With Black Friday quickly creeping up, it’s time to kickstart your sales before the holiday season begins. And the best way to do this is with an outstanding Black Friday marketing strategy.
Luckily, there are plenty of Black Friday marketing ideas you can use to make this happen.
Keep reading for a step-by-step breakdown of how to build a Black Friday marketing strategy that will boost your sales.
6 ways to perfect your Black Friday marketing strategy
Start your preparations early
For a lot of people, the time between Halloween and the holidays goes by in the blink of an eye. This often means you don’t have a lot of time to prepare for a Black Friday sale.
One way around this is to plan your Black Friday marketing strategy sooner rather than later.
To start, look at what has worked and what hasn’t this year. This will give you an idea of what your customers’ needs are and will let you be strategic in planning the Black Friday deals you offer.
Next, review what marketing channels have been successful. Then use this information to shape your Black Friday marketing strategy.
Pro-tip: When building your Black Friday marketing strategy, start early and incorporate learnings from past successes and failures into your plan.
Remember that bigger isn’t necessarily better
A lot of small business owners get intimidated by the discounted deals big chains offer.
There is, however, no need for this as a little small business charm goes a long way!
Instead of focusing on hefty discount codes, be smarter and more personal in the deals you include in your Black Friday marketing strategy. To find out what deals you should offer, dig into your historical data to find out:
- What your biggest sellers were last holiday season
- What products kept your customers coming back throughout the year
- What the biggest barriers to purchase are for your new and repeat customers
- What the top reasons are for sales opportunities not closing
Once you answer these questions, you can offer your leads and customers the most enticing offer possible.
Pro-tip: If answering this information is tedious for you, it’s time to invest in customer management software. This way, you can find these answers in just a few clicks.
Back up your Black Friday marketing strategy with data
Customer data is important for every business. Yet it’s something that many small businesses don’t leverage — so it’s good to include it in your Black Friday marketing strategy.
To begin, rely on what you already know about your customer base such as their demographics, preferences, and transaction history. Next, determine:
- What marketing initiatives worked and didn’t in previous years
- Which types of customers are most receptive to your holiday promotions
- Which of your messages and promotions get the most engagement
Then, use these insights to inform every aspect of your Black Friday marketing strategy — from email campaigns to social media posts and personalized reach-outs.
Pro-tip: Instead of relying on your intuition to shape your Black Friday marketing strategy, let data be the driving force.
Get on board with Small Business Saturday
Small Business Saturday is a fairly new addition to the holiday shopping season that should be part of your Black Friday marketing strategy.
For context, the day was put into motion by American Express in 2010 and has been gaining ground ever since. It encourages buyers to “shop small” by spotlighting some of the top small businesses in the U.S.A.
To participate, make sure your Black Friday marketing campaign continues through Nov. 28, if not the whole weekend (don’t forget about Cyber Monday)!
You can use these advertising freebies (signs, posters, email templates, web badges, etc.) to jumpstart your promotion. Make sure to use the hashtag #ShopSmall to get the word out about your business to as many small business shoppers as possible!
Pro-tip: Get creative with your Small Business Saturday ideas and celebrate all of the customers who have supported you over the years!
Step up your email marketing game
If you aren’t already using email marketing to connect with your customer base, there’s no better time to start.
In the weeks leading up to Small Business Saturday, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, customers are glued to their inboxes — truly paying attention to alerts about upcoming deals.
Take advantage of your audience’s willingness to buy during this period by creating email campaigns that are personalized and automated.
This is a crucial part of any Black Friday marketing strategy because:
- 91% of consumers are more likely to buy when they receive personalized offers.
- Scheduling email campaigns in advance lets you focus purely on selling during the post-Thanksgiving shopping chaos.
Pro-tip: Segment your email audience into groups based on your buyer personas and offer each segment personalized offers as well as messaging.
Make sure the early bird gets the worm
As part of your Black Friday marketing strategy, it’s smart to create hidden, gated landing pages that showcase your Black Friday promotions. This way your website is ready to go before Black Friday and you can instantly collect the lead details of interested buyers with a lead gen form.
And when you consider that 54% of buyers start holiday shopping before Black Friday, it’s clear that this tactic is a great opportunity to:
- Get more eyes on your Black Friday promotions
- Add leads to your contact database
- Close deals with early-bird shoppers before your competitors do
- Ship orders out the door before your peak season
“54% of buyers start holiday shopping before Black Friday.”
— Cision, 2017.
In light of this trend, you can also offer a few pre-Thanksgiving deals for these early birds. Better yet, you can send special VIP offers to your most loyal customers.
Pro-tip: Let the cash flow in early with a pre-Black Friday marketing strategy that offers exclusive deals to top customers.
Recap: Black Friday marketing strategy
Here’s a list of simple tips to make this Black Friday your best one yet.
- Don’t delay! Get started on planning your Black Friday marketing strategy early in the fall.
- Create promotions that are valuable to your target market instead of trying to offer the biggest discounts possible.
- Let data be the driving force behind your Black Friday marketing strategy.
- Incorporate Small Business Saturday into your Black Friday plans.
- Leverage personalization and automation in your email campaigns.
- Take advantage of early-bird shoppers with pre-Black Friday offers.
Looking for more ways to increase your sales? Then check out this free ebook!
Image credit: Ashkan Forouzani via Unsplash