SMS Marketing for a Blockbuster Black Friday
The annual sales bonanza that is Black Friday is almost upon us and for the retailer, this relatively recent development is fast becoming one of the UK’s biggest sales events of the year. Although the trend began in America, in the space of just a couple of years the craze seems to have taken hold of UK shoppers and shows no signs of going away. For retailers – and indeed any business in the B2C sphere, it is time to drop everything else and focus on nothing other than sales and marketing – and SMS Marketing should have a prominent place in your Black Friday strategy. Read on to find out why.
Black Friday – a brief history
Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States (the fourth Thursday of November). Since 1952, it has been regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the U.S., and most major retailers open very early (and more recently during overnight hours) and offer promotional sales.
In the UK, Black Friday traditionally had a different meaning, referring instead to the last Friday before Christmas – one of the busiest days of the year for the UK’s pubs, bars and off-licences, as well as the emergency services.
It was only in 2013 that the retail concept of Black Friday really came to the attention of the UK public, when Asda, owned by the American Walmart chain, attempted to replicate the event – with a mixed reaction.
In 2014, however, many more of the UK’s retailers adopted Black Friday and transformed it into a massively hyped retail event, albeit marred by chaotic scenes in some places as customers rushed to find a bargain. By 2015, Black Friday had been well and truly established in the UK retail calendar and is estimated to have been worth £2bn to shops and online retailers in just 24 hours.
Although the event has not maintained the same dramatic scale of interest that it continues to see stateside, it remains nonetheless a key event for UK retailers and simply cannot be ignored.
How to Use SMS Marketing for Black Friday
- Black Friday Discounts: Customers always love feeling like they have special access to a bargain, and on Black Friday this has become an expectation. Don’t risk your offers getting lost in an inbox full of everybody else’s – send customers a text with a simple discount code to use on their next purchase through your website or at the tills.
- Special Offers: Relay your Black Friday offers such as deal of the week, buy one get one free or free gift with purchase over a certain value. Again, all can be summed up in a short text providing a code to enter into your website’s shopping cart for those who prefer to buy online.
- Black Friday Sales: Notify customers of when they can start shopping your Black Friday sale. A simple text announcing the date and time your sale begins can help to direct more customers to the sale website or shop when they otherwise may have missed it from not checking their emails or online recently.
- Loyalty Programs: Keep those loyal customers informed of their points tally and reward them for being part of the club on Black Friday by encouraging them to redeem their points or earn bonus points for spending with you. Or just reward them for being a loyal SMS subscriber with a special Black Friday bonus. After all, customers like to feel that their loyalty is being recognised and rewarded.
- New Lines/Products: Make sure your customers know what’s new for Black Friday and give them the website link to view. Tap into those who like to be first to have the latest items.
- Order & Delivery Status: When it comes to Black Friday, buying the products is often only half the equation – especially if you are an online retailer. The mission is not truly accomplished until the items have arrived safely with the customer. As courier companies get ever more tech-savvy, customers expect more than ever to be kept informed of their order status. SMS texts can relay the information quickly wherever the customer may be.
- News & Tips: Black Friday doesn’t have to be just about the direct sell. It’s a great opportunity to make your brand stand out by sharing knowledge and offering an exceptional customer experience. For example, if you sell cycling accessories then you could send something like ‘’ Winter’s coming. Here are our Black Friday top tips and products to make sure you and your bike are ready for winter, click link (to your website)’’ to coincide with your Black Friday sale. Done right, your customers will be convinced that you are the obvious place to buy from.
Whatever the size and nature of your business, SMS is a highly effective and low-cost way to make sure that you get as many sales as possible on Black Friday. To get started now or find out more about using our business bulk SMS messaging packages, call now on 0800 954 5305 or contact us online for instant support from an award-winning team of experts.
Related Articles
The Role of SMS in Building Consumer Loyalty Programmes
The drive to earn and retain consumer loyalty is big business in the UK. Increasingly, companies are grasping the important role SMS text messaging can play in this. Customers’ mobile phone numbers are gold dust. The most forward-looking companies are developing systems to encourage customers to opt-in. Then, they are structuring SMS campaigns to build loyalty and reap maximum commercial advantage from it.
Use All The Data You Can When Personalising Your SMS Messages
It’s said over and over that SMS is one of the most personal forms of communications today. That’s mainly because people guard their mobile numbers and only give them out to those they think worthy of them. So anyone who has opted into your SMS messaging has indeed invited you into their personal world.
Attention! The mCommerce Summit is Happening Now
Mobile Marketer is holding the mCommerce Summit: State of Mobile Commerce 2016 today in New York City. And you'll get to find out what happens when I get back and write about it next week. But today, I'm going to give you a sneak peak at what I'm seeing in New York at this moment. Before I do though, be sure to check our fastsms Twitter feed throughout the day. I'll be sharing the best tidbits as they come up in each session as they happen.
How Text Messages Help Small Shop Owners Build Business
If you are the owner-manager of a UK retail business, then you will know that it’s vital to use every weapon you have available to battle with the big guns on the high street and online. That must include embracing all the advantages modern technology provides, including a communications campaign based on the Short Message Service (SMS) – better known as text messages. Not sure what SMS is about and how it will work for your shop? Then read on, because you are missing a golden opportunity to give your small shop a much bigger presence and outreach.
SMS Marketing for the Domestic Pets Market
With consumer spending on Britain's 57 million furry friends valued at over £4.5 Million and all the signs showing that this is only going to increase, there has never been a better time for the sector to invest in marketing - and SMS marketing should be top priority. As pet owners spend more and more time pampering their pets and investing in pet paraphernalia, the opportunities are infinite. SMS marketing is one of the best ways to ensure that your offers get seen - and in most cases, instantly. With its low costs, exceptionally high open rates and above average response rates, SMS Marketing offers huge potential for ROI.
mCommerce Summit 2016. Wine, Red Noses, and Mobile Marketing?
Imagine this: Someone wears a red nose, wine glasses filled before noon, and everyone’s talking about mobile marketing. That was the Mobile Marketing’s 6th mCommerce Summit in NYC last week. I’ll get to the red nose and wine a bit later. First I’ll share some takeaways about mobile marketing from the presenters by sharing it with you the way I saw it.
Enhancing Two-Way SMS Messaging with Autoresponders
SMS messaging can be a one-way, or a two-way affair. Sending coupons, sale notifications, or event announcements are all one-way messaging. The recipient doesn’t need to reply in order to use the information sent. In two-way messaging though, recipients can reply to your messages. And that makes it much more interesting, engaging, and potentially a lot more work to manage.
3 Reasons Your Customers Want You to Use SMS Messaging
In my last blog I looked at five reasons you want to use SMS messaging in your business. In this blog we're looking at the same topic, just from the consumer's point of view. For example, how do you really know your customers want you to send them messages via SMS? Isn't email or a phone call good enough? Is it worth your time to learn how to use SMS messaging in your business?
5 Reasons SMS Marketing is Ideal for Retailers
More People Prefer SMS Loyalty Programmes
Loyalty and rewards programs can help your business retain your best customers. But they only work if customers see your messages and can check their reward status. A new survey shows most people prefer companies use to SMS for loyalty programs. Find out why in this blog.