Popularly known as the day following Thanksgiving, the history of Black Friday dates back to the early 19th century. The day is an extended shopping period for the buyers in the United States. With many stories attached to the origin of Black Friday, the popular ones happen to be the story of the stock market crash leading to disruption in gold prices.
However, in the present time, Black Friday is all about selling and buying at low prices. This holiday weekend that starts with Thanksgiving, followed by Black Friday marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping for all. People begin to prepare for their December celebrations availing great November offers. Both retailers and sellers wait for this time of the year to boost sales and cover up for rest of the year’s loss if any.
But this is also the time when competition soars up like anything. With deals and offers pouring in from every retailer, often it becomes confusing for the buyer to decide whom to go for. And so, it becomes essential for businesses to leave their mark in the crowd with holiday campaigns that are hard to resist and ignore.
Here are some ten result-driven ideas that will help businesses make their Black Friday sale a profitable one:
Announce Irresistible Offers
The shopping season of the year is around the corner when every retailer would bombard customers with exciting offers to draw them to their offline or online store. As a result, the battle to get noticed becomes challenging and difficult amidst the competitive space. So, what you can do is try to come up with deals that are unique and irresistible. It will help your brand to attract all the attention. For instance, you can lower the price of your products which initially may sound to be a bad idea with reduced profits. But this strategy will bring in brand recognition which eventually will lead to an overall increase in sales. Thus, in this way you can compensate for the initial loss.
Besides, you can limit your production cost by relying more on automation and less on the manual effort. This will keep your product cost minimal so that when you offer products at reduced prices to customers during the Black Friday weekend, you won’t incur a loss.
Get Your Website Ready
If you run an online business, then during the holiday season the first thing you need to do is to get your website ready for the special occasions like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Thanksgiving. Almost every offline and online retailers will have something to offer to add to the celebration mode for their customers. From hefty discounts to exclusive deals, your website should reflect your participation in the holiday sale season with proper displays on the home page and a separate landing page for the holiday campaign.
Moreover, you can integrate pop-ups that inform visitors about promo codes, going-on offer and incentives, and other sales related information. By adding a countdown timer on the website, you can instigate the fear of missing out feeling in the minds of customers, compelling them to take immediate action of purchase. By creating attractive sales pages and clearly defining the CTA button on the website, you can spread awareness about your ongoing sale in an organized manner. Companies like eSalesData are always top-notch with their marketing campaigns with clear mentions for the same with visible CTA button that takes the interest further.
Double Up Your Email Marketing Tactics
The best way to deliver your Black Friday offer to your targeted customer is via email. The effectiveness of email marketing in generating leads is undeniable. Be it B2C or B2B, businesses of all size and from varying industries still leverage email as their efficient marketing tool. During the holiday weekend, marketers try to make the best use of their email strategy to draw customer attention and create awareness. The easy sharing and forward feature of emails make it even more useful.
That is why, the open rate of emails during occasions like Black Friday increases by 60% as people peep into their inbox, waiting to receive various deals for making informed decisions. Hence, to make most out of the holiday season, buckle up your marketing initiatives by developing emails that deliver value, has clear CTA button, includes attractive visual images and states the offer in simple words. Don’t forget to create engaging content and also include URLs that lead to your Black Friday landing page.
Segment Your Audience and Target Accordingly
Everyone is not your potential customer. Then why to run campaigns targeting the general audience? Stop such practices as they are not going to benefit. Today, customers wait for personalized campaigns that are meant just for them and not for all.
Moreover, every customer has unique requirements and addressing all with generic emails would not help you. Hence, the first task you need to do is segment your audience by their online buying behavior, purchase history, etc. Then organizing each of these characteristics into different groups and identifying customers with similar traits, you get a segmented database. Targeting each group with customized campaigns will help nurture relationships and encourage them to purchase.
Spread the News through Social Media
The reach and impact of social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. are tremendous. They not only help in making personal connections but are proving to be equally efficient in assisting businesses in networking. When you promote your campaign on your social media profile, your followers get to like, share and comment. And when they do so, their friends, colleagues, and associates within their network also get to see. As a result, your holiday campaign reaches to people across the globe. Your products get the much-needed attention.
Incentivize through Referral Marketing
As mentioned above, social media shares can expand the reach of your campaign. You can double the share rate by incentivizing your followers. Yes, that’s possible. You just need to ask them to share as much as possible. Tell them that if they do so, they can get an additional discount on the existing offer. This can be a smart way to draw new visitors to your offer page and keep on repeating the same process with them too. The more you keep spreading this chain of share, the faster your offer is going to become viral.
Record a Sales Video for the Holiday Offer
According to the Hubspot stats, about 90% of users find product videos to be helpful in the decision-making process. That is because visual contents are less time-consuming and are very precise, to the point, and engaging. From feature descriptions to product reviews, videos help the consumers get a clearer view of the product that allows them to make wise decisions. Hence, this Black Friday you can invest in video marketing to make an impact.
Create a video that highlights your Black Friday offer in detail, describes product features and how it addresses market needs and concerns. Also, explain the benefits of your product and what makes it the best from the rest. Your video content must try to create a sense of urgency among viewers so that they get encouragement to make an immediate purchase.
Offer Additional Incentives
This is the time when you can reward the loyalty of your customers. You may have already planned an offer for all, but you can make an extra effort for your present customers. Hence, you can give your existing customers additional discounts in the form of coupons, small gifts, etc. You can send them personalized emails with offers meant only for them. To avail the offer, they need to get a print copy on visiting the store or apply coupon code if they go online shopping . These coupons can be found on websites like Couponnx. Doing so will strengthen your customer relationship and help win their trust for future transactions.
Plan for Hourly Special Deals
If you have a variety of products in the store, then you can run hourly deals just like Amazon’s lightning deals. This helps to trigger a sense of urgency among customers. They are unlikely to miss the deal as it might not be available later. You need to offer the particular product at an unbeatable price for a specific hour. And then once the hour ends, bring it to its normal rate again.
Don’t Forget to Publish Press Release
There are many press release publishing websites of good reputation in the market. You can leverage a number of these PR platforms to promote your product. It can help you to explore new opportunities and establish new connections. Moreover, your brand’s market exposure will take place when you bring your offerings to a wider customer range. This is possible when you explore new channels to market. Hence, once you have Black Friday campaign ready, craft an informative press release to publish it on leading PR sites.
It’s Wrap Up Time!
A lot of marketing strategies may come in mind at the start of Thanksgiving and Black Friday sale season. Identifying the one which will suit your business and industry type is a tedious job. Be it Christmas or Thanksgiving, coming up strategizes that out pass the competitors require market knowledge. Whether you own a startup or a leading business, launching any holiday campaign requires market study. You need to have a proper understanding of the targeted audience. If you know the concerns and needs of your customers then only you can plan offers that are looking for.
Hence, don’t just blindly follow what others are doing. With the right strategy in place that aligns best with your customer demands and your business model, you can boost success.
All the Best! Happy Selling!