Mother’s Day is a special day when we honour and celebrate the incredible impact that mothers have on our lives. It’s a day that people look forward to, whether they are mothers themselves or simply want to express their gratitude to the mother – and mother figures in their lives. As a marketer, it’s also an opportunity to reach out to customers to show that you care about their relationship with your business.
One effective way to do this is through SMS marketing, which allows you to reach out to your customers directly through their mobile phones. Here are some Mother’s Day marketing ideas to help give your campaign a boost.
Why SMS marketing campaigns work
SMS marketing is still very much underused. Some marketers find themselves avoiding text marketing – mainly because they are not sure that it works. Trust us, it is the quickest and easiest way to reach people. With an open rate of 98% and a read rate of minutes, you overlook it at your peril!
Because SMS marketing campaigns are underutilised, customers are not being bombarded with marketing materials from hundreds of brands. Did you know that the average person can receive over 120 emails per day? And of these many emails are filtered to spam or deleted without even being read. A large proportion of people only look at their emails once a day whereas it’s estimated that an average response time for SMS is just 90 seconds.
If you are new to SMS marketing, why not kick-start your spring promotions with a Mother’s Day campaign? Read on to discover our top 7 top tips for the perfect campaign:
1. Build your database
Your campaign is only going to be as good as your reach, so make sure that you have plenty of valid subscribers to showcase your great deals and offers to.
SMS marketing is permission-based, so your subscribers need to opt-in to receive marketing communication from you. This means that your leads are quality leads and conversions are more likely. You will also benefit from a great ROI as you will only be targeting customers who have already shown an interest in your brand.
Check our article on how to grow your database for more tips and ideas to help you to get started.
2. Create a Mother’s Day promotion
The first step in using SMS marketing for Mother’s Day is to create a special promotion that will encourage your customers to make a purchase. This could be a discount, a buy-one-get-one-free offer, or a free gift with purchase. Whatever the promotion is, ensure that it’s something that your customers will find appropriate for this special day.
If your brand doesn’t offer any products relating to Mother’s day, you can still take advantage of the holiday by observing it and wishing your subscribers a Happy Mother’s Day.
3. Segment your audience
Before sending out your Mother’s Day promotion, you should segment your audience based on their interests, past purchases, and behaviour. For example, you could create a group of customers who have purchased Mother’s Day gifts in the past or who have shown an interest in similar promotions. This will allow you to send targeted messages to your most engaged customers and increase your chance of conversion.
SMS marketing allows you to share comms that is fine-tuned and targeted to avoid wasted effort and unnecessary cost.
4. Not everyone wants to celebrate Mother’s Day
It is important to remember that Mother’s Day can be an emotive occasion for some. It can bring about painful memories or spark grief. This doesn’t mean that you can’t reach out to all of your subscribers.
Before you begin your segmentation process, send a heartfelt text message out to all of your followers to let them know that you have a Mother’s Day promotion coming up and you completely understand that the content may be unwelcome for some. Offer subscribers a chance to opt-out of the upcoming promotion. With SMS campaigns you can easily remove those people from your list with segmentation whilst retaining them as a subscriber for future promotions.
5. Create a Mother’s Day SMS marketing schedule
To avoid overwhelming your customers, you should schedule your messages in advance and space them out over several days. This will give your customers time to consider your promotion and make a purchase, without feeling pressured or bombarded with messages.
A schedule will prevent your Mother’s Day campaign from feeling like spam.
6. Start early
Do aim to start your Mother’s Day campaign early to attract more consumers. Some of your customers will be looking for inspiration as early as February and others will be very last minute. Ensure that as well as catching those early birds, you have last-minute promotions to scoop up the late-comers as well.
7. Create Mother’s Day gift guides for the perfect gift ideas
It may be hard to know what to get for the special lady in your life. Mother’s Day gifts are not ordinary gifts, they are special gifts to thank Mum for her unconditional love and support. Think about getting your campaign started with a Mother’s Day gift guide to help to steer those who are struggling. As disposable income levels this year are lower than before, you could also structure your gift guide with budgets to suit all. Send your guide out via text message and add a link straight to your guide. After the initial communication, send reminders, including images from your guide over the course of the next few days.
Not all retailers sell suitable Mother’s Day gifts but any business can create a curated gift guide that uses cross-promotion to other brands. In this way, the guide can prompt conversations with your subscribers and help you to build customer relationships.
8. Host Mother’s Day sales
Whatever you are selling, any special event is a good excuse to have a sale. Statistics show that 77% of consumers opt-in to receive coupons or to hear about deals and sales and that 66% said they had redeemed a special offer via text within 7 days of receiving it!
9. Follow up with a thank-you message
After Mother’s Day, follow up with a thank-you message to all customers who made a purchase. This is a great opportunity to show your appreciation and build a stronger connection with your customers.
Use two-way SMS and take the opportunity to find out more about your customers to add value to your database for future marketing campaigns. For example:
Thank you for your purchase this Mother’s Day! Let us know how you celebrated for your chance to win a £50 voucher to spend with us!
Consider using keywords to gather information for your database such as “kids”, “weekend break”, and “dog”. This information can be added to your database and help you to target your marketing more specifically in the future.
It’s clear that SMS can be a powerful marketing tool. By creating a compelling promotion, segmenting your audience, keeping your message short and sweet, scheduling your messages in advance, and following up with a thank-you message, you can create a successful SMS marketing campaign that resonates with your customers and drives sales.For more SMS marketing tips, support, and 20 free credits, get in touch with TextAnywhere today and sign up for your free trial.