Insights
How to use Black Friday SMS marketing to build trust and engagement
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Black Friday 2024 is fast approaching, and the race is on for retailers to grab shoppers’ attention. A recent Meta and YouGov study shows that 61% of holiday shoppers spend more time online during the holiday season, increasing their chances of shopping discovery. Brands that can effectively connect with their customers during this peak period are sure to stand out.
Our recent survey of over 500 U.S. consumers found that 34% want to hear about promotions as often as they come – and 22% prefer using texts to contact businesses. And with SMS easily being the preferred messaging channel for U.S. consumers to hear from and contact brands, along with its near instant reach and 98% open rate, it’s clear why so many brands choose SMS as an essential part of their Black Friday and Cyber Monday messaging strategies.
To help you nail your Black Friday marketing strategy, we’ve compiled best practices and insights from Sébastien Icardi, VP of Customer Success for France and Benelux at Insider, a platform that helps enterprise marketers build individualized, cross-channel experiences. Insider works with one-third of Fortune 500 companies and leading retail brands like GAP, Marks & Spencer, L’Oréal, Adidas, and many more.
Let’s dive into the essentials for sending SMS around the crucial Black Friday season.
Here are a few key tips and best practices for retailers to use SMS marketing around Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM).
For your campaign to really shine, you need to make sure you have a quality SMS subscriber list. This means that your customers should have explicitly consented to receive your texts.
It’s important to proactively seek opt-in before sending people text messages. Keep in mind that while some customers may eagerly anticipate updates about their orders (i.e., transactional messages), you don’t automatically have permission to send them advertisements (i.e., promotional text messages).
To help you get consent, Sébastien says to try using opt-in forms, running promotions, or even asking for sign-ups in-store. You can always offer discounts or early access to deals to incentivize people to join your list as well.
And, of course, remember that it’s crucial to comply with local regulations for each country you’re sending SMS messages to, and make it easy for people to unsubscribe from your messages.
If you’re looking for any help on your approach, Insider has a free SMS template library you can browse as you get started.
Before starting any creative Black Friday SMS marketing campaign, you need to set clear objectives. You can set goals like driving traffic to your website, increasing sales, or other KPIs. This is also important to get your team aligned and ready to execute.
“You need to start thinking about your Black Friday SMS campaign at least two or three months before. That’s a good time to start defining what you want to do, what type of messages you want to send, your segmentation plan, and so on.”
-Sébastien Icardi, VP of Customer Success for France and Benelux at Insider
Early preparation will help execution on the day of the campaign be much smoother, and help you make sure it has impact. You may need also need to plan for additional investments in segmenting your user base effectively.
Truly knowing your audience means aligning your messages with their behaviors and demographics – for example, a younger demographic may respond better to short, emoji-rich marketing messages, while an older audience might appreciate a more informative tone.
Whatever the case, it’s up to you to show that you know and understand your audience to truly build a great customer experience.
“Personalizing your content based on user data – like their first name, last name, or other details – can make a big difference. With many retailers sending SMS, adding a personal touch helps you stand out from the crowd and shows your customers that you genuinely “get” them.”
-Sébastien Icardi, VP of Customer Success for France and Benelux at Insider
This also goes beyond basic personalization – for instance, you could recognize that different holidays have different significance for people. Whether you’re offering “Christmas” or “holiday” promotions, always take a moment to consider the diverse backgrounds and beliefs of your audience. This shows a genuine respect for your customers and will help them form a deeper connection to your brand.
Finding the right message frequency around Black Friday is key to keeping customers happy and keeping your “unsubscribe” list down – in fact, over 26% of people we surveyed in 2024 said that receiving communications too frequently would make them less likely to buy from a company. We recommend sending a maximum of one to three messages a week.
If you’re ever in doubt about whether or not to send an SMS, put yourself in your audience’s shoes and answer these questions:
If you answered, “yes,” to both questions, craft your message by considering what would grab your attention and enhance your overall brand experience.
“SMS is a highly visible channel that commands the immediate attention of the customer who received it. To use it strategically, reserve SMS for your most critical notifications, exclusive discounts, important updates, etc., or your customers will unsubscribe, and you’ll lose the ability to communicate with them so easily.”
-Sébastien Icardi, VP of Customer Success for France and Benelux at Insider
There are key transactional messages that need to be sent from e-commerce retailers during Black Friday, like order confirmations, inventory alerts, payment confirmations, and post-purchase feedback requests.
SMS is a powerful tool for these purposes – and automating these messages (rather than relying on manual triggers) will save time and ensure that your customers receive the right information when they need it.
