Marketing for Black Friday: 1 Tool You're Not Using (with 90+ SMS Examples)

Time to get ready for the Black Friday season.

Anyone who’s ever done a Google search on “marketing for Black Friday” can tell you - There’s a lot of advice out there on how to have the most success on Black Friday.

There are lots of tips and long lists of strategies.

And if we’re honest, it can all be… overwhelming.

So let’s simplify it a little and emphasize 1 specific tool you’re not currently using that you could be taking advantage of to get the most out Black Friday: SMS.

But before we get into that, here are some mind-blowing stats to help reinforce the importance of Black Friday for your business…

Why Marketing for Black Friday Matters

Black Friday is a huge day for businesses.

For example, in 2021, 88 million buyers made online purchases and 66.5 million buyers made in-store purchases on Black Friday.

But Black Friday is no longer just a one-day event.

Katherine Cullen, senior director of industry and consumer insights for the National Retail Foundation, says, “[Black Friday has] turned into Black November, a month of doorbuster sales and deals that often spills over into October.”

And “Black November” becomes the catalyst for the Christmas sales rush as well.

$886.7 billion - That’s how much money people spent during the November-December holiday season in 2021, which illustrates Cullen’s point.

To put that number in perspective, that figure is about 110 times the total population of the whole planet.

Retailers in particular sometimes experience issues with too much inventory and may initiate holiday sales early to help clear it out.

So with all of that in mind, marketing for Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) is crucial to your business’s success.

And as we briefly mentioned, there’s one tool you’re not taking full advantage of that has been reported to yield ROI as high as 2,000%... SMS.

Yes, SMS marketing for Black Friday is a simple yet neglected approach that can have huge results - helping you clear out your inventory and bring in better sales.

But how do you go about it? How can you use SMS marketing for Black Friday / Cyber Monday to see the results you’re looking for?

Let’s go over 5 (non-overwhelming) strategies you can pursue to get the most out of your marketing for Black Friday - as well as 5 specific tips for SMS.

Then we’ll get into some specific, tangible examples of Black Friday marketing texts that businesses send, so that you can get an idea of how to use SMS marketing for your business.

General Marketing for Black Friday: 5 Tips & Strategies

First, let’s go through a handful of Black Friday / Cyber Monday marketing strategies that will work across all marketing channels.

These are general principles that are good concepts to follow for all of marketing, but we’ll apply them here to marketing for Black Friday / Cyber Monday specifically.

1. Start Planning (or Implementing) Sooner Rather Than Later

Whether we want to admit it or not, “Black November” comes quick every year.

And some businesses start "Black Friday / Cyber Monday" deals as early as October.

So if you haven’t started planning already, it’s time to start now - no matter what time of year it is.

When planning your marketing for Black Friday, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Take stock of your own inventory (if you sell physical inventory) and determine how much you'll need to get cleared out
• Establish some measurable goals for the kind of success you want to see from your Black Friday campaigns
• Determine how much of a discount you can afford to provide
• Figure out how many deals you want to offer
• Decide how much pre-Black Friday messaging you want to do (if any)

If you make the effort to do some solid planning ahead of time, you’ll see significantly better results from your Black Friday marketing efforts.

2. Build Anticipation

Whether or not you offer any deals ahead of Black Friday / Cyber Monday, you shouldn’t wait until the day of to get in touch with your customers.

You should build anticipation for your Black Friday deals by teasing your audience ahead of time.

Let them know what to expect so that they look forward to it.

That way, when the time comes to actually send out your deals, your customers will be primed and ready to take advantage of them.

3. Take Advantage of as Many Marketing Channels as Possible

The more you can put yourself out there, the better.

Obviously your ability to use every marketing channel will be limited by your workload, capabilities, budget and other logistics.

But use as many as you can!

These marketing channels include (but are not limited to)...

• Email
• Social media
• SMS
• Google ads
• Bing ads
• Physical mail
• Radio
• Television

The list goes on!

Remembering the marketing concept of “The Rule of 7” will help with this.

