Four Frighteningly Good SMS Marketing ideas for Halloween
How to use Bulk SMS to engage customers and boost sales this Halloween
In many countries, Halloween represents one of the most notable shopping days of the calender year.
And in 2022, after 2 years of lockdowns, consumers are ready to celebrate and spend big. According to The National Retail Federation, in the United States alone, consumers are expected to spend $10.6billion this year.
Regardless of whether your business sells Halloween related products, Halloween is an ideal opportunity to generate sales and boost customer engagement with an SMS marketing campaign.
Why? Because SMS is the fastest, easiest, and most effective way to reach your target audience. With an open rate of around 98%, compared to email marketing (8%), SMS mobile marketing provides an ideal communications channel for businesses.
If you're looking for some quick and simple ways you can use Bulk SMS to boost sales and engage customers look no further.
Below we've listed some of our favourites:
Flash sales
SMS flash sales are text messages to your subscribers, informing them of a last-minute, limited time sale.
With 95% of text messages opened within the first three minutes of being received, SMS services provide an almost immediate channel of communication.
Whether you're trying to sell last-remaining Halloween products, or simply hoping to increase sales revenue, SMS marketing is the ideal way to communicate news of a sale quickly and effectively.
Simply craft your 160 character text message, remembering to keep it sharp and informative, and then send it to your database of subscribers. For more information on how to send Bulk SMS using an SMS Provider or messaging service, click here.
Product promotions
A time when people are feeling festive, Halloween is an ideal opportunity to send text message product promotions.
For bars and restaurants, this could include a special pre- trick or treating Halloween meal or themed cocktail.
For the beauty industry, it could be a promotion on a certain treatment. For example, a nail salon could offer 25% off Halloween themed nails.
To make to SMS promotion stand out, consider adding an attention grabbing image using MMS.
Competitions
SMS Competions are a great way to keep your audience engaged with your business and brand. And they are easy to coordinate and execute using Bulk SMS.
Before getting started with sending bulk SMS messages for your Halloween competition, give some careful consideration to what your customers would find an enticing prize. Also ensure you are familiar with any regulations regarding SMS competitions for your particular country.
In the US, Pizza Hut ran an SMS competition which included a first prize of free pizza once a month for a year. Other prizes included a large 2 litre Pepsi or a large pizza, which could be claimed by forwarding the competition details to 5 friends.
To enter, the keyword WIN PIZZA needed to be entered to the short code WHALE.
Pizza Hut received thousands of entries to the competition, which significantly exceeded their expectations.
Hot tip: utilise your website and/or social media channels to promote your competition. This can also result in new subscribers joining your text message Marketing list.
Customer loyalty campaigns:
According to business.com returning customers spend 67% more than new customers. And as a general rule of thumb, acquiring new customers is 5 times as expensive as retaining existing ones.
In addition to offering excellent customer service, keeping customers excited and engaged is a great strategy for customer retention.
And customer loyalty programs are one of the most effective ways of creating ongoing engagement.
Customer loyalty programs reward existing customers with special offers and discounts.
If your business already runs a points based loyalty program, why not offer customers double points rewards over the Halloween period?
If you don't have a rewards system in place, consider offering a simple discount for existing customers when they show their SMS in store. You could also run a loyalty campaign online by asking to enter details specified in an SMS.
With Halloween so close to Christmas, businesses might also benefit from running a Halloween campaign to boost Christmas sales. For example, you might send marketing messages that offer 30% off Christmas purchases for customers who spend over $100 at Halloween.
How to send your Halloween SMS marketing campaign
To start sending mass text messages, you'll need to choose an SMS provider. For tips on how to select a provider click here.
Secondly, you'll need a database of subscribers who have opted in to receive text message communications from your business.
Once you have chosen an SMS gateway provider and compiled a database of recipients, creating and sending Bulk SMS is easy. Using SMSGlobal's MXT platform, simply follow these instructions:
Firstly, login to your MXT account using your selected user name and password. On the drop down menu, choose Send Messages and specify whether you would like to send an SMS or an MMS.
From there, select the number you'd like your messages to appear from.
Once you have these settings in place, enter the content of your SMS message and send.
For more detailed information on how to send mass text messages using MXT, click here.
To learn more about SMSGlobal's SMS Gateway, MXT, or for more ideas on how you can benefit from our SMS Platform this Halloween please contact xxx
Our customer support team are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to assist you.