Every year, we receive numerous advertisements for Black Friday: e-mails, social media posts, and even snail mail advertisements. But should you use SMS marketing to promote Black Friday for your business? Is SMS an effective solution? At RingRing, Black Friday is an important period when a lot of our customers send a huge amount of SMS. That’s why we decided to analyse the results of SMS sent by our customers and help you to improve your Black Friday marketing strategy.
What is this famous « Black Friday »?
As most of you probably know by now, Black Friday is a commercial event coming from the United States. It takes place on the 4th Friday of November, the day after Thanksgiving. During this event, most stores in the United States give massive discounts on their products. This period traditionally launches the Christmas shopping season. Even if this tradition began in the US, Black Friday expands all over the world and is a huge success every single year.
Simultaneously, online shops created their version of the event called Cyber Monday. To sum up, Black Friday is today considered a global event that lasts from the day after Thanksgiving until Cyber Monday, so four days of online and offline discounts.
A record amount of SMS sent on Black Friday
Among other products, RingRing offers SMS solutions to its customers. We decided to analyse our data on the Black Friday period to see if our customers used SMS to inform customers about their offers on Black Friday. For several consecutive years, the record of SMS sent on this day has been exploding. We saw a record of the amount of SMS sent in one day by our customers on Black Friday itself. Indeed, at RingRing, we have doubled the number of SMS sent between 2020 and 2021!
Why I can’t miss this opportunity to launch an SMS marketing campaign
Black Friday is, along with Cyber Monday, one of the most important marketing events of the year. Indeed, Black Friday which will take place on November 25th this year is an ephemeral commercial event not to be missed. It is ideally placed, far from any other sales period. With the holidays approaching, it gives consumers an extra reason to buy. There is also a certain urgency as buyers only have 24 hours to take advantage of the promotions.
In addition, with an opening rate approaching 98%, you can be sure that your SMS will be read. With SMS marketing, you stand out from your competition on a day when all your customers will receive a large number of solicitations. Finally, according to Adobe, 42% of all online shopping is done from smartphones (up 55%), and $28B more than last year will be spent on smartphones.
With so much sales potential concentrated in a short period of time, you have to communicate quickly and well. To trigger purchase behaviour among consumers via the right communication channel, Black Friday is typically the kind of event where an SMS marketing campaign can make a difference.
Which day should I launch my Black Friday campaign?
After a more precise analysis of our data, we could find out optimal sending days & times and speculate on the customer’s strategies. It can sound very logical but the « primary sending day » is on Black Friday itself. On that day, we saw an increase of 107% in sent SMS compared to an average Friday. In second place comes Thanksgiving with an increase of 45% compared to an average Thursday. This probably means that our customers are sending their deals out a day early to prepare customers.
During the weekend, our customers continued sending out SMS: an increase of 75% on Saturday and 28% on Sunday compared to their respective averages. This leads us to think that our customers have extended Black Friday until Cyber Monday and that they have sent reminders to their customers. Cyber Monday on its part has an increase in the rate of SMS sent by 85% compared to a classic Monday. So don’t deny Cyber Monday!
What time to send out my Black Friday SMS campaign?
As every good marketeer, you should know that the time and day of sending are decisive for a successful campaign. Talking about precise timing, our customers seem to have preferred 3-time slots to send out their communications: 8.00 am, 10.00 am and 8.00 pm. We also analyzed that the beginning of the afternoon (from 1.00 pm until 3.00 pm) is a popular sending time.
Of course, these times are not the only ones that work. A successful campaign is above all a targeted campaign. You need to know your audience at your fingertips in order to offer them the right SMS at the right time. These data can help for a general Black Friday campaign, but it can also be really interesting to dive deeper into your personal data depending on the sector of your business.
SMS: an ideal tool for retailers & e-commerce
Given the return on investment of Black Friday, most retailers or e-commerce platforms take advantage of this very special day to communicate. On the side of our customers, most companies organize SMS marketing campaigns during this period. All types of industries have used SMS to promote their products and services: clothing stores, grocery stores, car dealerships and many more. What are you waiting for to set up a powerful marketing strategy via SMS?
Finally, convinced to use SMS to promote your Black Friday?
If you’re still doubting about using SMS to promote your Black Friday, don’t hesitate to call our experts. They are specialized in SMS campaigns, Voice automatisation and many more digital tools. Contact us to discuss which is the most adapted tool for your business. Ask for a trial and send some free SMS to test our platform instantly!
