10 Black Friday & Cyber Monday (BFCM) SMS Marketing Tips and Strategies to follow in 2025
Why SMS Marketing Works for BFCM?
While Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) provides businesses with a goldmine for conversions, it puts consumers at the receiving end of having to choose and decide between numerous brands and countless deals.
SMS helps brands cut through the clutter and send direct, impactful, and result-driven messages.
In 2024, mobile devices accounted for approximately 53.1% of online sales during the holiday season, with 57% of mobile-driven sales occurring on Cyber Monday.
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Fresh Strategies & Compliance Tips
Here are some of the best practices to kickstart your Black Friday Cyber Monday SMS Marketing campaigns this year.
1. Build and start with a quality SMS subscribers list
The success of your Black Friday SMS marketing campaign begins with creating a quality, engaging, and compliant SMS list. The earlier you start building your subscriber list, the better prepared you’ll be when launching the campaign at the right time. To build your SMS list:
Start seeking customer opt-ins weeks before BFCM:
Encourage and push customers to subscribe to your SMS list with website pop-ups, email newsletters, or forms to collect phone numbers.
Incentivize opt-ins
Incentivize opt-ins by promoting early access to BFCM deals, special discounts, exclusive offers, and limited-time freebies to make customers feel valued and special and grow your SMS list.
Sync SMS with email
Sync SMS with email to leverage your email newsletters to get SMS sign-ups for better coverage and higher engagement
Many marketers and brands make the mistake of messaging cold leads or purchasing an SMS list, which yields poor engagement and negatively impacts brand trust and reputation.
On the other hand, an authentic and consent-driven SMS list yields better RoI with higher conversions and engagement, and long-term trust and retention.
2. Plan and launch your SMS marketing campaign early
Another crucial strategy to achieve results from your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales is to plan and launch your marketing campaigns early. Instead of waiting until the BFCM week, <span style="font-weight:500;">shoppers expect to start shopping early to grab the best deals</span> and items of their choice before they sell out. In addition, preparing your campaign early ensures a smoother execution, provides an opportunity for trial and error, and allows you to fine-tune your messages more effectively.
Here are some tips to plan your campaign launch this BFCM season:
Start planning your SMS campaigns 4-6 weeks before BFCM: Once you craft the offer and create your SMS list, begin strategizing your campaign by segmenting your customers and testing multiple message templates.
Warm up your customers before the actual sale: Start sending both non-promotional and promotional content, such as product sneak peeks, friendly check-ins, and VIP early access offers, to build trust and loyalty.
Early access offers, in particular, make loyal customers feel prioritized, which helps build sales momentum.
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3. Craft the right message and offer
To stand out from the crowd and maximize sales, drafting a clear and compelling message that will result in quick action is crucial.
It’s essential to craft concise and impactful messages that clearly highlight sales, discounts, and offers, as well as other promotional content, to make taking action effortless for customers.
Here are some tips to draft compelling messages:
Make the message short and punchy by keeping the offer upfront, adding urgency, and avoiding generalized messages by personalizing wherever possible.
Go beyond basic discounts and offer exclusive bundle offers, limited-time offers, early access discounts, and tiered discounts.
Create a sense of urgency and anticipation by announcing the sale date in advance and offering last-minute deals and offers without spamming customers.
Clear and precise messages that keep the offers upfront instantly grab customer attention, making them more likely to take the desired action and make the purchase
For instance, you can segment your SMS list based on the following categories:
Regular VIP customers who make frequent and high-value purchases
Engaged or new customers who recently interacted and purchased from you within the last 30-90 days.
Previous BFCM customers who have only purchased from you during the BFCM sales.
Window shoppers who browse your products and add them to the carts, but haven’t yet bought anything.
Inactive customers who are in your SMS list but haven’t engaged or interacted with your brand in a while.
Instead of sending generic messages to all segmented customers, crafting targeted messages makes customers feel seen, resulting in higher open rates and conversions.
