Every year, shoppers and business owners look forward to the month of November because it’s always filled with many exciting sales. From Thanksgiving to Black Friday to Cyber Monday deals. It’s a back-to-back sales hit for business owners who can take advantage of the season.But let’s talk about Cyber shopping day. In 2021 it was the biggest holiday sales in November, surpassing $10 billion in revenue. Yet the projections for 2022 are even more captivating – Adobe estimates $111.2 billion. And we think you’d want to have a piece of the cake.
But don’t be in a rush to initiate Cyber Monday advertising. You need to plan properly and have a good strategy so your campaign doesn’t become a mess.
It’s 2022, and the world is increasingly becoming mobile; any marketing strategy that doesn’t include a major mobile-friendly plan would only scratch the surface of conversion.
In essence, while you’re getting set for Cyber Monday marketing, you just don’t have a choice but to throw SMS marketing into the mix. It’s not just our opinion; the facts reveal that SMS marketing promotes engagement and allows customers to engage with the brand, especially if 2-way SMS solutions are deployed.
And it becomes easier with an effective mass messaging system. All you need to do is to have all the target contacts in one place and send them at once.So in this guide, we’ll be sharing Cyber Monday SMS marketing checklist to help you have a blast with your SMS marketing efforts.
How to Get Ready for Cyber Monday
Brands and eCommerce stores that make massive sales during Cyber Monday and any other holiday season are not lucky; they are rather strategic and put certain things in place to prep for the season.
You have to be intentional to attract more patronage. So here are a few critical factors that can help you prepare for Cyber Monday and any other holiday season sale.
Have a Subscribers List Updated and Ready
Without a subscribers list, you cannot send out Cyber Monday SMS. You need to have the phone numbers of customers and leads to be able to tell them about your discount offers and any other offerings.
However, as required by the law, building a list requires the recipients’ consent. You may provide an opt-in form on your website that encourages visitors to include their phone numbers. However, you must also ask that they consent to receive promotional SMS.
Design and Deploy Landing Pages
Landing pages are effective marketing channels; they are designed to help generate leads and increase conversions. A landing page can also be a more effective means to build your subscribers list because it is more focused on marketing.
Here is what I mean.
Subscribers may be reluctant to add their phone numbers through an opt-in form on your website; they may feel it’s unnecessary.
But when you design a landing page that includes attractive benefits, visitors will be more inclined to join your subscribers’ list to share in the benefits. For instance, if you have a landing page that promises discount sales on certain dates, you can lure users to join your subscribers’ list so they can always get a reminder and not miss the sales.
This way, you’ll probably have more people join in than when you simply provide an opt-in form with no specific reason or perceived benefits to customers.
Run a Lead Generation Research
While you’re getting ready for the holiday sales, you need to understand your target market and identify their needs and expectations for the season. This will help you generate relevant Cyber Monday promotion ideas and tailor your offerings accordingly.
Here are some tips to help out
- Deploy polls and surveys to know what customers are expecting
- Perform research on social media to know what customers are saying
- Use Google Analytics and trends to check recent and popular search strings.
Make Attractive Offers
One of the biggest sales drivers during the holiday shopping season is attractive offers. Shoppers are drawn to discount sales, free shipping, souvenirs, gifts, etc. Don’t get it twisted; it’s mostly about the benefits, not the day. So you must be willing to design great and attractive offers that would lure more patronage for your business.
Run a Website/ App Check
A whopping 186 million people shopped online on Cyber Monday in the US alone in 2021. Just imagine the traffic and rush that e-commerce platforms witnessed on that day. You have to ensure that your platform is robust enough to withstand the traffic and hyperactivity.
SMS Tips for Cyber Monday
If you are going to run a Cyber Monday SMS campaign, here are some tips that would help you.
Deploy Multi-Media Messaging
Multi-media messaging supports images and other graphical illustrations, which add more excitement to the message or offer you are sending. And the facts remain that people are more drawn to images and are more likely to share messages that include images. So get creative, and throw in some images into your marketing SMS.
Keep SMS Concise
We recommend that you keep your SMS copy under 160 characters; this would enable recipients read through and engage with your brand. You should be able to make your offer and include a CTA within the recommended number of words.
Quick tip: Employ a custom URL shortener tool to reduce the length of CTAs, and have a branded URL in the message.
Personalize Your Messages
Personalization improves the customer experience, which translates into conversion and brand loyalty. In fact, according to research, 72% of customers will only engage with a brand if they are sent personalized messages.
Segment Your Subscribers
It’s a good idea to segment your list depending on preferences and purchasing behaviors; it helps to send more personalized and engaging messages. You should also refrain from sending promotional messages to people who have only recently completed their purchases.
Send Branded SMS
Many people won’t open an SMS if it’s from a random number, especially if it’s sent through a short code. Ensure that your messages carry your brand’s name before sending.
