3 Reasons Why SMS Marketing Is Perfect for the Holiday Season

This year, people are spending a lot of money during the holiday season. The Telegraph reports £5.76B was spent over the long Black Friday to Cyber Monday weekend. And despite concerns over the economy and Brexit, many are predicting banner sales this season.

So, what should you do if you’re a retailer in a market where people are ready to spend money? Make the most of it by using SMS marketing. Here are three reasons why you should consider using SMS during the holiday shopping season – and beyond.

Before you can use SMS marketing, you need to have a list of people to market to, right? During the holiday season foot traffic and online visits increase. At either location, you can offer your customers the opportunity to sign up for your list.

Physical store locations can have sales assistants ask everyone at the till if they want to be on the list. Online purchases can include a call to action to sign up during checkout and all of the follow-up emails with shipping updates. You can also use signage on the website and in-store to reach customers who don’t make a purchase, but may want to join the list.

Most people expect to get something in return for their mobile number, so be sure you have a great offer before you start asking people to sign up. But this time of year gives you the opportunity to get your list growing faster than ever thanks to all those people shopping.

If you’re a business that usually sends a holiday card out to your best customers, you might want to consider using SMS instead. The cost of sending cards via post continues to increase, but SMS is mostly going the opposite direction. You can send out a greeting, special holiday offer, or New Year’s wishes to many more customers, for a lot less money using SMS.

And most people prefer SMS as the contact method with brands according to many surveys from the last year. This is particularly true of anyone under the age of 35. So, while a few may find the physical card thoughtful, it could be costing you more and not having the impact you’d expect.

One of the best things about SMS is speed. And things seem to move especially fast in the frenzy that leads up to the holidays. You can use that speed to help improve sales by offering limited time sales and last minute gift ideas just when people are looking for them.

You can also use it to refocus your sales if things don’t go the way you want. For example, perhaps the adult Star Wars stress-reducing colouring books didn’t sell quite as well as you wanted prior to Christmas and now you have way too many. But you didn’t plan to include them in your after-holiday sales because you expected them to fly off the shelves. Now though, you can send out a message to your list with a special, unannounced sale on those books on Boxing Day. Or even later in the week by calling them tools for those setting “less stress” New Year’s resolutions. Whatever product you need to push, SMS is one of the best channels to use.

The point is SMS marketing is flexible, fast, and fabulous (I couldn’t resist the alliteration!). You can use it to bring in more foot traffic by offering in-store sales, or drive traffic to your website for online-only offers. You can save money by sending your holiday greetings via SMS rather than post. And use it to boost sales of specific items or services that you otherwise might not sell.

While the holidays are a great time to use it, you can benefit from it all year long. Why not start now? Sign up for a free account and try it today.