How to use the US holiday invasion and SMS marketing to boost your sales
Traditionally Boxing Day is the biggest shopping day in the UK. But last year, the US holiday shopping events on Black Friday and Cyber Monday were also huge events in the UK. If you start planning early, you can take advantage of the special days to boost your holiday sales in 2014.
Black Friday is the day after the American holiday Thanksgiving Day, which occurs on the last Thursday of November. The Friday after Thanksgiving is frequently a day off for many, so retail establishments have been offering specials to get shoppers into their stores since the mid-1920s. The term “Black Friday” first appeared in the 1960s and refers to the companies finally being “in the black” financially after the shopping day.
The much more recent Cyber Monday began back in 2005 as a marketing ploy to get shoppers to buy online, rather than fight through the crowds in brick and mortar stores on Black Friday. Both days however, have become shopping traditions for millions of Americans. And now, Brits as well.
In 2013, Black Friday in the UK saw 113 million online retail site visits. Cyber Monday topped 115 million. For comparison, Boxing Day led both, but just barely with 129 million visits. All these stats are great, but how can you use SMS marketing to make sure you get your share of visits in 2014?
Start an opt in campaign now. Even if you have a list of customers and are already using SMS marketing, you can be sure to add to it if you set up a campaign using the following guidelines.
- Decide on an exclusive deal you’ll offer just to those who sign up for your SMS marketing before Black Friday. This can be early notifications of items or sales, actual discounts or coupons, or perhaps even special in store or online shopping times to avoid the crowds (or slow connections due to surges in Internet traffic).
- Don’t offer these deals anywhere else. The most successful opt in campaigns use exclusivity to encourage people to sign up.
- Choose your keywords, virtual mobile number or short codes to use in the campaign. Set all this up with your SMS service provider. Note custom shortcodes are expensive and take months to set up. But most SMS service providers let you rent keywords on their shortcode.
- Post the sign up information with exclusive deals on your website, on social media sites, in your store, and any other adverts you’re placing. Think of it as being the same as including your phone number or website address on everything.
- Have a plan in place to offer everything you promised to those who signed up. What special offers will you send out and when? How often will you send them?
- To capitalise on the two American holidays, be prepared to offer something that coincides to one or both of the days. Perhaps the night before Black Friday you send out a text message with a special discount code to let your customers know they should visit you first before they make a purchase somewhere else. If you’re offering something for Cyber Monday, send a message letting your customers know about it just before Black Friday so they may choose to wait to purchase using your code. If you do the latter option, make sure it’s a deal they’ll be willing to wait for.
And of course you can use the same list for your Boxing Day deals. Just be careful not to over send during the holiday season. People want to get great deals, but they don’t want to be annoyed.
Related Articles
SMS Marketing For The Equestrian Sector
The British Equestrian Trade Association’s findings from their National Equestrian Survey 2015 put the economic value of the equestrian sector at £4.3 billion of consumer spending across a wide range of goods and services, with the average spend per horse during the same year at £3600. It is an incredibly varied industry encompassing all types of businesses from sole traders making a living in remote areas to multinational companies. Their customer base typically tends to be busy people who lead largely outdoor lifestyles so the obvious and most effective means of communicating with them is by mobile phone, yet very few equestrian businesses appear to be utilising SMS text messaging marketing. So how could businesses in this sector benefit from this method of marketing?
5 Rеаѕоnѕ Customers Lоvе SMS Mаrkеtіng
With a ratio оf fоur mоbіlе devices tо еvеrу computer, іt’ѕ сlеаr where your сuѕtоmеrѕ аrе to be found. Mоbіlе mаrkеtіng is nо longer ѕоmеthіng уоu саn аffоrd to put оn the tо-dо-lіѕt fоr thе futurе; you need tо make sure your message is reaching people on mоbіlе dеvісеs nоw. SMS Mаrkеtіng is the perfect solution - it hаѕ proven to іnсrеаѕе сuѕtоmеr engagement tо unрrесеdеntеd levels and is incredibly low priced. Read on to discover 5 rеаѕоnѕ whу сuѕtоmеrѕ love SMS Mаrkеtіng.
How to use SMS for Highly Targeted Marketing
While brevity might be one of the keys to good advertising, perhaps the most important is to make sure your message reaches the right people. The goal of targeted marketing is not to bombard so many people that some will inevitably listen, but rather to target and nail down your core demographic.
B2B Needs to Get Mobile and Digital
Businesses that sell to other businesses (B2B) are having trouble keeping up in the digital and mobile age. That’s according to a couple of eMarketer articles. The reasons for it are varied, but it may be mostly because they’ve been slow to acknowledge a change in culture.
Top Three Things Retailers Should Do to Keep Customers on Their SMS Opt-In List
You've run a successful SMS opt-in campaign for your retail store. Now that you have your list, do you have a plan to keep them from opting out? Wait, you mean there's more to this than just sending out coupon codes? There is if you want to keep your customers from opting out.
5 Ways to Use SMS to Save Money and Improve Your Retail Business
Every good retail business owner knows that the key to success is keeping his or her customers happy. Your level of customer service should be all encompassing to succeed and should consist of more than just being polite to the customer at the till.
SMS Marketing: Don’t Forget About Print!
The focus for advertising campaigns today is often mobile, web, or digital. It’s certainly true that more and more people are using technology for just about everything. But with all that technology, it’s easy to overlook another, more traditional form: Print!
How to Use SMS and The Olympics to Boost Business
Almost any business, or even a not-for-profit company, can take advantage of the frenzy of sporting events, like The Olympics. Especially when you combine it with mobile marketing. That’s because there are plenty of fans, and their devices, here in the UK.
SMS Marketing – 4 of the UK’s Best Ever Campaigns
Discover how to come up with an SMS marketing campaign in this article which looks under the surface of some of the UK's most successful ever SMS marketing campaigns. Whether you are looking to boost revenue, improve customer satisfaction or help your brand stand out with a unique and memorable promotion, this article shows how a simple approach to SMS messaging can work wonders for your company.
Technology And Text Messaging Support In-Store Shopping Experiences
Shoppers are very tech savvy. Even when they shop in store they are using their mobiles to do price comparisons, look up reviews or post on social media. And while your customers are busy using tech, your store needs to be using it too. SMS is one of those technologies that can really enhance the shopping experience whether your shoppers are in store, or not.