Introduction

People are super busy during the holiday season so it is even more challenging than usual to get their attention with your marketing messages. They are getting literally bombarded hundreds of times each day with messages from all sorts of businesses, including your competitors. So how could YOUR business get their attention? Have you considered SMS Marketing?  Send them a short concise text message?

Why is it so powerful?  With open rates of 90% (1*) and response rates that beat email by a whopping 134% (2*), SMS Marketing is by far the best way to cut through the noise and get your message in front of your customers this holiday season.

Maximise your holiday sales with Sendmode’s bulk SMS solutions. Start now by clicking the image below for a free, no-obligation trial.

Why SMS Marketing is Crucial During the Holidays

SMS offers a number of advantages over over marketing during the holiday season.

Instant delivery for time-sensitive offers

SMS offers instant delivery of your messages directly into your customers mobiles. Large scale SMS services like Sendmode can delivered thousands of messages instantly. This is critical for time sensitive offers. Consider an example from one of our customers who owns a butcher outlet. ‘Slow morning and we needed to sell quite a lot of stock before the end of the day, so I sent out an SMS Marketing offer at 12:30 with 20% sale before close of business. Everything sold by 3 p.m.’ – Corrigans Butchers.

High open rates

A stated above, people are getting bombarded from all sides with information and marketing messages from email, social media, radio, TV and other broadcast media. Most of it goes over our heads or we don’t engage with it. However, SMS has a 90% (1*) open and read rate. This beats any other media by a mile, for example, email only has a 20% open and read rate. (2*)

Personalised customer engagement

We’ve written a blog recently about how personalized customer engagement can increase response rates and builds brand loyalty. Basically, by reaching out to your customers in a personal way you are telling them that you value who they are and what preferences they like.  SMS is the perfect way to do this.

If you would like to read this blog, it is available here 

Top Holiday SMS Marketing Best Practices

There are a number of techniques for best practices when sending out Bulk SMS Marketing communications around the holiday period.

• Start Early: Start a week or 2 early so people can plan to drop in and redeem your offer. Remember how busy they will be.
• Personalize Messages: It is very important to personalize the message to people names and preferences. Make them feel valued. Remember they are being bombarded with all sorts of promotions. Makes yours stick out by showing them how much you value them.
• Time Your Campaigns Strategically: Send your initial message a week or so before your offer begins. Then send on the day mid morning when people are just about to head out shopping or are planning their day. If you have a large customer base, consider segmenting them into different days in the lead up to the holidays so that every single one of your customers can be served in a timely manner.
• Include Strong CTAs: As with all marketing messaging, make sure to include a Call to Action (CTA). This encourages your customers to take action to redeem your offer. Consider how many CTA’s I have in this blog 😊
• Segment Your Audience: Once again, if you have a large customer base consider segmenting them based on preferences, demographics, or purchase behaviour. Some of the more advanced Bulk SMS Services, such as Sendmode have a way for you to stagger your messages every X minutes. This is excellent if you don’t want to be overwhelmed with a lot of responses all at the same time.

Use Sendmode’s Holiday Campaign Solutions to create segmented, personalised holiday SMS campaigns for your business. Click the image below to get started immediately

Creative Holiday SMS Campaign Ideas

Let’s get creative!!! Here are some idea’s for your Christmas SMS Campaigns. Remember to be concise, ( keep em nice and short), creative ( think up some cool offers ) and personalize the messages.

• Exclusive Holiday Deals: Maybe an offer for January as it is a quiet month for most businesses. Make is a good offer as most of us are skint after Christmas.
• Gift Guides: Use customer preferences to personalize the campaign to each customer ‘Hi <NAME>, We know you love [PRODUCT], how about 20% off in January?’
• Seasonal Reminders: Use SMS to give reminders to people to put their orders in. There is Nnothing worse that sitting at the Christmas dinner table with ham sandwiches and a can of Coke. ‘Hi <NAME>, Just a wee reminder, Don’t forget put yout order in by Mon, 30 Dec 2024 13:43:25 +0000 for delivery before Christmas!”

Let Sendmode take your holiday campaigns to the next level with our easy-to-use SMS Marketing software. Click on the link below to start your free trial.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Holiday SMS Marketing

Bulk SMS Marketing is a very powerful tool to communicate with your customers. With great power comes great responsibility. There are a few common mistake you need to avoid in order to get the most out of your Holiday SMS Marketing Campaign.

• Overloading Customers: This happens ALL the time with first time Bulk SMS users. They get a great response from the first message and then start overloading customers with messages. Do NOT do this as customers will get fed up and start to opt out of getting messages from you. We recommend a message every 4-6 weeks to your customers. Over the holidays, one before Christmas and then one for the January sales is plenty.
• Bad Timing: Sending marketing messages late in the evening is a NO-NO. It will annoy people and again, they will start to opt-out of the best communication channel you have. No messages after 7 p.m.
• Lack of Easy Opt-Out Options: It is very important to ensure compliance with UK data regulations. You must have a free and easy way to opt-out. Sendmode’s optout is super easy for you to add to the bottom of all messages.

Avoid these pitfalls with Sendmode’s expertise and our easy-to-use Bulk SMS service. Click the image below to get started in minutes.

Conclusion

SMS offers a number of advantages over other forms of communications during the holiday period. With its instant delivery, high open and response rates it leaves the others trailing in its wake.

Why not try SMS Marketing this holiday period and see how it works for your business? All the SMS services are super easy to setup and get up and running. Most, including ourselves at Sendmode, will have you up and running in minutes and you’d be surprised how quickly you see the responses from your first campaign.

After the holidays compare how SMS Marketing and your other channels did and we guarantee you will be very surprised how far ahead the Festive SMS Marketing campaigns are.

Ready to elevate your holiday sales? Visit Sendmode.co.uk and start your SMS campaigns today or click on the image below to get started immediately

FAQ Recommendations

1. Why is SMS marketing effective during the holidays?
   SMS Marketing is widely used in marketing and is becoming ever more popular as it has high open rates, instant delivery, and can quickly engage customers with time-sensitive offers.
2. What should I include in a holiday SMS campaign?
   Make it personal (based on name, preferences, previous purchases), have a clear Call to Action and make the promotion time sensitive  ( ‘Buy before 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve for 10% off!!!’.
3. How do I avoid spamming customers during the holidays?
   Do not bombard people with messages. Send 2 at most over the holidays, one before Christmas and then another just before or after New Years for the January sales.
4. What types of businesses benefit most from holiday SMS campaigns?
   In our opinion, all businesses will benefit from the instant delivery and high open and response rates of Bulk SMS Marketing but in particular around the holidays; Retail, e-commerce, hospitality, and event-based businesses will benefit significantly from creative and personalized Bulk SMS campaigns.
5. What regulations should I follow for holiday SMS in the UK?
   The UK has very strict data protection legislation. You must Ensure opt-in consent from recipients, provide clear opt-out options, and comply with these regulations. Sendmode has easy-to-use procedures to always keep you compliant.