9 mobile marketing strategies for BFCM 2025

Back in the early days of the iPhone, it seemed like online purchases were strictly made on laptops and desktops. But today, that trend is completely reversing.

According to Klaviyo’s 2025 future of consumer marketing report, 53% of consumers make retail/ecommerce purchases on mobile. Meanwhile, EMARKETER’s mobile commerce trends found that 60% of US adults see mobile shopping as a necessary convenience.

During Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM), a mobile-first approach is key to generating as many sales as possible. That’s especially true considering Klaviyo’s 2025 BFCM forecast found that 77% of consumers plan to spend the same amount of money or more money during the 2025 holiday season compared to last holiday season.

Remember, mobile marketing doesn’t just mean SMS messaging. It encompasses all marketing efforts optimized for mobile devices, including MMS, RCS, mobile-optimized email, push notifications, in-app messaging, WhatsApp, and mobile-first web experiences.

Here’s how to implement a mobile marketing strategy that will help you have your best BFCM yet.

1. Develop your BFCM mobile marketing strategy

Before you optimize a single email or send a single WhatsApp message, you need to figure out your mobile marketing strategy for BFCM. Here are a few factors to focus on:

Timeline

According to Klaviyo’s 2024 BFCM data, many brands began launching BFCM promotions on November 7, exactly 3 weeks before Thanksgiving. We also saw that consumers started buying gifts around roughly the same time.

With this in mind, consider launching your BFCM mobile strategy 8–12 weeks before BFCM, so you can warm up your lists, A/B test messaging and offers, and drive early conversions well before Thanksgiving.

List growth

On that note, make a conscious effort to grow your mobile subscriber base ahead of BFCM. That might mean:

• Launching SMS-specific sign-up forms, or collecting SMS consent as part of a multi-step sign-up form that asks for email address first
• Collecting SMS and WhatsApp consent during check-out
• Sending a campaign to existing email subscribers encouraging them to sign up for SMS and/or WhatsApp marketing for specific holiday shopping perks, like early access or exclusive content

Patrick Ta Beauty invested in email and SMS list growth more than a month before BFCM, building anticipation around loyalty perks and early access to the holiday event. With more subscribers and smarter marketing, Patrick Ta grew Klaviyo-attributed revenue during BFCM 8x YoY and revenue from SMS during BFCM 4x YoY.

Technical considerations

Here are a few technical considerations for making sure your mobile marketing runs as smoothly as possible during BFCM:

• Follow SMS compliance and SMS deliverability guidelines.
• Get explicit push notification consent from your mobile app users.
• Get explicit WhatsApp consent from customers, and use pre-approved marketing message templates.
• Optimize your mobile website and page speeds.
• Test mobile email templates across every device your customers might use.

2. Unify your data to create a cohesive omnichannel experience

It’s important to map each customer journey on each device or channel they engage with your brand on. A built-in customer data platform like Klaviyo Data Platform unifies your customer data and empowers you to orchestrate omnichannel marketing across SMS, MMS, RCS, mobile push, in-app messaging, and WhatsApp—all from a single source of truth.

When handcrafted watch brand Shinola decided to run a BFCM campaign for the first time in company history last year, they worked with Klaviyo partner Zettler Digital to craft a more targeted strategy for email and ramp up their new SMS channel.

Shinola’s holiday event ran for almost 3 weeks. It was a daily drumbeat of email offers on specific products and limited-edition drops, amplified by regular SMS campaigns, where they focused promotional and brand emails on their most engaged customers.

This helped drive growth and efficiency wins—email revenue jumped 22% YoY during BFCM and revenue per recipient grew 48% YoY. Ultimately, using Klaviyo for both email and SMS made it easy to develop the two channels side by side.

3. Build anticipation with pre-BFCM mobile campaigns

BFCM doesn’t start the day after Thanksgiving. It starts weeks before, as most brands know they can use the immediacy of mobile marketing channels to create anticipation for their offers and deals, grabbing customers’ attention and getting on their radars.

