Essential SMS Marketing Ideas for Toy Retailers

Christmas is fast approaching and for independent toy retailers and their customers, it truly is a magical time of year. It is also a time of year when retailers can expect their highest levels of sales – and if you have an eye for marketing, there are always opportunities to reach even more customers. Of course, when it comes to kids, visual adverts on traditional channels such as television and print media are key to building up hype for the latest toys. However, there is more to selling toys than just appealing to the kids – after all, it’s the adults who are ultimately going to be parting with their hard earned pounds. SMS Marketing is a great way to reach out and engage with adults to help drive sales, not just during the festive period but all year round.

Why use SMS Marketing?

At first glance, it may seem counter-intuitive to use SMS Marketing in order to sell toys. It is understandable that a text-based medium might not seem the obvious choice. A quick look at the facts and figures, however, will quickly make you consider otherwise.

Firstly, the most recent findings by Ofcom indicate that 93% of UK adults own a mobile phone, and 71% of these are smartphones. The vast majority of these users tend to keep their phones with them or within arm’s reach almost all the time, and typically respond to messages within just three minutes of receiving them. It is widely reported that commercial breaks during television programmes are one of the most popular times for people to check their phones too – so if you want to really get the attention of your audience, head for where they are headed!

SMS Marketing supports clickable links, meaning that you can direct smartphone users through to your website where they can find images, videos, reviews etc for your products, all from the comfort of wherever they happen to be – in fact, it couldn’t be easier for your customers to take action.

It is also important to bear in mind that in order to receive SMS Marketing messages, customers are required to have opted in first. This means that they have made a conscious decision to hear from you, and as a result engagement is generally much higher than any mass marketing channels.

Ideas for using SMS Marketing

With its beautiful simplicity, SMS Marketing is a versatile channel and offers endless possibilities – the only real limit is your imagination. However, even if you don’t have the disposition or desire to get creative, do not fear – there are plenty of tried and tested strategies that are simple to implement and are proven to get results. Here are some of the most popular.

• Discounts: Everybody loves to feel that they’ve saved – especially at the most expensive time of year – and discounts on products are a great way to give your customers this sense of satisfaction. SMS Marketing is perfect for this – simply send a coupon code by SMS that your customers can use to get money off online or instore and they will be unable to resist.
• Special Offers: For toy retailers, Christmas is the time of year to roll out all your special offers – but why wait until your customers step into your store? Send them an SMS with your latest offers as well as links to the relevant pages of your website, and make sure that you are the only place they need to look for their Christmas toy shopping. Personalise your special offers to make them even more effective.
• Sales: As well as informing customers of discounts and special offers by SMS, don’t forget to also let them know if you are running any seasonal sales. Add a sense of urgency by stating a time limit within the SMS.
• Loyalty Programs: Do you reward your customers? Keep them informed of their points tally and send them rewards for being part of the club. Or why not capture the spirit of Christmas by rewarding their loyalty with a special gift of bonus points? Customers like to feel that their loyalty is being recognised and rewarded – especially at a time of year when they are spending extra to please their family and friends.
• Christmas Lines/Products: What’s new for Christmas 2017? Whatever you’ve added to the range, shout about it using SMS Marketing to make sure your customers don’t miss it. If you’ve profiled your customers, consider reaching out to them with the products or ranges that best match their profile, and of course, be sure to include links to the relevant product pages on your website for more information
• Order & Delivery Status: Whilst the kids may well be happy to entrust the Christmas deliveries to Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, those doing the actual buying prefer to have the peace of mind of knowing where and when to expect orders to be delivered – and SMS Marketing is an ideal solution for updating customers with this kind of information.
• News & Tips: SMS Marketing doesn’t have to be all about direct selling either. Why not take advantage of it to give added value to your customers by sharing guides, advice and information. You might have prepared some useful guides to choose the best presents for boys or girls, for example, or perhaps have some useful advice on how to look after certain toys. This sort of content is a great way to engage your audience, demonstrate excellence in customer service and always has great sales potential too.

Inspired to give SMS Marketing a go? Here at Fastsms, we are one of the UK’s lowest priced bulk business SMS providers. We also offer an experienced, award-winning customer services team who are always ready to help. Give us a call on 0800 954 5305 and see what we can do for your business today.