Keep custom subscribe keywords niche and unique.
Be thoughtful about the keywords you choose as you are designing them. Klaviyo cannot differentiate between someone using a word in a sentence versus someone texting in a single word as a subscribe keyword. Klaviyo only looks at the string of characters, so it also cannot determine whether something is a keyword or just part of a larger word. For example, if your keyword was “PLAY,” and someone included the word “playpen” in a text message, a keyword would still be recognized.
Let’s say Beantown Coffee decided to use the word “COFFEE” as a custom subscribe keyword for their text message list. They also use SMS conversations to manage back-and-forth conversation with their customers. Often times, customers will include the word “coffee” in the messages they’re sending to Beantown. In this case, each time a customer uses the word “coffee” in a message, they would inadvertently subscribe to Beantown’s SMS list, which means they would receive a reply text asking them to verify their opt-in. This is a confusing and non-ideal user experience since they aren’t intending to opt in every time they use the word “coffee” in a text.
That’s why it’s important to choose a niche keyword or keyphrase to limit the likelihood of accidental subscription. Keywords can be alphanumeric, so mixing numbers in is advised. Something like COFFEE10 or BEANTOWN20 would be a better choice.
Collect text message consent at a physical store location.
When customers are shopping in person at a retail location, they often get frustrated and bogged down at the checkout counter by requests to join rewards programs, or enter a phone number. You can offer an easy opt-in experience for in-store shoppers by posting signage with your custom SMS subscribe keyword on it. This is a non-invasive way to encourage shoppers to opt in to SMS at the checkout counter without much effort.
Build hype with custom-keyword waiting lists.
A great way to gain new text message subscribers is to build text message waiting lists for things like product releases or pre-orders. Create a custom subscribe keyword that reflects the topic that you’re trying to build hype around. Then, prompt customers to text that keyword in order to join the waiting list and be the first to get notified when the big day finally comes. You can add these subscribers to your main text message subscribers list, and then segment campaigns and flows based on the subscribe keyword that subscribers used to join the list. This makes targeting and communicating with these subscribers very intuitive later on.
One thing to be aware of when using keywords to collect subscribers is that a “phone-only” profile may be created, meaning there is no corresponding email address. If the phone number on an existing Klaviyo profile in your database matches the number on a phone-only profile, the two profiles will merge automatically. In cases where there is no shared unique identifier to link two profiles together (an email address or a phone number), the profiles will remain separate until more information is added to one of the profiles that can link them together.