5 Creative SMS Marketing Strategies for Back to School Season
As summer winds down, children, teenagers, and young adults are preparing to head back to school. This means it is prime time for promoting seasonal deals. SMS marketing is an effective way to connect with your customers and promote your back to school sales. Many popular chains are jumping onto the trend, including Macys, Kohls, Nordstrom, and Abercrombie and Fitch, according to Digiday. There’s still time to get started with your own text marketing strategy for back to school season.
Piggyback on Back to School Promotions
When it comes time to roll out your back to school promos, add a keyword to text.
Most retailers offer back to school specials for a variety of goods, including school supplies, clothing, dorm room accessories, shoes, and more. Therefore, you may already have a promotional campaign in place for back to school. It is easy to piggyback on these marketing efforts to include your SMS marketing program by adding a keyword and short code to your other advertising campaigns. A unique and attention-grabbing keyword and a reward for opting into your mobile program can help you broaden your reach with potential customers.
Special Offers
SMS marketing is the perfect avenue for sharing special offers, such as back to school sales and coupons. Text message marketing has a higher open rate and redemption rate than other marketing channels. People always carry their cell phones with them, and it is easy for potential customers to redeem coupons they received via text. They do not have to print out anything or remember to bring something they received in the mail. If you do not have specific sales for back to school, then consider offering a percentage off their purchase if they text a keyword to your short or long code. Offering an easy to redeem discount in exchange for an opt-in to your mobile program is a great way to build your list.
Hold Contests
People love contests, especially if they have the opportunity to win free items. Therefore, you may want to consider creating a text to win contest as part of your back to school SMS marketing campaign. The grand prize does not need to be extensive, although it needs to be worth enough to attract the attention of your customers. This could include a gift card to your store or a free product. You can extend the impact of the contest and increase participation by offering a coupon for every entry.
Target to the Right Audience
There are many different audiences to target with your back to school specials. You have parents who need to buy clothing and supplies for their children, teenagers heading to high school that may do their own shopping with income from their allowance or after school jobs, and college students that not only need supplies but also stuff for their dorm rooms. To make the most of on your campaign, you should develop targeted campaigns for each group.
Target college students or teenagers rather than just parents.
For example, Macy’s recognized that they have a significant number of customers who are college-aged, so they are offering a $500 gift card texting promotion for college students going off to school. Although anyone could technically use the gift card, their promotion targets college students by using the keyword DORM, according to Mobile Commerce Daily. This attracts the attention of one of their major demographics, helping to increase not just their subscribers but also their customers. You can do the same, whether you target college students, teenagers, or parents.
Encourage Sharing with Friends
You can also create a refer a friend campaign related to back to school. A special text message promotion could encourage your subscribers to forward a text coupon to a friend for the chance to receive extra savings or another reward. Many teenagers and young adults love to text with their friends and show off the great purchases they have bought in anticipation of school starting. You can capitalize on both practices by encouraging them to show off their latest purchase and share with friends via text.
Reward customers that text your coupons to their friends.
SMS marketing is a great way to attract the attention of back to school buyers. Almost everyone has a cell phone that is SMS capable, and teenagers and young adults are the most common text users. If you are ready to see how text messaging can help your business, try Group Texting for free.
Categories: Text Message Marketing Tips