Are you struggling to reach, engage, and convert customers despite all your marketing efforts? Without a direct line of communication, potential leads slip away and engagement drops. Not anymore! Collecting phone numbers with popups can change that.
It lets you connect instantly with your customers, boost conversions, and build long-term relationships. Oh, and it offers high visibility as text messages have a high open rate of 98%.
But how to collect phone numbers effectively?
This post is your go-to guide for collecting phone numbers correctly by using engaging popups. I’ll walk you through the importance of phone number collection, the top 10 proven ways to collect phone numbers, and best practices to maximize results.
Let’s get started.
4 Reasons Why Collecting Phone Numbers Is Important
In a world where customers are bombarded with emails and ads, having direct access to their phones is a huge advantage. Here’s why collecting phone numbers is so valuable.
1. Cost-Effective Marketing
Collecting phone numbers allows you to promote your products or services at little to no cost. While SMS messages cost $0.01–$0.05 each, platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and iMessage enable free marketing once you have your customer’s number. Unlike paid ads, these direct channels let you engage customers without ongoing costs.
Plus, texts and messaging apps see higher response rates than emails, making phone number collection a budget-friendly yet powerful strategy for long-term customer engagement.
2. More Reliable Than Email
Email inboxes are cluttered, so promotional emails often get lost or filtered as spam. With text messages, there’s no junk folder to worry about. Your message goes straight to the recipient, increasing the chances of engagement.
The best part? You don’t have to invest much time creating a hyper-engaging subject line and content to push your audience towards opening it. Text notifications help you get noticed easily.
3. Stronger Customer Relationships
Collecting phone numbers helps you stay connected with customers in a more personal way. Unlike emails, which can feel generic, texts and messaging apps create direct, one-on-one interactions. You can send exclusive deals, order updates, personalized recommendations, and friendly reminders, making your customers feel valued.
When customers see relevant and helpful messages, they’re more likely to engage, return, and stay loyal to your brand.
4. Reduces Cart Abandonment & No-Shows
If you’re an e-commerce and service-based business, collecting phone numbers can help you recover lost sales and missed appointments. Many shoppers leave items in their carts and forget to complete their purchases. A simple SMS reminder with a small discount can bring them back.
Similarly, salons, clinics, and service providers can send appointment reminders to prevent no-shows. These small, timely messages increase revenue and improve customer experience by keeping customers informed.
How to Collect Phone Numbers Through Popups: 10 Ways
Getting customers to share their phone numbers isn’t as hard as it seems, especially when you offer value in return. Let’s explore 10 effective popup strategies for collecting phone numbers without much effort.
1. Use a Webinar Registration Popup
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A webinar registration popup prompts visitors to sign up for an upcoming webinar by entering their details, such as name and number. You can use a clear call-to-action like “Save My Spot” and promise to offer perks like exclusive Q&A access or post-webinar goodies via text to encourage signups.
It’s perfect for coaches, consultants, SaaS brands, educators, and marketers looking to gather leads for demos, training, or events. You can use it before a product launch, to share industry insights, or to attract potential customers. It works best on landing pages, blog posts, or as an exit-intent popup to capture interest before visitors leave.
2. Collect Numbers With a Newsletter Popup
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A newsletter popup asks visitors to subscribe with their phone number for updates, offers, or exclusive content. It’s a great way to keep your customers in the loop and build a direct line of communication. Moreover, keep the form short, clear, and benefit-driven, like “Be the first to get flash sale alerts!” to maximize sign-ups.
It works best when placed on home pages, blogs, or product pages. Also, set it up after a visitor scrolls, spends time on a page, or is about to leave for maximum subscriptions. Because such engaged visitors are more likely to be interested in your content and sign up.
3. Offer Free Shipping for Phone Number Submission
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A free shipping popup appears on a website, offering free shipping in exchange for a visitor’s phone number. If you own an e-commerce brand, use it to encourage sign-ups for SMS marketing while reducing cart abandonment. A simple message like “Get Free Shipping on Your First Order – Sign Up for SMS Alerts!” makes it clear, enticing, and highly converting.
