For many businesses, summer is a relatively slow period as regular customers take vacations and focus on enjoying the weather. However, strategic marketing campaigns can help spark customer engagement during this traditionally slow period.
One way to keep your sales up during this time is to use SMS marketing. Text message marketing is an efficient way to reach your customers directly on their smartphones, ensuring that they never miss an exciting sale or promotion.
Here’s why SMS messages are so effective for keeping customers engaged and how to craft campaigns that resonate with them.
What is SMS marketing?
SMS marketing campaigns use text messages to communicate with both prospective customers and existing ones. Businesses can use these short marketing messages to share information about upcoming promotions and events directly with customers.
You can also personalize SMS messages to engage with customers on an even deeper level. For example, you can use these messages to send personalized coupons based on their past shopping behavior.
One subset of SMS marketing is MMS marketing, which focuses on sending messages with photos, videos, and other multimedia. In some cases, adding multimedia to a marketing campaign can boost engagement even further.
To build an SMS marketing campaign, companies need to collect phone numbers from interested customers. Then, you’ll need to use a text marketing platform to build your campaign and send messages out en masse. Many SMS marketing platforms even have automation features, which allow you to pre-plan your messages.
Over the years, SMS marketing has proven to be very effective for brands across a wide range of industries. SMS messages have a whopping 98% open rate, which blows other marketing channels out of the water. In comparison, email marketing has an average open rate of about 40%.
Email marketing vs. SMS marketing: Which is the right solution?
Email marketing and SMS marketing are two popular strategies for businesses looking to communicate directly with customers. Both can be very effective, so you’ll need to consider your broader business goals when choosing between the two.
In general, SMS marketing tends to have higher open rates than email marketing. You’ll also be able to reach your customers faster, as most people check their text messages more frequently than they check their email. Over half of customers check their text messages 11 times a day or more.
However, email marketing may be more appropriate for larger, more complex campaigns. The longer format of an email is sometimes necessary when sharing a large volume of information.
Ultimately, bulk SMS campaigns tend to generate results faster than email marketing campaigns. However, both solutions can be an important part of your broader digital marketing strategy and can even work together to generate results. Coordinating your SMS and email marketing campaigns can help you maximize your reach and connect with the biggest audience possible.
Examples of SMS marketing messages during slower business seasons
There are so many ways to use SMS marketing to keep your customers engaged during slow periods. Here are examples to spark your creativity and inspire future marketing campaigns.
Promotional offers
Exciting promotional messages are one of the best ways to get your customers back to your store or website, regardless of the time of year. To really maximize engagement, focus on limited-time deals and flash sales that prompt recipients to take action right away.
Some examples of promotional SMS offers could include:
- 20% off purchases for Memorial Day weekend only
- One-day, in-store flash sale: 10% off all products
- Exclusive personalized discount codes for products your customers have interacted with online
Loyalty rewards
Loyalty programs are a very effective way to keep your existing customers coming back for more. In a loyalty program, customers earn points for their purchases, which they can later redeem for rewards.
You can use SMS marketing to keep your loyalty program members informed about new products and reward opportunities. This type of communication is a great way to show your SMS subscribers that they are a special, valued part of your business.
Some examples of loyalty rewards SMS promotions include:
- 15% off coupon for loyalty rewards members only
- Exclusive new product drop just for loyalty members
Urgency and last-minute deals
Creating a sense of urgency is a tried-and-true marketing technique to boost conversion rates. When promotions are only available for a very limited time, it encourages your customers to make a purchase right away rather than waiting for the perfect time.
SMS messages about last-minute deals and special offers feel very exciting. Some examples of urgent text message marketing include:
- “Only 24 hours left to make a purchase!”
- “Limited quantities available—buy before it’s too late!”
New arrival alerts
Offering new products is a very effective way to spice things up during a slow period. Sending SMS messages about these new arrivals gives your customers the chance to make a purchase as soon as the products hit the market.
This is particularly effective for products that are only available in limited quantities. If your new items frequently sell out, your customers will appreciate the notification. Include a short link to the online product page so they can make a purchase right away.
