How a Text Subscriber Report Gives You Better Analytics

Analytics matter.

Smart businesses want more of it.

(One study found that as much as 71% of enterprises globally had planned to accelerate their investments in data and analytics over the past 3 years.)

Whether you work in a business or another type of organization, you need to be able to see trends in data so that you can make wise decisions.

You already know this. You’ve probably run into issues in the past in which you didn’t have enough data to make informed choices. And at those times you just had to shoot into the dark, hoping you’ll somehow hit the target.

It’s frustrating, right?

That’s why when it comes to mass texting via your SMS platform, you want tools that will help you analyze data.

One of those tools is a subscriber report.

What Is an SMS Platform Subscriber Report?

“A subscriber report? What’s that?” You may be asking.

“What does a subscriber even mean?”

When it comes to your SMS platform, your “subscribers” are the people who have signed up to receive your texts. These are your mass texting contacts.

Your subscriber report, then, is a web page that provides data about those contacts.

This kind of report helps you see trends across your subscriber activity in your SMS dashboard.

Some of the data you can see includes:

• Number of Opt-Ins
  • This is the number of people who have opted in to receive your texts over a specific period of time
• Number of Opt-Outs
  • This is the number of people who have unsubscribed from your text list over a specific period of time
• Total Subscribers
  • This is the total number of contacts in your SMS platform database as recorded over a specific period of time
• Opt-In Sources
  • This is the number of people who opted into your texts across various opt-in sources over a specific period of time

(More on all of these later!)

Knowing that these data points are available in your subscriber report will help you be more confident to make informed decisions.

Why Do You Want a Text Subscriber Report?

So you’ve already determined that you are going to use SMS for your business/organization.

(Or, you at least like the idea of using it.)

But you don’t need to spend a lot of time figuring out features if they aren’t useful to you.

Why do you actually need a subscriber report for your SMS platform?

Here’s why:

Your contacts are your most valuable asset when it comes to your mass SMS efforts.

After all, they are the whole point of why you’re sending messages: to communicate with them.

Having more contacts, or having the right kind of contacts, will help your communication efforts via mass SMS be more effective and successful.

With that in mind, you can understand how knowing as many details about your contacts as you can is invaluable.

That’s where your subscriber report can help give you some of that information. This allows you to be as informed as possible.

What Can a Text Subscriber Report Tell You?

That all may sound well and good.

But your time is precious. You need the bottom line: what can a subscriber report actually tell you?

How do you interpret and make decisions from its data for the betterment of your business/organization?

We’re glad you asked!

Below are some examples of how a subscriber report can help give you confidence in your decision-making.

Number of Opt-Ins

The total number of opt-ins will give you an idea of how many people are subscribing to your mass texts.

It will also tell you the percentage of increase or decrease in opt-ins between months.

These numbers can help you evaluate your efforts to get more subscribers and see if they’re being effective. That can help you determine if you need to make any changes in your strategy. Or it might give you insight on if you need to put more effort into campaigns to boost your subscriber base.

Number of Opt-Outs

This metric lets you see how many people are replying STOP to your messages to unsubscribe from your list.

Like the number of opt-ins, it also tells you the percentage of increase or decrease between months.

Knowing all of this can help you see if there’s something in your messaging behavior that is leading to more opt-outs.

That way, you can figure out if you need to change how you approach your messaging behavior.

Total Subscribers

The number of total subscribers can give you an overall pulse for your SMS platform efforts.

This chart will give you insight into your total subscriber count - how much it has fluctuated or changed over time.

Then you’ll be able to see trends in what may have contributed to any drops or increases in subscriber count. That way, you can try to determine what may have impacted those numbers.

Opt-In Sources

“Opt-In Sources” refers to how many subscribers were added to your account from different opt-in methods.

More on these in the next section, but these methods include:

• Text In
  • This refers to contacts who subscribed by texting in one of your “text to join” keywords.
• Sign Up Page
  • This refers to contacts who signed up by going to your free web sign up form.
• Control Panel
  • This refers to contacts that you have added manually under your Manage Contacts tab in your SMS platform control panel.
• Spreadsheet Imports
  • This refers to contacts that you have added manually by importing from a spreadsheet.
• API
  • This refers to contacts that have been added in via your SMS platform’s API.

Being able to see the sources that your contacts are coming from will help you make determinations about which methods are the most successful for you.

Again, having access to all of this info gives you greater confidence that you can make decisions about how you go about your text alert efforts.

Because when it comes to this kind of data, the more knowledge, the better!

What Opt-In Methods Are Monitored in the Text Subscriber Report?

Your needs are unique to you because your situation is unique.

