There are two very high value data points you can have on your audience: email address and cellphone number.

When building audiences, brands and publishers have huge challenges in front of them. How to connect in a durable manner with as many people as possible.

Cookies and retargeting are often mentioned as great ways to engage and re-engage with audiences, but with what is called the “death of the cookie”, brands currently need to turn away from some traditional methods of building these audiences (Facebook and Google are excellent examples), towards a more “first party” approach.

But throughout this, and we always mention it during our masterclasses at Toast, email has remained one of the most valuable elements you can own about members of your audience.

Email addresses, through lead magnets, through newsletter registration, through e-commerce transactions, are sometimes hard to obtain from consumers, each and every one of those addresses is additional value in your list.

But another element is less often mentioned in discussions: mobile phone number.

Text messaging by brands is a little more advanced in Asia and Europe, but more and more it is picking speed here in North America.

Want to get your content team up to speed on this? Organize a team workshop or one-on-one coaching with an expert of our team. You can also book Alexandre to come and speak at your event!

Why is this so valuable?

Much like email addresses, mobile phone numbers carry a lot of value because they are a direct channel to an individual, very much free of any algorithms.

They are also a contact method that people rarely change in their lives. Once you have the personal email or the cellphone number of a person, there is a good chance you will be able to contact that person for a long time.

But, in all this, relevance remains extremely important. Even more so by text messaging as it is considered an even more personal way of communication.

To learn more about the trend, you can read Marie Dollé’s article on current platforms that offer the possibility for brands to reach audiences and lists by text message. Subtext, Community, Wavium, Arist are players in the field you might want to learn about.

In the meantime, happy texting! You can text me at 514-242-4264 if you would like to talk about this trend.

Struggling to get performance out of your content? If your content team is living through content chaos on a daily basis, schedule a quick call with us to discuss Content strategy and content operations. We can help you get all your ducks in a row.