Some examples of new arrival alerts could include:
- “New styles dropping this weekend—be the first to buy!”
- “Check out hot new products on our website now.”
Event-based invitations
Hosting special events is another creative way to keep customers engaged during the summer, especially if your brand has a brick-and-mortar location. This is the perfect opportunity to get to know your customers in person and build community with them.
You can use text messages to invite your customers to your event directly, including a link to an RSVP page where you can get a head count. Examples of SMS event invitations include:
- “Join us in-store for exclusive deals, delicious local food, and live music on [date]. You won’t want to miss it!”
- “We’re hosting a summer bash, and we’d love to see you there! Enjoy limited-time deals and pop-ups from local businesses. RSVP now!”
Why SMS marketing is the right move during slow seasons
When sales are slow, you’ll need to shake up your marketing efforts to connect with your audience. Since prospective customers might be busy enjoying the nice weather, you’ll need to go above and beyond to keep them coming back.
Text messages are a particularly effective tool to connect with your audience during this time. Here are some of the proven benefits of SMS marketing during slow periods.
Quick communication with subscribers
One of the biggest advantages of SMS marketing is that you can reach your audience very quickly. Customers are likely to carry their mobile phones with them everywhere, even when they’re on vacation, making it easy for them to check their text messages throughout the summer.
Since text message communication is so immediate, it will keep your customers updated about your business developments in real time. Additionally, creating and sending text messages to your customer base is quick and easy. Most SMS tools have automation and scheduling features built in to speed up the process even further.
High visibility
SMS messages have a much higher open rate than email promotions or other marketing messages. This gives your business very high visibility among your target audience.
Today’s consumers are highly reliant on their smartphones. Since text messages show up directly on your customers’ phones, they’re very likely to see and open them quickly. This contrasts with email marketing messages, which often sit unopened in the recipient’s inbox for days or even weeks.
Cost efficiency
During the slow season, you need to be strategic with your marketing budget. SMS campaigns are a cost-effective way to drive traffic to your business. Their high open rates and click-through rates tend to translate to strong ROI.
Exact pricing for SMS marketing campaigns will vary depending on your provider and the size of the campaign you are running. However, these campaigns usually cost anywhere from $0.01 to $0.05 per message, with rates for international or multimedia campaigns ranging from $0.25 to $0.50 per message. These relatively low rates make it easy to get started without breaking the bank.
Easy integration
SMS marketing integrates seamlessly with other aspects of your marketing strategy. This means you can use it to enhance your existing campaigns for a complete, multifaceted marketing strategy.
For example, ecommerce businesses can integrate their SMS marketing directly with their ecommerce platform to send personalized messages. You can also use SMS links to send your audience directly to your social media pages for even more engagement.
Upsell and cross-sell opportunities
Text messages provide an excellent opportunity to upsell or cross-sell to your customers, potentially increasing the size of their orders. When customers show interest in a product on your website, you can use SMS marketing to suggest additional products or more expensive alternatives.
Upselling and cross-selling are key during slow periods. During this time, you may not be getting as many customers through your doors or on your website as you’re used to. However, you can use these sales techniques to increase the size of each order, which helps make up the difference. These text messages can function as part of your post-purchase engagement SMS marketing plan.
Which industries benefit most from SMS marketing campaigns?
SMS marketing is very versatile and can work well for organizations in a variety of industries. Here are some of the industries where SMS marketing is most effective, especially during slow periods.
Retail
Many retailers experience a slow season in the summer, as their target audience is focused on experiences and travel rather than purchasing new products. During this time, you can use SMS messages to promote new products and deals.
SMS marketing is particularly effective for retail brands because many consumers already use their mobile phones to shop. Sending text messages with deals and product recommendations streamlines the process so your customers can make a purchase in just a few clicks.
Retail organizations are also more likely to launch flash sales and other time-sensitive promotions than companies in other industries. Since SMS marketing is so fast and efficient, it’s the perfect fit for retail brands launching these deals.
