Get your FIFA 2022 World Cup game on with SMS marketing!

18 November 2022

Why the World Cup is an important occasion for all marketers

November 20th will see the start of the FIFA World cup Qatar. World Cup fever brings with it a raft of marketing opportunities not only for businesses associated with football celebrations but for all businesses that use SMS marketing messages. World events such as the World Cup bring people together, not just in person but, remotely too.

Football fans will be sending each other text messages to celebrate, commiserate, or simply build excitement. There will also be a small percentage of football avoiders offering each other consolation when their favourite soap has been cancelled to make way for a big match. Whatever people want to say, they will be doing a large proportion of it via text.

How can all brands benefit?

No matter what your line of business is, get a slice of the half-time pie by interacting with your SMS subscribers about football. It’s a great opportunity to extract personal data from your consumers, and get them talking. Why not kick things off with quick text:

“FIFA World Cup lands this week! Tell us if you love it or hate it for your chance to win in our latest competition. Reply “LOVE” or “HATE” to enter. Click the link for full terms & conditions”

From this text, you will be able to establish which of your subscribers are into football and interact with them appropriately. Thanks to amazing SMS platform technology you can use customer data to segment your audience and only send them an SMS message that they want to receive. Whether they love football or hate it there will be a marketing strategy that will work for the customer.

SMS marketing messages are generally successful for all of your marketing campaigns. They are currently the most preferred method of communication for customers. 84% of Brits own mobile phones and according to a study carried out by Nottingham Trent university the average person looks at their phone 85 times a day! So it’s no surprise that SMS has an open rate of 97%!

SMS marketing ideas for sports and celebrations related brands

There will be many businesses that can directly benefit from an event like the World Cup. However, it can be hard to stand out from the rest of the crowd. Customers will be looking to make the most out of the occasion. Since the pandemic, getting together in person has never been so important. So this is your chance to maximise your revenue.

The industries that directly benefit are:

  • Hospitality
  • Travel
  • Partyware suppliers
  • Beverage retailers
  • Food retailers
  • Sports brands

Hospitality

The hospitality industry includes hotels, bars, and restaurants. All may see an increase in business during World Cup season, but they may also see a drop-off as football fans decide to stay home to watch the matches. Use SMS marketing messages to reach all your fans and let them know how they can soak up some footie-themed action with you. There are lots of ideas to pull in punters and engage with subscribers:

  • Show live matches – Let customers know that you will be showing the match at your venue so they don’t need to miss out if they visit. Tell them what else you have going on at the same time (craft beer, free foam hands, football-themed food, discounts).
  • Offer takeaway – For those who cannot bear to watch the match anywhere else, let them know that they can come and pick up all their favourite food and drink from you to enjoy at home. Or maybe you will be offering delivery. Perfect for a World Cup party.
  • Run a sweepstake – Use SMS to hold a competition. Interact with your subscribers whilst gathering data at the same time. Start two-way conversations that can help to tailor your future marketing.
  • Take pity on non-football fans – Send SMS special offers to those who are not interested in the game. They may appreciate the chance to get away
  • Sound voucher codes and discounts – to entice people to your venue during the footy season.

SMS is not all marketing. Transactional messages have transformed the hospitality industry. Many hotels, restaurants, and bars use non-promotional SMS messages to streamline their booking process and reduce no-shows. Once an online booking is made an instant message is sent automatically to confirm the booking. You may set up an automatic short text message to acknowledge the booking. You would typically include the date and time of the booking and the option to cancel or reschedule. Appointments and reservations can be migrated to the recipient’s mobile calendar.

Major events often mean a dramatic increase in bookings. Extra bookings mean extra staff will be needed and the chance of no-shows could be higher. SMS reminders, to keep in touch with customers will enable you to send reminders, send booking-related updates, and location information. Customers can also be offered a chance to text to cancel in advance.

Transport

Airline companies and their customers benefit greatly from SMS transactional messages during major events such as the World Cup. There is an increase in the volume of travellers and using SMS for scheduling information and reminders is not only helpful for customers, but also for airline staff. Automated SMS can do part of the work of admin staff to keep things running more smoothly.

The travel industry is currently experiencing an unprecedented staffing crisis since the global pandemic; causing huge delays, cancellations, and general travel chaos. Using SMS can keep customers up-to-date and of course, remind them of flight times and changes. For those airlines savvy enough to be using transactional SMS, staffing issues may not be such a huge problem. 

Retail, food, and beverage outlets

Many retailers trade in supplies that will complement the World Cup. Customers will feel inspired to buy sportswear, merchandise, sports equipment, party food, and supplies, the list is endless. This will be one crucial shopping season that is not to be missed. 

Products such as party ware, food, and drink will mostly be purchased according to convenience and price. The market is very competitive now supermarkets are offering much the same as traditional stores. To maximise sales, you will need to catch the attention of busy consumers and make the experience hassle-free. There is no better marketing channel than targeted SMS messages to alert your customers to what you have in stock. With segmentation, you can select only the relevant customers to send your World Cup shopping SMS messages.

Some ideas to catch the attention of your customers instantly in your SMS marketing process are:

  • Voucher codes
  • Special SMS coupons
  • 3 for 2 offers
  • World Cup countdowns
  • Good-humoured football texts with funny gifs, images, or memes
  • Free delivery
  • Party hacks or tips

Betting agencies

Betting agencies can win big with SMS marketing and transactional SMS. A good way to promote a campaign surrounding major events is to create a themed SMS Series. Kick things off by sending your SMS subscribers a “Welcome to world Cup season” text. From here you can tell your subscribers how they can expect to benefit from being a subscriber during the up-and-coming event. Let them know that it pays to keep opting in to receive messages from you.

Other great uses for gambling SMS are:

  • Betting confirmations,
  • Live result updates
  • Payout confirmations
  • Latest odds
  • Text-to-bet

So get your game on and start scoring those goals with SMS this World Cup season

See every feel-good event as a chance to reconnect with your audience. Huge events like the FIFA World Cup do not come along every year and offer plenty of opportunities for all sorts of businesses to engage with customers. Even if your business has no involvement in anything football-related, there are still text conversations to be had with your subscribers. Love it or loathe it, sports can bring people together and get them talking. Get ready to interact with World Cup-themed marketing material this year.

For a reliable SMS platform to get you started, start your free TextAnywhere trial today. We can get you going and ready for action in no time at all. Enjoy the benefits of two-way messaging, bulk SMS marketing, personalisation, audience segmentation, and automated SMS with TextAnywhere.

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