As Aussie shoppers’ expectations grow, your BFCM (Black Friday Cyber Monday) planning needs to start earlier every year. But if you’re in the habit of just doing a big promotion and blasting it at your customers and followers, you’re in for a rude shock this year.
There are a few things Sinch MessageMedia knows better than retailers and messaging. Last November alone, we processed around 34 million messages for ANZ retailers as they hyped up their customers in the lead-up to Black Friday.
But BFCM can offer retailers more than just a short-term boost to sales. By personalising your campaigns, automating your follow-up, and communicating to customers in the post-sale stages, you’re building a two-way relationship with your customers. And, surprise: that’s exactly what they want.
So how do you do that, and what are the potential benefits? There are plenty of ways you can optimise your customer engagement this BFCM. Here are just some of them.
- Get in front of your customers (or in their pocket).
Look, let’s not mess around here. SMS is just about the easiest way to reach customers, and we should know. According to our 2023 Consumer Sentiment Survey, 67 per cent of Aussies have subscribed to receive SMS from businesses, and 64 per cent expect to be able to message you and receive a response within 24 hours.
What does that mean for you? Well, you’ll need an omnichannel messaging platform that lets you send SMS (hey, that’s us), but more importantly you need to send the right kind of message. That means not just promotions for sales events, but order confirmations, delivery notifications, and two-way conversational messaging. Think about offering customers value in every interaction, so they’re always happy to see a new message from you.
- Nurture and grow your customer lists. Now.
Yes, now. In the lead-up to BFCM, you need to start building your database. Put simply, you want more contacts. Start looking for ways to entice people to part with their contact details so you can target them later.
SMS competitions and personalised offers to VIP groups are a great place to start and let you create and nurture a captive audience – perfect for when you start rolling out those Black Friday marketing promos and updates.
- “Hey <First name>, I thought you might like this.”
During Black Friday, customers are bombarded with choices. That means your promotional campaigns need to work smarter. Taking a blanket approach isn’t going to do much for your customer engagement, or your ROI.
By segmenting your customer lists you can make their purchase decision easier with personalised recommendations based on their preferences, their browsing, or purchase history.
- Right time, right place.
When people are still deciding, a well-placed message can be gold. Think about the right time to send your messages, and plan ahead to set up automations that can be real game changers during BFCM. One example: Those handy SMS reminders for shoppers to return to abandoned shopping carts. (Psst: our research found those achieve a 39 per cent cart-recovery rate.)
Think we’re only talking about SMS? Think again. When BFCM starts, customers are going to look for you wherever they’re spending their time. Yep, you guessed it, on social media. You can use keyword automation in your DMs to turn customers into followers. (Check out our BFCM guide for exactly how to do that.)
- A customer for life, not just a weekend.
Your real goal for BFCM shouldn’t be to have a successful weekend, it should be turning bargain hunters into regular, full-price paying customers. That won’t happen unless your post-sales messaging is as slick and on-point as your marketing campaigns.
Business messaging offers the kind of cut-through that can transform your customer experience. Research from within the Sinch group showed 98 per cent open rates and 36 per cent click-throughs – that’s serious engagement. From delivery and click-and-collect alerts to feedback and surveys, offering a seamless post-sales experience can help make sure that you remain your customers’ brand of choice.
Want to learn even more? Good news: Sinch MessageMedia has created the perfect BFCM game plan, to guide you through every planning stage and help you schedule, personalise, and automate every bit of your customer engagement for the season.
About the author: Rowan Knight is head of new business at Sinch MessageMedia.
