It’s that time of the year again when retailers around the world are preparing for one of the biggest spending weekends on the calendar, Black Friday & Cyber Monday. If you’re a self-proclaimed shopper, you will know this is the best time to start preparing for the gift-giving season while ticking off as many ‘wish list’ items as possible.
Customers aren’t the only ones who should be benefiting from BFCM, brands should be focusing on acquiring new customers, improving loyalty, and focusing on retention. Being one of the biggest spending weekends of the year, customers are expecting brands to deliver personalised messages, tailored discounts, and efficient shopping experiences. So, what does that mean? This is the most opportune time to activate a powerful SMS Marketing strategy.
We’ve pulled together some of our favourite communication strategies to implement in the lead up to Cyber Week, to help your brand reach new audiences and drive conversions.
Incentivize Sign Ups
Building your SMS subscriber list ahead of time should be your number one priority. Without a weighty subscriber list, your marketing efforts won’t be as effective. Start establishing your list of subscribers early on by offering your customers an attractive reason for signing up – this could be anything from free shipping to a free gift with purchase.
Take Advantage of Virtual Gift Guides
While traditionally shoppers spend hours browsing through stores to find the items they love, these days, customers are turning to their mobiles to help them checkout faster. Inspire your customers and help them discover the perfect product through the use of Virtual Gift Guides. Adding a touch of personalisation through curated gifting guides will inspire your shoppers while helping to promote cross-selling.
Trigger Automated Messages
Have you ever browsed a website adding everything you want to your cart, only to leave before finalising your purchase? Well, your customers are doing the exact same thing. Cart abandonment is one of the biggest challenges retailers face, especially during times like BFCM. An effective cart recovery strategy helps reduce abandonment rates by giving your customer a gentle reminder about the items that are waiting for them in their cart. The layout of your recovery message is crucial and must include a few simple elements such as personalisation, your brands name, a call to action and a branded URL. Remember, you want to capitalise when the products are still of interest to your customer, so sending the message a few hours after is essential.
Create Campaign Flow
It can be tempting to use all of your marketing resources to send a large campaign at once, but staggering your campaign allows you to take advantage of multiple key times throughout the weekend that your customers will be on their phone. Developing a campaign flow will allow you to stagger messages over a period of time and choose between dates, hours and minutes.
Our team at Chatti like to suggest the four-message method:
- The lead-up to your sale going live
- The evening your sale goes live
- The next day as a reminder
- A final push before the sale ends
Start a Conversation
Not sure what promotions to run? Don’t be afraid to show your brands “human side” and send a conversational text instead. Your customers are far more likely to reply to a text message over an email, so use this opportunity to check in with them, get their opinion or send a poll.
Ready to implement these strategies? Chat to one of our experts and start your free trial today.
