Struggling to find SMS marketing inspiration this holiday period? Use these holiday SMS tips to attract new customers, increase revenue and build a loyal subscriber following.
The holiday season is in full swing. With less than a couple of weeks left to make the most of it, how can you reach customers and clients during this hectic (yet joyful) time of year? ‘Tis the season for holiday SMS marketing ye merry ladies and gentlemen.
Black Friday and Cyber Week have come and gone, but there’s still time to increase sales, engage your customer base, and deliver messages that improve their experience with your brand. SMS is the perfect channel to serve those purposes. We’ll tell you exactly why and give you some tips for text messages that lead to a happier holiday season for everyone.
There are plenty of reasons to use text messaging for holiday promotions and customer communications. Perhaps the most important is the fact that consumers everywhere want and expect to receive messages from business on their smartphones. Research from Sinch found that 45% of global consumers would prefer hearing from brands via a mobile messaging channel during the holidays (including SMS and MMS).
Adobe expects 53% of online holiday shopping will take place on mobile devices in 2024. If more than half of holiday purchases happen on mobile, doesn’t it make sense to communicate with customers where they’re most likely to buy?
While Sinch found around 60% of consumers want to hear from brands via email, SMS holiday marketing has advantages. Namely, people are more likely to open and engage with text messages than they are with email promotions inside their overcrowded inboxes. Texts get an average 98% open rate compared to 21% for email. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use email. However, it does suggest you’re missing out if you aren’t taking advantage of SMS marketing for the holiday season.
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So, how can you use SMS marketing to bolster your business over the holiday season? We’ve got 12 ideas for you, and there are absolutely no partridges in pear trees… We promise.
If you’re already a SimpleTexting customer, you’ll see images of how to make these ideas happen using our mass texting service as a small business. If you’re looking for a platform that connects you with customers through text messaging, our 14-day free trial is the perfect way to find out how affordable SMS marketing can benefit your business all year long.
Shoppers aren’t the only ones who are busy this time of year. The hustle and bustle of the holidays impacts small business owners and their marketing teams too. That’s why the ability to schedule SMS messages is a great way to set up communications for specific dates and times so texts arrive exactly when you need them to.
This useful tool enables you to concentrate on other pressing matters over the busy holiday period, while knowing your text messages are being sent out right on schedule. By using application to phone (A2P) software, you can schedule thousands of messages at once, all to go out within seconds.
Speaking of busyness and good timing – if you operate an online store, abandoned cart text messages will help you turn browsers into buyers. Did you know nearly 70% of customers abandon their cart before purchasing? As an e-commerce store, there’s nothing more infuriating than realizing just how close you’ve come to securing a sale.
Sometimes all it takes is an extra push. You can create cart abandonment text messages that will be sent out automatically to subscribers who fail to complete the checkout process. One nice thing about this type of holiday SMS marketing is you can easily measure abandoned cart recovery rate to learn just how effective your strategy was.
Craft abandoned car messages that remind them of what they’re missing out on, or include an exclusive discount to incentivize them to complete their purchase.
The two primary sides to customer engagement are acquisition and retention. Once a new customer has signed up and made a purchase, you need to ensure they keep coming back for more. If you’re acquiring lots of new customers over the holiday season, a few text messages the new folks will improve the chances they become loyal customers rather than one-time buyers.
By creating a three or four post-purchase text message campaign, you can follow up on customer activity: ask them for a review, check-in with their order, and send them offers and discounts. Just make sure they’ve opted in to receive marketing messages from your company. Otherwise, keep it to transactional information and questions about their experience.
SMS marketing helps your business stand out from the crowd when it comes to holiday campaigns. By using text messages, you’re already cutting through the noise of thousands of promotional emails. However, to make an impression sometimes you need to be the squeaky wheel.
During the holidays, the one thing on everyone’s mind happens to be the upcoming holiday — and you can use this to your advantage as a marketer.
Use GIFs, send out wishlist inspiration, and use your contact list to inspire purchases rather than just pushing out discount codes. MMS marketing messages allow you to go beyond the basic texts that SMS allows. Of course, there are also plenty of holiday-themed emojis you can use to decorate your text message marketing. For more inspiration, check out how these 5 retailers launched Black Friday SMS strategies.
