Each financial year, thousands of Australian businesses spend the final weeks before June 30 clearing stock, discounting services, and encouraging customers to spend before the tax year resets. Many EOFY sales now run well into July as businesses extend their promotions and catch shoppers who are still comparing options. Email inboxes fill up fast during this period, and social feeds compete for the same shrinking pool of attention on every screen. Text messages cut through that noise because they land directly on a customer's phone rather than in a crowded inbox.
This guide explains what EOFY SMS marketing is, why it works well for Australian retailers and service businesses, and how to plan a campaign from your first message to your last reminder. You'll also find message templates you can adapt for your own EOFY promotion.
What Is EOFY SMS Marketing
EOFY SMS marketing is the practice of sending text message campaigns to customers and prospects during the end of financial year period, typically from May through July in Australia, to promote clearance sales, tax-time offers, and last-chance deals before stock or budgets reset. It uses the same channel as personal texting, so messages land directly on a customer's phone rather than in a crowded inbox or a social feed governed by an algorithm. A typical EOFY SMS campaign includes a short, benefit-led message, a clear discount or offer, a link to a landing page or online store, and a deadline tied to the financial year cut-off. Businesses often send more than one message across the EOFY window: an early notice that a sale is coming, a mid-sale reminder, and a final last-chance text as the deadline approaches. Because SMS open rates are high and messages are read quickly, this channel suits time-sensitive offers better than email on its own.
Why It Matters for Australian Businesses
EOFY is one of the busiest promotional periods on the Australian retail and services calendar. Customers are actively looking for deals on equipment, software, and services they can purchase and claim as a deduction before the financial year ends. Businesses that rely only on email or social ads are competing for attention against every other business doing the same thing at the same time, often with very similar offers.
SMS reaches customers on a channel most people check within minutes of receiving a message. For a business with a hard deadline like EOFY, that speed matters. A customer who might not open a promotional email for a few days is more likely to open and act on a text message the same day, which is useful when a sale only has a week or two left to run.
Local compliance also matters. Australian SMS marketing must follow the Spam Act 2003 and ACMA rules, including consent from the recipient and a working opt-out on every message. Building EOFY campaigns on a platform designed for the Australian market makes it easier to stay compliant while still moving quickly during a short sales window.
Key Benefits
High open rates: Text messages are typically opened faster than marketing emails, which matters when a sale has a fixed end date.
Direct, personal reach: Messages land on a customer's phone rather than getting buried in a crowded inbox or filtered into a spam folder.
Clear urgency: Short messages with a specific deadline, such as "Sale ends June 30", create urgency without needing a long email format.
Segmentation options: Contact Lists can be split by purchase history, service type, or location, so EOFY offers go to the customers most likely to act.
Easy to measure: Click-throughs on trackable links and reply rates give a quick read on which offers are working while the campaign is still running.
Lower cost per message: Bulk SMS campaigns are generally more affordable to run than paid social or display advertising for a comparable reach.
Step-by-Step Guide: Running an EOFY SMS Campaign
Step 1: Plan your offer and timeline
Decide what you are promoting, whether that's a clearance sale, a bundled service discount, or a free consultation before the financial year ends. Map out your sending dates against the offer's start and finish, so each message has a clear reason to go out when it does.
Step 2: Segment your contact list
Use Contact Lists to group customers by past purchases, service type, or location. A retailer might message past customers about a clearance sale on items similar to what they bought before, while a services business might target clients whose last appointment was more than a year ago.
Step 3: Write short, clear messages
Lead with the business name, the offer, and the deadline in the first line, since most of a text message is read on a lock screen before the customer even opens it. A few templates to adapt:
Early notice: "[Business]: Our EOFY sale starts Monday. Save up to 30% storewide before June 30. [link] Reply STOP to opt out."
Mid-sale reminder: "[Business]: EOFY sale still on, [X] days left to save on [product/service]. Shop now: [link] Reply STOP to opt out."
Last chance: "[Business]: Last chance, our EOFY sale ends tonight at midnight. Don't miss out: [link] Reply STOP to opt out."
Service-based offer: "[Business]: Book your EOFY consultation before June 30 and make the most of this financial year. Book online: [link] Reply STOP to opt out."
Step 4: Schedule and automate the sequence
Use SMS Campaigns and SMS Automation to schedule the full sequence in advance, so the early notice, reminder, and last-chance message go out on the right dates without needing to be sent manually each time. Setting the sequence up once at the start of the sale reduces the chance of a message going out late or being missed altogether.
Step 5: Include a working opt-out and honour it immediately
Every promotional message needs a clear way to opt out, and requests need to be processed straight away. This keeps the contact list compliant and in good shape for next year's EOFY campaign as well.
Step 6: Review results after the sale ends
Compare click-throughs, reply volume, and sales linked to the campaign so next year's EOFY messages can be improved. Small adjustments, such as sending the last-chance message a few hours earlier, can make a noticeable difference to how many people act before the deadline.
How DataFlows Helps
DataFlows Australia provides SMS Marketing and Bulk SMS tools built for time-boxed campaigns like an EOFY sale. Contact Lists let you group customers so the early notice, reminder, and last-chance messages go to the right segments instead of the whole list at once.
SMS Campaigns and SMS Automation handle the scheduling, so a sequence of EOFY messages can be set up in one sitting and sent automatically on the dates you choose, rather than relying on someone to remember to send each message on time.
A registered Sender ID lets your EOFY messages show your business name on the recipient's phone instead of a random number, which helps with recognition and trust during a busy sales period when customers are receiving offers from several businesses at once.
For businesses running EOFY promotions through an online store, DataFlows connects with Shopify and WordPress/WooCommerce, so a sale set up in the store can trigger SMS notifications without extra manual steps. For teams that want to connect SMS sending to other workflows they already use, DataFlows also integrates with Zapier and Microsoft Power Automate.
Best Practices
Get consent before you send: Only message customers who have agreed to receive marketing texts, in line with the Spam Act 2003.
Keep messages short: Lead with the offer and the deadline in the first line, since most of the message is read on a lock screen.
Always include an opt-out: A working "Reply STOP" instruction needs to be in every promotional message, and requests should be actioned immediately.
Time messages around business hours: Sending EOFY texts during reasonable hours respects customers and helps avoid complaints.
Don't over-send: Three messages across an EOFY sale window, an early notice, a reminder, and a last-chance message, is usually enough. Sending texts every day risks opt-outs.
Test your links before the campaign goes out: A broken link on a message sent to a large contact list is difficult to fix once it has already been sent.
Conclusion
EOFY is a short window, but it's one of the more predictable sales periods on the Australian calendar, which makes it a good fit for planned SMS campaigns. A short sequence of well-timed, compliant text messages can reach customers faster than email and social ads competing for the same attention during the same few weeks.
If you want to run an EOFY SMS campaign for your business, sign up at dataflows.com.au to set up Contact Lists, build your message sequence, and schedule sends with SMS Campaigns and SMS Automation.
Whether you're clearing stock, promoting a service before the deadline, or simply reminding customers that a sale is ending soon, a short SMS sequence planned ahead of time is easier to manage than trying to write and send messages under pressure in the final days of the sale.
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