But there’s no rest for the wicked. For marketers, it’s never too early to start that all-important Black Friday prep *cue the shudders*.
Black Friday doesn’t need to be a scarily daunting day if you plan ahead and keep organised. We consider ourselves to be experts in everything Black Friday, so if you’re looking to brush up on some tips to make the shopping season a breeze, you’ve come to the right place.
Here are 7 Black Friday tips to add to your marketing roster.
What is Black Friday?
When we think of Black Friday, our minds flicker straight to chaos. Queuing in shopping malls and fighting in the appliance section. And while that’s a part of it, Black Friday has turned into an unstoppable eCommerce powerhouse.
Usually taking place after Thanksgiving, Black Friday traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season. Many stores promote sales and push discounts to entice customers to their business/ products.
In 2022, it’s estimated that people across the world spent $40 billion over Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with many brands seeing record-breaking sales (high street retailer Boots saw an increase of 18% in revenue from their previous Black Friday!).
1. Create a sense of urgency
Urgency will get you far during the sale season. As Black Friday is a fleeting event, most brands will offer promotions for just a day or two, with some also opting for ‘pre-Black Friday’ discounts too. There are multiple ways to create a sense of urgency without being overbearing - sometimes, being too pushy can actually have the opposite effect and drive consumers away.
To turn the heat up on any of your Q4 campaigns, why not incorporate time pressure aspects, for example, having a countdown timer on your website and email campaigns, putting an emphasis on CTAs (call-to-actions), such as ‘ends soon’, ‘limited stock’. Or, add the added element of how many items are left in stock, combined with how many other people are looking at the item to drive your customers to checkout.
2. Optimise your website
Black Friday drives brands to fight for their spot on Google’s front page. But how do you go about making sure you’re positioned above competitors? Optimisation is the place to start.
To stand out amongst the vast amounts of content, you should make sure to optimise way ahead of Black Friday in preparation. Carry out keyword research, improve any copy so that it’s in line with SEO best practices, and also make mobile-friendly changes to your site, such as considering loading times, optimising images and pop-ups and content short and simple.
3. Offer free gifts with each purchase
Getting customers to site is one thing, but getting them to convert is a whole other ball game. Adding an incentive to buy will help the customer's journey. Over the shopping season, consider offering your customers something that will encourage a future purchase.
For example, if you’re a beauty brand, why not consider offering a free sample of a popular product such as a moisturiser or lipstick? A brand that does this particularly well is Glossier. With purchases over a certain price, they’ll offer a choice of sample products to try for free. Customers are then more inclined to buy a product once they’ve tried it.
4. Build your early access list
To create FOMO amongst your customers, an ideal strategy is to send exclusive emails to your subscribers. Offering early access to any promotions you’ll be running across the shopping season is an easy and simple way to gain more email sign-ups. Or you could offer exclusive discounts - the choice is yours!
5. Make your promotion as simple as possible
So many brands fall victim to overcomplicating their promotions, which can be a huge turn-off for customers. For the shopping season, consider running a sitewide discount, or if you’re intent on running with a code, make it as simple as possible.
This will be clearer for the customer when checking out in a hurry and eliminate errors. If they input the wrong code, it might put them off following through with purchasing. Similarly, consider optimising your site so a code automatically appears at checkout.
6. Run a competition
Nothing draws people in quite like the promise of winning something and not having to do much for the privilege. Pre-Black Friday is the ideal time to run a competition or lead gen to increase your brand awareness before the big day!
If your brand is fresh in people’s minds, you’ll be the first point of call they think of during the shopping season. The competition could, for example, be an Instagram competition and have entry requirements such as tagging friends and following the account to enter.
7. SMS marketing
When it comes to SMS marketing, urgency is important. The average open rate of an SMS message is 98%, with an estimated 90% of those being opened within the first three minutes, so timing is everything. However, a high open rate doesn’t necessarily equate to success. To make the most out of SMS marketing, make sure you’re taking other factors into account.
For example, make sure your SMS messaging is clear and concise, plan ahead and think about the best send times and when your customers are more likely to convert and optimise your website so it’s mobile-user friendly.
