Use SMS Marketing on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday To Promote Deals
With open rates as high as 97%, SMS marketing is increasingly becoming an important part of m
arketing strategies for retailers and small businesses. With Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, and Small Business Saturday approaching, consumers will undoubtedly be bombarded with deals sent through email, print, TV ads, circulars, push notifications and more. How can retailers cut through the noise? It’s not too late to use SMS text message marketing as part of your retail marketing efforts to increase engagement and build your list of SMS subscribers in time for the holiday shopping season starting with Black Friday and leading up to Christmas.
Holiday Sales Expected To Increase
According to the National Retail Federation, retailers could expect to see a boost in holiday shopping this year, with sales in November and December expected to increase 4.1%, compared to a 3.1% during the same time frame last year. Shoppers are expected to still be extremely price sensitive, which means retailers will need to differentiate themselves by price, value and exclusivity. And if you’re a small business, a recent survey shows 31.7% of total small business sales in the next 12 months will come from promotions such as discount deals, daily deals, coupons or similar discount offer, up from 22.9% in 2013. Time to start text message marketing!
How Retailers Can Use SMS Marketing on Black Friday and Beyond
Here are a few ideas for using SMS to promote Black Friday and Small Business Saturday deals:
Exclusive SMS Offers
Reward customers who opt-in to your SMS database by providing them exclusive offers on top of the deals they may already receive in-store. By offering exclusive offers, more customers will want to join and are essentially asking you to contact them with special deals.
Daily Deals or Deals of the Week
Last year, Best Buy launched an SMS marketing campaign offering exclusive Daily Deals throughout the month leading up to Black Friday. They have built several SMS subscription databases where stores can announce products, special offers and promotions at a store level, as well as across all Best Buy stores.
Text-To-Win
This year, Old Navy is leveraging social media and a text-to-win game to entice Black Friday shoppers hoping to win a $1 million jackpot or a $200 shopping spree from the retailer.Text-to-Win contests are great ways to increase engagement with your brand and build your mobile database.
SMS Scavenger Hunt
Send customers deal hunting from department to department, or even store to store with an SMS Scavenger Hunt! Just create a keyword for each “stop” that they can text into to get a special deal or clue. With SMS, you don’t need a smart phone or a special app to play, so more people can get involved in the fun.
Flash Sales
Keep customers waiting with suspense for your every text by announcing flash sales through SMS Marketing. Alerting your text subscribers of a flash sale is a great way to create buzz so that it not only drives people to your store, but they also tell a friend!
Have more ideas on how retailers can use SMS Marketing on Black Friday and beyond to drive sales and increase loyalty? Let us know in the comments section.
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