Nowadays, consumers are constantly bombarded with Black Friday messages via the web, TV, email, social media and a variety of other messaging channels. Many of these campaigns last for the entirety of November, rather than simply focusing on Black Friday itself (which is slated for November 26th in 2021). The challenge is to make your messages stand out from the myriad campaigns vying for your customers’ attention.
One relatively under-utilised, but surprisingly effective outlet is SMS. It was way back in 1992, that the first message was sent via the Short Message Service. Given it’s the oldest of the text messaging services out there, it’s tempting to write it off. Do so at your peril, however, as it boasts a phenomenal open rate of 98% and the majority of messages are read within five minutes. Not only that, but with a CTR that’s 9.18% higher than any other digital channel, it represents a hugely valuable way of reaching potential and existing customers.
How can you get started with your Black Friday SMS campaign?
Creating a Black Friday SMS campaign isn’t as tricky as it might sound, provided you have the right solution at your fingertips. Firstly, you’ll need to be able to access and segment your customer data in order to ensure your messaging is targeted enough to be relevant and you can do that from your CDP or Customer Data Platform. A CDP differs from CRM or DMP solutions in that it can unify data from a much wider variety of sources, making it vastly more relevant. You’ll want to ensure your solution has a CDP built into it to ensure you can automate the creation of super-targeted SMS campaigns. Without the data, creating an effective SMS campaign will involve a lot of legwork…
Thankfully, CM.com’s Mobile Marketing Cloud gives you a CDP and the means to create multiple SMS campaigns simply and easily all from one, easy-to-use dashboard.
It’s worth noting that 91% of mobile users read the messages that businesses send them and many of them are keen to see more SMS activity from their favourite brands, with 64% stating they’d like to see brands using SMS more. In addition, SMS offers a reliability advantage over every other form of mobile messaging as it doesn’t require a 3,4, or 5G connection to function.
SMS isn’t just limited to broadcasting marketing messages, either. Take a look at how Czech & Speake used our SMS solution to converse with its customers, many of whom were unable to visit them in person due to pandemic restrictions. If you want to open up a dialogue with your customers, SMS offers the perfect solution.
Post-purchase, SMS also comes into its own. Takeaway.com uses our SMS solution to keep its customers informed on their order status, sending a number of texts letting them know their order has been received, when it’s on its way, and when it’s been delivered.
In short, SMS offers superior open rates and ROI over other messaging channels and can be used for multiple marketing activities. If you want to find out more about how SMS can help you reach your customers during Black Friday and beyond, get in touch with us today.
