The Ultimate SMS Guide to Black Friday & Q4
It's officially September...and Q4 is coming. In 2018, Shopify merchants generated $1.5B in sales from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, which comes out to $870,000 in revenue per minute.
According to Shopify, email remains one of the most used channels during the holiday season, with average conversion rates around 4.38%.
However, with CTRs steadily decreasing year over year by as much as 2.25%, the 2019 holiday season is the time to try a new channel.
source: campaignmonitor.com
SMS is actually an easy new channel to implement before Q4. Even with just a few months left before Black Friday, we've distilled launching the channel down to a 4-8 week timeline.
Here's a quick 30 minute webinar on "How to Get 98% Open Rates on Black Friday (with SMS)," recorded with our friends from Shipbob.
After running through compliance, the most important launch step is to grow your list before you hit the holiday season. It's actually really easy. Just simply add an SMS keyword to your any email list or social media building tactics. Here's a quick rundown:
Add the Postscript pop-up - Add the full page or half page pop-up to all mobile visits. Site visitors can then opt in with a single click.
Facebook Lead Ads - Run Facebook lead ads to your followers to quickly grow your SMS list.
Social Media Contest - if you're running a contest on Instagram or Facebook, simply add a qualification to text "brandsmsentry" to your short phone number.
Leverage your influencers - Have influencers share a short link to opt-in to SMS communication. This link can have specific UTMs to include any tracking for your influencers' referrals
Add a call-out in your email newsletters & outreach
Collect opt-ins at checkout - add an SMS opt in to your check out. It's as simple as adding a checkbox and some SMS-specific privacy language.
Copy popular hashtags on social media and use them as opt-in keywords
Add a shout-out to opt-in on all your packaging
We'll be constantly updating our SMS content here. Please subscribe to our blog for more information and updates on our latest resources like Q4 prep ebooks, holiday SMS templates, and more.