“The Rule of 7” is not actually a hard-and-fast-rule, but communicates the general principle that your audience needs to hear your message at least 7 times before they will actually purchase.

4. Use Effective Copy

Don’t assume that just slapping a discount onto your marketing copy will make people want to move forward with the deals you offer.

You want to speak your customers’ language as much as you can—speak to their pains, their desires, and their needs.

To do that, you need to know your customers inside and out. You can look through any data you’ve collected from reviews, surveys, testimonials, interviews, or anything else you can get your hands on that would give you insight into your customers’ brains.

You should also know some basics of human psychology, some of which are obvious, such as:

• People don’t want to part with their money
• People often respond better when there’s a sense of urgency
• People generally want to hear less about you and what you offer and more about how it will benefit them

5. Automate as Much as You Can

Most marketing tools will have automation options to help make your life easier.

You can pre-schedule your campaigns ahead of time so that you can frontload your work beforehand, and then focus on actually selling when the time comes.

As mentioned above, this requires planning. And it may be more effort upfront, but it’s worth it in the long run - so that you’re not scrambling under pressure trying to send out messages last minute.

SMS Marketing for Black Friday: 5 Tips & Strategies

Now that we’ve gone through some general marketing strategies for Black Friday, let’s go over some tips related to an underused and highly effective channel: SMS.

1. Use the Power of Texting Responsibly

SMS is an extremely powerful marketing tool. With open rates as high as 55% and view rates as high as 100%, texting is without a doubt one of the most effective ways to communicate.

People constantly check their phones and read each and every one of their text messages. (Just think of your own texting habits—how often do you leave a text message unread for any length of time?)

That being said, there is the danger of abuse. With emails, people have trained themselves to ignore the majority of the messages they receive. So they don’t get too irritated by marketing emails, because what’s one more thing to clutter up their already messy inbox?

Their texting inbox, on the other hand, is a more sacred space. People only want to receive texts that they really want.

So when you’re marketing for Black Friday via SMS, make sure you’re not spamming customers with text after text after text after text. (Unless you know that’s what they really want!)

Know your customers’ expectations and desires so that you don’t harm your brand or cause people to unsubscribe before you even get to Black Friday.

2. Include Trackable Links

It’s difficult to measure success unless you have something trackable.

You could send texts and see a big increase in sales, but how do you definitively correlate the success to the text that you sent?

One of the best ways to help you attribute the success of your marketing for Black Friday is to use trackable links in your texts.

This will allow you to see who all has clicked your links. You can insert these links and do this tracking from directly within your texting platform.

(You can even set up trackable UTM links if you want to get more insight and tracking within Google Analytics.)

3. Keep It Simple

Texting is a simple marketing medium.

You can’t include customized colors, tons of graphics, or particularly tailored formatting like you can on other mediums such as emails and webpages.

While that may sound like a bad thing, it can actually work to your advantage.

Text marketing generally works best when your texts are simple. Conciseness is the name of the game when it comes to SMS.

So don’t write a novel - give your customers a straightforward and valuable message that will draw them in. And give them an easy call-to-action they can follow to take advantage of your Black Friday / Cyber Monday deal.

4. Use Incentives to Get People to Subscribe

If you don’t already have a text list, you’ll need a way to hook people in and get them to subscribe to your texts.

The promise of upcoming Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals may be enough for some people.

But for others, you may have to sweeten the deal a bit more.

You could incentivize people by…

• Offering a free item instantly, as soon as they subscribe
• Giving a discount for the next visit or next purchase
• Entering customers into a giveaway for a grand prize

You’re obviously not trying to trick people with this. You should still make it clear that they’re signing up for marketing texts.

But providing added incentives increase the chances that people will actually be willing to add themselves to your list.

5. Use SMS Automation Tools

Automation is one of mankind’s best friends.

Automation allows you to take advantage of the benefits of a marketing option without actually having to do all the work manually.

And this concept applies to SMS marketing for Black Friday as well.

Automation tools like scheduled messaging, drip campaigns, and “Smart Replies” help free up your time so you can focus on other revenue-generating efforts.

