As the holiday shopping season approaches, businesses are gearing up for one of the biggest shopping events of the year: Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM). The competition for consumer attention is fierce, with emails, ads, and social media promotions flooding every channel. In this crowded landscape, how can companies ensure their messages stand out? One powerful and often underutilized tool is SMS marketing.
With open rates as high as 98% and response rates significantly higher than email, SMS (Short Message Service) provides businesses with a direct and immediate way to engage with customers. Here's how companies can leverage SMS to cut through the BFCM noise and boost their sales during this critical period.
1. Instantly Deliver BFCM Deals
SMS is an ideal platform for delivering real-time updates to your customers. Whether it’s flash sales, limited-time offers, or exclusive BFCM deals, SMS allows you to reach your audience instantly. Given the urgency of BFCM shopping, SMS provides a fast and effective way to notify customers about time-sensitive offers. If your messaging doesn’t hit them at the right moment, they’ll likely move on to another brand.
A client in the tech journalism space utilized Subtext during Prime Day to share the best deals and drive incremental revenue with affiliate links. From big ticket items to everyday needs, they shared 22 links over 5 days that drove a CTR of 10%.
By creating a sense of urgency and delivering it directly to their phones, you’re more likely to see an immediate reaction, especially when shoppers are on the hunt for the best deals.
2. Personalized Offers That Resonate
During BFCM, customers are bombarded with generic promotions. But when they receive a message that feels personalized, they're more likely to engage.
Utilize SMS to send highly curated and personalized deals based on your customer data. Subtext allows you to segment subscribers by anything from customer behavior, preferences, to past purchases, making targeted messaging simple and effective.
During BFCM, consumers are overwhelmed with choices, so personalized offers can be the difference between getting noticed and getting ignored. When customers receive an SMS that speaks directly to their interests or buying behavior, they’re much more likely to engage with the offer and take action. Personalization is not just about using a customer’s first name—it’s about understanding their needs and delivering offers that meet those needs at the perfect time.
Forbes Vetted used the audience segmentation feature to make sure that subscribers were only receiving information on products they expressed interest in.
Personalized SMS creates a more meaningful connection with your customers, helping you stand out from the competition.
3. Two-Way Conversations to Help Audiences
SMS isn’t just a one-way communication channel. BFCM can be an opportunity to engage in a two-way dialogue with your customers, offering personalized recommendations, answering questions, or gathering feedback. Interactive SMS campaigns can create a more engaging shopping experience.
When you open the door for two-way interaction via SMS, you transform your communication from a sales pitch into a dialogue. This not only makes your customers feel heard but also offers opportunities to provide personalized shopping assistance, resolve issues in real time, and ultimately guide the customer toward making a purchase.
During last year’s holiday season, Wirecutter took advantage of Subtext’s keywords and auto-replies features and opened up their SMS line to allow subscribers to text who they were shopping for and they would get a recommendation back from their gift experts.
This type of conversational approach can help guide customers through their purchasing decisions, making your brand stand out as customer-centric.
4. Give Back on Giving Tuesday
The power of SMS doesn’t end with BFCM, SMS allows you to do good for your favorite charities as well. It's a powerful opportunity for brands and organizations to shift gears from sales-driven messaging to cause-driven engagement. Using SMS for Giving Tuesday allows companies and nonprofits to effectively reach supporters and customers, encouraging donations, participation in causes, and spreading awareness for social initiatives. The same immediacy and direct connection that SMS provides for BFCM can be harnessed to amplify your impact on Giving Tuesday.
Read how the MMA Shark uses Subtext to raise money for his favorite organization, the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania.
Dominate BFCM with Subtext
With so much noise during BFCM, SMS marketing offers a way to cut through the clutter and reach your customers directly and effectively. By sending timely, personalized, and exclusive messages, you can create urgency, recover lost sales, and engage with customers meaningfully. SMS is not only immediate and personal but also highly engaging—making it a critical component of your BFCM marketing strategy.
Companies that invest in SMS for BFCM will find themselves increasing sales and creating stronger, longer-lasting relationships with their customers. Don’t miss out on this high-impact channel—start crafting your SMS campaigns now to make the most of the BFCM season!
If you're looking to maximize your BFCM, talk to an SMS expert today.