For instance, you can send exclusive deals to loyal VIP customers, enticing and irresistible offers to window shoppers, and friendly reminders to nudge previous BFCM customers.
At the same time, you can segment your customers based on their location and the channels they purchase from.
5. Optimize timing and frequency - the most debated topic
The message timing and how frequently you send messages are everything and a crucial element in the BFCM marketing strategy.
Sending too many messages can overwhelm customers, causing them to unsubscribe from the campaign, while sending too few messages means customers won’t even notice your brand is running a sale.
To avoid both these situations, here are the best practices when it comes to timing your BFCM messages and their frequency:
One or three messages a week are recommended before your BFCM sales.
Send messages based on your customers’ or recipients’ local time and not your business time.
Send messages in peak performance times, which are
Send messages spaced at least 4 hours apart.
When it comes to the message frequency, here are the guidelines to follow for different sales:
Following these practices and ensuring optimized message timing and frequency ensures a successful BFCM marketing campaign.
6. Use automation
Automation makes crafting and sending messages based on personalization and customer segmentation a lot easier and more convenient. At the same time, it also helps businesses keep costs low for outreach.
Businesses can send transactional messages using AI tools, like payment confirmations, order confirmations, feedback requests, and inventory alerts.
AI also facilitates personalized BFCM deal messages, such as early access deals for VIP customers and abandoned cart reminders, which ultimately make customers feel special and help drive more sales.
8. Take care of compliance and spam concerns
Security and compliance should be top priorities and non-negotiable factors when planning your BFCM strategy.
Here are a few compliance and security best practices to avoid legal risks and penalties:
Read: Spam Text Messages: How to Protect Yourself and Your Data
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9. Post-purchase engagement
Post-purchase upselling is often overlooked by businesses, yet it can yield significant results.
After a customer completes a purchase, you can either send an RCS message or an email with the subject, “Make your purchase complete with these products.” In this message or email, you can promote complementary products to go with the main product purchased.
For instance, if a customer purchases a dress, you can promote or suggest complementary accessories, such as a handbag, heels, and other items that would pair well with it, to generate additional sales from your campaign.
You can also set automated triggers for the products purchased to send personalized and relevant suggestions to your customers.
10. Measure and optimize SMS marketing campaigns
Lastly, it’s important to measure the RoI of your BFCM SMS marketing campaigns to measure their success and effectiveness and track what works. Here are the key metrics to consider when measuring your campaign RoI:
Analyzing these metrics will help you gain a fair understanding of what’s working and what’s not working for your business, making it easier to make relevant changes accordingly.
Here are a few SMS templates for different use cases and types of SMS for your upcoming BFCM campaign:
1. Early access/VIP These are ideal for offering your loyal customers VIP access or a sneak peek of your sales and offers before the actual sales begin.
2. Flash sales or time-sensitive offers These are ideal for creating a sense of urgency and grabbing attention with limited-time deals.
3. Abandoned cart reminder Nudge customers about their abandoned carts with personalized reminders.
4. Re-stock/back in stock alerts Send restock alerts and notifications for popular, sold-out products and drive FOMO.
5. Last chance/ sale ending soon Create urgency and a sense of FOMO and scarcity to compel customers to purchase before the sale ends.
6. Upsell/cross-sell post-purchase Encourage customers to make repeat purchases with personalized and relevant recommendations or add-on products.
7. Post-sale thank you and reengagement Express gratitude and appreciation for your customer's purchase and loyalty after their purchase.
Challenges and Common Mistakes to Avoid When Running BFCM Sales
Here are some of the most common mistakes and pitfalls to avoid to ensure a successful BFCM campaign:
Confusing discounts and making it difficult to drive meaningful sales: Providing too many options to customers and confusing promotional messages serve no purpose. Instead, keep the discounts minimal, clear, and simple for buyers to grab your deals.
