3 Ways to Use Text Marketing for Your Holiday Campaign

The holidays can be hectic, but it may be the best time to lay down marketing dollars for many businesses. A thoughtful campaign can relieve holiday stress for your customers (and potential customers) and could well become a big benefit to you. Here are three ways to use text marketing in your holiday campaign this year. 

1. Offer Exclusive Coupons for SMS Subscribers

The holidays offer a great opportunity to increase your text marketing subscriber list. If you haven’t delved into SMS marketing yet, it is a prime time to do so. No matter your industry, if you have a physical space where you interact with people, consider advertising your short code and keyword in that space, along with your offer. Your offer may look something like, “Join our texting list to receive exclusive discounts this holiday season.” Seeing  this call-to-action in person, while interacting with your brand, increases the likelihood that people will join on the spot. However, if your business is heavily focused online, you can use your social media and email marketing to promote SMS subscriber list incentives. And the more opt-ins you can snag during the short busy season, the more you'll increase engagement in the long term.

2. Create a Loyalty Program

Once you have new opt-ins, send your list a welcome message and include a new subscriber coupon as a sign of gratitude. To further generate loyalty, introduce a holiday rewards program. You can get creative with how you structure your program, as long as you give buyers a chance to accumulate points, equivalent to their spending dollars, to receive rewards at the end of the season (which may consist of more coupons, discounts, free goodies, etc.). Customers may also appreciate text alerts and reminders when stock is either low or replenished for items or services they frequently purchase.

3. Send Happy Texts

It’s frowned upon to be a Scrooge or an excessively strong marketer during this time of the year. Even if you are tempted to solely push for sales through texts, don’t. People generally like to interact with people, so let your subscribers know that you value them. Establish a relationship with subscribers, and develop brand awareness, by sending the occasional friendly greeting via SMS, and wish them warm holiday wishes throughout the season. Also remember to not assume what holiday your subscriber celebrates, keep it in general terms.

And once you make it through the holiday season it's time to start thinking about extending these strategies into the new year in order to retain your buyers and keep them engaged with your brand.