SMS Marketing for Black Friday: Specific Examples

Thinking and planning regarding SMS marketing for Black Friday is all well and good.

But how does it actually look in real life?

Below are some examples based on real customers. (Identifying information has been removed.)

Note that the content for these texts won’t work across the board for every business - but they are some tangible examples of ways that real businesses have used SMS marketing for Black Friday in the past.

Examples of Pre-Black Friday Promotions

“

​​Black Friday in October Sale happening ALL WEEK! Use code: [promo code]. Excludes: [specific website tabs]. [Link]

“

The Black Friday Deals Guide is here! We’ll post more deals on IG stories all day! [Link]

“

Did you see our pre-Black Friday Deal happening NOW? Plan ahead & SAVE BIG! [Link]

“

Black Friday came early for you! (Only because you are in the secret sauce text community) Watch this and just write back “ready”: [link]

“

Pre Black Friday: Clear the RACKS! You don't want to miss this! [Link]

“

Black Friday Sale! Now - Nov 30th. Save on selected products: [link]

“

EARLY BLACK FRIDAY DEALS! 40% off BESTSELLER DRESSES! Over 175 deals! [Link]

“

LIVE WITH [name]! Launching a [new product], [new supplier], AND A BLACK FRIDAY EARLY SPECIAL! Free gift with every purchase!!! [Link]

“

Black Friday Launch is here!!! DEALS GALORE! Kickin Nov off w/ massive deals!! [link]

“

[Company name] LIVE! We couldn’t wait!! EARLY BLACK FRIDAY CRAZY DISCOUNTS NOW!! Code: [code] plus, [item] speed round!! It’s really good! I promise!!

“

Don't forget about our special today, spend $100 & you get 1st dibs into our Black Friday Sale!!! This can be a combination of [product] & [product]! Shop here: [Product 1] - [link] [Product 2] - [link]

“

ONLY $15 TONIGHT!! You’re not going to believe it! Black Friday starts now!!!! [Link]

“

Daily Black Friday Specials are posting everyday in November at 10am! RSVP here: [link]

Examples of Texts Promoting Upcoming Black Friday Deals

“

Yassss! You're in babe! You'll have VIP access to our Black Friday offers!

“

Hey [name]! Thank you so much for jumping in. We actually have some fantastic deals coming for Black Friday. Want the details?

“

Welcome to my VIP Black Friday deals. Now you will know before anyone else and get first chance to preorder! Happy Holiday Shopping. Stay tuned for giveaway info too!!

“

Welcome to our Black Friday message alerts. We are so excited to have you in our 'know it first' group. You will receive your first message starting November 1st with information on the first bundle.

“

Hey! It's [name] at [business name]! Thank you for signing up for text alerts. You'll be one of the first to know when our Black Friday Sale starts!

“

Hey! Are you ready for our Black Friday Sale? [Business name] will be holding a Black Friday Sale up to 50% OFF all Items! SO GET THOSE LISTS READY - THIS WILL BE THE BIGGEST SALE THIS YEAR

“

Black Friday deals are just around the corner! Friday, November 26th, 8:00AM CST [link]

“

Upcoming Black Friday sale: All 50% items will be 70% off. All 30% items will be 50% off. Come see all the sales on Friday!

“

Stop by [business name] on Black Friday for our big sale! Almost everything will be on sale. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

Examples of Simple and Straightforward Black Friday Promotions

“

BLACK FRIDAY DEALS!!! [link]

“

Black Friday Sale!

“

Restock! [Product names]. Black Friday Sale Going on Now!