Ignoring opt-outs: When customers opt out of your campaigns, it’s essential to remove them from your subscriber list to avoid sending messages to them, which can be perceived as incredibility and spam.
Sending messages without testing links: If you send messages with broken links, URLs that don’t open correctly or have typos, or links with missing UTM tags, you could lose hundreds of customers and subscribers, significantly affecting your sales. It’s important to run A/B tests of all your messages and links on all devices.
Lying about stock scarcity: If you want to increase sales with limited stock or scarcity messages, it must be true; otherwise, the strategy could backfire against your business. Sending too many stock scarcity messages and lying about it makes customers doubtful and second-guess your authenticity, leading to dropped sales.
Failing to measure campaign performance: Not analyzing your campaign performance can make you miss out on key insights and information about what worked and what didn’t. Key metrics from your campaign can help you optimize your next campaign and drive better results.
Why Your Cyber Monday Strategy Shouldn’t be the Same as Black Friday?
Treating Black Friday and Cyber Monday as similar events can dilute your campaign results, as they attract different buyers with distinct behaviors, requiring different strategies and tactics.
Here are a few tips to draft your Cyber Monday deals and strategy:
Create creative and fresh deals, introducing new SKUs, bonus gifts, and bundles to renew customer excitement and interest in shopping.
Cyber Monday deals mostly appeal to research-driven customers who prefer exclusive offers and extended deals.
Cyber Monday deals give you a second chance to convert shoppers with abandoned carts.
You can optimize Cyber Monday offers based on the data from Back Friday sales.
Cyber Monday is a great opportunity to convert digital-first and online shoppers with last-chance deals or stock scarcity notifications.
You can send post-purchase engagement messages and thank you messages to customers to drive sales from Cyber Monday
Conclusion
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest opportunities for sales and growth, and with them just around the corner, you need a reliable, trustworthy, and secure SMS marketing tool to drive successful campaigns.
TXTImpact can help you boost your SMS campaigns with a range of features and services, including SMS marketing, mass texting, email-to-text, text-to-email, MMS messaging, and RCS messaging, to securely send personalized and engaging messages to your customers.
You also get customer grouping and segmentation, global carrier support, and social media integration to meet specific campaign goals.
If you’re ready to strategize with your Black Friday Cyber Monday campaign for this year, start a free trial to learn more about our services or contact us to get started.
How many SMS messages should I ideally send during Black Friday?
It’s recommended to send 3-5 targeted and well-timed messages during Black Friday for events, like teaser, launch day, flash sale, and last-chance messages. Avoid sending too many messages in a day.
What are quiet hours for SMS marketing during BFCM?
According to TCPA regulations, businesses shouldn’t send SMS messages before 8 AM or after 9 PM, as per the recipient’s local time zone. Non-compliance with this regulation results in a fine of $1,500 per message.
How do I ensure SMS compliance with privacy laws during Black Friday?
To run compliant BFCM campaigns, ensure you partner with a reliable messaging solution, such as TXTImpact, which efficiently handles compliance for your business with respect to MMA, CTIA, and TCPA regulations, thereby minimizing legal risks.
Can I schedule messages in advance for a global audience?
Yes, with TXTImpact, you can schedule text messages in advance by selecting the desired date and time for sending them. This way, you can send time-sensitive notifications and send messages when your audience is most likely to engage.
Do I need to send an opt-out text with every message?
Yes, according to TCPA regulations, you’re required to include opt-out messages, especially for promotional campaigns. An example of an opt-out message could be, “Reply ‘STOP' to opt out.”
Author
Tejal Sushir
Content Writer/Blogger
Tejal Sushir is a content writer with 4+ years of experience writing fresh and insightful content for B2B SaaS companies. She has delivered top-performing and top-ranking blogs in the SMS marketing, Digital Marketing, web hosting, AI & ML, cybersecurity, WordPress, HR Tech, and technical SEO domains. Her meticulous research when writing content ensures industry expertise and keeps up with emerging trends.
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