Guide to Marketing with Text Messages for Black Friday.
While mobile shopping is steadily increasing worldwide, so are the number of emails sent during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
And since every e-commerce store is competing for customers during these weeks, the typical strategy for email marketing is to send as many emails as possible as frequently as possible. This is, of course, detrimental to the holiday as a whole since it only floods the inboxes of your customers.
However, SMS marketing effectively reaches out to your customers and keeps them updated about your latest deals without flooding their inboxes, especially during the infamous Black Friday.
In this guide to marketing with text messages for Black Friday, we will help you create a successful SMS marketing campaign and use it effectively during these crucial weeks.
What is SMS Marketing, and why should you use it for Black Friday?
SMS Marketing has been used for decades but has not taken off until recently. Put simply; it’s a way to send more personalised marketing messages to customers on a device where they are much more likely to open and engage.
Since Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days of the year, it’s crucial that your customers know all the discounts and offers available in your store, making SMS marketing one of the best options to reach your whole customer base efficiently.
The benefits of SMS Marketing are that it is a cost-effective, high-value way to reach out to customers and prospects. Your customers are much more likely to open and click an SMS compared to an email.
How to Find New Customers with SMS Marketing in the Great Black Friday Frenzy
SMS marketing has been around for decades but has grown in popularity in the last few years.
It's an efficient way of reaching out to potential customers and is becoming more popular because of its cost-effectiveness. SMS Marketing is perfect for small businesses that don't have a large budget or for larger companies that want to try a more personalised approach and convert more leads.
Be early
It’s important that you start as early as possible to build your list for Black Friday, even as far back as August or September.
But to do this, you need to provide a serious value offer to outshine your competitors. Exclusives such as discounted products, limited editions or free shipping will do the trick.
Don’t lock out the goodies
While it’s rarely a good idea to completely lock exclusives like discounts or limited-time offers behind a subscription wall, – you may want to try a similar approach by offering added deals to customers who leave their phone numbers.
For example; offering an extra discount code or better deals to SMS signups can do wonders for your SMS-marketing submission rate.
Use your email list
You should also consider sending an SMS sign-up form to your email marketing list. This way, your customers will be happier as they receive exclusive deals, and you’re sure to increase your conversions during Black Friday.
Your email list will also play a big role during the BFCM week of course, but more on this later.
How to Reach your Black Friday Customers with an Effective SMS Marketing Strategy that Gets Results
To truly get the most out of your Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing campaigns, you need to use both email and SMS to get the message out.
And while every store and customer base is different, we’ve taken the liberty of mapping out your strategy in just 4 phases.
Phase 1: Weeks or months before, pool your marketing efforts into lead gen for your email and SMS list. At this point, your submission forms should already hint to your BFCM deals. This is also an excellent time to send out opt-ins for your SMS list to your email list.
Phase 2: The week leading up to the BFCM week is when you want to show off teasers, exclusives and deals. You want to give as much information as possible without showing the whole picture, letting your customers stay engaged in your marketing efforts. You may also want to send out forms for first-party data where customers can select which deals they’d rather see.
Phase 3: When BFCM week starts, it's time to let your segments and data truly shine. Conversion is top of mind here, so make sure your marketing SMS and emails are as personalised as possible. You should use email as frequently as possible without damaging your list while using SMS for retargeting and announcements.
Phase 4: On BFCM weekend, send personalised marketing texts to customers not engaging with your marketing emails. Chances are, their inboxes are flooded by other companies, and your emails are simply not showing up.
After Cyber Monday, evaluate if you should extend your sale for a few more days, focusing on your customers who have not shopped yet.
Words of advice
- BFCM is excellent for brand awareness and relationship building. Take advantage of it.
- Collect as much data as you can and take data-informed choices for BFCM.
- While it might be tempting, don’t spam your SMS list. Nobody likes getting texts thrice a day.