5 ways SMS marketing can help your business score goals during the FIFA World Cup

SMS marketing ideas for sports festivals & tournaments

The FIFA World Cup offers businesses yet another exciting opportunity to integrate SMS marketing into their overall marketing strategy. As an event that brings nations together, there is no reason why hospitality industries shouldn’t be adding value to their customers’ lives through a customer-centric approach to build fan relationships, which, in turn, increases your bottom line.

Be it action-packed updates, fixtures, results or World Cup-inspired promotions, there are countless ways companies can connect with their customers via SMS during this time. As it is, SMS offers businesses the chance to easily connect and engage with their customers, whenever and wherever they are in the world. And, with the World Cup being a powerful marketing opportunity, you can offer your customers an even more unique experience. Here are five ways to use SMS marketing during this eventful time:

Related: Why the sports industry loves SMS marketing

Hotels or guesthouses

During such a busy event, it’s usually common for locals and tourists to book into a hotel or guest house for the night or for the entire duration of their stay in a different country. However, even though most businesses will experience an influx of bookings, major events also mean a high no-show rate. With SMS reminders, you‘ll be able to remind your customers in advance about their bookings, check-in times or any transport facilities in the area. These small efforts will help to improve guest experience as well as attendance, which are both beneficial for you. Customers are also likely to be in a rush and SMS engagement can also save customers from having to spend unnecessary time checking in or checking out.

Airline and transport companies

Airlines can also remind travelers about their boarding times, delays or any weather changes that may influence their flight experience. While standard one-way texting is a great start, consider using a two-way SMS channel with a dedicated short code that customers can identify you by. They’ll be able to reply to you, and customer engagement immediately increases.

Restaurants and bars

This sector can easily capitalize on their World Cup customer engagement strategy as most customers will be visiting bars or restaurants to enjoy a game or two with family or friends. If you’re showing the game at your establishment, send your customers an SMS with a timetable along with any promotions you’ll be running during that time. Specials will attract more customers, creating awareness and boosting foot traffic.

Retail stores

Sports stores and supermarkets obviously benefit big time from the World Cup through merchandise sales. The fact that 90% of SMS messages are read within three minutes, combined with every customer’s love for competition giveaways or promotional discounts means that there really is no better marketing channel to use when looking to communicate with customers instantly. Leading up to a particular game, businesses can take the time to share the World Cup fever via SMS, offering special SMS coupons to increase foot traffic and general engagement with your brand. Any leftover merchandise or sale items can be used in a flash discount sale for further interaction.

Betting agencies

With sports betting becoming more popular with each new event, betting companies can enjoy the festivities this exciting event has to offer. For instance, they can create an SMS marketing campaign that reconnects them with existing customers and to attract new customers. Most customers’ accounts become ‘inactive’ when there isn’t an event running, so use this event to reignite your customer engagement strategy by SMSing exclusive specials. These SMS messages can be automated and integrated with your existing CRM system.

Time to start texting

The moral of the story is that businesses should take the time to step up their customer engagement strategy over this action-packed time. The FIFA World Cup is an event unlike any other and, with so many hospitality factors playing a role in how the World Cup supporters experience the event, businesses now have the opportunity to increase brand awareness and score big by adding some ‘fun’ to their brand.

Clickatell Platform gives you the freedom to win your customers’ hearts through a personalized and immediate conversational platform. By incorporating bulk SMS marketing into your customer engagement strategy, Clickatell will be able to SMS-enable any application, website or system, facilitate international two-way messaging and more, for increased usability, profitability, and efficiency.