Businesses are always looking for ways to improve their sales and conversion rates. As well as holiday seasons and other seasonal fluctuations, they will often hold impromptu sales, sometimes to reduce overstock (or slow-moving stock), sometimes because they have seen a drop in those all-important sales and conversions.
For many organizations, Christmas is their biggest season. Whether selling holiday-related items or just products that will be gifted, it can boost revenue with around $967 billion in sales for US retailers.
Black Friday happens just after Thanksgiving and represents the start of the holiday shopping season. What Black Friday marketing ideas can help your business get a slice of a very lucrative pie?
What is Black Friday?
Image sourced from Wisepops
Black Friday always falls on the Friday after Thanksgiving (which itself is always the fourth Thursday in November. Ironically, the phrase has negative roots and comes from the idea of workers calling in sick the day after Thanksgiving to extend their holiday weekend. But it has now grown into being one of the most important retail events on the calendar.
There are other unofficial holidays that see intense marketing by businesses. Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving) focuses on e-commerce businesses while Small Business Saturday is self-explanatory.
Read More: Mastering Community Management on Social Media: Principles, Strategies, and ROI
17 Black Friday marketing ideas
Image sourced from Statistica
The first thing to note is that any type of retail business can have a marketing strategy based on Black Friday. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in the B2B or B2C sectors, good marketing can improve your sales and conversion metrics. What you decide to include in any Black Friday promotions may vary, and the reasons may be different too. If you have stock that isn’t selling or stock you over-ordered, Black Friday can be the ideal opportunity to shift it.
So, the question is, what can you do differently (or better) when it comes to Black Friday marketing ideas that might make you stand out from the pack? It can also be helpful to use commercial web analytics tools so that you see any patterns and identify how to do things better next year.
1. Gift cards
Since it is the giving season, gift cards can be an ideal marketing tactic. It may not be moving products now, but still represents a sale and incoming revenue. Gift cards are great as they allow the recipient to choose a product or service they want.
They’re also extremely versatile and can work for nearly any product, from physical products to subscription services to experiences.
Screenshot taken from Airbnb.com
2. Free shipping
As many as 48% of customers abandon carts because of shipping costs or other fees. The trick here is to offer conditional free shipping. Like in the Barnes & Noble example below, they set a $40 threshold spend and let customers know how much more they need to spend for free shipping. Potential customers will often look at adding extra items if their current cart value is below that threshold.
Screenshot taken from barnesandnoble.com
3. Conditional discounts
As with conditional free shipping, you could also introduce conditional discounts. One difference here is that you can look at offering tiered discounts.
When a customer hits your first threshold, they get a set discount, say 10%. If they increase the value of their order, the value of the discount increases too. This can be a great way of persuading customers to spend more and can improve your AOV (average order value).
Screenshot taken from costway.com
4. Timed deals
One of the best tools in a marketer’s arsenal is FOMO (fear of missing out). On Black Friday, you can use this in the form of hourly or daily deals. These deals will start at a set time and will only last for a set period. This can motivate consumers (through FOMO) to make a purchasing decision quickly. If you offer multiple deals, then customers will constantly check your site for discounts.
Screenshot taken from store.google.com
5. Wheel of fortune
A discount spin wheel can be both effective and fun. You can integrate it into your app or website so that visitors can spin the wheel and get a discount (or even a free gift). You will find that many customers will use their discounts almost immediately, especially if you permit it to be combined with other Black Friday discounts such as free shipping.
Screenshot taken from clipp.com
6. Upselling and cross-selling
You look to upsell and cross-sell throughout the year and they may produce good results. Doing it during your Black Friday sales can lead to even better results and higher AOVs. The trick here is to identify what products go well together or what products are a step up from others. For example, you are offering product B at $50. The next level up is normally $85 but during Black Friday, you could discount that item to $65 which may make the customer consider the extra.
Screenshot taken from shein.com
7. New products
Product launches can be a good Black Friday idea. It may be a product (or package of products) geared towards Christmas or it may be a year-round product or service. By adding discounts or offers such as free shipping, you can boost awareness and sales of your item. For example, if you have a new SaaS product and want to launch it on Black Friday or if you’ve upgraded your service, Black Friday can be a great time to announce your newest offering!
Screenshot taken from BudgetAir.co.uk
8. Referrals
Referrals are another year-round marketing tactic that can be employed on Black Friday. You could offer added incentives to reward customer loyalty and those loyal customers who refer friends or family during this period. As it comes with low CAC (customer acquisition costs), it can be an effective way of boosting sales and improving your profit margins.
Screenshot taken from verizon.com
9. Loyalty programs
You already know the benefits of healthy customer retention rates and may offer a wide range of incentives to reward those customers for their loyalty. Consider exclusive offers for any Black Friday purchases or even use the opportunity to offload low-value overstock by giving the items as free gifts to members of your loyalty program. You could also offer early access to deals.
