Soon temperatures will begin to drop, Pumpkin Spice Lattes have suddenly reappeared at Starbucks (Yay?), and as kids go back to school we thought we'd take you, our wonderful hosts, back to school too...for some Subtext 101! 📚
It's been a minute since we walked through our platform with most of you, so why not dust off those broadcasting skills and get back to the basics. How should you be promoting your texts? How many times a week should you even text your audience? WHAT IN THE WORLD DOES A KEYWORD DO?!
Don't stress. Consider this a cheat sheet for your upcoming school year.
Broadcasting
All things grow with a little TLC, right? So does your audience!
Broadcasting 2-3 times a week will keep you connected to your subscribers and encourage engagement.
*Bonus points for establishing a regular cadence with them: I know I expect certain texts to hit my phone at 9 AM with my daily pop culture updates.
Wanting to grow a bit more? Utilize those free marketing tools a.k.a SOCIAL MEDIA. Check out some host examples below.
- Instagram - Paige Spiranac's Golf Tips
- Twitter - Maggie Roger's WANT-WANT Hotline
- TikTok -Clemson Basketball's Kionna Gaines
- Facebook - Sony: All Things Elvis
- LinkedIn - Official Chika
Wherever you are, chances are your subscribers are too, so convert them! Running promotions for your campaign on social media is the easiest and fastest way to convert your audience to text subscribers.
Remember how good it felt to keep that hanging plant in your window alive through the winter? Growing your base will feel EVEN better!
Sign-Ups
Are you using all the tools in the Subtext toolkit? If your stress levels just went up in fear, don't panic. We got you.
3 Ways to Sign-up your Subscribers
- Sign-up Link: Putting the link to your sign-up page is a no-brainer. Incorporate it into the body of your newsletter or your Twitter bio.
- Embed Codes: Seamlessly integrate the sign-up process into your existing site and convert the audience you already have.
- Keywords: Bypass any sign-up requirements and implement a keyword for your subscribers to text to automatically opt them into your campaign.
- Text to sign up
Still sweating like you were in Pre-Calculus? We've got office hours. Just come on by.
Work Subtext into Your Existing Workflow
You can get all your homework done, we promise!
Remember when your parents used to say "You get out of it what you put into it"?
*CUE teenage eye-roll. Buuuut, they were right. And the same applies to Subtext. The more you engage with your audience, the more they will respond and keep coming back for more.
But how? Incorporating another work-stream may seem daunting, but here are some tips to make it more manageable:
- Plan in advance: Plan your content/promotional strategy in advance. Know of events you want to highlight? Someone is giving a speech? Build that into a schedule and create content around that.
- Set it and forget it: Schedule a week's worth of broadcasts on Monday morning so your broadcasts will go out on time while you're taking that much-needed coffee break
- Block off time to respond: Block off 20 minutes a day to respond to messages. Your audience will appreciate your daily responses.
*Bonus points for planning out your social media promos and texts at the same time!!
New Feature Alert
We're gonna take a hot second to interrupt your tutorial with some awesome new feature drops.
Branded Subtext Links
Have you noticed recently that your broadcast links condense down to https://subtxt.to/? Yup, that's new!
We now brand any attached links in your broadcasts, allowing us to track your click-through rates and prevent less carrier filtering.
Less filtering and more data? WIN-WIN.
SMS Links
We are now able to create custom short links for you to share across your social platforms. These links redirect your followers into their SMS Messaging app, pre-loaded with your Subtext phone number. All your subscribers have to do now to sign up: send a text!
Check out more details on SMS Links!
101 Tips
So if your eyes glazed right over that, we'll give you a pass. You've been out of the school groove for a minute, so here's the condensed version.
- Broadcast often - Consistent broadcasting will create more engagement and a more loyal subscriber base. Want to pivot the campaign somewhere new? Let us know and we'd be happy to create a game plan!
- Promote Everywhere - Embed Codes, Keywords, Hyperlinks, SMS Links. Use them! They do the work for you.
- Include Media - Want to grab someone's attention? Attach photos, links, and videos. We've made it easier to send and even easier for you to track.
We hope this refresher has you feeling like that young freshman: braces off, new converse, and some fresh numbers 2s in their backpack. Or maybe you'll just feel like a boss of the SMS world. That's cool too.
For more texting tips, text "Subtext" to (202) 858-1202 for weekly tips and our monthly AMA.. Happy texting.