SMS text messages have become a great tool to reach your customers, thanks to the low cost of sending them and by not depending on any application installed for reception and reading.
Collecting mobile phone numbers with web forms
With the help of any form or landing page service, you can start collecting phone numbers but it is important to validate them to increase the effectiveness of your campaigns and also avoid SPAM. For this, you can integrate Toky with your form so that it sends an SMS message to whoever is creating an entry. For this you require:
- A form created in Typeform, Google Forms or Wufoo.
- Toky account with an SMS enabled phone number.
- Zapier account to connect the forms app with Toky.
Collecting mobile numbers and sending SMS step by step
Create a form in Typeform, Google Forms o Wufoo and add the fields you need including one where you request a mobile phone number. You must explain that the number must be in international format, for example, +52 55 8525 0122
Create a zap in Zapier that connects your form with Toky. You can use our templates:
- This zap connects the new entry event of the forms service with the Send text message of Toky; make sure to put in the field To in Zapier, the form field where the phone number goes and in the message field, create the personalized message and remember that you can include form data as the customer's name.
- In the message field, you can also add a link that includes the phone number as a parameter and that upon being called, save which of that phone number was clicked.
With Toky you can also send bulk SMS messages with our add-on for Google Sheets
How to validate the phone through a link in the SMS
To do this you have the following alternatives:
- Get help from your development team to create a web page to which adding the phone number as an URL parameter it can record the click on the SMS. So you would send from Zapier a text message with something like:
http://www.yourbusiness.com/verify?phone=18443326433and in your database, it would be recorded that that phone number was confirmed. - Use the same form services to record approvals in a new form. Both Typeform and Wofoo allow you to do this using hidden variables and in a paid plan; Google Forms allows it for free but the URL is too long, but its a free alternative.
- Another option to get a valid phone number is to give something in exchange for the number; such as discount coupons, links to download ebooks or exclusive content among others. This does not directly validate the number, but it motivates the person who leaves the number to register a correct number in order to obtain the reward.
Integrate Toky with your CRM and favorite tools to improve your sales and support process. Learn more!