Hospitality
SMS marketing is also a valuable tool for the hospitality industry, which consists of restaurants, hotels, event venues, theme parks, and more. Sending text messages about new menu items, amenities, and promotions is a fun way to get your customers’ attention and inspire them to visit your business.
The slow season in the hospitality industry happens at a different time of year. Many hospitality businesses thrive during the summer due to higher volumes of tourism but slow down in the colder winter months. In this case, seasonal text message promotions centered around the holidays can inspire people to go out to eat, drink, or see a show.
If your business relies heavily on tourism, you may want to invest in an international text marketing campaign. Although it does come with a higher upfront cost, this could help you engage with past customers who don’t live in your area and inspire them to plan a vacation.
Media and entertainment
Media and entertainment companies face high levels of competition in today’s market. With so many new movies, TV shows, books, and musical albums released each week, it’s tough to stand out. This can be particularly tricky during the summer, when people are spending more time outside and less time relaxing with new entertainment releases.
SMS marketing can help you promote new entertainment and media releases to your target audience. For example, streaming services can use text messages to recommend new movies and TV shows to subscribers based on the shows they’ve watched previously.
Insurance
Many insurance agents find that text messages are an effective way to communicate with leads and customers. When communicating with leads, you can send text messages to schedule meetings and learn more about their insurance needs. For existing customers, you can send renewal information and even promotional materials encouraging them to renew their policies.
Spring and summer can be slow for the insurance industry, as many customers have yearly policies that don’t renew during this time. However, there are still many opportunities to reach consumers who don’t currently have insurance, or upsell your current customers with better value.
Consumer packaged goods (CPG)
Consumer packaged goods companies don’t struggle as much with slow periods as companies in other industries. This is because CPG products tend to be essentials that consumers purchase very frequently—such as groceries, cleaning products, and cosmetics.
However, you can still use SMS messages to promote your CPG products. Sending coupons, new product promotions, and other incentives to your audience helps keep your product top of mind so your customers remember to pick it up on their next trip to the store.
Education
Summer is a naturally slow period for the education industry, as many schools are out of session. However, there are still so many opportunities to promote educational products during this time.
For schools, SMS marketing is an efficient way to reach students during a time when they might not be checking their email frequently. You can use text messages to promote new classes and extracurricular activities.
If your brand makes educational products, summer is the perfect time to promote them to teachers and administrators. During this season, educators are preparing for the upcoming school year and weighing potential product options.
How can you know if an SMS marketing campaign is right for your business?
Using SMS for business can be a very effective marketing tool, but it won’t necessarily work for every company or every campaign. Here’s what to keep in mind when planning an SMS marketing campaign to see if it’s the right fit for your business.
Assess your audience’s communication preferences
Some demographics are more likely to engage with text message marketing than others. Before launching your first campaign, take the time to learn more about how your audience likes to communicate.
One way to do this is by conducting a brief online survey of your customers where they can share their preferred communication formats. This will give you an idea of whether they enjoy SMS messages or not, as well as the type of content they like to receive via text message.
When creating your SMS marketing list, give consumers the ability to opt in, rather than just sending messages without their permission. You should also give customers an easy way to unsubscribe. By getting permission from your customers, each message feels like a benefit to your customers, rather than a hindrance.
Review past engagement data
Looking at past marketing data can give you an idea of how your customers might respond to SMS marketing campaigns. In particular, look at your email and social media campaigns to see what has resulted in the highest open rates and generated the best ROI.
If your customers tend to respond better to long, detailed campaigns, it could be difficult to replicate this in a short text message. However, if your audience is drawn in more by concise, punchy copy and exciting deals, SMS marketing is an ideal way to convey this information to them.
Assess your marketing goals
Another factor to consider here is your marketing goals. Think about what you hope to achieve with your marketing campaigns and whether SMS marketing is a realistic way to do so.
SMS marketing is a helpful tool for achieving many different types of marketing goals. However, your campaigns should be built with your specific goals in mind. You may also need to integrate your SMS campaigns with your other marketing assets to achieve success.
If one of your biggest goals is to boost customer loyalty and get previous customers to return, SMS marketing is a great fit. On the other hand, if your goal is to increase general brand awareness, you may need to coordinate your SMS marketing campaign with online ads and social media marketing for broader reach.
