
Updated 2021
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are coming up, and people are ready to shop! It’s important to make a plan and have an online strategy in place to ensure you’re optimising this busy shopping period.
With endless options available to consumers, it’s hard to know how your online business can stand out. Never fear; we’re here to help you with promotion ideas and marketing strategies you can use to make an impact!
1. Build a presence for your products before Black Friday/Cyber Monday
Customer relationships and brand recognition in the ecommerce business are invaluable. Building an online presence for your products well before Black Friday and Cyber Monday is immensely important to get future customers familiar with your offerings. Seeing your products consistently over time will build trust and recognition around your business.
This will require a more focused effort in the months before the sale weekend, but the benefits will be well worth it! This will work to build a real impact come Black Friday and Cyber Monday when customers will already be familiar with your products and recognise them as the event promotions start. As a bonus, the discount you offer will be even more apparent and enticing, increasing your chances of repeat business and a valuable relationship as they continue to follow your promotional activities!
Also, the people coming to your social media pages and website in the lead up to this sale period will create a valuable audience for your remarketing advertising campaigns.
2. Promote it like crazy!
At face value, a very basic online marketing strategy but timing and repetition is everything. Your Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions should start at a minimum of two weeks before the event. Consumers were found to start researching Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions as early as October. The goal is to get customers hyped about your Black Friday and Cyber Monday special deals preemptively anticipating it. There are many avenues to consider for this; website banners, pay per click campaigns or even physical leaflets to make a coordinated effort if you have a physical location.
Social media is always a fantastic platform to get your Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotion and deals heard, with the bonus of it being cheap and effective if targeted correctly. With 80% of Australians using social media, this is a huge opportunity to reach your customers.
To get the most out of this, consider which platform your customers interact most on and what would be suitable for your product/service. E.g. Facebook works well for service-oriented businesses, whereas features like Instagram Shop make Instagram accessible for products with a relatively low price point (under $100.)
It is important to allocate the correct budget to these promotions. As it is a high volume period online, PPC advertising rates tend to increase, so try and allocate a higher proportion of your advertising budget to November.
3. Optimise your products
Give your products every chance of standing out. Write product descriptions that sell and instil urgency. Pop-up reminders can help instill urgency and remind people they only have a limited time to buy the Black Friday or Cyber Monday offer with a huge bargain. Use the following phrases:
- Limited time only
- Only one left
- In high demand
- Sold out soon
If you had Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions last year, you will want to review your sales data to see what went well. This information can give you ideas on making changes to existing products.
4. Apply enticing discounts
In one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year, competition is fierce. It’s important to apply a discount or some other value-add enticing enough that consumers see high value in your Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotion offers.
You should be looking to offer at least 20% off to make an impact. It’s also a great idea to diversify your promotion ideas with different offerings like
- Free Shipping
- 30% on 3 or more items
- A free gift for orders $100 +
- 50% for first time customers
5. Cross-Sell your products!
With shopping events like Black Friday & Cyber Monday, consumers are willing to spend big if the deals are worth it. It’s the perfect opportunity to cross-sell. You shouldn’t assume that your customers will buy the product that they want and leave your site. When your customer is making a purchase, it’s a great idea to refer them to something that fits with the product. Think accessories like covers, chargers, refills etc.
You can consider creating specific Black Friday and Cyber Monday pages with related products for your customers.
If you currently have a SALE page on your website, it’s not hard to alter the text and make it a special Black Friday and Cyber Monday navigation bar.
6. Keep an eye on your competitors
Every year we’re finding that the hype around Black Friday and Cyber starts earlier and earlier. Businesses want to capture customers, and starting their messaging early is a reliable way to ensure they stand a chance of getting noticed. Make sure you’re watching your competitors and the timings of their campaigns, if they start their promotions then you could be looking to follow a similar schedule to target these customers too. It’s a competitive game and slow and steady isn’t the strategy to use!
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are incredible sales opportunities for your business. By looking through the eyes of a consumer, you can create a large momentum around your Black Friday sales and promotion offers. A little bit of thinking and preparation and you’re well on your way to a very successful weekend!