Should you collect Email Vs SMS first or both?

Hi @gingerissm, 

Welcome to the Community! I love this question! 

It is typically best practice to at least collect your customer’s email as email is an important identifier in Klaviyo! Our multistep forms are a great tool to collect both SMS and email for a customer at once, however I’d love to hear what our Champions have to say! Our Champions are seasoned partners who have a lot of advice to share.

@KatherineB, @In the Inbox, @Ashley I. @Kylie W what are your thoughts and what have you seen work the best for your clients? 

-Taylor 

Hi @gingerissm great question, and thanks for the tag @Taylor Tarpley 😘

As Taylor mentioned already, at the very least you want to collect email because all profiles in Klaviyo are tied to the email. A best practice is to use a 2-step form. This means that the first “step” of the form is entering the email address, and then a second step pops with the option to add SMS. Even if someone doesn’t add SMS, you will already have their email.

The reason the 2-stage pop up works is because sometimes subscribers can be intimidated when presented with a form that has many fields they need to fill out. By asking for email and sms separately within the same form, you alleviate the overwhelm for the subscriber and are more likely to get both. 

By the way, once you get going with your 2-step form, I highly recommend setting up an SMS form that only shows to subscribers who haven’t signed up for SMS yet. This way you’re growing both your email and SMS lists!

https://help.klaviyo.com/hc/en-us/articles/4404213604251 

Hi @gingerissm 

Great question to be posting in the Klaviyo Community and thanks for the tag @Taylor Tarpley 

I am really going to be ‘3rding’ the other two and their recommendations on the sign up and support their advice on the two step sign up and at least ask for email.

My addition to the Taylor’s and Katherine’s insightful comments is; even if your client / business is not ready to send SMS just yet, I would still put it as an option for the sign up, so when you are ready to start with SMS (even just for those Major VIP announcements, or particular flow) you have a base to start with.

@KatherineB recommendation on the SMS form that only shows to subscribers who haven’t signed up for SMS yet - is a very advantageous move. 

Hope this helps!

Kylie