Consider the budget and resources you have
As with any marketing campaign, your SMS messages will be constrained by your available budget and resources. Your budget will determine how much you can spend on each campaign. Luckily, SMS marketing tends to be very cost-effective. However, if you have a very large customer base, it could still require a high level of investment upfront to launch your campaigns.
You’ll also need to consider how much time and effort you can put toward your SMS marketing. If you have a small team, you may not have the time to put together a complex sequence of text messages. This doesn’t necessarily mean that SMS wouldn’t work for you, but it might mean you have to focus on specific types of promotions and do more with less.
Factors that influence the best time to implement an SMS marketing strategy
Timing is everything when launching an SMS marketing strategy. Since consumers receive so many messages and promotions every day, you’ll need to time your marketing campaign perfectly to attract their attention.
The right timing for these campaigns will look different for every business. Here are some factors that might influence campaign timing for your business. Keeping these factors in mind can help you build a schedule that works for both your marketing team and your customers.
Customer behavior
Of course, consumer behavior should be the first consideration when putting together an SMS marketing strategy. Understanding when consumers like to interact with their phones and make purchases can help you connect with them at the perfect time.
First, you’ll need to learn when your audience is most likely to check their phones during the day. This could require some trial and error and will vary depending on the age, gender, and location of your target audience.
However, the best times to send text messages are generally between noon and 2 p.m. or between 6 and 8 p.m. on workdays. This way, you catch your audience on their lunch break or when they’re relaxing just after work, not when they’re busy or sleeping. Keep your eye on your analytics to determine which times generate more engagement for your brand.
Once you’ve figured out the most effective times of day to send your SMS messages, the next step is to consider the customer journey. Think about where text messages could fit in your purchase cycles.
For example, the CPG and retail industries often have very short sales cycles that align with certain times of the year or even times of the week. You can align your text messages with these key times to maximize engagement. An industry like insurance has a much longer sales cycle, but you can still time your campaigns to align with policy renewals and other key buying times.
Trending or seasonal social media themes
Social media often dictates the top trends among the general public. One way to draw in more engagement is to build your SMS campaign around popular social media trends or other seasonal concepts. This works particularly well in retail, entertainment, and other industries that are heavily trend-led to begin with.
One simple way to do this is to structure your SMS campaigns around upcoming holidays or major events. For example, you might launch themed campaigns for the 4th of July, or take advantage of hype around the upcoming Olympics and other sporting events. This could look something like this:
Let fireworks spark your style this 4th of July! Enjoy 30% off dresses, tops, and accessories this holiday weekend only.
To make your SMS campaigns even more engaging, you can also pull from current memes or trends on social media. For example, one trend that was very popular on social media in early 2024 was the “of course” trend, where different groups of people shared funny or interesting stereotypes about their identity. This trend translates easily into an SMS campaign:
“We’re a premium clothing brand—of course we’re going to have deals for summer! Enjoy 25% sitewide for the next 48 hours.”
In order for this to work, you’ll need to choose trends that are fairly widespread. If you opt for something too niche, you run the risk of your audience not getting the joke. You’ll also need to send your text messages at the height of the trend, before your audience moves on and the message feels tired. Social media trends change constantly, so you’ll need to move quickly to take advantage.
Competitive landscape
When timing your brand’s SMS campaigns, you’ll need to keep an eye on your direct competitors. Ideally, you’ll want to avoid running big marketing campaigns at the same time as your competitors, as this could be very overwhelming for your audience and make it difficult to stand out.
Of course, sometimes you won’t be able to avoid running a campaign at the same time as a competitor. When this happens, focus on your unique value proposition in your text messages so your customers know exactly what makes your brand special. This could be high-quality materials, competitive pricing models, or unique features.
Best practices for slow-season SMS marketing campaigns
When planning your text message campaign, you’ll want to keep SMS marketing best practices in mind. Here’s how to build SMS marketing campaigns that drive results during your slow season.
