How to Use SMS Marketing for Promotions and Sales

Every advertising campaign always includes promotions and sales. Moreover, they have become an integral part of modern marketing culture. For consumers, it’s a kind of entertainment: comparing prices and looking for the best deals is at least interesting. For businesses, it is an effective way to solve current challenges: stimulating sales, clearing out inventory, drawing attention to a brand or product, and more.

The results of most such events are successful, but under two conditions. The first is considering the interests of customers: people can easily see the value of an offer, and if it’s not there, they simply ignore it. The second condition is timely and comprehensive customer notification.

One of the notification channels is SMS marketing to the customer database. It works in close connection with other promotion channels, but thanks to it, sales can increase on average by 15-30%.

Step One: Planning Promotional Activities 

Every business has its own marketing calendar, refined by experience. Most often, it is focused on:

• Official holidays — New Year, Independence Day;
• Conditionally festive events — Black Friday, Valentine’s Day, the start of spring or the school year;
• Seasonal changes;
• Industry events — craft fairs, forums, product exhibitions, conferences, etc.;
• Personal events. This includes both customers’ birthdays and specific dates important for the business — the opening of a new location, the founding day of the brand, and so on.

It also happens that planned marketing strategies have to be changed “on the fly”.

This refers, in particular, to situational events — urgent product updates or the need to get rid of the previous collection due to market events. It’s not always possible to plan such moments in the calendar, but the reason for running a promotion or sale won’t be affected by the implementation mechanism.

A sudden opportunity may also arise to enter a related niche, or to launch a new product because competitors are catching up and a quick, creative response is required. One of the ways to take a fundamentally new development path will also be those same promotions and sales.

Step Two: Working with the Customer Database

Having your own quality customer database is extremely important for every business. First, this allows you to communicate directly with your consumers and not rely on the ever-changing algorithms of platforms. Second, a loyal audience means long-term stability.

Without a quality address book, no SMS sales or promotional campaigns will deliver results. How to fill your database and work with it — read the article “Customer Database Segmentation for SMS Marketing”.

Remember, it’s important to record from the moment of acquaintance with the customer:

• Location;
• Purchase history — and the average check for each;
• Name and approximate age;
• Interests;
• Characteristics — age, clothing size, product requirements;
• Loyalty status — regular customer, occasional customer, forgotten.

These data and working with them:

1. Eliminate mishaps. For example, when a person with size XXL is offered a sweatshirt in size M, and even a smaller fit;
2. Save money. Because you don’t send the same offer to the entire database, but adjust the text of the action SMS. For one group, the focus can be on the value of saving money. For another — on the value of receiving a quality product;
3. Increase conversion. Because you are addressing people who have already interacted with your business.

Step Three: Choosing the Promotion Format

Only the business knows which of the promotional and sales options will attract the attention of its customers, and there are no universal pieces of advice here. Therefore, let’s look at formats for mass sendings and for individual work.

Formats for Mass Sendings

This refers to all possible promotions aimed at increasing turnover. They can be tied to certain events or holidays, or they may not be.

These include the old favorites like “Limited Offers”, “Hot Discounts”, “Buy one t-shirt, get the second at 50% off”, or 1+1=3, and so on.

How appropriate is bulk sms to customers in such cases?

• Appropriate if the promotion lasts at least a few days, and people will have time to respond;
• Very appropriate if the product costs more than 2-3 thousand hryvnias. In this case, it’s worth notifying about the promotion in advance, as significant expenses are rarely impulsive;
• Inappropriate for formats like “happy hour” or “deal of the day”.

These formats are designed for immediate consumer response: arrived — saw — bought. And although SMS messages are quickly viewed, on average within 3 minutes after receipt, it’s better not to take risks. It’s simple: the person may have received the SMS at a time in their life when they definitely aren’t ready for a quick purchase.

Formats for Personalized Messages

This is more of a holiday story centered around key dates in the calendar. The gift may not only be a specific product but also personal bonuses or discounts.

This type of promotion helps create an emotional connection between the business and the customer. Therefore, such bulk campaign should primarily be used for this purpose.

In this case, SMS messages are a find and definitely better than messengers.

Yes, we use social networks for personal communication with a close circle. However, if the message contains an offer to buy something, even with a discount, it will subconsciously be perceived as imposition and boundary violation — and do you need that?

Also, individual bulk sms are great for stimulating repeat purchases and reminding customers about your store or service. Information triggers — availability of personal discounts, favorite products appearing at a lower price, or participation in giveaways among regular customers.

Conclusions:

There is an opinion that 90% of consumers always respond to the offer to buy something at a promotional price or during a sale, and 70% of them don’t even check whether the promotion matches the discount.

Although in 2022-2023 consumer behavior has become much more rational, people have become accustomed to discounts and do not want to buy goods and products at regular prices.

For this reason, SMS as a promotional tool will continue to be in demand. Contact professionals, to add SMS marketing to your established customer notification channels and set it up so that your business achieves marketing goals in any situation.