How To Get Mobile Opt-Ins From Your Customers

Mobile marketing is not only mobile smartphones, but it also includes tablets, e-readers and iPad devices. When you think mobile, think about all of these gadgets, because the owners of them will be connecting with you.

According to marketing agency Merkle, 63% of mobile consumers check their email on their mobile devices an average of one to four times per day. That's huge! Another survey done by ClickZ found that people are not casual phone readers. About 70% read emails, 18% skim their emails and the rest just glance and delete them. But, here's a statistic you never want to forget, many individuals report their mobile phone is within reach 24 hours a day. With that in mind, here are tips on how to get mobile opt-ins from your customers.

First, you will want to build trust with your brand. If you build trust between your brand and your customers, they will trust you with their time and most importantly access to them, and will opt-in to your offer.


Create engagement by offering loyalty programs, new product alerts and shipping details or confirmations to your customers. When a customer opts-in for mobile, think of it independently of email opt-ins. They are similar but the trust level is different. When a customer shares their mobile telephone number with you, you are closer to their lives, and the proximity between business and customer is reduced. So make sure you communicate with your mobile customers at the right time (the time when they are most likely to read their SMS messages), delivering the right message all the time. You may need to run split tests to find out when is the best time to send your marketing messages to your opt-in customers.

Make it easy for consumers to type in a mobile number or click a check box in order for customers to set preferences. Remember, your customer is using a mobile device and is not on a computer, so it may not be so easy to do these tasks.

Provide an in-store or on property offer that creates interactive engagement. QR codes are not dead! A QR code your customer can scan that gives additional loyalty points or freebies and coupons. Coupons and discounts come alive on mobile devices because you can even embed a scannable barcode in coupon emails so your customer can easily redeem the coupon by showing it at an offline venue. A merchant processing company can assist you with this if you have one. If not, contact me, I will help you get a loyalty program started for your business.

Easily create social media interaction by adding an incentive for liking a Facebook Fan Page, Following a Twitter account, or Pinning a Pin on Pinterest. These activities could be combined with mobile alerts sent to customers on a random basis.

These are just a few ways to gain mobile opt-ins from your customers. Mark Wittier, vice president of account services for Seattle-based direct marketing agency The Hacker Group states, "Mobile isn't a tactic, it's how consumers are choosing to consume information." You should make sure that when consumers choose your brand (opt-in) your offers are valuable and benefit them, otherwise, your mobile marketing campaign will die a fast death.

What are some of the strategies you use to get mobile opt-ins from your customers? We'd love to hear about them, reply below.