SMS is incredibly effective for certain types of Black Friday marketing campaigns, like flash sales, limited-time deals, and exclusive promotions. But the retailers that get ahead are the ones who are expanding their reach from just one messaging channel to multiple.
Rich messaging channels like Rich Communication Services (RCS) and WhatsApp allow for rich, interactive content like images, videos, or GIFs so you can stand out from the crowd and boost conversion rates. Email marketing can help you provide product previews, forms, and more. And of course, when the situation requires it, people want to talk to people, which makes voice services more relevant than ever.
Leading up to and around Black Friday, providers like Insider and Sinch play a key role in enabling effective communication. When you’re searching for a messaging partner, it’s critical to find one who offers a few essentials to meet your specific Black Friday needs, and even better, it’s great to find one that can support you beyond just the busiest shopping week of the year.
Black Friday necessitates timely, efficient communications. That’s why businesses need to look for a messaging provider offering exceptional message deliverability and guaranteed throughput.
To avoid unexpected issues during peak sending times, enterprises should look for a provider with a strong history of successfully managing high-volume message sends, smart routing capabilities, and direct connections to mobile operators worldwide.
Sébastien recommends checking analyst reports like Gartner and user reviews on portals like G2 to help you choose the right provider.
At Sinch, our 600+ direct relationships to global network operators are at the core of our business, ensuring there’s no middleman aggregating traffic. We know how important Black Friday is for businesses, so we focus on eliminating unnecessary layers in the process to offer brands the unmatched quality, pricing, and stability they need throughout the year.
For a retail enterprise, having a customizable SMS API in place is one of the most beneficial steps to take to get ready for Black Friday. It means that businesses can tailor their messaging campaigns to the unique demands of the day, offering a level of flexibility and control that’s crucial in the frenzy.
An SMS API also allows a business to send thousands of SMS messages automatically. It helps a business work smarter and ensures time-sensitive communications at the right time, every single time.
Enterprises should look for an SMS provider with comprehensive APIs, including REST and SMPP. These providers should also offer fully developed documentation and personalized support to assist you during set-up and through any technical hiccups that might occur in the lead up to Black Friday.
This developer-first mentality is key for technical teams in the lead up to the holiday season. Partnering with a provider like Sinch helps ensure your campaigns are correctly synced with other communication efforts, optimizing overall campaign effectiveness and guaranteeing maximum reliability for your critical sends.
Want to learn more? You can try Sinch SMS API for free here – in just a few quick steps, you’ll be ready to start sending large volumes of messages automatically.
When we talk about service optimization for SMS and other messaging channels, we’re referring to the configuring and managing of connections and routing in a network. This process is critical to ensure the infrastructure can handle the volume and demands of increased message traffic.
As you prepare for Black Friday and other high-demand events, you should be looking for SMS infrastructure equipped to handle your anticipated message volume. Look for a provider that adheres to industry best practices, which includes avoiding grey routes or SIM farms. Doing so contributes to a cleaner messaging ecosystem while defending your business against SMS fraud.
At Sinch, our standard for direct links to operators globally means we’re constantly providing a messaging service that meets and exceeds industry standards.
Black Friday is a time when businesses interact with an influx of customers, making it essential to prioritize customer data security. You need to make sure that your SMS are being sent securely to protect customer data and ensure legal compliance with GDPR and CCPA. Security and compliance are non-negotiable, as any mishandling of customer data or failure to comply with regulations can lead to severe legal consequences and reputational damage.
Equally important is the trust of your customers. 87% of customers actively avoid buying from brands they don’t trust. That’s why you need to look for a partner who prioritizes compliance with local laws and regulations, maintains a network of data centers in various locations, and upholds GDPR and CCPA standards. Their distinct certifications will not only enhance data security but instill confidence in your customers, reinforcing your commitment to protecting their sensitive information.
With Black Friday and Cyber Week right around the corner, the partnership between messaging providers and enterprises will take center stage to truly unlock a new era of customer engagement. Together, we’re positioned to create experiences that will resonate with customers worldwide, building stronger connections and trust between businesses and their customers.
To learn more about how Sinch can help your business drive Black Friday success, check out our guide on how to choose the right SMS provider. Or, for a more in-depth walkthrough on how to use both email and SMS in 2024, download our free playbook to help you win over Black Friday shoppers in 2024.
If you’re ready to speak all things messaging, let’s chat. We’re ready to help you take your Black Friday messaging strategy to the next level!