Screenshot taken from sonos.com
10. Countdowns
Anticipation can be a great motivator and can also use that FOMO tactic as well as creating a sense of urgency. Your countdowns could be to a limited-time deal commencing or they could be for how long the discount has left.
You can have the countdown timer on your website or app or even send it to your email subscribers (if the latter, don’t overdo it with multiple emails). By using social media scheduling tools, you can have different countdowns posted when the time is right.
Screenshot taken from Daisydisk.com
11. Emails
Email marketing is one of the common tactics used for demand generation in marketing. Beyond its role in generating demand, your email list can also be a powerful tool for Black Friday tactics, such as offering discounts, pre-sale access, or subscriber-only deals. Additionally, the sales period presents an opportunity to grow your subscriber base.
Screenshot taken from wildfang.com
12. Affiliates
You may already be running affiliate programs and Black Friday represents an opportunity to strengthen affiliate relationships as well as generate extra sales and revenue for you both. You may decide to offer special discounts or extra incentives for your affiliates so that they put in extra effort.
Screenshot taken from Amazon.com
13. Build anticipation
In the run-up to Black Friday, you can build anticipation as well as FOMO by posting marketing teasers on Facebook and other platforms. You could focus on your more limited – either by stock or time – offers so that customers will look to purchase as soon as any offer starts. You could also combine teasers with your countdowns. The customer first sees that there will be a discount on an item, and then they see how long it is till that offer begins.
Screenshot taken from Macys.com
14. BOGOF (buy one, get one free)
This tactic may not work for every product or service but it can still produce results. For example, it may not be effective for a SaaS communications solution (unless the buyer has multiple sites) but it could work on something like bedding or cosmetics. From the retailer’s perspective, it can be a great tactic for reducing stock numbers and reducing your warehousing costs.
Screenshot taken from Shein.com
15. Not all discounts are created equal
One thing to consider is that you don’t need to offer the same discounts to everyone. Just as you apply segmentation to other marketing tactics, you can do the same here. For example, you might decide to offer a 25% discount to new customers but a 15% discount and free shipping to repeat ones.
Screenshot taken from katespade.com
16. Free gifts
This can be another way of offloading overstock or slow-selling items. As with some other tactics, you should make this conditional, usually based on a minimum purchase value. Be sure to highlight the normal price of the free item so that your customers perceive the value of the total package they will buy.
Screenshot taken from spacenk.com
17. Cart abandonment
Cart abandonment can cost as much as $18 billion per year. The rates can also vary by sector but it’s still an issue that online retailers face throughout the year. You can highlight any special Black Friday discounts customers may have missed with exit intent popups as they’re about to walk away. You could even have last-gasp discounts that only apply when cart abandonment is about to happen.
Image sourced from voucherify.com
Bonus
Use keyhole’s social listening tool to help you plan and track Black Friday campaigns. Social listening will provide you with the insights you need to plan the perfect discounts, deals and marketing campaigns for your customers.
Then, once you’re all set up, you can also track the success of your Black Friday campaign by analyzing the sentiment behind your mentions. This means you can adjust your campaign and keep improving results!
The takeaway
Marketing campaigns based around Black Friday should look at achieving as much reach as possible. As well as your website and app, look at social media marketing to spread awareness of your discounts. When people see exclusive deals or special deals, there’s a good chance they will share your social media posts with a wider audience. In turn, that can boost your online sales figures.
An email marketing campaign can be good to build awareness and anticipation but all your marketing efforts should have the goal of increasing sales and revenue. Your promotion ideas can range from gift guides to free shipping but should reflect your business and your customers.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What else can I do to prepare my business for Black Friday sales?
Although deals and discounts take center stage when it comes to Black Friday, don’t forget about the customer experience and making sure the purchase process goes as smoothly as possible. So, ensure your inventory is stocked, your website can handle increased traffic, and your staff is prepared for customer service inquiries.
2. How can I convert Black Friday shoppers into long-term customers?
To turn your Black Friday sales boost into a long-term success you need to offer exceptional customer service, follow up with thank-you emails, and continue to provide exclusive offers. This will help to encourage repeat purchases and customer loyalty.
3. What are some tips for creating impactful Black Friday ads?
You might have the most incredible offers, but if they’re overly complicated or involve a convoluted sign up process, they might not have the impact you expected. So, remember to use high-quality images along with clear, concise messaging that highlights the benefits of your deals. Finally, consider the customer journey and make it as easy as possible for customers to access your amazing discounts and offers.
4. Can you monetize a YouTube branded channel?
Yes, you can monetize a YouTube branded channel (provided you follow its monetization policies). To monetize your channel, you’ll first need to apply to YouTube’s partner program.
