SMS Strategy for Black Friday / Cyber Monday 2026

Black Friday 2025 broke all records!

Danes spent DKK 1.21 billion on Black Friday 2025, representing a 2% growth from 2024, and the entire week leading up to it was packed with online activity, gift shopping, and mobile shopping.

This year, Black Friday falls on November 27, 2026. Is your marketing strategy ready?

SMS marketing and RCS marketing involve sending personalized and valuable messages to customers' mobile phones. And the mobile phone is precisely one of the most effective channels to secure your place in customers' minds both before, during, and after Black Friday.

In this article, you'll get a concrete plan for how to use SMS and RCS to elevate your Black Friday campaigns in 2026.

Why use SMS and RCS for Black Friday?

Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year – and the mobile phone is the preferred device when Danes are looking for and buying deals.

Black Friday's growing popularity means it has become a much noisier week to be a consumer. We are bombarded with emails, push notifications, and ads. A message sent directly to a mobile phone, however, cuts through the noise – and with an open rate of up to 98% and average click-through rates of +36%, SMS and RCS are your direct access to customer attention on one of the busiest days of the year.

Danes shop on their mobile phones

The trend has been steadily increasing for a long time, and in 2025, the figures were very clear: Danes prefer to shop on their mobile phones.

In the Ecommerce Tracker 2025 it can be read that the mobile phone is now the most important online channel, accounting for almost half of all Danes' online purchases (49%). This is an increase of 4 percentage points from 2024. At the same time, PC usage has fallen by 32%.

In other words, there's no getting around mobile if you're a Danish e-commerce business.

Figures from MobilePay support Danes' eagerness to shop online. On Black Friday 2025 itself, there were a total of 1.82 million swipes via MobilePay, resulting in a turnover of DKK 1.21 billion for online stores.

This corresponds to an increase of approximately 2% in both the number of transactions and turnover compared to Black Friday 2024.

For the entire Black Week, Danes spent 3.86 billion kroner via MobilePay, compared to 3.66 billion kroner the previous year – a growth of 5%.

Activity peaked between 9 PM and 10 PM on Black Friday, with 36 payments processed per second, and in that hour alone, more than DKK 86 million was spent.

Everything indicates that Black Friday and Black Week are still a hit among Danish consumers.

And the clear recommendation from here is: Include SMS and RCS in your Black Friday strategy if you want to cut through the enormous volume of offers and reach your customers directly on their phones.

When is Black Friday 2026?

This year, Black Friday falls on November 27, 2026 – the same day as the first Sunday of Advent.

But Black Friday isn't just one day. It has evolved into an entire month: Black Month. Most online stores start campaigns as early as week 47, continuing with Black Friday, Black Weekend and concluding with Cyber Monday and Cyber Week. And then the Christmas sales take over.

Your strategy should therefore not only be about that one day, Black Friday. Instead, it's about considering the entire period from Black Month to the Christmas season.

Get an overview of Black Month 2026 below.

Many businesses start their offers as early as the week leading up to Black Friday (week 47), though the best deals are usually found on Black Friday itself. In recent years, there has also been a trend to continue the offers throughout the entire weekend.

Stores with an online shop should follow up on Black Week with online campaigns on Cyber Monday. A concept that has surged in popularity since it first appeared in 2005.

The latest addition is now Cyber Week, which (like Black Week) is an extension of Cyber Monday. Cyber Week is thus a full week of offers on stores' webshops.

Together, all these days are typically referred to as BFCM (Black Friday Cyber Monday) – or simply Black Month.

Whether you plan to offer deals every day or only on Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday, your strategy should cover the entire period. You'll find help to put together your plan below.

Permissions are the foundation of a successful Black Friday strategy

You can plan the world's best deals. But if you have no one to send them to, you likely won't sell much.

Therefore, start by ensuring you have an active, permissions-based phone number list. Consumers who have given permission to hear from you are already warm leads – and your greatest chance for conversion.

It has rarely been more important to utilize the permissions you have. In an era where many e-commerce businesses face increased competition, it's crucial to engage customers who have already shown interest in your business.

This is especially important leading up to Black Friday. Figures from DI Handel show that only 9% of Black Friday purchases in 2024 were made at stores where the customer had not shopped before. This is significantly lower than both 2023 and the rest of the year, where the figure typically ranges from 11–13%.

These figures underscore an important point: Consumers prefer to spend their Black Friday money with brands they already know and trust.

