With just one week until Christmas, the countdown to everyone’s favourite family, food and gift filled holiday is well and truly on.
But with the excitement, comes the preparation, and Australians love to put a big effort into making Christmas the great holiday it’s supposed to be. This doesn’t just refer to the long drive to spend Christmas with all the members of your extended family (all 50 of them) or the hours spent slaving in the kitchen to really master that Christmas turkey or pudding, there’s also a lot of shopping to be done. In fact, The Commonwealth bank has previously predicted that Australians spend $16.2 billion in preparation for Christmas, with the average Aussie spending $993 personally.
While you may think that with one week to go, the time for shopping for most people is pretty much over, you’d be wrong. Actually, recent studies have shown that the majority of people leave their Christmas shopping to the final two weeks before the big day. In short, now is the time to get into contact with your customers to make the most of the Christmas rush!
There’s no better way to remind your potential customers to involve you in their Christmas purchases this holiday season than with SMS. After all, SMS was born 22 years ago this month, and began its ruling of the communication world with one simple message, “merry christmas.”
With a simple and direct technology like SMS, you can swiftly contact all the customers you may want to reach during this particularly busy time of year. 90% of all text messages are read within three minutes of delivery (MobileSquared, 2010). With this in mind, you can be pretty sure your message will be received in time for your customers to make use of the information before Christmas.
A simple SMS this week can remind your customers of all you have to offer to contribute to their Christmas experience, whether you’re the local butcher with the best turkey, the toy store with the largest range in the country, or anything else! Notify your customers through SMS about extended opening hours, special deals and promotions available in the lead up to Christmas, as well as clearance sales and stock availability.
If your business is closing down over the coming holiday-period, notify your customers and important stakeholders about the details of the break-period with SMS. Or, if you’re just feeling in the spirit, wish them a merry christmas and a happy new year by SMS to show your appreciation for their ongoing business.
On that note, everyone here at Esendex would love to wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy holiday!
Prachi Bametha
Marketing Coordinator, Esendex Australia