When planning your Black Friday strategy, the first thing to keep in mind is that it’s no longer one day of super sales. Changing customer behavior and accompanying shifts from retailers have created a whole week of bargains and other incentives.  Cyber Week generates over $20 billion in revenue, with a majority of shoppers using their mobile phones for some part of their holiday purchases. A lifecycle strategy of SMS marketing messages for Black Friday and Cyber Monday can help you break through the noise! 

Think Texting

Texts are a useful method to get someone’s attention and build excitement. Plus, they have a crazy good opening rate: 95% are opened and read within 120 seconds.  

When planning your company’s Black Friday SMS marketing efforts, start building and expanding your contact list now. This can be done by contacting people on other lists (social media, email), having in-store sign-up promotions, or info on your site.

Outline a calendar and schedule of when to let them know what’s happening to build up the excitement. Experts suggest starting infrequently but sending more messages closer to the event. Having too many contacts at the beginning might cause people to get tired of the messages, but following best practices will have them looking forward to hearing from your brand. 

SMS Marketing Message Inspirations

When planning your SMS marketing messages for Black Friday, consider the following opportunities to communicate and grow your lists and your ROI:

1. Enrollment

Not all your customers will want to be on all your lists. Rather than getting blocks or unsubscribes, consider creating a separate opt-in list especially for “holiday promos” vs. general company promotions. You can include language telling customers about how fun this new group will be as well as the potential to save money and get deals on holiday gift-giving. 

2. Teaser

Once you know the basics of your Black Friday/Cyber Week sales, share this to let customers know what’s coming up. This can essentially be a ‘save the date’ message. Offer a preview of the items that will be marked down or tease special rates, etc. 

3. Countdown

You can start a live countdown clock with a widget on your site, or simply text customers how much time is left until the big sale starts. This gives people a chance to put things in their cart, shop on their own time, or simply get excited. 

4. Early Access

Part of the appeal of being part of a VIP club/special list is the privileges you might get that everyone else won’t. You can consider opening your store a few hours earlier for VIP shoppers, or offer some products online hours before you promise the public they’ll be up. This might require separate text links and landing pages that only your text subscribers can get access to.

 

5. Sale Launch

This SMS marketing message is one last hoorah to kick things off. Think of it as the flare shot at the start of a race. This kind of message not only grabs the reader’s attention but gives them a clear and immediate call to action. 

6. Abandoned Cart

During the sales period, you might have people leave without finishing their deals. If they came to the site via SMS marketing with proper tagging and tracking, you can send them a text reminding them that they have some unpurchased products and emphasizing that this is the best time and best price to buy them. Or include links to different ways of paying, especially if you can offer financing or layaway options.

7. Thank You

A strong “thank you” message after a purchase can go a long way in building brand loyalty. Include a receipt and shipping tracking, or if those aren’t available yet, then direction about when the customer will receive those things. Consider bundling it with some other incentive – a coupon for a future purchase, perhaps. A strong message of gratitude can keep your brand top-of-mind, even if you stop SMS marketing at that point. 

8. Follow-Up

This is a great chance to have customers who have made a purchase to review the product, take a customer satisfaction survey, or simply get an exclusive promotion to use in the future. 

Creating successful, customized SMS marketing messages for Black Friday/Cyber Monday doesn’t have to be complex. Use Hawke Media for help building a perfect lifecycle marketing strategy for the holiday season.