Optimize message timing
Use the customer data you have at your disposal to send your messages at the right time for your audience. By timing your messages effectively, you can maximize engagement and turn messages into purchases. You’re also more likely to reach your audience at a time that works for them, rather than while they’re busy or sleeping.
Personalize the text messages
Personalizing text messages with the recipient’s name is an excellent way to boost engagement. This small touch shows that you value your customers, and it also helps build trust with them. In many cases, customers will be more comfortable opening and responding to a personalized text message. Research has found that 83% of consumers prefer to receive hyper-personalized marketing messages.
Today’s automation technology has made it easy to create and send personalized text messages to your subscriber list without much effort. To make things even more personal, you can segment your text messages based on customer behavior.
For example, you can create one campaign for prospective customers who haven’t shopped with you before and another campaign for existing customers. With this approach, you can better address the customer based on where they are in the sales cycle.
Finally, you can add branded links and even custom multimedia to each text message. These details give each message a little more flair and personality.
Maintain compliance
When sending SMS messages to customers, it’s important to be aware of general consumer privacy regulations as well as any industry-specific compliance. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act in the United States requires businesses to get written consent from customers before sending text messages. It also requires you to provide an easy way for your subscribers to opt out at any time.
Monitor and adjust using analytics
Your SMS marketing ideas will require some fine-tuning over time. Monitor the performance of your campaigns using Bitly Analytics and other relevant tracking tools.
Analytics tools can help you calculate key metrics like open rates and even ROI for each message. They can also help you identify the best days and times to send messages, and even compare different types of campaigns to see what strategy works best. With time, this data will help you improve your text messages and make them more effective.
Leverage your seasonal themes
Don’t be afraid to get creative when writing your text message campaigns. Draw in relevant seasonal themes to make each text message feel current and relevant. For example, if you’re focusing on summer holidays, make sure your messages reference them directly to keep things cohesive.
How Bitly can play a major role in SMS marketing success
Bitly’s comprehensive platform can help you connect your SMS messages with the rest of your marketing strategy. Here’s how Bitly can help you find SMS marketing success.
Valuable short link tracking
One of Bitly’s fantastic features is that you can use the URL shortener for SMS links. This tool helps you create short links that fit neatly into a text message. You can also use Bitly to customize your mobile links so they match your website’s domain and look professional, as well as create links in bulk for multiple campaigns.
In addition to creating short links, Bitly can also help you track them. You’ll be able to see when users tap on your links, what device they’re using, and where they’re located.
Interactive QR Codes
Bitly Codes can also play a role in your SMS marketing campaign. You can place a scannable QR Code in your brick-and-mortar locations that lead to online SMS opt-ins to drive sales. You can also send QR Codes directly in text messages, which makes it easy for recipients to share your content with their friends.
QR Codes are fully customizable and you can configure them to send customers to a wide range of digital assets. You can use QR Codes to direct to custom landing pages for specific products, events, or promotions.
Better customer engagement data and analytics
With Bitly Analytics, it’s easy to track the performance of your SMS campaign after you launch. You’ll be able to see engagement levels for all of your SMS links, QR Codes, and landing pages.
This will give you access to a huge volume of valuable customer information. You’ll learn more about where your audience is located, what types of devices they use, and when they like to engage with your content. You can also test out different types of SMS content and see which options drive the most engagement.
Integration with other tools
Marketers will find a wide variety of integration options on the Bitly Apps and Integrations Marketplace, including integrations with CRMs like Twilio and Salesforce as well as other popular marketing tools. These integration tools drive successful SMS campaigns and can help make your entire marketing strategy run a little more seamlessly.
Keep your SMS customers coming back for more with Bitly
SMS marketing helps you reach your audience directly on their smartphones, making for efficient communication. This marketing strategy can help you keep your customers engaged, even during the slowest times of the year.
Bitly can help your business create a deeper connection with customers through customized SMS campaigns. With Bitly, you can create custom short links, QR Codes, and landing pages that integrate seamlessly into your text message marketing.
Sign up free today and start leveraging Bitly for more powerful, data-driven SMS campaigns—even during your slow season!
