Black Friday can be described as the Champions League final of eCommerce. Year after year, more sales are generated on that very weekend. Dueto the current economic situation, it is uncertain whether there will be new records this year. What is certain, however, is the fact that you need to be optimally prepared for Black Friday.
And the preparation begins in October at the latest. This doesn't just apply to companies - it also applies to consumers. 34% of all consumers start thinking about gifts in October on Black Friday and the Christmas season. Gifts are also the number 1 reason for most customers to buy.
We will share our Black Friday Playbook with you:
I cannot stress this enough but reachout to your potential buyers as early as possible and start collecting email addresses and phone numbers. Not only do most people start to find out about offers and gifts already in October, but it is also a much cheaper method of getting in touch with potential customers. Due to strong competition, marketing costs increase dramatically around the Black Friday weekend. So make sure to optimize your marketing spend through early awareness.
Creating a bundle is about creating a win-win situation for you and your customers. Bundles let you combine high-value SKUs with products you don't normally sell. I always recommend setting the bundles at 3 times your average order value. If your customer spends an average of 50 euros, the package should be 150 euros. If the bundle is 150 euros it should have items worth 250 euros so that you can give a 40%discount.
Pro tip from my side: Give your bundle a unique name that highlights the benefits of your product and fits your customer demographic.
FOMO stands for Fear of Missing Out and suggests that customers take action because they are afraid of missing out on something. Especially during the Black Friday weekend, FOMO can be an ideal tactic to convince additional customers of your products. This messaging should be reflected on your social media, your ads, and also your landing pages(please don't take your users to your home page).
Here are 3 FOMO offer tactics that work:
a. If your Black Friday deal is the best deal you offer all year, say so and communicate it everywhere.
b. Use artificial scarcity by limiting the number on offer. For example, if you say that only the first 100 people will receive the offer, this will have an additional effect on your potential customers' willingness to buy
c. Create purchase offers for loyal customers. Create an email list with your 15% best customers and send them your Black Friday offer via email a week in advance. This way you can generate sales early on and your loyal customers will also be happy.
In general, I always recommend creating your own landing pages and under no circumstances linking to the home page (on average, your own landing pages have 67% higher conversion rates). Your landing page must answer 4 central questions:
a. What do you sell?
b. What does it bring to me as a customer?
c. What is your credibility that you can sell me the offer?
d. How quickly will I receive my order?
Now you start talking specifically about your Black Friday offers. In addition, you increase the speed of your marketing. Post on social media 2-3 times a day and send out emails to your customers every day. The idea is to spark anticipation for your offers.
I hope you got yourself a lot of coffee- it’s gonna be a tough weekend. 63% of all shoppers say they find out about Black Friday deals via email. This is the highest value - even higher than classic TV ads. However, it's no surprise when you consider that people receive an average of 18 promotional emails per day. But that also means that you have to stand out from the crowd. This means you have to: (1) stand out (frequency),create a high click rate (hence you need a good subject line), and create excitement for the offers (anticipation).
I recommend sending 4 emails per day.
An example that works well:
00:00 “Black Friday is finally here”
08:00 “Email from the founder”
3:00 p.m. “Only a few pieces available”
7:00 p.m. “Last chance for your offer”
If you create multiple product offers,I recommend setting one offer per day.
After Cyber Monday, extend your offer for Tuesday and send another email “Last chance - 3,201 people have already taken advantage of the offer”. This is a good way to keep your sales high.
Many shoppers abandon their purchase because they can no longer remember the discount code. It's best if you automatically deduct the discount at checkout.
I hope I was able to help you ace your Black Friday and Cyber Monday Weekend. If you follow those tactics, you're going to make it fine.
