The is an annual shopping event where businesses offer deep discounts on their products and services. It always takes place the day after Thanksgiving and is the starting point for the holiday shopping season. Here are some tips so you can improve your business advertising this Black Friday.
According to what was done in 2019, that year online sales on Black Friday generated US$7.4 billion in the United States alone. For this year, these figures are expected to increase, which makes it a great business opportunity.
Below, we will share the most relevant Black Friday advertising ideas that are easy to implement for both businesses and large corporations.
Black Friday: Brief description
In the beginning, Black Friday used to be a one-day event. Currently, it lasts four days or even a month. Many businesses promote their deals over the weekend and end sales on Cyber Monday or offer special discounts throughout the month of November.
While some choose just the two main days, Friday and Monday, others start announcing Black Friday promotions a week in advance and end a week later.
There’s no right or wrong when it comes to increasing sales on Black Friday, as long as it’s practical for your business.
The popularity of Black Friday has been growing over time. For example, in 2019, the US market experienced a drop in average spend per customer compared to 2018.
However, it should also be noted that in 2019 sales in physical stores compared to 2018. Which means that people are spending more money than ever, but prefer to do their Black Friday purchases online.
How to make Black Friday and Cyber Monday more profitable?
Black Friday and Cyber Monday can be a very profitable time of year for any eCommerce business. Planning your advertising strategy in advance will ensure you get higher profits.
Here are five tips to help you prepare for this sales season.
1. Organize your email list and segment your customers
A study has found that email marketing generates around , making it one of the most effective strategies for email businesses. In fact, 59% of marketers say that their main source of ROI (return on investment) is email marketing.
But building an email list takes time and effort, so getting started early is essential.
- Subscription to the news bulletin. Ask customers to sign up for your newsletter to receive special offers, gift coupons, or more information about your products. Think of an attractive subject line for the email.
- Shopping for guests. If a customer isn’t part of your loyalty program or doesn’t have an account, ask for their email at checkout. This way they will receive the order confirmation and you will add a new address to your list. Do not try to mislead customers and let them know that you are offering a newsletter subscription.
Apply these email list strategies 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.
- One-time clients. Someone who bought a product from you once and never came back.
- People who abandon the cart. Visitors who simply browse your store or place products in the cart but never go through the checkout process.
- Loyal customers. People who regularly shop at your store or are part of your loyalty program.
Segmentation will help you customize your email marketing strategy to appeal to each group of customers individually. You can use to collect information about the segments.
2. Build your Presence on Social Media
It is estimated that at least those who live in the United States use social networks in some way. That translates into a ton of potential customers for your business, as long as you know how to build a strong presence there.
They provide a unique opportunity to interact with your buyers in a more personal way. They allow you to showcase your brand voice, feature user-generated content, and strengthen your reputation.
There are two ways to grow your social media presence – organically and paid. Both are effective methods and work very well simultaneously.
Some methods to grow your presence on social media organically:
- User reviews. Encourage shoppers to leave honest feedback on your brand’s social media channels.
- Interact with your audience. Respond to social media posts, comments, and messages related to your brand.
- User Generated Content. Encourage shoppers to post content and tag your brand, such as product photos or videos and other related content generated by your customers.
- Pay attention to potential opportunities. Identify gaps in the industry and determine what your business could offer to fill that gap.
The payment methods to build your presence on social networks are:
- Paid advertising. Use paid ads that target your targeted customer groups.
- Brand ambassador and Influencer marketing. Partner with someone who has a large online following to promote your products and brand.
The integrated Facebook and Instagram shopping platforms can connect directly to your eCommerce store. This feature allows your followers to check out your inventory without leaving the site, increasing the conversion rate and potentially bringing in more sales.
3. Optimize your Website
Load time directly affects the bounce rate of a website. The bounce rate shows how many people visited your website and left immediately, as a percentage. If the load time of a site is , about 38% of visitors choose to leave your site early.
This is particularly true for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. People are eager to get the most good deals, so every second counts. This is why it is essential to optimize your website and ensure that the loading time is as fast as possible.
To test the loading speed of your online store, you can use or . These tools will not only show you how fast or slow your site is, they will also give you suggestions on how to improve its performance.
Another way to improve the speed of your site is to compress all images and , CSS, and JavaScript. See our for a detailed guide.
4. Perform an Audit of your Inventory
Before Black Friday starts, you should review your product inventory data to see which ones are selling better than others. Remove products that are not selling as much and create a new inventory. Make sure to stock up and prepackage as many products as you can if you sell physical items.
Consider adding new categories to help shoppers navigate this busy season. Since many customers are probably looking for gifts, consider these tips about categories:
- Highlight the purpose of the product. This could be: “Fun Gifts” or “Gifts for the Home.”
- Sort them by recipient. More specific products such as “Gifts for her” or “Perfect gifts for grandparents”.
- Wholesale offers and promotions. Any product that falls into a specific category such as “Family Gift Sets” or “Pet Gift Sets”.
5. Create an Advertising Strategy and Organize your Calendar
Crafting an effective advertising strategy takes time, so it’s good to think about one ahead of time. Research your competition and see what other brands tend to offer for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Use these ideas to create a marketing plan that works for your business.
Once you have a strategy in place, it’s time to plan how you’re going to execute it.
Take advantage of the available ones and organize a clear action plan. Use it to define the dates of advertising emails, content publication or other objectives of your marketing plan.
Also, use the calendar to organize which products will go on sale and when. Write down the current prices, as well as the start and end dates of the Black Friday deals. Decide what promotion channels you will use and if necessary.
Simple Black Friday Advertising Strategies to Sell More This Year
On average, Internet sales accounted for 20% of total holiday sales. Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, this number may increase significantly this year, as long as advertising strategies during Black Friday are adequate.
To make sure you don’t miss out on this profitable time of year, check out the best Black Friday advertising strategies we’ve compiled below.
1. Launch a Black Friday Email Marketing Campaign
49% of consumers say what they expect from their favorite brands. Knowing this gives us the opportunity to create Black Friday and Cyber Monday email campaigns to increase sales.
Start working on your email campaign at least a few weeks before the holidays. You can use this time to do some pre-Black Friday sales and offer a sneak peek of future Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions.
To further increase the effectiveness of your email marketing, create separate campaigns for each customer segment. For example, give coupon codes or free gift guides to customers who only buy once or people who just browse your store without buying and offer exclusive discounts or free gifts to your loyal customers.
Design emails themed around Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales using relevant banners and CTA buttons. Use and personalize your emails to improve open and conversion rates.
As for the schedule, start by sending out a few emails with minor offers and increase as Black Friday approaches. 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 with last chance email marketing campaigns that contain an effective email subject line. These create a sense of urgency and scarcity, another successful Black Friday-Cyber Monday advertising practice.
2. Use Social Media Advertising
According to a survey, he agrees that good marketing campaigns on social networks have…
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