Black Friday Postmortem: How SMS Helped Business Last Week and Can Help You This Month
Even if you missed out on the frenetic madness of Black Friday and the appeal to workplace procrastination of Cyber Monday, there are still plenty of ways SMS can generate business for you this holiday. Don’t let the simplicity of SMS fool you into thinking it’s not a worthwhile method to approach the mammoth shopping season. Your TextMarks account provides tools to get your message across in a unique and appealing way.
Take one of the largest retailers in America: Best Buy. Despite the glut of the media resources at their expense, the electronics chain still made SMS a key part of their Black Friday marketing strategy. A piece on mobilecommercepress.com discussing the strategy cited Best Buy’s hope to keep discounts on the top of customers’ minds as the reason for SMS marketing. Sending promotions directly to customers’ phones while allowing them to control the frequency of holiday-themed messages made for a truly interactive yet nonintrusive engagement plan.
Early returns on Black Friday activity suggest the strategy paid off for Best Buy, which emerged as “one of the top mobile marketing standouts of the year.” It’s tough to determine how much of Best Buy’s activity was the result of SMS versus their other marketing campaigns, but the logic is proving solid: the convenience and intimacy of cell phone messages reach customers in a way that Maya Rudolph and LL Cool J can’t.
But that opportunity has already passed. Never fear. There are still plenty of ways to use SMS to generate activity for your business this holiday season. With three weekends to go before Christmas you have time to experiment with methods, cultivate a new subscriber base, and even get their thoughts on how to adjust your message near the finish line. Discount codes are the most obvious solution, but don’t forget to be creative with flash sales, “Bring-a-Friend” discounts, and other promotions that only your subscribers can take advantage of. In fact, the best way to promote your business during the holidays may involve not even mentioning your business.
If there’s anything more important than consumer activity from your SMS group it’s a sense of trust from that group. Trust will be the thing that keeps your subscribers after the holiday season is over. A good way to build trust is by opening your marketing campaign up as an all-purpose holiday resource. Provide gift suggestions, not just for things your shop provides but items they can find elsewhere or even make at home. Offer weather alerts and money-saving tips for shoppers who are too busy out and about to plan ahead. Even something as simple as a reminder to buy batteries for children’s toys will make you look like a lifesaver to any subscribers who are overwhelmed by the shopping rush. Nobody wants to feel like they’re being advertised to all the time, so a few selfless text messages will raise perception of your campaign above the rest.
Get started on your new holiday campaign today and take advantage of the entire month. TextMarks and your mobile marketing savvy can be all it takes to put you on equal footing with even the biggest names.
