BFCM SMS Playbook

How to use SMS for BFCM - without burning cash.

Author

David Wardenga
November 11, 2025

Welcome!

Today you'll learn how to use SMS in addition to your existing email setup without burning money and without annoying your customers.

We've been using Omnichannel Marketing for the past few years and this lesson/course is based on our learnings from a few hundred projects as an agency as well as from data from 1.500 brands.

IMPORTANT: The costs for SMS credits vary HEAVILY from country to country.

For businesses in the US, SMS are usually a no brainer as 1 SMS costs 1 credit.

However, coming from Germany, SMS is an absolute disaster here. 1 SMS costs 12 credits making it near impossible to be profitable, even with healthy margins.

Also, if you use emojis, and/or exceed character limits, these can double. For the US you'd pay 2 credits per send, and 24 in Germany. So be aware of this.

Here's the full cost breakdown: Klaviyo SMS Billing

Goal:

After this post, you’ll know:

  • Which SMS strategy you should be using during BFCM

  • Why you shouldn't layer SMS with emails

  • Where and how to use SMS in your flows & campaigns

and more...

My Rule: The cheapest medium always goes first. If you're using email & sms in tandem, please make sure to always try to get the conversion with emails first. There is no valid reason to send both messages at the same time - so if you can pay less for a conversion, then do so.

Why should you add SMS to your strategy?

The average email today has an open rate of about 30% within 4 hours.
The average SMS today has an open rate of 98% while 90% are being opened within 3 min.

This statistic alone shows just how powerful SMS really is.

Pros:
- It's less crowded because fewer business do it
- Most people check it more frequently than emails

Cons:
- It costs significantly more than an email
- It's a lot harder to get a phone number than it is to get an email

Now, at least from my experience, it's worth the extra effort and money every single time.

Here for example, we have a brand that c….

📅 Next in the BFCM Academy

  • Today: The Ultimate 2025 BFCM SMS Playbook

  • 11/13: The Ultimate 2025 Early Launch Strategy

  • 11/18: The Ultimate 2025 BFCM Klaviyo Practical Hacks

  • 11/20: The Ultimate 2025 Meta Ads Targeting & Product Promotion Strategy

  • 11/25: The Ultimate 2025 BFCM Last-Minute Klaviyo Segmentation

  • 11/26: The Ultimate 2025 Expert Advice – Tactical BFCM Insights from Operators

  • 12/03: 2025 BFCM Hot Takes & Founder Social Highlights

📚 Other helpful resources from the Aimerce team:

Before we rush into 2025 prep, let’s pause and unpack what actually moved revenue in 2024.

BFCM 2025 Checklist

Holiday 2025 isn’t just another sales season. It’s an opportunity to engineer repeatable growth systems that carry momentum into 2026.