We had a late Thanksgiving in the United States this year. That means the holiday shopping window in 2024 is a little shorter than normal. And that means many consumers may be feeling the pressure to get what they need before it’s too late. You can use those feelings to your advantage with limited-time offers delivered via SMS.
Limited-time offers are an excellent strategy to activate those last-minute shoppers. Plus, SMS is an ideal way to prompt those people to take immediate action. They’re already on their phones and, thanks to your message, they’re also just a couple clicks away from checking another item off their holiday to-do list.
In addition to attracting new customers, the holidays are also a good time to build your SMS list. One of the most effective ways to secure new SMS opt-ins is by creating an incentive.
Give people a reason to receive your updates by sharing a discount code upon signup. The holidays are an incredibly expensive time of year, and many customers will be on the lookout for deals and offers to ease the impact on their pockets.
Building customer loyalty relies on the rapport you have with your customers. Showing your value outside of sales-driven content lets prospective customers know you also care about their interests and purchasing habits.
Whether it’s a fun quote to start the day or a link to a new blog on how to dress for the winter season, there are plenty of ways you can create engaging content that shows your customers you care beyond sales. Even a simple greeting with a “happy holidays SMS” communicates you care about customers.
We all want an easy life — and keywords were built to make subscribing to lists as easy as possible.
An SMS keyword is a short word or phrase which, when sent to your assigned phone number, will trigger an SMS marketing campaign to begin. For instance, if you are a florist looking to advertise and sell more wreaths this Christmas, your keyword could ‘XMASWREATHS’.
When customers text this to your number, they automatically join a list of subscribers receiving text updates on Christmas Wreaths for the holiday season. You can set up this marketing campaign in advance and choose the frequency and contents of the text messages.
SMS marketing and social media go hand in hand. Simply put, if you have a social audience that you’re not accessing with SMS marketing, you’re doing it wrong. While we always recommend advertising your keyword across all types of content, including social media, another easy way to get new signups is by building a landing page.
Create an easy signup form on a landing page for engaged social media users to receive SMS updates. Then, you can either add the link directly to your social media bio or you can add it to a page such as Linktree, a core landing page that contains several links to different sites.
Looking for simple, ongoing methods to get more text marketing contacts? Look no further than these three opt-in strategies. READ MORE
No matter how many texts, emails and banners you create alerting customers to delivery deadlines for the holiday season, people always manage to miss it.
For those people, why not create an e-gift card for them to send to a friend or family. You can use text message marketing both for alerting customers to the option of gift cards, and as the primary method of delivering an e-gift card (should we say m-gift card?).
Good or bad, asking for post-purchase reviews tells customers you care about their experience. Sometimes things don’t go to plan, but asking customers to fill out a review form or survey shows you’re working to do better and will more likely result in return customers.
If you’re one of the lucky e-commerce stores that had a smooth holiday period, even better! Positive reviews and feedback from customers will increase team morale and naturally make customers want to purchase from you again.
Finally, your trump card is that you can make your SMS subscribers feel special. Everyone loves a deal, and if you share exclusive, SMS-only offers with your subscribers (and let others know they’re missing out) you’ll have people signing up in no time.
Combine an SMS-only offer with a keyword, and you’ll have new subscribers ready and waiting to use your offer code in no time.
If the idea of crafting holiday text messages for your customers feels a little overwhelming, SimpleTexting has new features that will help you get the job done. Use our AI Assist tool to generate campaign copy that’s designed to work with SMS. Here’s exactly how it works…
Want to see how easy it is to start writing text messages with AI Assist? Watch this 30-second video.
Don't feel like the text messages you wrote are hitting the right note? You can also use AI features built into SimpleTexting to adjust your tone to be friendlier or more professional.
The world is your oyster when it comes to SMS marketing. Without the competition of 400 other email marketing campaigns hitting your subscribers’ inbox, you can rely on text message to reach your customers this holiday.
If you’re looking for a business text messaging service to reach your customers and increase revenue, SimpleTexting offers a no-risk two-week free trial. Sign up today with no credit card required and join thousands of businesses cutting through the noise this Fall.
Alice is a copywriter at SimpleTexting. When not teaching the world about the benefits of business texting, you can find her feeding family, friends and strangers with her latest baking experiment.
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