March 2, 2021
9min Read
Angie V.
Black Friday is an annual shopping event where businesses offer high discount deals for their products and services. It always comes the day after Thanksgiving and acts as a start line for the Christmas shopping season.
According to one study in 2019, online sales on Black Friday generated $7.4 billion that year in the US alone. These numbers are expected to grow, making it a great business opportunity.
We’ll be sharing the most influential Black Friday marketing ideas that are easy to implement for small businesses and large corporations alike.
Initially, Black Friday used to be a one-day sales event. Nowadays, it’s a four-day or even month-long period. Many businesses promote their offers over the weekend and end the sales on Cyber Monday or offer special discounts throughout November.
While some choose only the primary two days – Friday and Monday. Another option is to begin advertising Black Friday deals a week in advance and finish one week after.
There is no right or wrong when it comes to increasing sales on Black Friday. As long as it’s practical for you business.
Black Friday has been on a steady rise in popularity. For example, in 2019, the US market saw a 16% increase in average spendings per customer compared to 2018.
However, it’s also important to note that in 2019 physical brick-and-mortar sales dropped by 6.2% from 2018. Meaning, people are spending more money than ever, but they prefer to do their Black Friday shopping online.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday can be a profitable time of year for any eCommerce business. Planning your marketing strategy in advance ensures that you can maximize profits.
Here are five tips to help you prepare for this holiday season.
One study has found that email marketing generates around $38 for every dollar spent, which is why email marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies for eCommerce businesses. In fact, 59% of marketers say their most significant source of ROI (return of interest) is email marketing.
However, building an email list takes time and effort, so it’s crucial to start early.
Apply these email list building strategies by using pop-ups and CTA buttons for your landing pages and blog posts.
Once you have a large enough list, you can segment your customer base into three groups by following their behavior on your site.
Segmentation will help you personalize your email marketing strategy to appeal to each group of customers individually. You can use Google Analytics to gather segment information.
It is estimated that at least 72% of adults based in the US alone use some form of social media. That’s a lot of potential customers for your business, as long as you know how to build a strong social media presence.
Social media platforms provide a unique opportunity to engage with your shoppers on a more personal level. It allows you to show your brand voice, display user-generated content, and boost your social proof.
There are two ways to grow your social media presence – organic and paid. Both are effective methods and work great simultaneously.
Methods to grow your social media presence organically:
The paid methods to build your social media presence are:
Facebook and Instagram integrated shopping platforms that can be connected directly to your eCommerce store. This feature allows your followers to look through your inventory without leaving the site, increasing the conversion rate, and potentially bringing more sales.
Loading time directly affects the bounce rate of a website. Bounce rate shows how many people visited your website and left immediately, shows as a percentage. If a site’s loading time is more than five seconds, around 38% of visitors choose to leave your site prematurely.
This is especially true for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. People are keen to get as many good deals as possible, so every second counts. That’s why it’s crucial to optimize your website and make sure the loading time is as fast as it can be.
To test the loading speed of your online store, you can use Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix. These tools will not only show you how fast or slow your site is but give suggestions on how to improve your site’s performance as well.
Another way to improve your site’s speed is to compress all images and minify the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. See our tutorial for an in-depth guide.
Before Black Friday begins, you should take a look at your product inventory data to see which products sell better than others. Remove the products that don’t sell as much and introduce new inventory. Ensure to stock up and pre-pack as many items as you can if selling physical items.
Consider adding new categories that will help holiday shoppers navigate during this busy season. Seeing as a lot of the customers are most likely looking for gifts, think about these category tips:
Coming up with an effective marketing strategy takes time, so it’s good to have one in mind in advance. Research your competition and look at what other brands tend to offer for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Use these Black Friday marketing ideas to create a marketing plan that will work for your business.
Once you have a strategy in place, it’s time to plan how you will execute it.
Take advantage of the available free marketing calendar templates, and organize a clear plan of action. Use it to set dates for marketing emails, content publishing, or other goals in your marketing plan.
Also, use the calendar to organize what products will go on sale and when. Note down the current and sales prices, as well as the start and the end dates of the Black Friday offers. Decide on what promotion channels you will use and generate discount codes if needed.
On average, the last holiday season online sales consisted of 20% of total holiday sales. Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, this number can rise significantly this year as long as effective Black Friday marketing strategies are in place.
To ensure you don’t miss out on this profitable time of the year, see the best Black Friday marketing strategies we compiled below.
49% of consumers said they look forward to receiving emails from their favorite brands. Knowing this provides an opportunity to create Black Friday and Cyber Monday email campaigns to effectively increase your sales.
Start working on your Black Friday email campaign at least a few weeks before the holiday season comes. You can use this time to make some pre-Black Friday sales and offer a sneak-peek into the upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.
To further increase your email marketing effectiveness, create separate email campaigns for each segmented customer group. For example, offer coupon codes or free gift guides for one-time customers and people who simply browse your store without purchasing anything and exclusive deals or free gifts for your loyal customers.
Design the emails to be thematic with Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales by using relevant banners and call-to-action buttons. Use strong email subject lines and personalize your emails to improve the opening and conversion rates.
As for the timeline, begin sending out a few emails containing smaller offers and build-up as Black Friday nears. Make sure to send an email on Thanksgiving, and then at least three emails on each day of the Black Friday-Cyber Monday sales.
Keep in mind that one of the best ways to get last-minute sales is the last chance email marketing campaigns that include effective email subject lines. They create a sense of urgency and scarcity, which is another part of a successful Black Friday-Cyber Monday marketing practice.
According to one survey, 37% of users have agreed that good social media marketing campaigns have inspired them to purchase products.
So, when Black Friday and Cyber Monday come around, use the knowledge you have about your target customers and place paid Black Friday ads on Facebook and Instagram.
Make sure to use the most popular Black Friday hashtags for your Instagram marketing campaigns.
Include relevant hashtags to your products, as long as they fit what you’re selling.
Creating scarcity and urgency is a well-known marketing tactic to increase sales. It’s especially useful during the shopping season, as people rush to get the best Black Friday deals for their holiday purchases.
Some of the most effective ways to implement this during a Black Friday sale are using specific call-to-action keywords:
Other great ways to build urgency:
Another way to help you make more profit during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales is to increase the average order value. This strategy does not focus on attracting more customers to your site. Instead, it works on persuading the customers that are already there to spend more.
You can increase the average order value by applying these marketing ideas:
Another great Black Friday marketing idea is to modify your eCommerce store to suit the holiday season.
Build a landing page explicitly for the Black Friday event. Have Black Friday sale banners on every page of your site. You can even edit your product descriptions to be Black Friday-themed.
Make sure the changes you make will work smoothly on mobile devices. Nearly 67% of Black Friday shopping happens using mobile devices.
In 2018, the average cart abandonment rate during the Black Friday holiday season was nearly 82%. That’s 7% more when compared to the data from 2017.
It shows that most visitors that visit online stores never make use of the Black Friday promotions. Instead, they leave the website before buying the items they have added to cart.
There are a couple of ways of how you can reduce the cart abandonment rate for your store during the Black Friday weekend:
The Black Friday season is one of the busiest times for all types of businesses across the United States. If you own an online business, it’s an excellent opportunity to not only boost your sales but attract new customers along the way.
To summarize, here are the best Black Friday marketing ideas and strategies that can help you make more sales this year:
Try to implement as many of these marketing strategies to your online store as you can, and see your profits rise this Black Friday season.
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