13 Ways to Use SMS Reminders and Notifications to Drive Sales

Many business have time sensitive offers. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the entertainment, sports, retail or even services industries; there is an offer you have that can benefit from last minutes sales by SMS reminders.

After thinking about I came up with a list of situations perfect for using SMS to drive last minute sales.

  1. Product Launch Closing
  2. Last Minute Webinar Notifications
  3. Micro Sales
  4. Inventory Closeout
  5. Crowd Funding Campaign
  6. Event Ticket Sales
  7. Price Hike Notification
  8. Post Webinar Sales
  9. Free Trial Ending
  10. Early Bird Sale
  11. Holiday Promotions
  12. Renewal Notification
  13. Fund Raisers

Use SMS Reminders and Notifications to Drive Sales

There are following of the points that you can use to drive more sales:

1. Product Launch Closing

Build a mobile list during your initial product launch that way if you are offering any bonuses or last minute cross sells you can alert the interested parties on your list.

To make your list extremely qualified offer your text to join option during your product launch webinars. Chances are if they signed up to your email list, then attended a webinar they are more likely to take action and buy your product.

2. Last Minute Webinar / Teleseminar Notifications

Many customers send out last minute reminders about their webinar or teleseminar events to drive up attendance and boy does it work! More attendees mean more interested buyers who took the time to understand your offer.

13 Ways to Use SMS Reminders and Notifications to Drive Sales

Many clients have seen as high as 65% increase in attendance some a simple, teeny tiny, text message. And in the end, they generated more revenue from their events.

3. Mico Sales

Have a sale going that’s closing soon or one day only? Perfect for EOM quotas or maybe you want to increase sales during slow period of the day. Restaurants like Chipotle do a great job at this. Just send out a quick text promo notification to your registered subscribers a few hours before it closes and watch your sales soar!

Here’s an example of how Grab an Uber competitor is using text to drive sales.

They used a SMS message to drive sales during off peak traffic hours from 12pm-4pm using the Promo-code MIDDAY. The promo was good for one day only making this campaign extremely driven by time and immediately measurable.

I also have the Uber app on my phone but I don’t seem to receive these kind of offers from them, in other words they are missing out big time with SMS reminders.

4. Inventory Closeout

Many business carry product only to have to put it on sale in anticipation to make room for more inventory. This happens with electronics, food, furniture, household goods, clothing especially seasonal items, like Christmas decorations.

So building a mobile list when a customer purchases or registers a product is a great idea. Then when is the right time a text message can drive you closeout sales from the red into the black.

Example: Some states offer limited sales of a product such as fireworks. A fireworks stand company could build a SMS reminders list to push out a last minute discount to move inventory on the final day they can sale.

5. Crowdfunding Campaigns

If ever there was time sensitive offer it’s the countdown to the end of your crowdfunding campaign. By building a mobile list you can send an exclusive SMS offer or a last minute call to action just hours before the end of your campaigns. Below is a faux example of what a text like this could look like.

6. Event Ticket Sales

Many events marketers offer pre-sales to gage interest and predict attendance numbers to conferences, sporting events, concerts, festivals, movies and more. The pre-sale ticket is a limited time offer therefore can benefit from SMS & voice broadcasts to remind your subscribers that it is ending soon.

The Detroit Red Wings Hockey Team is making the most with SMS reminders not only on ticket sales but also offering text promos for food, drinks and gear while in the stadium.

Look at the list of text clubs they offer. Notice how they segmented their mobile lists by using different keywords to give the most targeted offers to their subscribers.

7. Price Hike Notification

Tying into the concept of the Product launch Close or end of a Ticket Pre-sale is a Price Hike notification. This should be used within the message anytime you are are going to raise the price of your product or event entrance. It creates scarcity and causes people to take action or face a higher price later.

8. Post Webinar Sales

You have used SMS to drive more attendance to webinars but you should also use it to close the sale. If you send a SMS reminders with a one time offer to mobile only subscribers you can reinvigorate a sense of urgency that may have lapsed after the event.

Remember to sweeten the deal with an addition bonus for people who take action that day or within a few hours.

9. Free Trial Ending Alert

If you use a Free Trial period in your service product start you probably send an email notifying your prospect of the trial close.But why not also follow up with a SMS reminders?

By collecting mobile numbers during registration process and offering a mobile opt-in you can remind your prospects that their Free Trial period is ending and what your value is, you can also offer to lock in a special price if they buy now.

For products that are digital in nature and require no cost to produce (such as a course or game) this tactic can work well. Sending an email, SMS and voice broadcast the day of the trial ending will get your message heard loud and clear.

10. Early Bird Sale

Another strong tactic if to offer an early adopter a special incentive to take action by a certain day in order to secure a ridiculously reduced price. This can be used in the critical start of a product launch, fundraiser or event.

Once again the meek but mighty SMS with its 98% open rate can get you in top of mind when you need it most.

11. Holiday Promotions

Everyone looks forward to Black Friday sales or Cyber Monday Deals. If you offer a mobile list when your shoppers by a product you can drive more sales on these days with exclusive offers..

You can also use SMS messages send a special offer for a specific item if inventory of a product hasn’t been moving well.

In fact even Google recognized the value of last minute SMS reminders by offering holiday text ads in Christmas holiday season of 2015.

12. Renewal Notifications

Many times when a subscription is going to end there is no automatic renewal. This often the case for things like website access, domain names, hosting, and SAAS products. If you build a mobile list you can increase renewals by sending a SMS reminder that the user’s subscription is ending.

Here’s an example…

Let’s you have membership site for model planes and a 1 year subscription is $97 annually. If sending out 1000 SMS messages costs you $50 and your conversion rate is a meager 1.5% your ROI will look like this.

.015 X 1000 = 15   15 x $97 = $1,455  That is a 2910.00% Return on your spend!

You only need 1 sale to make 194.00% return!  I don’t know about you but I like those odds.

13. Daily Deal Sites (Groupon, Living Social)

Building a SMS list when you are collecting an email from people who want deals should be a no brainer. The key is to limit your text messaging to 1 once a week.

Reserve it for a killer deal if you build that SMS reminders list you can charge a premium for those messages to advertiser because the open rate is so high.

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