Therefore, you should use your mobile list strategically – not just to attract new customers, but primarily to activate your existing subscribers. A targeted campaign with exclusive offers for previous Black Friday shoppers, loyal customers, or members of your loyalty programme can make a big difference. Especially if combined with early access or personalized discounts that reward their loyalty and make the decision to buy even easier.

Simply put: The better you activate your existing opt-ins – the more value you'll get from your Black Friday efforts.

Read also: Why your SMS strategy should focus on customer loyalty – and how to do it.

And no matter how long (or short) your list of SMS opt-ins is right now, now is the time to act. The more opt-ins you collect leading up to Black Friday, the greater the volume and impact your campaigns will have during the busiest shopping period of the year.

Get inspiration from our article: How to collect SMS opt-ins.

How to effectively use your mobile lists

Naturally, your SMS/RCS list shouldn't just grow only to be forgotten until Black Friday.

It's important that you already now – or at the latest in the weeks leading up to Black Friday – send out a few mobile messages and start establishing a relationship with your recipients on this channel.

When you establish a relationship with recipients right from the moment you collect their opt-in, you increase the chance that they will remember you and your product for Black Friday. It's also a good opportunity to create buzz around your Black Friday campaign before the campaign actually kicks off.

You can effectively use automations to ensure that everyone on your list receives a warm welcome from you and your business with an automated welcome flow.

In addition to setting up a welcome flow, you can also benefit from implementing an abandoned cart and a cross-sell flow. These will not only enhance your daily marketing efforts but also help increase your conversions when the busy Black Friday traffic hits your webshop.

Read also: 10 Message Examples for Abandoned Cart SMS

Furthermore, the more you know about your recipients and their engagement with your webshop and mobile messages, the more personalized and targeted your campaigns can become.

In other words: The better you know the consumers on your SMS and RCS lists before Black Friday, the more you can tailor your campaigns to the specific customer, and the greater the chance of high conversion rates.

How to Collect Mobile Permissions

There are three things you can do right now (yes, right now!) to start collecting permissions.

1. Sign-up at checkout

If you have a webshop, you can benefit from inviting your customers to sign up for SMS and RCS when they are at checkout. A customer who has come this far is genuinely interested in you and your product, so their interest in receiving good offers should be high.

‍2. Phone Number in Sign-up Forms

Are you already collecting email permissions for your newsletter or other purposes via a form? Then you can benefit from adding a field where the recipient can enter their phone number.

Remember that a phone number is much more personal than an email, which is why there needs to be a motivating factor for providing it. This motivation could, for example, be early access to your Black Friday offers a day before everyone else.

3. From Email to Mobile List

If you already have a good following on your email list, you can invite them to also follow your mobile list. This is, of course, only relevant for consumers if they can expect special offers or invitations that are exclusively sent to your mobile lists.

It is crucial to offer a strong incentive if you want your email contacts to also sign up for SMS and RCS.

One way you can convert email permissions into mobile permissions is by creating a landing page for SMS and RCS sign-ups. You can share this landing page in your newsletter with inspiring text explaining why recipients should subscribe to your mobile list. For example, you could offer a gift card worth DKK 500, which the lucky winner can use on Black Friday.

You can also include a form directly in your email where your followers can enter their phone number and consent to SMS and RCS marketing.

Develop your SMS strategy for Black Friday 2026

You're now collecting permissions, great! Now it's time to strategize how to convert your permissions into Black Friday customers.

Is this your first time developing an SMS or RCS strategy for Black Friday? Here are the four most important questions you should ask yourself:

1. Who should I send SMS messages to?
2. How often should I send them messages?
3. When should I send them messages?
4. How do I strategically combine SMS, RCS, and email to increase my conversions on Black Friday?

1. Which segments should I send SMS messages to?

One of the prerequisites for a successful BFCM campaign is to segment your lists of SMS and RCS recipients. This ensures that the right people receive the right messages at the right time.

In inMobile, you can sort all your contacts into SMS lists, so you can easily keep track of who you're sending which messages to.

But which segments (lists) are actually important to have?

This naturally varies from business to business, but below you'll find 5 typical segments you can draw inspiration from.

#1 VIP Customers

Your VIP customers are those who buy frequently or spend large sums, and who actively engage with your mobile messages. In other words: They read, click, and make purchases regularly. This customer group should not be overlooked, as they are vital to your business.

Special VIP offers or VIP events can help ensure that these customers remain loyal for many years to come – if not for life.