It works best on product pages, during checkout, or as an exit-intent popup to capture hesitant shoppers. Once you have their number, you can send order updates, exclusive deals, and personalized offers.
4. Run Contests or Giveaways
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A contest or giveaway popup appears on a website, inviting visitors to submit their phone numbers to participate in a contest or win a prize. You can use this to boost engagement, grow your SMS list, build brand awareness, and attract new customers for your cafe, fitness brand, or e-commerce business.
Your best bet is to adopt it during seasonal promotions or as an exit-intent popup to promote special offers and capture leads. Offering discounts, freebies, or exclusive perks makes it even more effective, encouraging visitors to sign up before they miss out. No matter which website page you display it on, you’ll get equally excellent results.
5. Add a Request Callback Option
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A request callback popup asks visitors to enter their phone number to request a call from your team. It’s a great way to get people’s phone numbers capture high-intent leads and provide instant assistance.
This popup will work well if you are a service-based business, B2B company, or high-ticket product seller who needs direct conversations to close deals. You must use it on pricing pages or product inquiry sections. A quick follow-up call can turn an interested visitor into a loyal customer.
6. Give Access to E-books & Guides
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If you have valuable content to share, why not use it to get people’s phone numbers? You can use an e-book popup on your website for that. It invites users to download a free resource like a how-to guide, industry report, or exclusive checklist by submitting their number. But this will engage them for a very short period of time.
To engage them for long, you can promise to provide exclusive tips or updates. This popup works well for educators, marketers, SaaS companies, and consultants with valuable insights. When placing it on your website, choose a spot like blog posts or landing pages that gets the maximum attention of engaged visitors.
7. Use Exit-Intent Popups
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An exit-intent popup is a last-minute prompt that appears when a visitor is about to leave a website. It gives you one final chance to collect mobile phone numbers. This is great for reducing lost leads by offering a discount, freebie, or exclusive SMS updates in exchange for their number.
Another approach is to use a short exit survey, such as “What stopped you from buying today?” and request the customer’s phone number for a personalized response or special offer. This popup works best on checkout pages, targeting visitors who showed interest but didn’t take action. This is a great strategy for e-commerce or service-based businesses.
8. Provide Discounts
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Instead of offering discounts upfront, you can display a discount popup saying, “Get 20% off your first order! Enter your number to receive your discount instantly via text message.” This helps you boost sales by leveraging the idea that everyone loves a good deal. To maximize sign-ups, reassure customers that they’ll receive only valuable deals, not spam.
This method will work exceptionally well if you own an e-commerce store, as discounts can create urgency and reduce cart abandonment. You can use it to offer percentage-based discounts, limited-time deals, or special VIP pricing. Simply place it on product or cart pages because a good discount can entice visitors to purchase.
9. Reward Users With a Loyalty Program Signup
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People love rewards. So, offering exclusive benefits like reward updates, personalized discounts, and limited-time offers in exchange for their number makes signing up and building long-term relationships easy. It is a gem for you if you own subscription-based businesses, beauty brands, or retail stores.
For example, a popup could say, “Join our VIP Club! Earn points on every purchase and get early sale access — enter your number to sign up.” This approach not only collects mobile phone numbers but also encourages repeat business. It works best on homepages, checkout pages, or after a purchase, encouraging customers to stay connected and enjoy ongoing benefits.
10. Collect Phone Numbers Through Free Trial Signups
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A free trial signup popup allows visitors to try a product or service for free in exchange for their phone number. You can use it get mobile numbers and nurture potential customers through SMS reminders, trial tips, or exclusive upgrade offers. This popup is ideal for you if you are a software business, offer streaming services, or own a subscription-based business with a free trial for new customers.
It works best on pricing pages, ensuring visitors get a risk-free experience while you collect valuable contacts for follow-ups. Once collected, you can use phone numbers to send trial reminders, exclusive offers, or personalized assistance and convert trial users into paying customers.
Why Purchasing a List of Phone Numbers Isn’t the Best Strategy
Buying a list of phone numbers might seem like a quick way to grow your contact list, but it often does more harm than good. First, these people never opted in, so your messages could be flagged as spam. This would lead to low engagement.
