know how Cabela’s is growing their SMS marketing database at a staggering pace of nearly 6% a week? It’s pretty simple, they’re offering an incentive for customers to opt-in.
What’s the incentive Cabela’s is offering? As you can see below, when customers sign up for text alerts from Cabela’s by texting JOIN to 247365, they’ll receive $10 off their next purchase of $50 or more. How much faster is Cabela’s able to grow their SMS marketing database by offering an incentive for customers to sign up for their text alerts? According to this report, Cabela’s can expect to grow their SMS database 520% faster by offering an opt-in incentive to customers.
Does Cabela’s secret to growing their SMS marketing database sound familiar? That’s because some of the most successful SMS marketing campaigns of all-time have also offered incentives for their customers to opt-in. Take for example Julep who was able to generate 5,000 new SMS subscribers within the first 24 hours of launching their SMS campaign, or Taco Bell who gained 13,000 new subscribers in the first five weeks of their campaign, all by offering an incentive for customers to opt-in. Even newcomers to SMS marketing like Staples is implementing this strategy to grow their SMS marketing database, as you can see here.
Worried that your customers will immediately unsubscribe after they receive the initial opt-in incentive? Don’t worry, from our research we’ve found that this is rarely the case with an average of only 2.3% of customers unsubscribing after receiving the initial opt-in incentive. This is a small price to pay when some businesses like Ace Hardware generate up to $529 in new yearly sales for each and every new SMS subscriber they collect.
Want to supercharge the growth of your SMS marketing database? We recommend checking out the following resources to help you get started.
