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Getting there is half the fun when you’re talking about road trips, but not so much when you’re trying to grow online fans.

Yes, starting out small to someday get big is one of the hard-and-fast laws of business, both digital and non-digital. But the waiting is the toughest part, especially when you know you have good things to share but don’t know how people can find out about them.

You can certainly keep doing what you’re doing and treasure every new acquisition, and hope that word spreads, somehow. Or you can utilize an automated text service like Trumpia for help in making the sign-up process easy. Ultimately, it’s up to you and how creative and fun you can be with your promotions, but there are plenty of tools available to help you boost, even double your traffic, especially using mobile keywords.

Check out these examples and strategies:

• Location, location, location. This is as important in text subscription as it is in real estate. Where and how you put the keyword/subscribe info on your site or accompanying marketing materials is vital for people seeing it and retaining it. It has to be prominent and easy to read, especially for people on the go. For instance, a past promotion by the LA Lakers basketball team included the instructions “Text LAKERS to ____ to win playoff tickets” at the bottom of the TV screen, a place where viewers are used to looking for useful in-game info.  An online promotion for Wendy’s showed a photo of a mobile phone with the proper mobile keyword.
  
  
• Make it worth their while. As the self-help gurus say, it’s not about you, it’s about them. Consider how to make the text subscription sign-up process simple – if it’s too complicated or doesn’t result in a great reward at the end, it will drive people away. If they stick around, make it worth their investment of time. Offer specials for their effort – regular mobile coupons,  discount promo codes, deals on their birthday, the ability to accrue points. Create a VIP club with other benefits – the discounts and savings will be the most attractive, but it also can build loyalty especially if there are regular chances to enjoy oneself and win something occasionally.
  
  
• Figure out the value of each sign-up. Any of them are useful, and hopefully will show the person is active online. You can find out how active by encouraging them to visit your site or social media channels. If they sign up for text subscription via mobile keywords, your texting service can keep track of which keyword or combinations are more popular. Maybe even a combination of certain numbers can prove to be easier for people to remember rather than leasing a different random string of numbers with each promotion. Getting people to sign up also can be useful for everything from surveys and polls to targeted advertising in the future. Once they sign up and you have them in your database/VIP club, you can learn their interests and send them texts about products or topics that might interest them – this could result in higher conversions as well.
  
  

It’s one thing to say “a good texting plan using mobile keywords works well” but actual numbers offer even better evidence to these claims. Success stories include:

• Jamba Juice. The four locations in Bakersfield, Calif., boosted in-store traffic by 10 percent using Trumpia for text notification, creating a VIP club, and social media outreach.  People who signed up for texting service received a QR code, and the site also had visible subscription forms.
  [Tweet "See how #JambaJuice Bakersfield boost in-store traffic by 10%"]
  
  
• Chick-Fil-a. A Virginia location of the national chicken chain used Trumpia for assistance in collecting names and opt-ins, building up a database of active, interested customers, and contacting them about promotions. This effort included inviting customers to text a short code to sign up for text notifications, and information was available on social media, its blog, its main site and on signage. In return for their opt-in for notifications and alerts, customers received a coupon for discounts or products. The promotion has resulted in about 2,000 mobile numbers and about 400 people redeeming coupons, a 20 percent increase.
  [Tweet "How did Chic-Fil-a generate 2,000 mobile subscribers?"]
  
  
• 7-11. The convenience store in Hawaii was trying to grow business and find easier ways for customers to redeem coupons besides traditional hard copies. So the Oahu locations invited customers to text the word “Promo” to a certain number, which sent them a digital coupon and also opted them in to future promotions. About 3,700 people signed up. The store also sent a reminder to anyone who hadn’t redeemed theirs yet that they have five days until expiration, which resulted in more redemptions. The successful promotion expanded to all 62 Hawaii locations.
  
  [Tweet "7-11 in Hawaii used mobile keywords to acquire 3,700 new subscribers."]
  
  

For more details on using texting to boost business visit Trumpia.com.

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