A flash sale is a powerful retail tool that can effectively clear older inventory while simultaneously attracting new customers and raising awareness for specific products.
The success of your flash sale, however, hinges significantly on how well you promote it. While there are numerous promotional options available—such as in-store signage, email campaigns, and social media outreach—SMS marketing stands out as particularly effective for generating excitement around your flash sale. With its immediacy and high open rates, SMS can quickly inform customers about limited-time offers, creating a sense of urgency that drives foot traffic and online engagement, ultimately maximizing the impact of your marketing efforts.
The Promotional Advantages of SMS and MMS
SMS boasts an impressive open rate of 98%, significantly surpassing email’s open rate of 45%. This high engagement level is complemented by the speed at which SMS interactions occur; messages are typically read almost immediately after being received, making text messaging particularly well-suited for flash sales with tight timelines. The brevity of SMS also allows for the creation of concise, attention-grabbing messages that can make flash sales truly stand out in a crowded marketplace.
MMS, a close cousin of SMS, enhances this promotional strategy by enabling the inclusion of graphics and other media, further enticing viewers and capturing their attention. Both SMS and MMS offer tracking capabilities that help gauge the impact of promotional campaigns. While there are limitations to measuring the full effect of an SMS flash sale promotion, these messaging formats provide much greater visibility compared to traditional social media and in-store promotions, allowing retailers to better assess their marketing efforts.
Tips to Crafting Your Flash Sale Promotional Messages
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Introducing new products? Not only should you consider MMS instead of SMS, but also consider pairing your flash sale text messaging with social media posts that further build excitement around the hot items.
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Highlight the exact duration of the flash sale to create urgency; for example “Ends tomorrow!”, “HOURS LEFT!”, “Last Day!”
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Use numbers within your SMS to emphasize value, like “Save 50% today only!”
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Find buzzwords that inherently generate excitement and a feeling of immediacy, such as “limited time,” “exclusive offer,” “act now,” “last chance,” or “don’t miss out.”
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Another way to convey urgency? Hint at a limited supply, when appropriate.
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Include eye-catching pictures and GIFs that align with the urgency, like countdown clocks or bold graphics. For additional tips and examples of visual flash sale messaging, read Leveraging MMS in Marketing (With Examples) - How & Why.
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Embrace emojis with a light touch. However, only do so if they align to your brand identity overall, as emojis tend to contribute a playful, casual tone that may not work for every company.
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Use all-caps strategically—limit it to no more than two consecutive words at a time, and keep all-caps usage to a maximum of two phrases per message. To see this principle in action, view the promotional SMS example below.
Examples of Flash Sale Promotions Via Text Marketing
Examples of Flash Sale Promotions for Retail
NYDJ MMS Flash Sale Example
Neiman Marcus SMS Flash Sale Example
UltraLuxe Skincare MMS Flash Sale Example
UNIQLO SMS Flash Sale
Sand and Sky SMS Flash Sale Example
Blue Lagoon Skincare SMS Flash Sale Example
Additional Flash Sale SMS Templates for Retail
Example: BOGO from a supermarket
🥧 Sweet Deal Alert! Buy one pie and get a second one FREE! 🎉 Stock up on your favorites—this offer won’t last long. Place your order now! [Insert Link]
Example: free delivery offer from a furniture store
Limited Time Offer: FREE delivery on ALL furniture ordered by 3/31! Tables! Beds! Desks! Bookcases! Shop NOW: [Insert Link]
Example: Percentage-off discount from a mechanic or service center
⏰ Last Chance! Get 40% off ALL TIRES—deal ends at midnight! 🛞 Don’t miss out, shop now: [Insert Link]
Example: Tiered flash sale from a sportswear chain
RUN, don’t walk! ⚡ Get $15 back for every $100 you spend on sportswear! 🏃♂️ From running shoes to workout gear, save big! [insert link]
Example: Bundle offer from a clothing boutique
Summer is here! ☀️ Buy any pair of sandals and get sunglasses 50% OFF! 🕶️ Step into the season in style—2 Days ONLY: [Insert Link]
Example: “Great rates” from a stationery store
📚 Exciting news! All leather-bound notebooks are ONLY $25! 🖋️ Hurry, this deal ends this weekend! Visit [Store Name] today and grab yours before they’re gone! ✨ [Insert Link]
Example: Holiday flash sale from a dried goods store
🎄 Last-Minute Christmas Deals! 🎁 [Insert store] has the perfect gift basket for everyone on your list, 10% OFF. Shop now and get them just in time for the holidays: [insert link]
Example: Reminder of flash sale from a yarn store
Last chance! ⏰ Today is the final day to save 70% on [brand] yarn. Don’t miss out—order by Friday and score HUGE savings! Hurry before they’re all gone! [insert link]
Examples of Flash Sale Templates for QSR
Example: BOGO from a taco chain
Taco time! 🌮 Buy one taco, get one FREE! Grab yours today and double the deliciousness: [insert link]
Example: free delivery offer a pizza chain
In the mood for pizza? 🍕 Enjoy FREE delivery on your next order! Place your order by tomorrow night, and we’ll bring it straight to your door: [insert link]
Example: Percentage-off discount from an ice cream shop
Milkshake lovers, this one’s for you! 🥤 Get 50% OFF all milkshakes for a limited time. Chocolate, strawberry, mint—we have all the flavors you crave!
