Black Friday – Historically an American tradition has over taken Boxing Day as the biggest shopping day in the UK last year. Many people believe Black Friday is the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, so there’s no better time than now to make sure your SMS marketing strategy is in place. A recent study from OpenMarket and Portio Research has declared 84% of the global population use an SMS enabled phone. The same report suggests 70% of all email sent is now spam, making SMS the perfect addition to your marketing remit.
This year, IMRG and Experian have stated shoppers are expected to spend over £1 billion on Black Friday. With this in mind, companies need to be prepared for the occasion. Below, we’ve given four tips on how you can use SMS to promote your deals on Black Friday. Black Friday 2015 is on Friday 27th November, so ensure the date is in your SMS diary!
Exclusive SMS offers
Everybody loves a bargain, so why not offer the incentive of exclusive deals to customers who are part of your SMS database. For example, use a short-code and keyword service such as getting customers to text BLACKFRIDAY to 81025 in order to receive an exclusive discount. Advertise this campaign on your website, sign up page and social media. Not only will you benefit from more customers signing up to your SMS service, but also from the opportunity to drive additional purchases due to brand awareness with more people seeing your deals!
Daily deals
Send customers daily deals via SMS to drive awareness on what you will be offering around Black Friday. Use this as an opportunity to either promote your brand, drive SMS only deals or general shop deals. Remember to not be invasive and always offer the option to Opt-Out. With this in mind TextAnywhere offers a free Opt-Out service. Let your customers know within an outgoing messages they can simply reply STOP to opt-out.
Use customer information wisely
The data you collect throughout Black Friday will be priceless, similarly to any other SMS campaigns you may run. You could use it for future seasonal marketing campaigns, as well as understanding which copy or techniques used in your text messages brought the best results. Just make sure you do not overdo it with too many texts or you will risk losing the customer.
Include a call to action
Possibly the most important aspect of your SMS Marketing campaign, the “call to action” is the main purpose of sending the SMS in the first place. What do you want your consumers to do once they have read your message? Will you include a promo code they can use on Black Friday? or will you include a URL which takes potential customers to your website page detailing all your Black Friday deals?
Is Black Friday not right for your business? There are alternative emphasis days which you can implement in your marketing strategy such as:
Cyber Monday (30th November 2015) – which offers special online deals for those who would rather avoid setting foot in the stores. Purchases on mobile devices doubled on this day!
Small Business Saturday(28th November 2015) – which falls between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, gives shoppers a chance to support local businesses. The day was created five years ago to bring attention to the plight of small businesses who keep communities strong and their need for additional customers.
SMS Marketing can be a great addition to your marketing plan, and we have outlined just a few ways your brand could benefit from using it in preparation for this year’s Black Friday.
Contact us today for more information or advice on how SMS marketing can help your brand on 0845 122 1302 or email us at [email protected].