Why use SMS marketing on Halloween?
Halloween has grown rapidly over the years and claimed its place in the seasonal holiday calendar. For retailers, Halloween brings opportunities, but all businesses can benefit from using Halloween SMS campaigns.
Amazing reach
SMS marketing has a proven track record for reaching customers right where they are. Many organisations incorporate it into their marketing campaign in a bid to improve their strategy when it comes to attracting new clients as well as keeping current clients interested in their services.
SMS campaigns are believed to be one of the most successful tools for a marketing strategy, and as text messages are a large part of our daily routine, there’s no better time to start your SMS campaign than now.
Open rate
Thanks to our love affair with our phones, SMS marketing can boast an open rate of 98% and a read rate of minutes. This makes marketing text messages 4 times more successful than email marketing.
3rd most important celebration
Halloween is now the third most popular family celebration after Christmas and Easter. According to Statista, last year, Halloween generated approximately £687 million in seasonal sales. With this in mind and Halloween just around the corner, we’ve listed some ‘tricks and treats’ for your text marketing campaign this season…
Tricks…
Collect more data from your customers to enhance your database
Use SMS marketing to build a relationship with your subscribers and find out more about them. Grow your customer profiles to discover the best way to engage with them.
One of the great things about an SMS marketing database is that you have a wealth of information from the sign-up process that allows you to identify your target audience and tailor your marketing campaigns more effectively.
To enhance your database further, start a conversation with your subscribers and find out information about them using keywords. For example:
BOO! Has Halloween crept up on you? Tell us your Halloween plans for a 10% discount voucher to use online before 30.11.2023.
By setting keywords such as “children”, “trick or treating”, “Halloween party” and “Halloween costume” the response to the text message above could tell you more about the customer’s personal situation or lifestyle.
Use Halloween themed messages and keep it clear and concise
Keep it simple. Short clear messages tend to get more engagement than chunky long worded texts. Text messages need to be a minimum of 160 characters which sounds very little but it’s more than enough to capture attention.
We use our phones for quick communication. Long-winded messages will only be ignored. This is one of the reasons why SMS marketing is so much more successful than email marketing. Emails by their nature tend to fill a whole page and may even need to be scrolled to get to the call-to-action (CTA).
Your messages need to be clear and designed to be read and understood at a glance. Use abbreviations, acronyms, and emojis to get straight to the point, making sure that your audience will understand the meanings.
CTA is another good point to raise. Make sure your CTA is visible and easy to understand, you will have seconds to make an impact. If you miss a clear call to action, your message will serve no purpose.
Personalisation
Whatever your Halloween SMS campaign ideas might be, personalisation can help you to extend your reach further.
Spend time getting to know your audience, and find out who they are. What group demographic are you targeting and how do they like to be communicated with? Edit your tone to fit with theirs.
Personalise your content. Using their first names can build trust and brand loyalty and let them know that you want to grow a relationship with them. Send offers with birthday wishes on their special day or, send out alerts about their favourite products.
Treats…
Opting-out
Unlike some other marketing channels, being an SMS subscriber is optional. There is nothing more annoying (or scary!) than being pestered by unwanted text messages. Text marketing is bound by laws that prevent unsolicited communication, meaning that your customers need to opt-in to receive them.
Optional marketing is a great advancement on traditional methods as it enhances the quality of your engagers. The subscribers you do have will have a genuine interest in your brand. In turn, you can maximise your ROI by getting more conversions rather than firing out marketing messages to anyone and everyone.
We advise that you end your messages by letting subscribers know they can opt out at any time by replying ‘STOP’. Allowing consumers, the option to unsubscribe will make them less likely to, surprisingly!
Offer treats
Did you know that 77% of consumers opt-in to receive coupons or to hear about deals and sales? 66% said they had even redeemed a special offer via text within 7 days of receiving it! Perhaps that’s why 64% of consumers think that companies should contact them more often through SMS marketing messages.
Halloween SMS campaigns offer the perfect excuse to send out special discounts to subscribers. You can have fun playing around with your text content by using themed phrases such as, “Spooktacular Sale” and “fangtastic Offer”.
Competitions
Show off your best Halloween marketing ideas. Use this spooky season to run competitions and encourage people to get involved with your business. You can run competitions easily with a good UK-based SMS provider. Use shortcodes to share in your marketing texts and material to encourage consumers to enter. TextAnywhere has an extensive library of keywords and shortcodes to choose from so you’ll be sure to find a winning combination that will suit your organisation.
For example:
“Text the word “SPOOK” to 81025 for a chance to win an exclusive seasonal-themed product.”
Overall using key seasons throughout the year as a theme for your SMS marketing campaigns is just one simple way you can make your campaigns more effective. Contact us today to learn how SMS marketing can help your brand, or simply start your TextAnywhere free trial today.