Example: Bundle offer from a sandwich shop
HUNGRY? Get a FREE small soda and bag of chips with every sandwich. Offer ends at midnight! 🥤🍟 Order now: [insert link]
Example: “Great rates” from a convenience store
Need a BOOST? Now through Saturday, grab a LARGE COFFEE for just 99 cents! Start your day right without breaking the bank. Don’t miss out! ☕
Additional Tips for Maximizing the ROI of Your Flash Sale Text Messages
- SMS should rarely be the only promotional channel for your flash sale. Take an omnichannel approach. Have a particularly big flash sale on the horizon? Use email to build preliminary excitement and SMS to remind people of the fast-approaching deadline! What’s more, social media can be a great way to further nurture buzz.
- Don’t offer SMS flash sales too regularly. Frequent flash sales can lead to diminishing returns and may cheapen your brand’s perception, depending on its identity. Additionally, overdoing these promotions can impair your profit margins, making it essential to strike a balance in your marketing strategy.
- Don’t have a flash sale just for the point of having a flash sale—make sure there is an underlying objective to drive all decisions. Is this to clear away old inventory? Build demand around a new product? Stay competitive during the holiday season? Knowing your objectives not only influences the SMS promotion of the flash sale but also how you measure its success.
- Make sure you have the inventory to answer the call. While this may seem like a straightforward point, it’s important to emphasize. After all, nothing undermines a customer’s trust in your brand more than promoting an enticing deal only to fall short due to stock shortages.
- Confirm which branches will be participating. It’s not unheard of for franchise chains to have only some—but not all—locations participate in a flash sale. Make sure you send promotional texts solely to customers who shop at participating locations; this extra step is easy to automate with strategic audience segmentation within Voxie’s SMS platform.
- Curate your SMS subscriber list. Eliminate customers who have proven dormant for a significant period. Divide your list into groups and target your flash sale messaging to their particular interests.
- Collect data on the success of your promotional SMS efforts. Select a platform like Voxie that collects key performance indicators (KPIs), such as SMS click-through rates, reply rates, and unsubscribe rates. Ideally, your SMS platform should integrate with other tools in your tech stack, allowing you to analyze which flash sale texts effectively drove in-store interactions. Leverage this data to draw meaningful conclusions and further refine your findings, focusing on both the types of promotions you offer and the strategies used in your SMS templates.
- Consult with people who work closely with customers to gather feedback. This includes franchise owners and retail managers, who can offer insights into the types of flash sale incentives that may effectively motivate their customer base. Additionally, they can provide qualitative information on which offers tend to drive foot traffic and create upselling opportunities.
Voxie—The Platform to Coordinate Flash Sale Texts at Scale
Voxie is an SMS marketing platform dedicated to enhancing the messaging capabilities of franchises and multi-location businesses. This emphasis on optimizing SMS communication has resulted in industry-leading software features, including:
- Sophisticated personalization of promotional SMS based on known customer data
- Interactive SMS powered by conversational intelligence
- Automated group creation and management
- Handling of complex drip campaigns for targeted promotional experiences
- Hands-on integration with your marketing stack
- Multi-level user access
- AI-generated texts to guide your own flash sale promotional messaging
Voxie makes it easy and scalable for businesses to send highly personalized flash sale text promotions to targeted groups, ensuring effective customer engagement. With robust KPI tracking, you can analyze campaign performance, share valuable insights with stakeholders, and continuously optimize your future SMS outreach for even greater success.