Email and SMS Drop Alerts: Building a List for Your Reef Store
How reef stores build an email and text list for coral drops: where to put signups, what to send, and the consent rules for email and SMS.
You post Friday’s drop in your Facebook group and on Instagram, then watch the orders come in slower than last time. On Monday a regular messages you to ask why you didn’t announce it. You did. The post just never showed up in their feed.
Social platforms decide who sees your drop. An email list or a text list works differently: the people on it asked to hear from you, and the message goes straight to their inbox or their phone. If you sell coral in drops, a list you own is worth setting up properly.
Email or text: what each one is good for
Email is where the full preview goes. You can show photos of the best pieces, prices, lineage, the ship day and a link to your live arrival policy. People read it when they have a minute, and it costs very little to send.
Texts are for the moment the cart opens. A text gets seen fast, but each message costs money, the consent rules are stricter, and people opt out quickly if you text too often. Save texts for things that can’t wait, like a drop going live or a weather hold on shipping.
A setup that works for a lot of reef stores is an email the day before with the preview, then a text when the drop goes live. If you only have time for one, start with email and add texts later.
Where to collect signups on a coral website
Most coral sites have one newsletter box in the footer and nothing else. The better spots are the moments when a buyer has just missed out on something or just paid for something.
Sold and sold out pages
If you sell WYSIWYG pieces, every item sells once and then it’s gone. A buyer who lands on a sold colony is exactly the person to ask: “This one’s gone. Want a heads up before the next drop?” For colonies you frag over and over, a back-in-stock alert on the product page does the same job. There’s more on one-of-a-kind listings in our guide to WYSIWYG coral listings.
Checkout
Add a marketing checkbox to checkout and leave it unchecked. If you also want text alerts, give texts their own checkbox with their own wording, because the rules for texts are stricter (more on that below). Someone who just paid for a frag pack already trusts you with their card, so it’s a natural place to ask.
A drop alerts page
Give your drops their own page: the schedule with day, time and time zone, how the drop works, and one signup form. Then link to it from your Instagram bio, your Facebook group description and the packing slip in every box. If you run regular drops, our post on coral drop days covers the store side of it.
Local fish stores can put a QR code at the register that opens the same page. It beats a clipboard, and people agree through the same form and wording you use online, so you have a record.
What to offer in return
You don’t have to give away a discount code. We’d try early access first: the list sees the drop 30 minutes before it goes public, or gets first pick when a new batch of colonies comes in. Whatever you offer, say it right next to the signup box.
The rules for email and texts
This isn’t legal advice, and if you plan to text thousands of people it’s worth a call with a lawyer. These are the basics to get right before your first send.
The CAN-SPAM Act covers commercial email in the US. In plain terms: subject lines can’t mislead, every marketing email needs your postal address (a registered P.O. box or private mailbox counts) and a clear way to unsubscribe, and you have to honor unsubscribe requests within 10 business days. Your email tool takes care of most of this once the footer is set up.
Gmail and Yahoo added their own rules in 2024 for bulk senders (for Gmail, roughly 5,000 or more messages a day to Gmail addresses): SPF, DKIM and DMARC records on your domain, one-click unsubscribe, and a spam complaint rate under 0.3%. Even with a small list, set up the domain records now. You’ll need them as the list grows anyway.
Text messages
Marketing texts need prior express written consent under the TCPA. In practice the person has to actively agree, for example by ticking an unchecked box next to wording that says they’ll get recurring marketing texts from your store. Agreeing can’t be a condition of buying. Having someone’s number from an order or a frag swap doesn’t give you permission to text them promotions.
The signup wording should say what kind of messages they’ll get, roughly how often, that message and data rates may apply, and how to stop (reply STOP) or get help (reply HELP). Keep a record of when and where each person signed up.
US carriers also require businesses that text from regular 10-digit numbers to register through A2P 10DLC, and they block unregistered traffic. Your SMS provider walks you through it, but approval isn’t instant, so don’t leave it until the week before Black Friday.
Watch the clock too. The federal rule for telemarketing is 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the customer’s local time, and a few states, Florida among them, stop at 8 p.m. That matters if your drop goes live at 9 p.m. Eastern. Send the text reminder earlier in the day and let the email carry the “we’re live” message.
What to send, and how often
Tie your sends to your drop schedule. If you drop once a week, one preview email and one live alert is plenty. Texting every time you list a single frag is a quick way to lose subscribers. The messages worth sending:
- A preview email the day before, with the best pieces, the drop time and time zone, the ship day and a link to your DOA policy.
- A short text or email when the drop goes live, linking straight to the new arrivals page.
- Weather hold and shipping notices, so buyers know before they order.
- Back-in-stock alerts for aquacultured pieces you can frag again.
A drop text can be as simple as this: “[Store name]: Sunday drop is live. New torches and chalices, ships Tuesday. [link] Reply STOP to opt out.”
Setting it up on Shopify or WooCommerce
Shopify keeps email and SMS marketing consent on each customer record and has marketing checkboxes you can turn on at checkout. Shopify Email sends campaigns from inside the admin, and for texts you’ll add an SMS app.
WooCommerce needs a plugin or an outside tool. Mailchimp has an official WooCommerce plugin, and Klaviyo and Omnisend both connect to WooCommerce and Shopify and handle email and texts in one place.
Whichever you pick, connect it to the store so purchases sync. Then you can split the list by what people actually buy, because someone who only ever orders zoas doesn’t need the SPS preview. Before the first real drop, sign up through every form with your own email and phone, and check that the welcome message arrives and that STOP and unsubscribe work.
Common mistakes
- Adding everyone from your Facebook group or past orders to a text list without asking them first.
- Using one checkbox for both email and texts, with wording that only mentions email.
- Sending the “we’re live” link before the products are published, so buyers land on an empty page.
- Leaving out the time zone. “Drop at 8” means three different times to buyers in Florida, Texas and California.
FAQ
Should a small coral farm start with email or texts?
Email. It costs less and the rules are simpler. Add texts once you have regular drops and buyers asking how to hear about them faster.
Can I text people who gave me their number at a frag swap?
Only if they signed up for marketing texts with clear consent wording. Having their number from a swap, an order or a phone call doesn’t count.
Will a list replace my Facebook group?
It doesn’t have to. Keep posting in the group. The list reaches people when the feed doesn’t show them your post, and it’s still yours if a group gets shut down.
Want drop alerts set up on your store?
Last Wave Technology builds and fixes online stores for small businesses, including coral farms, frag sellers and reef shops. We can add drop alert signups to your product pages and checkout and connect the store to an email or SMS tool, so your list hears about the next drop first. We built and maintain the website for Coral Cavern, a coral, reef fish and aquarium supplies shop in Salem, Oregon, and handle its SEO and marketing.
Book a free consultation or email us at manage@lastwavetechnology.com.