The holiday season has started with Thanksgiving fast approaching and along with it comes the biggest shopping day of the year – Black Friday. Every Thanksgiving after devouring more turkey than we probably should, the search for the best Black Friday deals begin for our family. This is probably no different than many families out there, considering the fact that Black Friday generates the most shopping traffic of the year, according to U.S News and World Report.

Deals don’t get much better than on Black Friday. Despite the risk of getting trampled to death, consumers will still line up outside your store at 5am if you have the best promotions in town. But having the deepest price cuts won’t matter if no one knows about it. Therefore, being successful requires careful planning and an effective marketing strategy to promote your business. So, is your business ready for Black Friday?

Here are some simple ways you can use mobile marketing to ensure that you’ll have customers flooding through the doors.

Get the word out with mobile coupons

Announce your special sale and offer discounts with mobile coupons.  Since your customers are most likely bombarded with flyers and direct mail from your competitors, many sales promotions may get lost in the clutter. With mobile coupons, your customers receive special discounts straight from their phones so they’ll know about your sale instantly.

Use QR codes to display your Black Friday shopping catalog

Make it convenient for your customers to receive a copy of your Black Friday sales catalog by using QR codes. Link your online shopping catalog to a QR code you created with mobile marketing tools like those offered by Trumpia, so that your customers can see what you have to offer with just a scan.  Advertise your QR code on your in-store signage, Facebook, blog, and everywhere you communicate with customers.  By offering your catalog electronically, you will also reduce advertising costs by cutting print advertisements.

Have an exclusive sale

Reward your loyal customers by inviting them to your “secret” sale. By targeting your key customers, you’ll drive more profitable traffic to your store since loyal customers typically spend much more than casual shoppers. To invite your customers to the event, have them text a special mobile keyword to a short code, for example “VIP” to 99000, to get them to opt-in to your mobile database. Once opted-in, you can send them a text and require them to show it to the cashier in order to get an extra discount upon check out.

Remember, the benefits of having your customers opt-in to our network, whether by keyword or QR code, don’t end here. Since their number is stored in your mobile database, you can send them promotions and notify them about future sales to continuously drive traffic to your store.