You could even be subject to legal violations under regulations like TCPA and GDPR:
- TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) regulates telemarketing and SMS marketing in the U.S., requiring you to obtain consent before sending promotional messages.
- GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is a European law that protects user data privacy, ensuring individuals have control over how their personal information, including phone numbers, is collected and used.
Second, purchased lists rarely provide quality leads. These numbers might be outdated, belong to the wrong audience, or even be fake. Instead of reaching potential customers, you risk damaging your brand’s reputation by sending unsolicited messages.
A better approach? Get mobile numbers organically through popups, promotions, and value-driven incentives. When people willingly share their numbers, they’re likelier to engage with your messages and convert into loyal customers.
It takes time, but the long-term benefits like higher open rates, trust, and compliance far outweigh the risks of a shortcut.
5 Best Practices for Collecting Phone Numbers
A well-planned phone number collection strategy ensures you’re reaching the right audience without being intrusive. Here’s how you can collect phone numbers without compromising customer trust.
1. Always Get Clear Consent
Your customers should know exactly what they’re signing up for when they share their number. Use a clear message like, “Enter your number to receive exclusive deals and updates via SMS.” This builds trust and ensures adherence to laws like TCPA and GDPR.
2. Offer a Valuable Incentive
People are more likely to share their numbers when they get something in return. To encourage sign-ups, offer shopping deals like a discount, free shipping, early access to sales, or a downloadable guide. A simple “Get 15% off your first order, text us to claim” works wonders.
3. Understand Your Audience
Not every phone number is a good lead. Instead of collecting as many numbers as possible, focus on getting sign-ups from people genuinely interested in your brand. For that, use targeted popups, personalized offers, and clear messaging to attract the right audience so your messages actually drive engagement and sales.
4. Keep Forms Short & Simple
Nobody likes long, complicated forms. Stick to just the essentials, like name and phone number. The easier it is to sign up, the more likely people are to do it. Also, you must avoid using tough words or long sentences to make the form easily scannable.
5. Be Transparent About Message Frequency
Customers don’t want to feel bombarded with texts, so tell them how often they’ll hear from you. A note like “We’ll send 1-2 messages a week with exclusive offers” reassures them and increases trust. This sets clear expectations, reduces opt-outs, and ensures your messages feel valuable rather than intrusive.
Step-By-Step Process to Collect Phone Numbers
To collect phone numbers effectively, you need a well-designed popup that grabs attention and offers value. Picreel offers you just that. It lets you easily set up a phone number collection popup without writing a single line of code using its customizable, ready-to-use popup templates.
Follow these 5 steps to create and launch your popup in minutes.
Step 1: Log into your Picreel account. If you don’t have one yet, create your forever-free Picreel account.
Step 2: Navigate to the “Campaigns” section on the left-hand menu. Click on “New Campaign” to begin setting up your popup.
Step 3: Picreel offers a variety of customizable templates. Choose one that suits your brand’s style and is designed for phone number collection.
Step 4: Use Picreel’s drag-and-drop editor to personalize your popup.
- Set the height and position of your popup on the screen.
- Choose your popup’s background color, border width, and animation.
- Add fields for the visitor’s name and phone number.
- Tweak the design by adding images, extra button, or text to match your website’s look and needs.
Step 5: Decide when and where your popup will appear. For instance, you might want it to show up when a visitor is about to leave your site or after they’ve spent a certain amount of time browsing.
After finalizing your settings, save and activate your campaign. Picreel will start displaying your popup to visitors based on your set criteria.
Get More Leads With the Right Collection Strategy
Collecting phone numbers is a powerful way to connect with customers, boost conversions, and drive repeat engagement. But success lies in using the right strategies.
If you are confused about how to collect phone numbers effectively for SMS marketing, I recommend exploring the proven methods and best practices shared in this blog.
For a seamless number collection experience, try Picreel, a smart popup builder with customizable templates, advanced targeting, and an intuitive interface. Whether you’re looking to grow your SMS list or re-engage potential customers, Picreel makes it easy. Oh, and it’s free to start with its forever-free plan!
So, without further ado, start collecting phone numbers today and turn visitors into loyal, engaged customers!
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