But what does that look like in practice? There are lots of creative ways to build excitement in the months and weeks leading up to peak holiday shopping season. For example:

• Natural health brand Happy Way used engagement-based segmentation to give their most loyal shoppers exclusive access to their BFCM sale before the official sale kicked off. It was just one part of a strategy that drove 27% YoY growth in Klaviyo-attributed BFCM revenue.
• Activewear brand POPFLEX ran a shopping spree giveaway in October requiring entrants to create holiday wishlists on their site. Nearly 100,000 customers entered, which gave them plenty of browsing and wishlist data to use for targeted holiday messaging. The strategy helped drive 137% YoY growth in Klaviyo-attributed value from their BFCM sale.

4. Pick the right channel for every message

Klaviyo’s 2025 BFCM forecast found that while email dominates channel preferences, mobile-first channels occupy at least 3 of the top 5 preferred channels across message types.

But different mobile messages require different channels, especially if they include images, GIFs, and interactive buttons. Here’s a rundown of each one:

• SMS (Short Message Service) is a basic form of text message sent over carrier networks. SMS does not include other media, and it has a 160-character limit per message. Using SMS to communicate about flash sales, last-chance reminders, and early access can reach your customers with speed and urgency.
• MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) can include images, GIFs, and longer texts. Sent over carrier networks, these messages are best for detailed VIP announcements, GIFs that include product bundles, and longer messages that are around 1,600 characters.
• RCS (Rich Communication Services) allows for high-resolution media, interactive buttons, brand verification, and read receipts. Sent over cellular data or Wi-Fi, these messages are best for visual product announcements, content-rich holiday promos, and longer messages that are up to 3,072 characters.
• WhatsApp allows your subscribers to have a real conversation with your brand. They can reply to your messages, ask you questions, browse, and purchase through the app. WhatsApp also supports rich, interactive formats such as quick replies, CTA buttons, product catalogs, branded templates, and automated conversations.
• Push notifications appear on a mobile device’s lock screen or in the device’s notification center, and encourage users to interact with your app. Since push notifications are only for mobile app users, they’re great for communicating exclusive deals, like bundles, discounts, and gift guides.
• In-app messaging is when you send messages to app users who are in an active session with your mobile app. Unlike push notifications, in-app messaging doesn’t require explicit user permission. This makes it particularly effective for delivering time-sensitive information like limited-time offers or promotions.

Remember: with the exception of in-app messaging, you need explicit consent to communicate with customers on each of these channels. SMS consent does not mean WhatsApp consent, for example, and consent to receive transactional messages is not the same as consent to receive marketing messages.

BFCM mobile marketing tip: AI can speed up this process and help you identify subscribers’ preferred channels by analyzing historical engagement data.

5. Personalize BFCM mobile marketing with segmentation

Personalization is table stakes for consumers nowadays. But how exactly should you segment your BFCM offers on mobile for maximum impact?

Enter: mobile marketing segmentation.

Here are just a few effective ways to segment your mobile lists for more personalized marketing during BFCM:

• Engagement: Send more frequently to those who’ve engaged with your mobile marketing recently.
• Prefers a certain channel: Send messages on this channel first, then follow up on another one.
• VIPs: Send exclusive deals, sneak peeks, and promotions, and don’t be shy about letting these customers know how much you appreciate their ongoing support.
• High-intent shoppers: If people are starting check-outs but not finishing, for example, incentivize them with friendly reminders and discounts. This is also a great segment for testing a campaign or flow before you launch to a bigger audience.
• Location-based: Send messaging about local events, seasonal products, and in-store news.
• Purchase history and product preferences: In addition to using engagement-based segmentation to give their most loyal shoppers exclusive access to their BFCM sale before the official sale kicked off, natural health brand Happy Way also segmented their audience based on product preferences—like promoting only vegan products to their vegan customers during BFCM.

6. Optimize mobile email for thumb-friendly shopping

Klaviyo’s 2025 BFCM forecast revealed that 64% of consumers prefer email for order confirmations and 57% of consumers prefer email for shipping notifications. Email gives you a prime opportunity to reach customers both before they purchase, with promotions, and after they purchase, with relevant up-sells and cross-sells.

