Simply put, text messaging is the easiest, least expensive, and most effective way to advertise in today’s society. There is no other form of advertising that can guarantee a 99% read rate, let alone have it happen within a matter of minutes.

Holiday advertising is often a frenzied attempt to get business through the doors. If you advertise consistently, as everyone should, this time of year will be very similar to any other month. Here are some tips to assist you with advertising plans for the fourth quarter.

1. Make your messages simple and easy to read. Tell the customer what your offering, what you want, and most importantly, how they will benefit from reacting to the message.
2. DO NOT SEND TOO OFTEN. I can’t stress this enough. The only way that text messaging will not work is if your clients opt-out. They cannot react to a message that they no longer receive. Remember, clients opt-out for two main reasons: they’re receiving too many messages or the messages have no value to them.
3. Include a link to your social media account(s) where a customer can get more information that a single text could give. Make sure that your social media account(s) are up to date and give the customer value. Value can mean many things, such as: merchandise discounts, showcasing new inventory, instructions for a contest/giveaway, or even a holiday recipe can be of value.
4. Set the tone early. Start mentioning the holiday season ASAP. I suggest July as a good starting month as many brokers will offer a “Christmas In July” layaway promotion. Start with that and be sure to mention the holidays in at least one monthly text moving forward.
5. Send call-to-action texts starting around Thanksgiving. “Sale today only,” “Get here before noon today,” etc. These will create a sense of urgency as long as you make them worthwhile to the client. Offering 10% off tools would do nothing for me, but offer me 10% off firearms…different story. Also, this is the time of year where you can send texts more often without people opting out as most of us are “looking for the deals”.

No matter what type of business that you’re in, using text is a game changer. Texting can be intimidating to some people, but we have you covered. PawnMaster makes it easy as we handle all the customized blasts for you in-house. There is no work on your part other than to let us know what you’d like to focus on, and from there we do the “heavy lifting”. Text away and best wishes to a successful upcoming holiday season.