The concept of SMS marketing is simple: you deliver text messages to your potential customers that nudge them down the sales funnel. But to get subscribers on your SMS marketing list, you need a way to capture their phone numbers.
Granted, you can do this with your existing customers. Adding a form to your purchase confirmation email that asks them to opt-into text messages does work.
...But what about the people who haven’t bought from you?
Ecommerce brands can miss out on capturing the 98% of website visitors who don’t immediately purchase.
The good news is: an SMS popup can capture that information for you to use in future text message marketing campaigns.
In this post, we’re going to walk through what an SMS popup does (and why you should have them on your site.) Then, we’ll take a look at some examples of ecommerce companies doing this well—finally ending with SMS popup templates you can use to make your own.
What is an SMS popup?
An SMS popup is a website popup with the specific aim of capturing phone numbers from leads to use in SMS text message marketing campaigns. Many popups will also collect a lead's email address, but will then go on to request a phone number in exchange for access to a discount or lead magnet.
The value of SMS marketing
Business' spend on email and SMS is up 9.9% in 2021 vs. the previous year. Why? Because three-quarters of people would be open to receiving text messages from a brand after opting in. (It’s why brands like Peace Out Skincare manage to get 21% of their total ecommerce revenue from SMS marketing campaigns.)
Consumers also tend to (for the time being, at least) pay close attention to text messages on their phone, whereas mediums like email are generally easier to ignore. This makes SMS some prime real estate for marketers to take advantage of.
Popup SMS campaigns on your website help you capture those phone numbers to start texting potential customers.
Let’s take a look at six examples of how businesses are using SMS popups to collect their target customers’ phone numbers.
1. Cuddle Clones’ 2-step popup SMS discount
Cuddle Clones are amongst the many ecommerce brands going big on text message marketing. Take a look at this 2-step SMS popup they use:
During the first year of this SMS popup being active, Cuddle Clones captured more than 150,000 leads (who may have otherwise exited the site).
The SMS popup is triggered on scroll depth: it only appears when a visitor scrolls halfway down the page. Anyone visiting the site doesn’t get frustrated with a gigantic popup box when they first arrive there. The 20% discount, which is sent by SMS, is an incentive for people to actually hand over their phone number.
SEE MORE: How Cuddle Clones Captured 150,000+ SMS Ecommerce Leads with a Triggered Popup
2. Soccer.com’s SMS offer
Browse Soccer.com’s website and you’ll see a popup box that mentions all of the promotions they’re currently running:
One of them is an SMS marketing campaign that stands out from the others with a contrasting call-to-action color.
The "Sign Up Now" button launches an on-click popup to go ahead and claim the offer. The brand promises a 10% discount code that’ll be sent via text once a visitor enters their phone number:
They also make it crystal clear that anyone who enters their number will opt into their SMS marketing list. That way, no customer gets frustrated at receiving promotional texts. They already know what they’re signing up for.
3. Venus’ giveaway popup SMS
Not all SMS popups have to offer discount codes to everyone visiting your site. This example from Venus shows that you can use the discount-style incentive to collect phone numbers, but in a giveaway format:
Visitors arriving on Venus’ homepage are greeted with a competition. They can be in with the chance of winning $100 if they sign up to receive text messages from the retailer. The terms and conditions, and expectations of joining this SMS list, are also clear from the text in the popup.
4. Good American’s SMS popup banner
Not all SMS popups have to take front and center of a visitor’s screen, either. This example on Good American only appears when people browse a product category and it also displays as a sticky bar at the bottom of the screen:
It’s also different from the other examples we’ve shared so far because it doesn’t give a monetary incentive to sign up. Instead, they use their SMS popup to promise subscribers that they’ll “be the first to know” about any upcoming launches.
5. Goodfair’s SMS popup discount
Goodfair also has an SMS popup appear on their homepage. It offers visitors a hefty discount on their next order:
What’s interesting about this SMS popup, though, is the call-to-action button.
Instead of something generic like “sign up” or “opt in”, the incentive is listed: “Get 35% off now.” It’s a final, last-ditch push for someone to enter their information and claim the offer—and an excellent popup design practice to get into.
6. Kylie Skin's subtle SMS popup
At first glance, the popup on Kylie Skin’s website might not look like an SMS campaign. The first stage of the popup asks for a visitor’s email address:
But, read the fine print and you’ll see that visitors can only claim the $5 discount when they opt into text messages, too.
This is a superb way to collect several data points about your visitors. Kylie Skin can use the one, single popup to retarget potential customers via email and text.
Ready to create an SMS popup for your website? You’re in luck.
The ConvertFlow template library is home to popup templates, sticky bar templates, site message templates, and more that can be edited to ask visitors for their phone number. Each is completely customizable so you can change:
- The font and color
- The incentive
- The trigger (e.g. scrolling past a certain point of a page)
- and more
Whichever template you choose, you can easily add extra CTA steps and phone number fields to any form inside ConvertFlow's drag-and-drop builder:
Plus, our Klaviyo integration allows you to collect email + SMS or even SMS-only leads with automated follow-up campaigns sent via Klaviyo. You can send new subscribers a text with the incentive on autopilot—no human intervention needed.
Here's a few to get you started: