In 2022, holiday sales will top $1.26 trillion and of that, ecommerce is expected to earn $235.86 billion, according to Insider Intelligence. That represents a 15.5% increase from 2021. 

According to that same report, m-commerce (buying over mobile devices) will earn $116.98 billion, or 49.6% of total e-commerce sales in 2022.

Since a great deal of retail takes place online, it makes sense to add SMS marketing to your holiday season marketing strategy. Let’s look at how SMS marketing can drive more revenue this holiday season. 

6 Strategies for the 2022 Holiday Shopping Season with SMS

Here are six strategies to help you maximize your customer impact, ROI and profits this holiday shopping season: 

1. Start Early 

Pro tip: Plan early. You want time to perfect your messages, your SMS keywords, the timing of your campaigns and test everything from segmentation to messaging before crunch time. 

Remember also to do a review after each campaign so you can evaluate what worked well, what didn’t work and use that information to inform future campaigns.)

2. Ask Your Customers

Before you blast your customers with holly-jolly SMS messages, ask if they would like to be included in the holiday messaging. As you prepare for marketing, ask customers to specifically opt-in for seasonal marketing messages. 

Use campaign specific keywords that are easy to identify from generalopt-ins. For example, you could add WINTER as an opt-in keyword during the holiday season. Then make sure you segment your messages according to the seasonal opt-in. 

Keep in mind the holidays can be a tough time for some people, so adjust your strategy accordingly. Some may not want to receive too many reminders and others would love an opportunity to save with discounts or promo codes. Getting a pulse from your customers and giving them a choice to self select in or out of campaigns can build customer loyalty beyond the holiday season. 

It could be a bit more work to create two different marketing messages, one seasonal and one regular, but with a couple of tweaks, you can use the same promotions repurposed for different segments.  

3. Strive to be inclusive

Not everyone celebrates the same holidays, and successful campaigns that resonate during the holidays really hone in on the uplifting spirit of the season. Use segmentation to your advantage to provide a truly customized SMS experience for your customers. That way, you can acknowledge traditions and celebrations, and personalize your message to really resonate with your SMS subscribers.

Remember to include neutral messages during the holidays, for customers who opted out of seasonal-specific texts, but would still like to receive promotional messages. 

4. Create Gift Guides and Grab-and-Go Kits

Let’s face it: Every retailer will be creating a gift guide, so how can you stand out from the crowd? 

A Deloitte survey for back-to-school shopping determined customers were thrilled to buy pre-assembled school supply kits that they could grab and go. 

Extend that thinking and put together not only gift suggestions, but grab-and-go gifts that SMS customers can purchase right from a text message without being routed to a website. 

Think of the range of holiday options, and try to put one or two ideas together for each holiday. Small presents can work for a variety of different contexts during the gifting season. Forphysical retail locations, consider setting up a display with some of the grab-and-go gift ideas so that customers can get the experience no matter how they choose to shop. If appropriate, include printed QR codes for customers to opt into receiving SMS!

5. Host SpecialEvents (in Person and Online)

Everyone wants to feel like a VIP, and the holiday shopping season is the perfect time to treat your customers with special events, promotions or free shipping. Consider hosting a pre-Black Friday event, for instance, to give your SMS customers front-of-the-line access. 

Make sure to include any customers who opted out of seasonal messages. Who doesn’t like to get the sneak peek preview to a sale, even if they aren’t feeling the seasonal vibe!

6. Create Personalized Experiences

One advantage of SMS is the ability for customers to engage with brands. During seasonal shopping, people have lots of questions about the return policy, shipping costs, availability, size, color, fit and oodles of other inquiries. 

When people shop in person, they can ask the salesperson. Make the online shopping experience just as helpful and friendly by leveraging conversational commerce. 

With the right platform, SMS can provide both bot-based and live agent help. This can be an efficient way to help people quickly, lighten the load of customer service and offer real human interaction when needed. 

Plus, the right technology can enable handling multiple customer inquiries simultaneously, provide information on availability, shipping, tracking and order information, process orders right from SMS apps, and upsell or cross-sell products by making purchase suggestions based on what other customers also purchased. 

These platforms can also provide a nudge if a cart has been abandoned without checkout, loop in a human if a customer requests it, and provide end-to-end customer support no matter what time of day or night the customer is shopping – all via SMS. 

Final Thoughts

From back-to-school shopping to New Year’s Eve, the last half of the year presents a number of opportunities for creative marketing strategies. And with the popularity of ecommerce and m-commerce, using SMS to market makes good business sense. 

Plus, the 2022 holiday shopping season also offers a ton of opportunities for businesses to build customer SMS subscribers, gather information to personalize shopping experiences moving forward and to boost revenues.