How to Use SMS for Seasonal Marketing Campaigns

Do you take advantage of seasonal marketing campaigns for your business?

SMS is a great tool to promote your products in special events and seasonal campaigns. SMS has an immediate nature and this is perfect for time-sensitive events because you can create a sense of urgency. This way, people are encouraged to make the purchasing decision in a limited-time campaign.

In this blog post, we’ll explain how you can use SMS for seasonal marketing campaigns. Also, we’ll introduce successful SMS ideas for your campaigns to help you get the best result.

14 Creative SMS Ideas for Seasonal Campaigns

Now, let’s get familiar with some great ideas for promotional SMS marketing at important events.

1. Exclusive Offers and Discounts

Seasonal offers and discounts are great methods to boost your sales at special events.  Look at the following example of a seasonal marketing campaign for a clothing store on Mother’s Day:

You can expect a great result if you include an enticing offer like a 20% discount and create a sense of urgency. Of course, sending this message to a laser-targeted audience is important.

2. Countdown Messages

Creating excitement is a great SMS idea for seasonal marketing campaigns. A creative way to do that is using a countdown.

This means you must let customers know they only have limited time to participate in a seasonal campaign.

Here is an example of countdown messages for Black Friday:

3. Themed Messages

Seasonal themes are popular and you need to take advantage of them. For example, if you have a clothing shop, you can send a message like the following and offer a discount for beach essentials:

4. SMS Contests and Giveaways

Using entertainment is another great SMS idea you can use in your seasonal marketing campaigns.

This way, you can encourage customers to interact with you and buy from you. Contests or giveaways are one form of entertainment that gives people a prize for winning a contest.

Events like Halloween are perfect for contests and giveaways. Take a look at the following sample SMS to see how it works:

5. Interactive SMS Campaigns

Another way to engage people is by using polls, quizzes, or simple text games. A great event like Christmas is perfect for using these seasonal marketing techniques. Here is a sample SMS to use them:

6. Seasonal Gift Guides

People usually buy gifts on important dates like Valentine’s Day. This is a great opportunity for you to reach out to them and grab their attention by offering them special gifts.

Try to help customers pick the perfect gift with a guide plus a discount or other perks like free shipping. Here is an example of a seasonal SMS campaign with a gift guide:

7. Flash Sales

Creating urgency with short-term deals and flash sales are great seasonal SMS marketing ideas. They will drive immediate action by customers because they think they might lose something if they don’t make the purchasing decision.

One of the best seasonal campaigns to use this method is Back-to-School flash sales. You have to encourage parents to buy school supplies for their students by sending text messages like:

8. Limited-Edition Products

Seasonal products are really popular among people. You can highlight products that are available only for a season in your SMS marketing campaign and encourage people to buy them from your business.

For example, you can send seasonal text messages for pumpkin spice candles in Autumn:

9. Early Access for VIPs

Loyalty programs are essential for businesses of all sizes and seasonal marketing campaigns are great for them.

You need to reward loyal customers in important events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc. A great SMS marketing idea in these situations is giving VIP customers early access to sales or products.

The following sample SMS shows how to do that:

10. Holiday Reminders

Sometimes you need to repeat your ads via SMS in your seasonal marketing campaigns. Sending helpful reminders to nudge last-minute shoppers is a great method to increase sales on special dates like Christmas.

Take a look at the sample text message below to see how it works:

11. Seasonal Subscriptions

Try to use seasonal offers to encourage people to subscribe to your SMS marketing list. Here is an example:

12. Re-Engagement Campaigns

Many customers decide to go for other brands for various reasons. A great method to win back inactive customers is seasonal SMS marketing offers.

Take a look at the following text message to see how to re-engage them:

13. Refer-a-Friend Discounts

It’s good to know that 92% of people prefer referrals from their friends and family to advertisements.

So try to boost your sales and find new customers by rewarding referrals during seasonal marketing campaigns.

You’d better offer discounts or other perks to both your current customer and the new customer who’s used the referral link. The following SMS template shows how to do that:

14. Seasonal Tips & Advice

ِYou don’t have to focus only on your sales. Try to appear like a niche thought leader by offering seasonal tips in your marketing campaigns.

If you offer valuable, seasonal tips to complement your products, your customers trust in you and will more likely engage with your campaigns.

Best Practices for Seasonal Text Message Marketing

Of course, knowing some ideas is essential in seasonal marketing campaigns, you can’t rely solely on them.

You need to build a strong strategy to outperform your competitors and reach a high ROI:

1. Use the Right Tool for Seasonal Marketing Campaigns

Without the right tool with advanced features, you can’t reach success in your SMS marketing campaigns.

You have to choose the tool depending on your requirements and resources. If you’re using a WordPress website and want to integrate your SMS campaigns with your online activities, WP SMS is your best choice.

It’s a WordPress SMS plugin that will be installed on your website’s dashboard and offers lots of SMS features at an affordable cost.

It supports more than 300 SMS gateways and offers a free plan for basic text message marketing activities.

It also offers premium features like:

If you want to try these features, you can use the demo version of WP SMS and make sure about its power.

2. Personalize Your Messages

People don’t like advertisements on their mobile phones. However, they like personalized offers by relevant businesses. Personalization can significantly improve the engagement rates of your seasonal SMS marketing campaigns.

You have to use your customer data from your website or other sources to send personalized messages. This way, the customer feels you’ve written the text specifically for her/him. 

3. Optimize Timing

Sending your messages at the right time will result in higher response rates. Avoid sending your messages early morning or late at night because your customer might get annoyed. It’s good to find the peak hour in your industry to send SMS and get maximum exposure. 

4. Include Clear Calls to Action

You need to use a clear call to action (CTA) like “Shop Now,” “Get Your Discount,” or “Join the Contest.” This helps you guide the recipient on what you want them to do next. The CTA should be compelling and time-sensitive to encourage customers to take immediate action.

5. Monitor and Analyze Results

You need to constantly track your performance and recognize your weaknesses and strengths. This way, you can optimize your seasonal marketing campaigns for the next event. Try to consider metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to refine your future SMS marketing efforts.

6. Get Feedback

Try to give your customers a say and constantly collect their opinions. Offer them discounts to participate in your surveys and give their opinions. This way, you can refine your campaigns to get higher satisfaction rates.

7. Integrate with other Channels

SMS is useful but it’s not enough. You need to create an omnichannel of various marketing methods like SMS, email, and social media to get the best result. Try to use a unique and constant style across all channels to make customers remember your business. 

8. Get Ready for Important Seasonal SMS Marketing Events

Last but not least, try to get ready for the most important events. This means you have to devise your SMS marketing plan long before the special date to be able to implement the plan correctly.

Here are some of the important events suitable for seasonal marketing campaigns:

Conclusion

Seasonal SMS campaigns are really effective in boosting your business. Of course, you can’t send some simple text messages and expect a great result. 

You need a strong marketing strategy and some creative ideas to attract customers. Besides, you need to use an advanced SMS marketing platform like WP SMS to simplify your marketing tasks. Using this tool, you can easily integrate SMS marketing into your website’s activities. 

Try the demo version of WP SMS and use automation, scheduling, integrations, and add-ons to see if it fits your business needs. You can also contact us if you have more questions.

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