How to Build Your Cyber Monday SMS List
If you’re wondering how to build a Cyber Monday SMS list, here is a quick rundown that would help you.
- Include opt-in forms to your website: Opt-in forms are usually pop-ups on websites that carry certain information. In this case, you’ll encourage your visitors to subscribe o your marketing list by adding their phone numbers.
- Send a request to your email list: If you already have an email list, you may email them to subscribe to your SMS list to see and get better offers.
- Include opt-in at strategic points in the user journey: This may include at check out, registration, or while they are about to access a benefit or discount offer. However, asking them to subscribe to your SMS list should be optional.
- Incentivize shoppers: Encourage your audience to subscribe to your SMS list by offering incentives like discount offers and other benefits.
How to Create a Cyber Week SMS Campaign
Getting ready for Cyber Monday; follow this step-by-step guide to get started with an SMS campaign.
1. Define Your Goal
The first thing you have to do is to clearly define your goals and objectives so that you can implement measurable actions and track results. Of course, every marketing campaign has different objectives. So you start by asking yourself what you intend to achieve with the Cyber week SMS campaign. This may include
- More sales
- Brand awareness and visibility
- Customer Appreciation
- Brand loyalty
- Customer engagement etc.
It could be a combination of two or more objectives; it doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you have a clearly defined goal.
2. Prep Your SMS List and Add More Subscribers.
You probably have an SMS list already, but there are still things to be done. You have to verify and update the list according to segments and customers’ profiles. This is easier if you already have a customer profile template for your business.
You may also put in efforts to acquire more subscribers before Cyber Monday.
3. Do Research
Organize research to understand what your audience would prefer more during Cyber week. This will help you design suitable offerings that align with your customers’ wants.
4. Subscribe to an SMS Marketing Platform
You’ll certainly need a tool or channel to send out your Cyber week SMS campaign if you don’t already have one. But it’s important that you do proper research because there are many inefficient tools with low SMS delivery rates.
You can as well skip the research and subscribe to the best SMS marketing tool in the market, BSG World. Try it out here for free.
5. Send Teasers
Don’t wait until Cyber Monday morning before sending your first SMS. If you do so, you will have lost your audience to proactive brands. Start early, maybe a week, two weeks, or a few days before the day, to send out exciting messages that arouse a shopping interest in your audience. You could tell them about the great discounts and deals that will be available on that day etc.
Also, remember that many shoppers start their spree days before the holiday sale. So sending early teasers and promotional SMS can help you attract early shoppers.
6. Send Reminders
It’s also important that you send reminders to your audience so they don’t forget. Well, people don’t forget it’s Cyber Monday; they may only forget to patronize your brand, maybe because someone else did a better marketing job. So you have to keep your brands on their mind without invading their privacy.
Schedule Your Messages
Schedule messages that will be sent out on D-day. Send out messages in the morning, during the day, and before the close of business to attract some last-minute holiday sale.
8 SMS Marketing Messages & Coupons Examples for Cyber Monday
Here are some examples of SMS for eCommerce and retail brands to give you a cue on how to craft a good Cyber Monday marketing message.
Send a Pre-holiday Sale Message.
- Hi, Victor! Cyber Monday is only a week away; you don’t want to miss out on all of the amazing deals made just for you. Check them out here [insert link] and start shopping already!
- Hello Mani. The holiday came early; don’t wait until it’s Cyber Monday. Start shopping for your favorite items using this discount code CYBERSALES123 and get a 10% discount on all purchases. Don’t miss out; the party has begun!
- Hello Fave.It’s five days to Cyber Monday sales. What are you waiting for? Start shopping for your favorite items before they go missing!
Offer Incentives and Benefits on Cyber Monday Morning
- Hi Mani, are you still sleeping? It’s Cyber Monday, and we are offering you free shipping on every purchase made before 4:pm today! Don’t sleep on this.
- Hey Judy, get up to 50% off on your favorite items today! The offer lasts only for today. Start shopping already [insert link].
- Hi Luke, because you’re special, we are sending out this special coupon code just for you (CYMON331). Use it at checkout today. Happy Cyber Monday!
Create Urgency Before the End of the Day
- 1..2..3.. counting down to the end of our Cyber Monday discount sale. Rush now, so you don’t miss out on this chance to get your favorite stuff at only half the price.
Send a Post-purchase Appreciation
- Hi Bliss, you’re now a legend! Thank you for shopping with us. Use the code LEGEND332 for a 20% discount on your next checkout. The code is valid for 72 hours.
Need Help Launching Your Sms Marketing Campaign?
Ready to launch your Cyber Monday SMS marketing campaign? But you’re not sure how to go about it? Don’t fret; it’s nothing technical, especially on user-friendly SMS campaign platforms like BSG.
With BSG, you can send 2-way SMS, bulk Viber messages, initiate two-factor authenticator messages, and send mass messages to customers.
Get started with BSG for free.
