Collect SMS subscribers using a web modal

  • Updated

Customers must give permission to contact them before you can engage them through SMS and MMS. In Optimizely Data Platform (ODP), you can create a web modal that lets shoppers enter phone numbers and explicitly opt-in for SMS and MMS communications.

Configure a web modal for SMS opt-in

You can add a phone number field to an existing form in a web modal or create a modal and form to collect the phone number.

The following example shows how to create a modal and a form to collect phone numbers: 

Create a web modal

  1. Go to Activations > Overview.
  2. Click Create New Campaign and select Web.
  3. Click Create From Scratch.
  4. Select All Visitors or a real-time segment from the drop-down list as your audience. 
  5. Click to edit Touchpoint 1.
  6. Click Web Modal.
  7. Expand Targets and enter the website URL where visitors can see your web modal.

Design the opt-in form

  1. Go to Elements > Forms.
  2. Drag and drop the following elements:
    • A Text Box for email collection. 
    • A Text Box for phone number collection. 
    • Two Checkboxes to let customers explicitly opt in to email communications and SMS communications. 
    • A Submit Button to submit the form. 

Configure the opt-in fields

Email address field

  1. Select the first Text Box in your form. 
  2. Go to Details.
  3. Expand the Field drop-down list and select Email. This automatically marks the field as required.

Phone number field with country code selector

  1. Select the second Text Box. 
  2. Go to Details.
  3. Expand the Field drop-down list and select Phone.
    ODP automatically enables Show Country Code and Enable Country Code Selection and selects the United States as the Default Country Code. You should leave the country code selector enabled to help your visitors with proper phone number formatting.
  4. Enable Required.

Checkbox

  1. Select the Checkbox. 
  2. Go to Details.
  3. Expand the Action drop-down list and select Opt-In. 
  4. Enable Required to ensure you obtain explicit consent from your visitors for email and SMS marketing communications.
    If you do not set the checkbox Identifier field to All (Global Opt-In), you must have one checkbox per messaging identifier field. In this example, you need one checkbox where Identifier is set to Email, and another checkbox where Identifier is set to Phone.

Submit button

  1. Select the Submit Button. 
  2. Go to Details. 
  3. Expand the Action drop-down list and select Confirmation Design. This ensures you are not interrupting visitors' place on your site when they click to submit the form.

Configure when the modal displays

  1. Expand Triggers.
  2. Adjust the settings. 

Preview the web modal

  1. Click Preview.
  2. Enter the Webpage URL where you want to preview the web modal.
  3. Click Generate Preview. A separate browser tab opens with a preview of your web modal.

Create a confirmation message

You should also create an SMS campaign that sends a confirmation message to your new SMS subscribers. You should launch this campaign before you go live with your web modal.