Christmas is around the corner and we all know that the festive season is the most competitive time of year and also the best time to boost your overall sales and customer loyalty. SMS marketing can be your best friend and your secret weapon in this holiday season. This is not a time to miss out on, being the season to be jolly with lots of happy over spenders. There are so many innovative ideas you can explore for the Christmas season and it only comes along once a year. Why let this pass you by?
Because we are always in a good mood this time of year, that’s why it is also the best time to strengthen your relationships with your clients to build a stronger and loyal following in the coming year.
It’s the time to give …..
Giving back to your customer is a great example of what you can do for them and for yourself as well. Make it fun and you can get some free advertising along the way too.
How?
- Sending personalised Christmas greetings.
- Create Customer appreciation videos or galleries that you can send a link to your customers. We all like to share a pic of ourselves.
- Creating a string of highly viral and amazingly impressive offers sent via SMS. This is the time to grow those lists.
- Launch a huge Christmas competition and use it to get new members. Make it a two winner competition and have the first winner announced a week before Christmas. Then send links to customers from your website of the first winner’s pics to inspire more sales the last week of Christmas. (Remember if you have a website festive it up a bit and have those Christmas goodies visible)
Messages are always well received by those happy Christmas shoppers because they want the best deals now and this way they don’t have to search for the offers, it comes to them.
A few ideas below for you
Retail
SMS marketing and retail go hand in hand as this type of marketing has best results of increasing sales and bringing awareness to your brand and product. So in saying this, there are endless ways you can and should take advantage of this marketing strategy.
This is the time of year your customers want to splash out and shop for gifts for everyone from work colleagues to their friendly grocery store owner around the corner. They are already willing to shop, ’tis the season. All you need to do now is to drive them to your outlet, draw attention to yourself and have them come flocking.
Send them a message to let them know about your big Christmas Sale and discounts. Keep them informed of everything from:
- Christmas Sales
- Availability of stocks
- Christmas Opening Hours
- Christmas Greetings
- Product discounts & Promotions
- The arrival of Santa and his elves!!!
Supermarkets
“What time is the supermarket closing again for Christmas?”
Have you heard this before? Supermarkets have a lot to benefit from SMS sending. This type of marketing is very popular and effective. In the Christmas season, supermarkets normally extend their opening hours and open up throughout the weekend instead of closing. What better way of informing your loyalty customers of your holiday opening hours by sending them a message informing them. It is perfect in this season because everyone is busy, everywhere is crowded and you have a million things on your mind. We all need that extra time and reminder.
Forgot the time? Just a quick glance at that SMS and they’re set.
- Price reductions
- Special Christmas offers
- Holiday greetings
- Christmas Coupons
- Announcement of the availability of speciality Christmas items
The list is endless when it comes to the type of information you can send with supermarkets.
Restaurants
Christmas Party season is here and we may not admit it but we all look forward to the event, the food, drinks and the new chosen venue for the year. Why not snag a few companies well by offering them discounts on food or drinks or a special discount if they book a Christmas party with you. This time of year is also when friends and family like to get together to celebrate the season and reunite. When there are so many choices for dining, it’s a good idea to keep your restaurant in the minds of your customers by sending holiday greetings, coupons or discount codes where they can get a discount by presenting the SMS with the code at the restaurant.
Have a gym?
Oh the dreaded holidays, always a time of over-eating. It’s important to keep your customers motivated at this time so they don’t go back to where they started. We all know it only takes a few days (which feels more like a few hours) of bad dieting to lose all that hard work. So inspire them. Sending them weekly motivational messages goes a long way. And talk about the points you gain in your customer’s eyes when they see it. Instant loyalty!
- Remind them of opening hours during the holidays so they know and this reminder may be all it takes for them to stay on the bandwagon and stay strong. Maybe creating special discounted membership rates in this period can be an extra motivation for them too.
- Offer or suggest gift vouchers for loved ones as well.
- There is also the option to bring a buddy for half the price on special days to work out with you, or even half price membership in the coming year if you bring a buddy.
The options here for you are endless. Take advantage. Think it up.
Plan ahead to optimize this time of year for your sales because now is the perfect time to start. These fun and festive marketing tips should definitely help you reach your goals next month.
But because it’s Christmas, the SMS marketing etiquette rules still apply, so don’t be naughty now…..The spirit of Christmas SMS is watching and you never know what next year will bring you.
MEWS is a full service web development Internet marketing company and technology integrator founded in 2003, by leading industry consultants with previous technology experience.MEWS is an Internet services and solutions company with interests in website development – Mobile applications– domain name registrations - web hosting.