Overview:
Making a statement in a sea of advertising requires careful planning for Black Friday. Consider this, deals are advertised in every store, whether it is an eCommerce site or a physical location. Customers are looking for them right now. So how do you grab their attention? https://youtu.be/HVhugEzgdPs
By being ready and employing some lethal strategies.
Avoid getting frustrated when developing your Black Friday marketing plan. On a busy sales day, it's simpler than you might imagine to stand out from the crowd.
Businesses are preparing for another record-breaking year as Black Friday approaches. Whether you've participated in this event before or this is your first time, you'll need all the best advice and strategies to attract clients and increase online sales.
To help you get started, this guide will present nine practical Black Friday marketing suggestions. We'll also provide five real-world examples of Black Friday marketing campaigns for your inspiration.
What is Black Friday
Attracting customers is the goal of businesses during Black Friday, a holiday shopping event that takes place in November. Although it has expanded to become a month-long shopping season, it still traditionally takes place after the American Thanksgiving holiday.
Consumers used to arrive early and line up outside of physical stores on Black Friday before online shopping became so popular. Recent eCommerce statistics indicate that the majority of Black Friday traffic will likely occur online, though.
Consumers spent $9 billion online in 2020, a 21.6% increase from the previous year, as shown in the infographic from Adobe below. Contrarily, the pandemic significantly reduced foot traffic in stores, which was down by more than 52%.
Philadelphia is where the phrase "Black Friday" first appeared in the 1950s. It was used by law enforcement personnel to describe the large, obstructive crowds that would swarm the city the day after Thanksgiving. Before the infamous Army-Navy football game, suburban shoppers and tourists would swarm into the city.
Later, Black Friday was adopted by retailers. In order to get "back in the black" before the fiscal year ended, they relied on holiday shopping. Simply put, being "back in the black" means turning a profit as opposed to losing money or "being in the red."
Why Black Friday Strategy is So Important
With eCommerce stores embracing the holiday, Black Friday has now expanded from brick-and-mortar stores to online sales. Its timeline has also been extended. Black Friday is now a weekend-long sale event that runs from Black Friday to Cyber Monday.
Even as global purchasing patterns changed in an erratic market, eCommerce stores are benefiting from online sales. Between Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2021, Shopify store owners collectively generated staggering $6.3 billion USD in sales worldwide, an increase of 23% from 2020.
During this time, 47 million distinct customers who made purchases from Shopify merchants were credited with the sales. These weren't your typical clearance sales either. The typical cart cost more than $100 US!
These are chances that your company can take advantage of as well. All you need to stand out from the competition is an excellent marketing plan.
On the other hand, some online merchants begin their Black Friday campaigns on Thanksgiving and continue them through Cyber Monday, a holiday shopping event that only takes place online. Additionally, they might run a different promotion each day of that shopping weekend.
Additionally, small and medium-sized businesses can take part in Small Business Saturday, a celebration of neighborhood shops.
Despite its roots in the US, Black Friday has become a marketing buzzword used by companies worldwide.
Here are some basic strategies presented for you!
Optimize your site
Customers anticipate that websites will load quickly on days like Black Friday so they can find and make the best purchases.
With a conversion rate of 12% to 30%, the ideal loading time for eCommerce websites is zero to four seconds. If it goes on longer than that, users start to back out of their purchases, and the number of transactions falls by 1% per second.
Additionally, numerous well-known companies, including Macy's and H&M, have experienced website outages as a result of sharp increases in traffic. Optimizing the website, can be avoided.
Examining a website's hosting is one way to get ready for a Black Friday campaign for an online store. Upgrade your browser if the website is about to reach its resource limit.
To support the number of products displayed, the amount of anticipated monthly traffic, and a seamless shopping experience, the ideal plan should have plenty of bandwidth, memory, storage, and processing power.
Use your social media platform
While some shoppers like the excitement of the hunt, others like to make plans in advance and take advantage of early bird discounts. By promoting your sales on social media, you can draw in both types of customers. By offering "mystery deals," you can tease out sales on your feed, or you can post details about your upcoming promotions.
Businesses can create excitement and increase foot traffic to their stores on Black Friday by sharing countdown timers, previews of exclusive deals, and other interesting content. Furthermore, interacting with customers on social media is a great way to address any inquiries they may have about your Black Friday sale.
Create a sense of urgency
When writing copy for your sale items, convey urgency to customers to get them excited. Customers are more likely to act if your Black Friday marketing conveys a sense of urgency or scarcity.
Creating a sense of urgency is crucial because it attracts attention, among other things. An email that stands out and conveys urgency, for instance, is more likely to be noticed in a crowded inbox than one that does not.
Customers can be urged to take action right away rather than wait. Customers will be compelled to take advantage of your Black Friday deals as soon as possible by giving them a limited-time discount or exclusive access to sale items.
Initiate E-mail Marketing
Create an email marketing campaign, then watch your ROI increase over time. On average, email generates a $36 ROI for every dollar invested. That surpasses any other channel.
Who doesn't enjoy daily discounts and offers in their inbox? Create one with deals for your subscribers a few weeks before Black Friday.
Install Chatbot for customers
More customer service requests result from an increase in shoppers. It is unavoidable. Customers will be contacting you with FAQs regarding orders, shipping, and returns. Your choice.
Your customer support services can be streamlined and automated by adding a chatbot to your website. When a customer support agent is required, they can intervene and take over the conversation. The chatbot can handle simple FAQs. Your team can free up time to concentrate on more significant problems by using this process to remove the repetitive tasks that are weighing them down.
Offer Long-term offers than others
People enjoy being acknowledged, particularly when they are connected to your brand. You have the opportunity on Black Friday to thank devoted, enduring customers.
Offering these customers special offers and discounts is a clever marketing strategy that can encourage repeat business and increase customer loyalty. You can entice customers to return on days other than Black Friday by demonstrating your appreciation for their patronage.
Reach New Audiences
You have a chance to use Black Friday to connect with new social media users. You can connect with people looking for Black Friday deals and direct them to your products and services by using hashtags.
If you're a retailer, you can reach consumers looking for deals by using the hashtags #blackfridayshopping or #blackfridaydeals.
Conclusion
You now know what to do for the upcoming sales event, hopefully as a result of the marketing pointers and techniques mentioned. Campaigns for Black Friday typically go on for several days. Many companies start a four-day promotion that lasts from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. Even earlier, at the end of October or the beginning of November, some major retailers begin their operations.
The busiest shopping day of the year is Black Friday, so creating a strong digital marketing plan is essential to drawing customers in and increasing sales.
Your company's needs and preferences will determine whether the campaign runs for a full month or just one shopping weekend.
Every customer wants to feel appreciated, and nowhere is this more evident than in sales. A new era of conversational customer experience is emerging, and your company must embrace it given the growing popularity of AI technology.
Customer interactions and relationships are nothing new, of course, and if you already have a good rapport with them, you're in a great position to provide them with the best solutions. But what about potential clients? The same approach ought to be used with them as well. True, cold calling can still be extremely effective, but live chat and bots are quickly gaining ground. You don't want to take the chance of losing business to competitors by not using these straightforward yet conversational methods of communication that many customers prefer.