Black Friday SMS ideas for service businesses: Boost holiday revenue with texting 

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) aren’t just for retail businesses. If you specialize in a service, you too can take advantage of the shopping rush leading up to the holidays. 

By sharing your offering as another way for your customers to save money, give gifts, or prepare for the next year, you can also boost your sales during the BFCM season. And SMS is an excellent way to spread the word. 

In this guide, we’ll explain how to use texting in your BFCM campaigns and share some Black Friday SMS ideas for your service business. 

What makes SMS a great channel for small business Black Friday deals? 

Texting lets small service-based businesses like yours quickly get in touch with their customers at an accessible price. Here are just some of the reasons why SMS can help you get the word out about your services this holiday season: 

• It’s easy to get started: If you start texting with a business texting service like SimpleTexting, your platform will walk you through the registration process. From there, sending texts is straightforward and quick. 

• People love to text: According to our research, 83% of consumers consider texting their top activity on their phones. You’re speaking your customers’ language when you text. 

• It has good click-through rates: That same study also shows that most businesses have an SMS click-through rate between 21 and 35%, meaning that around a quarter to a third of their texting list engages with their texts. Thanks to its high visibility and snappiness, SMS drives action. 

• You can personalize your messages in a snap: Texting also allows for easy personalization – just add a custom field to your message. 

How do Black Friday and Cyber Monday SMS promotions differ for service-based businesses? 

Black Friday text marketing for service businesses has a unique angle compared to retail BFCM campaigns and regular service business SMS promotions. Consider your business model as well as the opportunities the BFCM season presents. Some goals you could follow include: 

• Attracting new clients and bookings: For Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year, your SMS goal could be to bring in new business through introductory promotions. Under this strategy, you could offer discounts or extras to new faces. 

• Driving customer loyalty with promotions: You can also build loyalty with your current customers by offering season-exclusive promotions. If you have a loyalty program, you can also promote membership to encourage business throughout the next year. 

• Preparing customers for the upcoming season or year: In some business types, such as home services or business-to-business, it makes sense to present yourself as a solution for winter or next year’s preparation. For example, a marketing agency could promote a New Year’s special to help businesses get ready for a new year. 

Your BFCM text campaign could stick to just one of these goals or combine them, depending on how many resources you have to devote to SMS marketing. 

Black Friday SMS for service businesses: 3 ideas from real companies 

With the above broad goals in mind, here are some strategies real service-based businesses used for their Black Friday SMS promotions. Use these text marketing ideas as inspiration for your campaign this year. 

1. Veteran Heating, Cooling, Plumbing & Electric: Pain point-based messaging 

In industries like home services that involve necessities over novelties, it can be hard to tell what exactly your customers want from you during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. At Veteran Heating, Cooling, Plumbing & Electric, Mike Townsend’s team had to find the right pain point to target in their BCFM texts. 

At first, they sent out this text during the morning of Black Friday: 

But, that text only earned the company three new bookings, which didn’t nearly match the number it hoped for. It was actually a text the marketing team sent the following Tuesday that got results: 

This text led to eight bookings – a number more in line with what the team hoped for. “Lesson learned: For emergency services like ours, fear of breakdown beats discount every time,” Mike says. 

After this campaign, Mike’s team opted for seasonal campaigns over BCFM texts, but you can apply this strategy to your Black Friday campaign. Sometimes, a traditional Black Friday discount isn’t the approach – instead, you need to understand what problems your customers anticipate this upcoming season and offer the solution. 

2. Wanderlust Portraits: Urge interested leads to act 

Urgency is a common tactic in Black Friday promotions due to the limited nature of the season. But Angel Sanchez at Wanderlust Portraits, her photography studio, turned that tactic into a complete strategy with audience targeting, a bonus, and a clear call-to-action. 

Here’s the text that got her a 15% reply rate and eight bookings: 

These tactics used together encouraged previously interested customers to act during that Black Friday promo: 

• Careful targeting: Angel sent this text to leads who had previously sent inquiries but hadn’t booked. 

• A strong, time-limited offer: This text offers a discount and a free bonus to make the deal irresistible. 

• An easy-to-follow call-to-action: “I found that making redemption frictionless—just reply “YES”—led to much higher engagement than SMS with links or more steps,” Angel says. 

• Urgent language: Phrasing such as “Black Friday FLASH” and “only for the next 24 hours” nudges the interested leads from the offer to the call to action. 

You can create a list of targeted leads like Angel did by segmenting your contact list based on their interest. 

3. PayCompass: Address doubts in advance 

If your service requires a lot of commitment, like in the case of a training, business service, or event, address what makes that commitment worth it in your text. Get ahead of your leads’ potential doubts to show why they can buy into a limited promotion for an extensive service. 

For example, PayCompass offers personalized payment solutions to travel agencies and call centers, which might strike you as something that takes extensive onboarding. So, according to the Director of Business Development, Shan Abbasi, the PayCompass team guaranteed speed and certainty over discounts.  

Abbasi says, “Our customers are terrified of making any technical changes to their sites that could risk their sales during their busiest season, so we sent an SMS for BFCM that said:” 

All 20 of the open spots filled up within two days. These clients didn’t have to worry about being unprepared for the holiday season, making this text an easy ask to answer. 

Best practices for your service business’s Black Friday text marketing 

As you try the above strategies in your BFCM campaign, these best practices can set you up for success: 

• Plan as early as possible: Start your BFCM SMS campaign planning at least one to two months in advance. If you don’t have an established SMS list, it’s better to begin even earlier. Since SMS marketing is list-based, you’ll need time to build a list to send your BFCM texts to. 

• Create an appealing seasonal offer: While your BFCM promotion might not resemble one you’d see at a retail store, it’ll attract more excitement if it provides an offer your customers won’t see for the rest of the year. Your deal could be an exceptionally high discount or an offer you only provide for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 

• Follow the best practices for texting compliance: Compliant texting practices build trust with your clients and keep you out of their spam folders. Always get opt-in consent when you add someone to your list, even if you have their contact information for other contexts. And provide an easy way for your text list members to opt out of your texts. 

Our guide to BFCM texting for small businesses offers even more tips for managing your campaign from start to finish. 

Maximize holiday revenue with smart BCFM text messaging 

SimpleTexting helps you start your BCFM campaign quickly and easily with a simple setup process and an easy-to-use interface. Its features and pricing are perfect for small businesses in service-based industries like real estate, events, and fitness. 

Our software helps home inspectors handle high-volume customer service and spa owners grow their contact lists. And it could be an asset in your small business marketing, whether you want to get started with SMS or run an ambitious BCFM. 

Try SimpleTexting for free for 14 days to see what it can do for your texting campaigns. You can also click the Book a Demo button at the top of this page to have us give you the tour.