Text your way to Black Friday success with these mobile messaging tips

It’s that time of the year again. Black Friday and Cyber Monday, a.k.a. BFCM, are about to kick off this year’s holiday shopping season. You’ve got your email marketing campaign and paid social ads almost ready to roll — but how’s your mobile messaging program coming along? 

With more and more consumers relying on mobile channels for, well, pretty much everything, mobile messaging should definitely be a key part of any BFCM strategy. 

From building pre-sale momentum to sending personalized recommendations, cart abandonment notifications, or FOMO-driving last chance messages, we’ve put together our best tips to help you build a mobile messaging strategy that’s guaranteed to make your customers’ credit cards overheat. 

Why you can’t afford not to use mobile messaging during Black Friday 

According to Shopify, 71% of all transactions take place on mobile during Black Friday. That’s $2.1 million sales per minute! 

Mobile messaging is a great way to engage customers with mouth-watering deals on the device they buy from and amplify your email marketing efforts through a channel that gets instant customer attention. 

With a jaw-dropping open rate of 98% and an almost-just-as-striking 95% read rate within three minutes, mobile messaging is hard to beat when it comes to customer engagement. Considering the deluge of marketing messages retailers are showering customers with during the holiday shopping season, that’s an opportunity you can’t afford to miss. 

Mobile messaging is also a highly personal channel, and when done right, it's a sure-fire way to create stronger connections with customers and encourage them to take action.   

While SMS is a very powerful marketing channel, rich messaging channels like WhatsApp, RCS, or MMS can help you craft next-level messaging campaigns and create a more interactive and engaging experience for your customers. 

Now that we've got the basics covered, let's dig into the strategies that’ll take your BFCM mobile marketing efforts to a whole new level. 

Top Black Friday mobile messaging tips to kick-start the holiday season 

1. Get the timing right to build and keep momentum  

Why wait until Black Friday to tell your audience about your amazing products and exclusive deals? Use messaging to get the word out early and send irresistible pre-sale teasers to your subscribers days or weeks before the big day to build excitement and keep your brand top of mind.  

By the time your deals kick in, they’ll have their online shopping carts already filled up and ready for checkout! 

Remember to send out reminders the night before and early on the morning of the big day. You should also consider sending follow-up messages throughout the day as people continue to shop online.  

Using your analytics, you can figure out when people are most engaged and try to schedule your messages accordingly. You should also be prepared to send out last-minute messages as needed; flash sales and other unexpected events can create massive spikes in engagement — but make sure you spread out your messages so people don't get overwhelmed. 

2. Roll out the red carpet for your SMS subscribers 

‘Tis the season for the biggest increase in your SMS list size. Everyone loves getting exclusive offers, so promote special deals like extra discounts, freebies, and free shipping. You can also give subscribers early access to your BFCM pricing, or an extension 
of your sales deals to convince them to opt into your brand’s messaging program. 

And make sure they stay opted in! If subscribers don’t see the value of your SMS program after they’ve made their Black Friday purchases, they’ll most likely unsubscribe. 

To prevent this, make sure to send them engaging, helpful post-purchase content, like a style guide or a link to a tutorial for the product they bought — or even better, a video!  

3. Use rich messaging channels like RCS, WhatsApp, and MMS to showcase your products

Talking about your discounts is great, but why not use rich media to show off your discounted products?  

A picture or a video are worth a thousand words, so experiment with rich media formats to grab attention and drive more traffic to your online or physical store. 

Don't forget about emojis! It may sound pretty basic, but a well-placed emoji can add an extra layer of personality to your message and help make it stand out in a crowded inbox.  

4. Create urgency and FOMO throughout your Black Friday sale 

Everyone knows the best Black Friday deals won’t last long, and you should use this to your advantage.  

Include FOMO-driving language like “limited time only” in your text messages to create a sense of urgency and encourage customers to act fast.   

For high-profile deals, send messages that count down to the expiration of that offer. If inventory is limited for a specific product, send low-stock alerts such as “Only a few items left at this price!”  

Sending messages linking to countdown clocks or real-time inventory counters can also be a powerful urgency driver. 

5. Go all in with personalization 

No one wants to be another number on a list, so make personalization your top priority — and by personalization, we don’t just mean your recipient’s name. 

Use purchase history and behavioral data to make your content as relevant and valuable as possible, or send MMS images or links to a dynamic, personalized landing page showcasing recommended products. 

When BFCM ends, use the data you’ve collected from customer purchases to create upsell and cross-sell opportunities for the rest of the holiday shopping season.  

6. Make it fun 
and interactive 

Games like mystery scratchable offers, spinners, and match game browser experiences are another great opportunity to make your BFCM deals stand out.  

For instance, you can show customers a range of discounts they could get (“Scratch to win 10%, 20% or up to 50%!”) in an instant-win scenario where everybody gets something. 

7. Give customers the final nudge they need to convert with compelling abandoned cart notifications 

For those BFCM purchases that never made it to checkout, send SMS reminders highlighting that the original deal price will be honored.  

Drive conversion even more by using MMS showing customers the items they left behind and make it easy for them to complete their purchase by adding a link to the product page on your website. 

You can even set up browse abandonment notifications for browsed products that weren’t added to the cart.  

8. Keep conversions flowing throughout the holiday season 

The day after Black Friday or Cyber Monday, let your customers know to expect special holiday offers in December — and make access to these deals exclusive to list members to boost messaging opt-ins! 

For instance, you could create a “12 days of Christmas” or an “X days of savings” program over a specific period or drop a new deal each hour on a particular day. Make sure to include high-value and popular products in your program to create excitement and drive more sales.  

Best practices to create winning mobile messaging programs all year round 

 

• Make it conversational 

A global study by Meta revealed that during the holiday season, almost two-thirds of consumers tried to respond to direct messages sent by brands to ask questions but were met with frustrating error messages or no reply. Not only is this a really poor customer experience, but it’s also a missed opportunity to guide high-intent consumers on the path to purchase.  

Moral of the story: You really need to turn static notifications into two-way conversations. Letting customers reply in-message and engage with your brand in real time is the key to creating satisfying shopping experiences. 

“Inviting customers to have a conversation with your brand, ask questions or modify an incentive to fit their interests strengthens customer relationships and loyalty.” - Matt Ramerman, President of Sinch for Marketing. 

• Go omnichannel 

To win today’s customers’ hearts — and wallets — retailers also need to think beyond SMS and MMS and meet customers on the channels that suit them, whether it be WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, or Viber. 

Adopting an omnichannel approach to customer engagement allows you to engage with customers seamlessly across all these channels and offer a consistent experience throughout their entire journey — that means higher engagement, loyalty, and conversions!  

• Make sure your messages are relevant 

Segment your audience and send them highly targeted messages to show that you know them and understand their needs! Be creative with the data you have and tailor your content based on location, age, gender, past purchases, and more. 

• Use engaging visuals 

Include images, GIFs, and even videos in your messages to really capture people’s attention. Just make sure that any visuals you use are properly optimized for mobile viewing; otherwise, they could end up doing more harm than good. 

 

Now, time to get to work! With these tips, you're well on your way to developing a mobile messaging strategy that’ll help you stay ahead of the curve during Black Friday and beyond.