“

Shop Black Friday - 1/2 off on [product]! [link]

“

[Name] here with a CRAZY Black Friday Special! Check it out now: [link]

“

BLACK FRIDAY!! 50% off [link]

Examples of “Percentage Off” Black Friday Promotions

“

LAST CALL for [product] & our Black Friday Doorbuster over 50% OFF! [Link]

“

Black Friday Sale! [Link] - Up to 25% OFF [product] (No Code Required) 5% OFF [other product] - Promo Code: [code]

“

Get 50% off of [product]! Join the waitlist today to take advantage of our Black Friday Sale. [Link]

“

[Business name] - BLACK FRIDAY SALE!! 30% OFF all regular priced items. Several new and special priced items in stock as well! 11/26 only

“

This year for Black Friday @ 5pm CST, for 10 min ONLY, [product] will be 50% off! Join my waitlist so you don't miss out! [link]

“

Friday [event name] is LIVE! Start ur shopping NOW! UP TO 90% OFF [product type]!!! [Link]

“

BLACK FRIDAY starts now. 40% off entire order (code [promo code] OR free shipping over $100 (code [promo code]). Codes can't be combined - [link]

“

Black Friday starts now! Shop below. Enter coupon [promo code] for 40% off! Shipping applies. All sales final. [Link]

“

Black Friday Sale! 50% off everything with 7k items to choose from! [link]

“

Take advantage of our Black Friday Sale &; get 50% off of [product name]! Sign up today, sale ends soon! [Link]

“

Black Friday SURPRISE! Save an extra 20% of all orders of 3 or more items! No code needed - discount is automatic but expires at midnight! [Link]

“

Hey [first name], it's [name] here. BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL! 96% OFF! [Dollar amount] for all 3 of [product type]! ([Dollar amount] value) [Link]

“

Awesome Black Friday Doorbusters & 15% off all [product type] @ [link] & in store. Code [promo code] thru Monday. Mimosas in store Friday!

“

Blowout Deals! [Business name] - 50% OFF Black Friday Blowout! Everything is 50% off! Use Code: [promo code] - Super Limited! [Llink]

“

Friday is here! Shop all our deals with up to 75% off. Don't miss out! Details here: [link]

“

BLACK FRIDAY SALE! Part 2! 40% off the entire [product type] collection!! HURRY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST! Use code- [promo code] at checkout!

“

BLACK FRIDAY DEALZ! -[product 1] 20% off -[product 2] 25% off -ALL [product 3] 30% off. [Business name] - Directions: [link]

“

[Business name] Black Friday Sale 30% Off Everything in Stock - Today

“

Hey It's [Name]. My Black Friday Sale is On! Visit [link] to Get 50% Off + The first 100 people get a Free [Product Name]!

“

Our Black Friday sale ends tonight! Don't miss out on getting 50% off & a chance to get a [large incentive]. [Link]

Examples of LIVE Black Friday Promotions

“

Happy Friday Ladies! Join us LIVE for another AMAZING Black Friday sale! Have those fast fingers ready! [Link]

“

Happy Friday Night! Join [name] live for the final Black Friday sale of the night!

“

[Business name] is LIVE!!! NEW [product 1]!!! [Product 2] Black Friday deal!! NEW [product 3]!! NEW [product 4]!! SO MUCH MORE!!

“

Join me LIVE! Black Friday Deal Kick Off!! [Link]

“

[Business name] is live! Black Friday stealsssss… + FREE gift w/ order! Don’t miss this!!

“

Black Friday came early! Live now! [Product 1] $10, [product 2] $10, [product 3] $15 - [name]

“

[Name] is LIVE with some pre-Black Friday specials & some fun new goodies! Tune in now! [Link]

“

[Name] IS LIVE!! Black Friday deal of the day launch, plus 100 boxes just came! [Link]

“

Black Friday lunch special live now: [link]

“

[Business name] going on live in 15 minutes with early Black Friday sales - see you soon!

“

LIVE! Hurry and hop on NOW! We have Amazing Black Friday Sales! You won't want to miss this! [Link]

“

[Business name] LIVE NOW! Pre-Black Friday SALE - come check out these epic prices! [Live]

“

$30 & under!! [Name] is LIVE with all Black Friday early deals on brand new inventory!

