Seven Tips to Ignite Your Mobile Marketing This Holiday

To some, the holiday season is truly the most special time of the year. To others, it’s a big holly-jolly headache, with stress, costs and huge to-do lists.

Short of pretending to be a bear and hibernating until spring, all you can do is try to realize that everyone is trying their hardest to just make it though, but still trying to have fun doing it.

Businesses are certainly eager to have customers heading their way, since cash register bells are one of the most joyful sounds in December. So it’s important to not just lure them in with all the other shiny distractions, but also make life a little brighter for them, starting with special sales or extra services, like gift wrapping.

Extra mobile marketing efforts can do both.

1. Offer regular texts about super sales. Normally, the advice is to “go easy on the texts.” But since customers are already interested in deals and have opted in to receive sms from you, increase the amount you send them. You still may not want to text daily, unless it’s part of a season-long promotion, but at least you can push messages out a few times a week.

2. Create special opportunities. Just like retailers have ‘seasonal’ sections, you can create a new part of your mobile site all about things to do for the holidays – it can include community activities, tips on getting things done and deals. Tell everyone about it through email, social media and texts.

3. Give them a break. Since everyone, including you, is sending messages about deals, offer them alternatives. If you’re a retailer, try an “adult night,” where grown-ups can come, eat appetizers, have wine and shop. Or “Help night” where you can get advice on picking out right gifts for your main squeeze. Restaurants can also offer the opportunity to text in a reservation or a take-out order.

4. Try proximity marketing. Retailers can now “sense” when a customer is nearby. If you have the right software, you can detect when a customer is in Wi-Fi range, and then automatically send out an invitation to their phones and a deal to come inside. The customer may like that personal invitation and opportunity to save. Macy’s and other retailers have been using this system well.

5. Create a common hashtag. Not all of your customers follow you on every platform, but many follow you on some. A holiday hashtag just for your business can be used on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat or others. You can even tie it into a contest, and offer one entry for every time it’s used on any platform.

6. Create an app. This is a big investment, and shouldn’t be used for short-term. But customers do like having all the information about their favorite business all in one place, and according to SmallBusiness Trends, more and more customers also feel more comfortable with an app vs. a mobile site. The real trick will be keeping is dynamic after the holidays.

7. Learn their interests, and target them with certain products. You can invite customers to fill out profiles about what they’re especially interested in, and put it in your customer database. Then you can send them emails and texts related to this interest. Ideally, Entrepreneur said this step should be done as early as October for a more thorough campaign. But you also can start gathering the data for Christmas 2016!

If you offer people savings and convenience through your mobile marketing this time of year, you’re already on their good list.

Author Biography

Sophorn Chhay

Sophorn is an inbound marketer specializing in attracting targeted visitors and generating sales qualified leads. Through Trumpia’s SMS marketing automation solution he helps businesses and organizations communicate effectively with their customers or members.