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Email + SMS: Supercharging your BFCM strategy for maximum impact
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday on the horizon, how are you planning to reach your customers? With so many channels out there, narrowing down the most effective ways to connect can be tricky.
The good news? We’ve done our homework and found the answer for you. The best combo (drumroll, please) is SMS and email. We recently surveyed 500 people about their preferences and expectations for brand communication, and these two channels came out on top.
Here’s why these everyday communication staples are so popular – and how you can use them to smash BFCM this year.
Why SMS and email win
Our research showed a pretty clear trend – customers prefer to get business comms through email and SMS. In one example, 39% of respondents said they preferred email for promo messages, while 21% picked SMS. That’s a solid chunk of your customer base covered if you stick to those channels.
Businesses also prefer email and SMS – our results found that 92% use email to contact customers, while 73% use SMS.
Why are these our favourites? It comes down to three factors: comfort, convenience and timeliness.
Comfortable, familiar, well-used
Both email and SMS have been around for decades – which feels like an eternity in the digital world. Because they’re well-established, they’re familiar and comfortable for people. On top of that, the vast majority of people have an email address and mobile number, making them a great way to reach even the least tech-savvy members of your audience.
Another email/SMS benefit? They’re a familiar way to deliver brand communications. Entering your email and phone number at sign-up is standard these days, so most people expect to hear from your brand via these channels – you’re not intruding on a personal space.
Why mess with what works when it comes to Black Friday-Cyber Monday comms? You’re almost certainly using SMS and email to communicate with customers already, so lean into the power of these well-used channels and save your creativity for the campaign content.
Convenience and connection
Today’s customers have super-high expectations around service and communication. They want the shopping experience to be easy, seamless and stress-free – there’s little tolerance for missed messages or communication that comes through the wrong channel.
Email and SMS, particularly if they’re connected to your sales and shipping platforms, can help you meet those expectations. Use email to launch your sale and send personalised discount codes. Use SMS to send quick sales reminders or tell customers that a package has arrived.
Timeliness
It’s a fast-moving world out there, and customers expect brand communication to match. The speed of message delivery was a big factor for many survey respondents. And we do mean speed.
- 80% expect to see a welcome message from a brand within 24 hours of signup – 37% said they want to hear from you immediately
- 62% want a receipt from an online purchase within five minutes
- 61% expect a verification code in one minute or less
What’s the fastest way to send this type of time-sensitive message? SMS. Not only are SMS messages sent almost instantly, but most are read within five minutes. This means important messages – like verification codes or email reset links – are less likely to be overlooked in SMS.
During BFCM, it’s particularly important to be on top of instant comms. If a customer has to sit around and wait for a code or welcome message, they could end up clicking away and shopping elsewhere.
Take SMS for a spin
Email, SMS and BFCM
How can you leverage the convenience, familiarity and quick-fire nature of SMS and email during Black Friday-Cyber Monday? It’s about matching the message to the medium, being thoughtful about customer behaviour, and making sure it’s relevant.
Power up your promo
Our research found that 39% of customers like getting promotional content through email, while 21% prefer SMS. When you’re building your BFCM campaign, use both channels to cover most of your audience.
Email is a great option for longer-form messages, including graphics, video, product images and links to specific products or deals. In the lead-up to BFCM, use email to tease your upcoming sale, and if you can, include personalised recommendations based on previous purchases or segmentation data.
As a short-form channel, an SMS works well for a follow-up or reminder after an email. You might tease your sale through email, then send a reminder SMS with a link when BFCM rolls around.
TOP TIP: Our research found that customer dealbreakers include receiving irrelevant messages (25%) and ‘too many messages’ (26%) from brands, so dig down into your data before BFCM and make sure you’re sending the right messages to the right people.
Improve service with functional messaging
Talking to customers isn’t all about big, exciting promos – the small, functional messages are just as important to the overall customer experience. This type of messaging can include order confirmations, verification codes, log-in details and receipts after a sale.
SMS makes sense for many of these messages, although our research found that 42% of customers prefer email for order invoices or receipts – probably because they’re easier to find later on.
TOP TIP: You need permission from the customer before you can send BFCM messages through SMS – find out how to grow your messaging database here.
Focus and connect this BFCM
Black Friday and Cyber Monday can be high-pressure times for retailers. You’re rushing around, trying to iron out your sales strategy and campaign details, and channel choices can feel like another complicated option. Take a breath – if you’re already using SMS and email, you don’t need to look any further right now. Your bases are covered, and you have two surefire ways to connect with customers before and during this big sales push.
The other piece of the puzzle is integration. While SMS and email are useful on their own, they really power up when they connect with your CRM and martech platform (we can help you out there). If you can connect the dots between sales, deliveries, customer enquiries and communications, you can build a cohesive, positive experience for your customers at BFCM and beyond.
We’ve got some clever tools to help you close those messaging gaps – including an SMS-to-email gateway that lets you send and receive SMS messages through your email platform. If you want to go beyond email and SMS, we can also help with messaging apps RCS (Rich Communication Services) and MMS.
Whether you’re planning a complex BFCM campaign or looking for ways to jazz up your customer experience, Sinch MessageMedia can help.
