Give Your “Back to School” Sales a Boost with SMS

Back to School spending was a $41 Billion spending event last year, and it was more than double that for Back to College sales. It while may seem too soon to think about “Back to School” shopping, many participants will begin their search in July. In fact, 68% of shoppers say they plan their school shopping to coincide with Independence Day, Prime day, and Labor Day sales. Make sure your store is prepared for this shift in consumer focus by leveraging SMS messaging to promote your sales, rewards, and new items. To get the most out of your Back to School texting campaign, focus on these key elements: timing, urgency, and personalization. 

A Time for Everything

During your Back to School sales planning, give great consideration to the dates of your sale. Are you going to piggyback off another large event such as Prime Day, or carve out dates that are important to your store in particular? Both have pros and cons but regardless of which you choose, be sure to plan for ample promotion time to ensure your audience knows about it well in advance. With open rates as high as 98%, SMS messaging is a great tool for guaranteeing your audience sees your message even when they’re away from their computer or on vacation. If you’ve leveraged business texting before, then analyze previous campaigns for any correlations between send time and engagement for your audience. If you haven’t sent an SMS campaign previously, then start with this list of top tips for the best send time.

A Sense of Urgency

We’re all hard-wired to pay attention to deadlines and time or supply limits – use this to your advantage in your promotions. Offer a mixture of flash and ongoing sales to encourage your audience to shop sooner. When leveraging an omnichannel campaign, lean on FOMO to promote exclusive sales or promotions. For example, you can email your audience announcing your 20% off sale and also remind them that SMS subscribers get an additional 10% off their total price. Now you’re urging them to not only shop your sale, but also to sign up for text messaging in which you can promote flash sales or other time-bound activities. Just be sure you’re not overwhelming them with your communication – you want to be consistent, not spammy.

This is Personal

By now, you know that customized messaging will prompt more engagement than generic messaging, but it’s not enough to just insert their name anymore. Consumers are looking for a completely tailored communications experience, which can be time consuming to create. But SMS messaging can make this more simple. With an SMS platform like Esendex, you can create different audience groups based on important commonalities such as age, buying preferences, or location. This allows you to personalize the message itself whether it’s to offer suggestions related to their previous purchase, call out age-appropriate sale items, or showcase geographic-specific items such as winter coats or sandals. Be sure to include links straight to your website for quick access to those preferred items. Gone are the days when a simple sale notification would suffice, now messaging must be more tailored – but today’s communication tools are built for precision. 

Back to School Boost

The Back to School season has a short window between two major holidays, Fourth of July and Labor Day, but that doesn’t mean you can’t capitalize on this million-dollar event. With many households tackling Back to School shopping as a family event, be sure to leverage SMS messaging to target each individual with a perfectly timed, personalized message this season. And if you need help pulling this off at scale, reach out to one of our experts today!