Cyber Monday SMS Examples

Provide early access

Collections Etc. knows that the end of November is a crazy time for shoppers and that they’ll be competing with countless other brands for their subscribers’ attention. That’s why the brand did an early Cyber Monday sale. It sent this Cyber Monday SMS on November 1, almost a month before Cyber Monday took place.

This is a time when people are still waiting for sales to start, which means they haven’t spent a lot of money yet. By doing this type of pre-sale, Collections Etc. is more likely to reel in consumers who can’t wait to start spending. Plus, they’ll have fewer other promotional messages to compete with.

Treat your subscribers like VIPs

Everyone likes to feel special. Treat your SMS subscribers as VIPs and give them early access to your Cyber Monday sale or offer discounts only they can access. Skullcandy is very specific with its wording. Instead of simply adding a “VIP” followed by its message as many other brands do, Skullcandy makes it clear that this offer is for their VIP customers only.

Note that you can decide who your VIP customers are. They might be all of your SMS subscribers, but you can also reward loyal customers, people who’ve recently shopped with you, or members of your loyalty program.

Make it easy to shop

While mobile shopping is on the rise, there are still more people making purchases on desktop than on mobile, and the conversion rate on desktop is higher as well. Why? It’s often easier to shop on desktop, so you want to make the mobile shopping experience as frictionless as possible in order to avoid losing leads.

Jewelry brand Judith Bright does this well by automatically adding a 20 percent discount to everything in its online store. There is no coupon code shoppers need to remember. All they need to do is click the link to the shop and start adding products to their shopping carts.

Send updates

It’s a good idea to keep your subscribers in the know about any changes in your store—especially when those might entice them to visit. With this Cyber Monday SMS, Huckberry alerts its subscribers about new styles added to its Cyber sale. It’s a great incentive for people who haven’t previously checked out the sale to do so now.

Since Cyber Monday only lasts a day, you want to send updates sparingly so you don’t annoy your subscribers. However, this tactic works great in the context of a longer Cyber Week, as it also allows you to let subscribers know when items are almost out of stock, when additional discounts are added, and more.

Gift instead of discount

You don’t need to offer a discount on Cyber Monday. While many people expect a sale, you can also offer free shipping or a gift, like Dana’s Bakery does here.

Note how the text mentions that the free gift will automatically be added to the shopper’s cart. This saves the customer the frustration of having to figure out how they can get their free treats.

Present Cyber Monday as the perfect time to Christmas shop

Less than a month away from Christmas, Cyber Monday is a great day for people to shop for presents at discounted prices. It’s your job to make them aware of this opportunity. Mejuri does this in a clear way by presenting its Cyber Monday sale as an opportunity to “take care of holiday shopping, treat yourself, and check off that wishlist.”

To make the most of this strategy, create a gift guide with items that will be on sale during Cyber Monday, and share the link with your list a day or two in advance. That way, people can prepare and add items to their cart so all they need to do once your sale starts is hit the “pay now” button.

Play to people's FOMO

Most of us struggle with fear of missing out (FOMO) in one way or another. For marketers, this FOMO is promotional gold. Forever 21 first stresses that its sale is happening “NOW” before it urges its subscribers not to miss out. The brand then specifies what they shouldn’t miss out on (a whopping 50 percent discount) and provides a direct link to start shopping.

Promote your rewards program

Sales times are good times to promote your loyalty program when you have one, as you can let subscribers know that members enjoy extra benefits. This Cyber Monday text message by Staples works for both its Rewards members and its regular subscribers, as it first outlines the rewards benefits for its members when they shop on Cyber Monday, and then tells non-members how they can join the program.

The message also shares what else non-members can expect if they sign up: “free delivery and more.”

An alternative approach would be to create separate segments for your members and non-members. You could then emphasize how much more your members are getting in your messages to them, and alert your non-members in another message that there is a sale that would benefit them more if they signed up for your program.

Tell a story

Promotional text messages are often just a sequence of short phrases that try to convey as much information as possible in as few characters as possible. This SMS by loungewear brand Jambys stands out because of its highly conversational tone.

It probably doesn’t need to explain what Cyber Monday is, but doing so creates a comic effect and fits well with the relaxed Jambys branding.

Create a sense of urgency

As Cyber Monday only lasts a day, you can generate a sense of urgency as soon as it starts. Start your Cyber Monday SMS campaign with a text that says the sale only lasts for 24 hours. and keep your subscribers updated throughout the day.

Every Man Jack does so with this SMS example. It reminds its subscribers that its Cyber Monday sale ends at midnight and that if they want to take advantage of the 25 percent discount, they better “do it now.”

Creating a sense of urgency is a highly effective marketing technique. If you go through our other SMS marketing examples, you’ll see many brands use it.

Keep it simple

Sometimes, you just want to get the message across. This text from Organifi is simple yet effective: the brand offers 25 percent off + free shipping on orders over $100 because it’s Cyber Monday. If subscribers want to enjoy that offer, they need to use the related coupon code. That’s all there is to this text, and it’s enough.