#2 Engaged followers

These are the followers who actively engage. They read, click, and occasionally make purchases from your business, but they are not as loyal as VIP customers. A unique offer for this segment can help push engaged followers into the VIP customer pool – or at least extend their interest in your business.

#3 Those who shopped on Black Friday last year

This segment shopped with you last year and is therefore already aware of the value of shopping with you on Black Friday. It's therefore a good idea to re-establish contact with this group of consumers – regardless of whether they have shopped with you since last Black Friday or not. They often only need a small nudge to return and shop again this year.

#4 Local customers (geographical)

If you have a physical store, it makes sense to have a segment for customers who live close to the store(s) or who have shopped there previously.

For this segment, you should ensure your mobile campaign is linked to the local store. You can do this, for example, by inviting them to physical events, offering free in-store pickup, or highlighting special offers that are only valid in the physical store.

See how this strategy can be effectively used in our case study on the retail chain Message.

#5 Those who have browsed but not yet purchased

Most businesses are familiar with so-called window shoppers. These are consumers who browse (for example, via your SMS list) but have not yet made a purchase from your business.

This is an important segment for your BF strategy. Because they have shown genuine interest in your business, there's a high probability that the right offer can convert them into paying customers.

2. How often should you send mobile messages?

As a general rule, you should never send more than 1-2 SMS or RCS messages per week. For some businesses, it should be far fewer, as you otherwise risk annoying your followers.

During Black Friday and Cyber Week, however, you can bend that rule slightly and send a few more messages. Most consumers expect this during a peak shopping period like this. However, as a general rule, we recommend no more than 1-2 messages per day, and only if they are relevant to the recipient.

If you need to convey more than what a single SMS or RCS message can describe, consider implementing email into your Black Friday strategy. Email serves as an excellent supplement to your mobile messages because it allows more room to play with text and images. We'll cover this in point 4.

3. When should you send messages?

It matters whether you send your messages before, during, or after Black Friday. Your timing must be right, and the correct message needs to be sent at the opportune moment if you want to get the most out of your BFCM strategy.

In recent years, the trend has been for Black Friday to extend into Black Week. A whole week filled with great offers. Data from Black Friday Denmark however, shows that Black Friday itself remains the day with the highest revenue. A full 47.2% of the total revenue during Black Week 2024 was generated on Friday.

However, it was observed that consumers were most ready to buy on Sunday – the conversion rate (the percentage of visitors who ended up making a purchase) was highest on Sunday in 2024.

So, even though Friday is the biggest day in terms of revenue, you shouldn't refrain from also running campaigns on the remaining days of Black Week.

Below, you will learn how to distribute your messages on the days before, during, and after Black Friday.

#1 The Week Leading Up to Black Friday

Some businesses start their offers already in the days leading up to Black Friday. However, the week leading up to the big shopping day is typically used to prepare your customers for Black Friday and, not least, to get them excited about the fantastic offers they can expect from your business.

Therefore, be careful not to send too many messages during these days, as the real action only begins on Friday. Feel free to send one or two SMS or RCS messages, and make sure they are relevant. For example, you can inform them when the offers start or launch a competition where the winner is announced on Black Friday.

It is also during these days that you can give your VIP customers early access to the offers. For example, you can give this segment a special code or a specific link that grants them access to your Black Friday offers before anyone else.

#2 Black Friday

Black Friday is the day that truly matters. Today, everyone should have access to your offers.

Today, all your relevant SMS lists should be notified that the sale has officially started. At the same time, remember to let your subscribers know when the deals will end. Do they last all weekend, one day, or perhaps just a few hours? Setting a time limit on your offers creates a sense of exclusivity and urgency.

#3 The Weekend Between Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Black Friday is over, but Cyber Monday is just around the corner. Use the weekend to analyze your data. Was there a message or an offer that performed exceptionally well? Was there anything that didn't work at all? Use that data to prepare for Cyber Monday.

If you use link tracking in inMobile, you can, among other things, look at your click-through rates to determine whether a campaign has achieved the desired result.

Some businesses also choose to continue their offers throughout the weekend. This can make sense for certain businesses, but if you choose to do so, you risk diluting the hype around your Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers.

On Sunday afternoon, you can send your VIP customers a message with early access to your Cyber Monday deals.

#4 Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is the biggest online shopping day of the year. If you exclusively run an online store, this is your moment!

Use your SMS and RCS lists to inform your followers about the fantastic Cyber Monday deals available in your online store. It's also a good idea to highlight that today is the last chance to grab these great offers – otherwise, they'll have to wait another year until next November to find deals like these again (if that's indeed the case).