But remember, an email that looks good on a desktop doesn’t always look the same on mobile. When sending campaigns and flows that subscribers are likely to open on their phones, use mobile email design best practices, like:

• Single-column layouts that require minimal scrolling
• Large CTAs that are easy to press
• Compressed images that load as quickly as possible
• Deals that display their value proposition above the fold
• CTA placement testing to determine optimal positioning

7. Use AI to level up BFCM targeting, messaging, and content

AI not only saves you time with your mobile marketing. It also makes it more effective.

Klaviyo’s 2025 BFCM forecast found that 35% of consumers rank deals or discounts on items that they’ve viewed multiple times as the top personalization approach they desire. Using AI, you can automatically highlight product recommendations by analyzing people’s past behavior.

AI can also help you:

• Craft mobile email content and SMS messages. AI can generate mobile-ready email designs for smaller screens, create compelling descriptions for BFCM deals, and write SMS messages (at the right length) that drive action during peak shopping moments.
• Write mobile email subject lines. Create attention-grabbing subject lines optimized for mobile preview size, using BFCM-specific language to increase open rates during holiday shopping.
• Reach out when customers are most likely to engage. With predictive analytics like next order date, you can time your mobile messages to reach customers right when they’re running out of a product.
• Build mobile-specific segments. Analyze user behavior to create targeted segments based on activity, like those who shop on mobile, use your app, or frequently engage with SMS.
• Build flows in seconds. Build flows based on mobile behavior like cart abandonment, browse abandonment, or app opens to send timely BFCM reminders and mobile-only deals.

Garrett Popcorn uses Klaviyo AI to create segments like customers predicted to place their next order soon. The team routinely sends campaigns to this small but mighty segment, in addition to engaged segments. One month, compared to Garrett’s email campaigns overall, this generated a 4x higher revenue per recipient.

8. Incorporate mobile messages into your existing BFCM flows

Instead of viewing mobile messages as separate from other channels during BFCM, consider incorporating them into your existing flows.

You can add SMS, WhatsApp, or push notification messages to your flows that generate the highest engagement and the most conversions to further boost their impact, and to take an omnichannel approach that resonates with shoppers. For example:

• Browse abandonment: Browse abandonment is a lower-intent action than cart abandonment. See if your subscriber will return to your site with an email first. If they don’t act, send them a text the next day nudging them to continue their shopping session.
• Cart or check-out abandonment: In these higher-intent moments, use mobile first to stay top of mind when you’re already there. Try starting with an MMS or RCS message featuring a product shot of the item they left behind. If they don’t act, send them an email the next day with customer testimonials about the product in question.
• Post-purchase: A few days after someone’s purchase is delivered, send them an email containing a how-to video tutorial or instructions on how to get the most out of their new product. A few weeks later, once they’ve had a chance to use it, start a conversation over WhatsApp asking them to rate their purchase based on several targeted questions.

BFCM mobile marketing tip: Make sure to stagger your mobile sends with your emails, especially if you just sent an email to your subscribers.

9. Measure and optimize mobile marketing performance

Measuring performance is the key to improving performance during and after BFCM. Important mobile-specific KPIs might include:

• SMS, WhatsApp, and push notification click rates
• SMS, WhatsApp, and push notification conversion rates
• SMS, WhatsApp, and push notification conversion attribution
• Mobile engagement vs. desktop performance
• Revenue per recipient (RPR)
• Revenue by channel

Conducting a post-BFCM analysis can highlight opportunities to make improvements for future promotions. When skincare brand Beekman 1802 analyzed historical data from 3 prior BFCMs, they were able to identify the products and messaging that consistently performed best around the holidays, especially with returning customers.

The analysis helped inform their merchandising and promotional strategy from that point on. One result: 49% YoY growth in total BFCM ecommerce revenue that year.

Set yourself up for success this BFCM with a B2C CRM built for mobile marketing

Winning BFCM this year requires a customer-centric, data-driven mobile marketing approach that goes beyond generic promotional blasts.

Unlike traditional marketing platforms, Klaviyo B2C CRM unifies your customer data and leverages AI to help you build personalized SMS, email, push notification, and WhatsApp campaigns that speak to individual shopping behaviors and preferences in real time.

With Klaviyo SMS, Klaviyo mobile app marketing, and Klaviyo WhatsApp marketing, you can build your mobile marketing campaigns and flows all in one platform, reaching consumers where they want to engage and measuring performance across every channel.