The holiday season is around the corner, so it’s time for marketers everywhere to gear up for Black Friday. From optimizing your website to launching outstanding deals and giveaways — there’s a lot that marketers need to account for. If you’re unsure what to do, here are nine marketing strategies that will wow your customers and boost your company’s revenue.
What is Black Friday?
Best Black Friday Marketing Ideas
Incorporate social media commerce.
Leverage email marketing.
Optimize your website for shopping.
Audit product pages.
Give longtime customers irresistible deals.
Follow up with customers after Black Friday.
Provide minimum spend rewards.
Create a sense of urgency.
Create a holiday marketing calendar.
Black Friday Marketing Tips
What is Black Friday?
Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States and marks the start of the holiday shopping season. It’s also when many companies (including your competitors) begin rolling out numerous deals and discounts on products.
To stay competitive, your company must prepare a marketing strategy to boost revenue and delight customers.
Best Black Friday Marketing Ideas
Below are nine Black Friday marketing ideas you should consider for 2022.
1. Incorporate social media commerce.
Social media is now becoming where consumers make purchases and learn more about products and brands. In 2020, social media commerce earned $26.97 billion in sales, which is expected to double to $56.17 billion by 2023. So why not incorporate social commerce into your Black Friday marketing strategy?
To do this, connect your online store with platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube — which all provide avenues for users to make purchases. You can also run social media-exclusive Black Friday deals on these platforms, like Buy-1-Get-1 free deals.
What We Like: Not only will you generate more revenue online, but you will also draw new social media followers to your brand.
2. Leverage email marketing.
Ahead of Black Friday, start building an email list of potential customers to keep them informed of upcoming Black Friday deals. One way to do this is via pop-up forms, like the one below, that collect email addresses.
Make sure to offer an incentive. For example, offer the customer 30% off their next purchase just for signing up for the email list. Once you have your email list together, you can start sending personalized content based on the customer’s needs. According to an eMarketer survey, customized emails have an ROI of 122%.
What We Like: By leveraging email marketing and personalized email content, you can encourage customers to stay subscribed long after Black Friday passes.
3. Optimize your website for shopping.
No one likes to wait for a slow website to finish uploading, especially on Black Friday when great deals are at stake. Ideally, you’ll want your website to load fully within one to four seconds because the time frame has a 12% to 30% conversion rate. The longer your site and its pages take to load, the more likely users will lose patience and abandon their purchases.
You also want to optimize your website to avoid crashes or outages from the high volume of Black Friday shoppers.
What We Like: Not only will optimizing your website improve conversion rates and avoid Black Friday mishaps, but it will also improve your website’s overall functionality — which is essential year-round.
4. Audit product pages.
Visitors to your site will spend most of their time browsing your product pages, looking for the items they want. So, you’ll need to audit those pages to ensure they provide a pleasant and efficient shopping experience. In your audit, make sure to:
Update product descriptions with sensory words to describe the product and SEO keywords to boost it in SERPs.
Group your products based on the recipient and purpose. For example, “Gifts for Kids” or “Home Decor.”
Include 6-8 product photos from different angles, so customers get a clear picture of what the product looks like.
What We Like: Auditing your product pages helps improve your customers’ experiences on your site. And similar to optimizing your website — these changes are essential all year-round.
5. Give longtime customers irresistible deals.
Show your longtime customers that you appreciate their commitment to your brand by offering exclusive deals. Be it giveaways, discounts, or BOGO, rewarding your customers for being longtime patrons will incentivize them to keep coming back long after Black Friday.
What We Like: Giving exclusive discounts and giveaways can help you clear your inventory in preparation for the new year.
6. Provide minimum spend rewards.
Another way to encourage customers to spend is by offering minimum spend rewards. Every time customers spend over a certain amount, and they receive a reward. The reward could be a percentage off their purchase, free shipping, a coupon code, or a gift.
What We Like: Minimum spend rewards can incentivize customers to spend more and serve as a “thank you” for their trust in the company.
7. Create a sense of urgency.
Urging consumers to act quickly is an excellent way to boost Black Friday sales. One Entrepreneur Marcus Taylor said building a sense of urgency helped him to increase sales by 332%. There are several ways to entice consumers into acting immediately, including:
Flash sales that only a few hours or just one day.
Showing when an item is low in stock
Using time-sensitive language like “last chance,” “today only,” or “now.”
What We Like: Marketers can promote flash sales via email or hold pop-up social media contests to get shoppers excited and ready to purchase.
8. Follow up with customers after Black Friday.
Just because Black Friday is over doesn’t mean the marketing stops. Reach out to customers via email and ask about their shopping experience. Are they satisfied with their purchase? You can also recommend other products based on their bought items or get them excited for Cyber Monday deals.
What We Like: This is an excellent opportunity to send personalized emails asking for honest feedback or recommending other products.
9. Create a holiday marketing calendar.
Of course, the key to any marketing strategy is to be organized. Create a holiday calendar to keep track of your Black Friday marketing strategies. You may even need separate calendars for different marketing channels, such as social media or email.
What We Like: Running other sales and discounts through various marketing channels can feel overwhelming. By creating at least one marketing calendar, you’ll be able to keep track of your strategies and progress confidently.
Black Friday Marketing Tips
No matter what strategies you choose to use this year, always remember to do the following:
Stay organized and create one or more calendars to keep track of your Black Friday strategies.
Ensure your website and product pages are optimized to handle high traffic from holiday shoppers.
Leverage social media and email marketing to stay top-of-mind with your customers.
Black Friday doesn’t have to be a stressful time of year for your business. By implementing any of the above strategies, you’ll be able to boost revenue and delight your customers ahead of the holidays.