So you don’t want to be stuck in a so-called “solution” that limits you - You need options that will fit you and your business/organization.

This is true when it comes to opt-in methods that are monitored in your subscriber report. We touched a little on this in the previous point, but here we’ll go into each of these a bit further.

Text In

One way you can get more subscribers is by having them opt in by texting in a “keyword.”

Having these “text to join” words available to you means that you can give your audience instructions like,

“

Text HUSKERS to 74121 to receive our best deals!

Then, when they follow those instructions and text in, their phone number will be automatically added to your subscriber list.

Your account will come with at least 1 free keyword that you can use for this purpose.

Sign Up Page

All accounts come with a FREE web sign up form you can give out to your audience.

They can fill out the easy form online and then click a button to be automatically added to your contact list.

Simple as that!

This online form is customizable and can even be embedded on your own website. So you have a range of options on how to present it. That way, you can come across as professionally as possible.

Control Panel

We all want things that are easy, right?

Adding in contacts manually via the online control panel (or mobile app) is easy-peasy. All it takes is the click of a button, typing in information for the subscriber, and clicking “Save.”

(Just make sure you have permission from your contacts before adding them in!)

Spreadsheet Imports

Do you already have a list of recipients who have agreed to receive your texts?

If so, great! You can easily import that list and add them to your SMS database.

You just need to make sure that your spreadsheet follows the right template and you should be good to go!

Thus, this can save you a lot of time and hassle rather than going through and adding people manually.

API

We all agree that automation can be a life-saver.

It can free up time and hassle as well as boost efficiency all at once.

If you’re a web developer (or have access to developers), you can use our trusted API platform to send data back and forth with the apps you use everyday. This helps you maximize and automate your processes to the fullest.

Mobile Text Alerts API documentation.

Our API allows you to:

• Send SMS & MMS messages
• Get message replies
• Add or remove subscribers
• Add or remove groups
• Add or remove subscribers from groups
• And more!

It’s a great way to minimize the time you need to spend on things and to kill two birds with one stone!

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That's a lot of different opt-in methods that you can monitor from your Subscriber Report! You can select the best option (or combination of options) to fit your circumstances.

And then you can rest easier knowing that you can look at the resulting numbers from these options. Thus, you can have an aid to make decisions about your approach to collecting contacts for your text alerts.

What Other Reports Are Available to Help in Your Decision-Making?

You don’t just want to be able to analyze and evaluate overall subscriber data.

You want access to other reporting as well. You want to have as broad a view as possible of everything that’s going on within your text alert system.

That way, you can make as well-informed decisions as you can. And you can also better gauge the success of your mass texting efforts.

So what other reports are available to help with this?

Sent Messages Report

There are 2 key elements of your text alert system:

Subscribers, and messages.

While the Subscriber Report gives you insight on the former, the Sent Messages Report (or SMS Delivery Report) gives you info regarding the latter.

From this report, you can see the history of messages you’ve sent. You can also view a data graph showing the volume sent within a specified time period.

This allows you to review and evaluate your messaging activity. Thus, you can better manage your SMS platform account - and make decisions about how much or how little you should be texting your subscribers.

Link Tracking Report

If you’ve done much communicating with mass amounts of people online, you know that trackable links are a beautiful thing.

They allow you to see how many people are actually engaging with your messages - that way, you can decide if your efforts are paying off.

With your text alert system, you’re able to send trackable links to your audience. Then you can view the clicks for those links from within your Link Tracking Report.

This allows you to see who all is engaging with your links, which will help you determine the success of your message.

Because we all want to know if the time we’re spending on something is actually bringing the results we’re looking for!

Opt-Out Report

Have you ever wanted to unsubscribe from something but were frustrated that you couldn’t figure out how?

Many companies/organizations make it difficult to unsubscribe from their services or mailing lists.

Some of that is just good business (although some practices are ethically questionable). But the good news for consumers when it comes to SMS lists is that opt-out is easy.

All that your subscribers need to do to opt out of your texts is reply STOP to any of your messages.

When they do that, their phone number is automatically removed from your text alert list and placed on your Opt-Out Report. You can view this report from your dashboard.

From this report, you can see all of the people who have unsubscribed from your alerts, as well as the dates that they unsubscribed.

This insight about “unsubscription” activity can help you determine if there’s anything you can do to reduce opt-out rates and make your messaging as effective as possible!

Maximize Your Text Alert Efforts with Text Subscriber Reporting

So, analytics.

You want to analyze situations and make good decisions in any aspect of your business/organization.

That includes your SMS platform.

So make sure you have tools, like the subscriber report, that can help you know how to maximize your text alert efforts!

Ready to give texting a go?

Sign up for a free 14-day trial here.