Looking at your 2024 marketing strategy can feel like seeing a dirty pile of laundry twelve hours after you folded it all. What happened to 2023? 

January brings a wave of returns, gift card spenders, and people using retail therapy to battle those cold weather blues—all good reasons to think through your SMS calendar and ensure you are sending the right message at the right time. 

Stand out during the big holidays and surprise your list in celebration of some smaller ones this month. 

Happy New Year, by the way! Make your first impression of 2024 a good one with an engagement-focused New Year’s campaign. Whether it’s by sharing some of your brand’s big goals or prompting subscribers to list their own, resolutions are an easy way to build common ground with shoppers. Here’s a great example, courtesy of BComingU Fitness, who offered a helpful wellness checklist for healthier habits in the new year! 

Guinthers submitted some A+ copy that got a chuckle out of us and created urgency for snacky shoppers: 

Prime Massage Chairs dropped an eye-catching, retro GIF into a no-pressure sale reminder. We love how the promotion takes a back seat to the relationship in this text: 

Make a playlist. Send it to your list. Do it. Take the plunge. Throw a guilty pleasure song on there. Give it an oddly specific title so that subscribers can’t help but explore the tracks you included—especially if you’re able to tie that title into your brand or products. 

Sharing music is a simple content play that always strikes a chord with subscribers. Lonely Ghost stepped into the DJ booth with an all-time collection of hits ranging from artists like Jeff Buckley to Taylor Swift:  

Siblings had the brilliant notion of creating playlists for each of their candle scents. We’d purchase the whole line just for the multisensory experience: 

Jukebox sent a must-click text boasting they’d crafted the best playlist of the summer. See if you can build a Grammy-worthy winter one!

Trivia is an SMS automation playground, a chance to make a memorable campaign flow that rewards the most engaged members of your list. Lean into trivia day with a flow that delights participants with discounts, prizes, or the pride of being a know-it-all. Use your industry or product’s history as a starting place for trivia questions, and then have fun automating your response branches with playful twists and turns. 

OR you can just invite subscribers to an actual trivia night event like Fortune & Glory did (it helps when you’re a bar). Count us in for the next Brad Pitt trivia night: 

But hang on—Trivia Night isn’t limited to the pub. Kinley and Mal Boutique hosted a Mean Girls trivia livestream for shoppers. Very fetch. 

Topicals orchestrated a weeks-long trivia extravaganza and built suspense for a series of unexpected questions: 

Who can turn down a trivia challenge? Route One Apparel threw down the gauntlet with this excellent, jeopardy-themed message: 

Returns. Delightful. But let’s consider the silver lining(s) of buyer’s remorse. While some shoppers will return purchases they made from you, others will be looking for ways to spend their refund windfalls! Capitalize with a campaign that offers to fill a gift-shaped hole in subscribers’ holiday hauls. 

Additionally, clarifying your return policies and processes with a friendly text can be a strong way of fortifying trust and rapport with your list. Being upfront with your subscribers doubles as a way to point them toward store credit, exchanges, or other incentives that keep revenue in your pocket and customers feeling supported.

Winter can get dreary in a hurry, especially in climates where the outdoors is no longer hospitable. So bring the outdoors inside with a celebration of houseplants! Share a spontaneous plant-care tip with your list for the occasion or field photos of subscribers’ plant-filled living rooms to see who is the most plant-obsessed. There are plenty of jokes to be made about our collective struggle to keep those things alive. 

Again, you don’t need to sell fertilizer to create a worthwhile campaign. Look at how Pink Picasso Kits highlighted some of their plant-themed paint kits: 

The plant pros at Back to the Roots focused on educating customers with some horticultural content: 

We’ve said it before; we’ll say it once more. Pets are the common denominator that connect us all. You know how dogs make those eyes when the want something? It’s a powerful motivator, and Pawstruck put it to work in this text: 

Leo’s Paw ran a promotion benefitting stray cats, which is a wonderful idea for any brand:   

Pup Active saw a dog? Say no more. We’re clicking that link: 

This is the first big sale event of the year, but don’t let the spirit of the holiday get lost in translation. SMS is the channel to be human, and celebrating the life and work of Dr. King is as human as it gets! Be sure to properly honor this holiday’s namesake in your SMS campaigns, much like Naturalicious did by asking subscribers to reply with their biggest dream: 

Black Elder used MLK day as a moment to reflect on their business’s journey and express gratitude for their customers’s ongoing support of their dream: 

Even for the gluten-free and keto among us, few things sound more comforting than a toasted bagel. But are bagels really worth their own national day and an SMS campaign from your brand? Yes. Aren’t there more important things to be focusing on in January? No. Prioritize this above all else. Even health brands like Outer Aisle know that bagels mean opportunity, so they plugged their keto-certified alternative: 

Lonely Ghost (The Blog MVP) used bagels as literal bait to get customers out to their pop-up shop! If an apparel brand can leverage the power bagels, so can you. 

Hello, it’s the blog author here. Abusing his power to suggest a Middle Earth-themed text on this sacred day. Share a Lord of the Rings GIF (reach out; I have a whole folder) or a soul-stirring quote from the professor himself. I’ll admit, this isn’t for every brand. Just the coolest ones (shoutout Mythologie Candles)

Happy 2024! As always, we’re here for more inspiration whenever you need it. Check out our page of Fantastic Texts to see more of our favorites, and reach out to our team if we can help you strategize for 2024.