This can help give those last window shoppers the final push to hit the buy button.

4. Email in Your BFCM Strategy

Email, SMS, and RCS are not rivals. On the contrary, they complement each other excellently and should all be integrated into your Black Friday strategy.

SMS works best for short, concise messages that your followers can act on immediately. Sometimes, a visual element can help clarify your message, and RCS is ideal for that. Other times, you might want to say a bit more, and that's where email can be the answer.

In the week leading up to Black Friday, you can send one or more emails to your followers, in which you teaser for your upcoming deals and showcase some of your bestsellers.

Now your followers know what to expect. So, when the deals drop, you can send them a specific SMS or RCS with your desired message – for example, a discount code, a video, or other information announcing that your offers have begun. Likewise, your target audience will know exactly what your message is and why they are receiving it.  

By creating synergy between longer email messages, visual and personal RCS messages, and shorter SMS messages, you leave the consumer with a positive overall impression, thereby increasing the chances of more purchases from you. This is especially true on days like Black Friday.

More tips for your Black Friday strategy

You've now reached the end of this article on Black Friday strategy. I hope you've gained plenty of inspiration and motivation to start creating your own strategy.

Finally, here are a few last tips.

#1 Make your mobile messages personal

A successful SMS and RCS strategy consists only of messages that are relevant to the recipient. This means sending the right message at the right time.

You can ensure this by using the data you have about your customers' purchasing behavior. Data that, for example, tells you how far a consumer has progressed on your website. Did they abandon their cart without paying, have they browsed a specific product more than three times, do they always shop after 8 PM, etc.

With such data, you can create automated messages that ensure the right message reaches the right recipient at the optimal time, depending on user behavior. Naturally, you should also consider this when developing your Black Friday campaign.

Examples of how you can personalize your messages:

• Address your recipient by their first name.
• Adapt the message based on the recipient's geographical location (e.g., if you are hosting physical events or have special offers in stores).
• Customize offers and send personalized recommendations based on previous purchases.
• Respect the recipient's time zone and any content preferences (if you have collected this data).
• Take extra good care of your loyal customers with special offers and events.

#2 Respect your recipients


When a new consumer says "yes please" to receiving SMS and RCS from your company, it's a sign of trust and genuine interest. You must live up to that trust by only sending messages that are truly relevant and interesting to your recipient.

You must remember that messages sent directly to mobile phones go to a much more personal channel than most others. That's why it works so well – but it also means it's important not to send too many or "insignificant" messages. Doing so can end up creating frustration for the recipient rather than interest, and ultimately result in an unsubscribe from your mobile list.

As a rule of thumb, you should not send messages before 8 AM or after 9 PM (in your recipients' time zone), unless they are very important. Black Friday, for example, might be an exception to this rule, but proceed with caution.

#3 Consider whether emojis and links enrich your message

It is often discussed and debated whether one should use emojis in SMS messages. The answer to the question will vary depending on who you ask.

You can read our take on the issue in the post about emojis in SMS.

Because emojis do not demonstrably increase conversion, and are also expensive to send, we generally recommend that you instead use links in your Black Friday SMS messages. A link can direct your recipient to the part of your website you desire. For example, a landing page created specifically for your Black Friday offers.

If you want to use more visual elements like images and emojis, you should instead send RCS messages, where this is precisely an option.

#4 Be specific in your messages and remember a CTA

An SMS message is limited in the number of characters that can be written. It can therefore be a challenge in itself to send valuable SMS messages. When developing your Black Friday SMS strategy, you should make your messages as concise as possible. This also applies to RCS messages, even though you are not as limited in the number of characters here. Both types of messages land in the same inbox on the mobile, and should therefore be kept relatively short with an easily readable message.

Also remember to include a clear CTA (Call to Action) so your recipients know what to do after reading your message. When your recipients know which products and offers they can get their hands on, as well as where and when, it increases the likelihood of them making a purchase.

#5 Ask for feedback after Black Friday

Thank your customers for shopping with you during Black Week, and at the same time, ask them for feedback. Are they satisfied with their purchase, did they have problems shopping on Black Friday, or did everything go smoothly?

Data like this is absolutely essential for your business and your future marketing strategy. For example, you can ask for feedback by enabling SMS replies and asking the recipient to rate their experience on a scale from 1-10. You can also send a link to a short survey, or initiate a dialogue via RCS. There are many ways to ask for feedback.

All that's left is to wish you good luck with your Black Friday strategy!