“

Pre-Black Friday sales. $5 Doorbuster specials. Join [business name] live. [Link]

“

Starting NOW: [name] is LIVE - Black Friday Special! Don't miss it! Click link below to join! [Link]

Other Misc. Black Friday Promotion Examples

“

Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping! These deals are for New and or Current Customers... We have free Product Swag that comes with your purchase of a new [product name]. We have Previous SOLD OUT [products]; [specific products] back for a limited time! Also keep your eyes open for some Cyber Monday deals! First 3 people who [sign up] or refer someone get your choice of [product] or [other product] with an [specific product]! Have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving!

“

Our Black Friday deals start today! Claim a pair of our [product] and choose [another product] for free!! MSG me with [product] choice - [link]

“

Black Friday specials are now live! Get my [product name] only $10. [Bigger product] only $197. Save thousands when you join today! [Link]

“

Black Friday Sale! The first 100 people to buy get a free [desirable incentive]. Join today. [Link]

“

Shop a special Black Friday link opening at midnight PST tonight! ALL ITEMS discounted! Yay! [Link]

“

Black Friday BLOWOUT - join me now for this HUGE sale! Everything just $10-$15! [Link]

“

Black Friday Super Sale starts now! Shop $5 [product] + [group of products] this weekend only [link]

“

Black Friday deals are here! $5, 10, 20 blowout! Time to spoil you! [Link]

“

Last opportunity to qualify for the Black Friday special just posted to [Facebook page name] + a giveaway! Check it out: [Link]

“

HUGE BLACK FRIDAY ANNOUNCEMENT Want to save $$ on [product name] & unlock bonuses FOR FREE + win $1000 CASH?! Click [link]

“

THE BLACK FRIDAY FUN CONTINUES! Hop on now for [product], more [group of products], [another product] and MORE doorbusters!

“

My Black Friday special is available now! Get [product] and [another product] for just $97! [Link]

“

Join the [product name] at $1,000 OFF for Black Friday! Catch the replay & sale before it comes down. 100 spots available, grab yours: [link]

Examples of Post-Black Friday Promotions

“

BLACK FRIDAY SALE EXTENDED until Monday 11:59pm CST. Grab those deals while they last. Check them out here: [link]

“

[Business name] We've extended our Black Friday deal for 25% OFF the entire store. Check us out from 8am-6pm!

“

BOGO FREE in our Black Friday Category!! SCORE some big finds! [Business name]

“

Black Friday sales are going on through Cyber Monday! Shop at [link]

Examples of Cyber Monday Promotions

“

Cyber Monday savings at [business name]! 30% off Black Friday collection (no code needed). 40% off all other collections (code: [promo code]). 75% [specific product] ONLY (code: [promo code]). (Sales cannot be combined)

“

50% OFF for Cyber Monday!! Use Code: [promo code] on app and website! Excludes [product] & [other product] Expires: 2 pm EST. Happy Shopping!

“

IT’S CYBER MONDAY!!! Use promo code: [promo code] at checkout on the website today to get 30% off [product] AND be sure to check out the updated [section on site/social media]!! [Link]

“

Black Friday-Cyber Monday Specials! Ends Tuesday at midnight! [Product 1],

“

Run, don't walk... Cyber Monday Steals starting at just $5: [link]

“

It's Cyber Monday! Use code: [promo code] and save 25% off our entire website! Check it out! [Link]

“

CYBER MONDAY! 40% off app, site, and live with code: [promo code]!!!! Exclusions apply! [Link]

“

40% OFF ENDS TODAY - Cyber Monday Sale | [service description]. Offer available only at [link]

“

From: [business name] - Cyber Monday Sale! Buy 5 pieces, get a Free Gift and Free Shipping! Click link: [link]

“

QUICK!! Cyber Monday is still going with crazy deals and so many chances to win!! [Link]

“

Monday isn't over yet! Save 40%+ off & Spin to win $$ using code [promo code]. Details here: [link]

Get SMS Marketing for Black Friday

SMS marketing for Black Friday is one of the surest ways to help make your Black Friday / Cyber Monday promos a success.

You can get a FREE 1-on-1 consultation to help answer your questions and work out a Black Friday strategy for SMS marketing.

Click here to select a time to chat 1-on-1 with an SMS expert.