What’s all the hype about?
With Thanksgiving less than a week away, stores are gearing up for the holidays that happen in the days following: Black Friday & Cyber Monday. For anyone operating in the retail space, these holidays can be a major revenue-generator if executed correctly. If you’re not totally convinced that of that fact, though, we suggest you look at the statistics below.
Cyber Monday - although a relatively new concept introduced in by the National Retail Federation in 2005 - has gained traction quickly. In 2018, Cyber Monday hit record numbers as sales brought in $7.9B in revenue. When it comes to Black Friday, the retail impact is just as (if not more) significant. Of people who were polled in one survey, 61% said they were planning to shop on this day. Last year, 14.8 Million sales were processed on Black Friday. If you want a piece of this substantial pie, have a read through our list of 4 tips below to maximize your campaign’s success.
Implement a Discount
If someone visits your store from November 29th to December 2nd (and possibly beyond) they anticipate seeing discounted items.
Make it worth their time
Make sure your sale is significant enough to get people interested. Remember that you’re competing with countless other brands that may have sales upwards of 50% off their most sought-after items. You can promote these discounts with an email campaign. It’s important to use enticing email subjects like “30% off Black Friday discounts inside!” to increase the likelihood that your message is actually opened.
Keep the party going strong
Another way to keep the excitement going for your customers is to extend your discount by throughout the weekend. Over the last few years, it has become increasingly popular for retailers to run a 5-day long sale that starts on Thanksgiving day. If you implement this strategy, though, make sure you’re sharing the news with your audience via social channels and emails.
Curate a Gifting Guide
When Black Friday and Cyber Monday roll around, it’s a sign that the holiday season is just right around the corner (or, at least in the world of retail). This means there is no better time than to begin putting together gift guides for your products. A gift guide is a curated set of products that are promoted for a particular audience.
Make them say “you just get me!”
In determining which of your products would be best to include in a guide, it’s important to look to data. This means you have to do some market research. For example, if you own an activewear brand and it seems like neons are a big trend for women this year, you could consider putting together a gift guide called “Gifts for Her: Merry & Bright” with your most colorful pieces. Another way you can segment your gift guides is by price range. This is helpful as it provides an easy way for people to find gifts based on something that’s top of mind for the holiday season - their budget.
Increase your brand’s visibility
You can also look to promote your products by reaching out to websites/blogs that mention gift guides for your specific niche. Do you sell hand-poured, luxury candles? Get in contact with sites that showcase products like that in their guides. This will put your products in front of a much wider audience than your own.
Have a Digital Advertising Strategy
So you’ve spent time and effort deciding what your discount should be and which products to put on sale. If your sale goes unpromoted, though, your efforts are wasted.
You’ve got to spend money to make it!
This is why it’s important to increase your ad spend leading up to the big weekend. Expect your cost per click to be higher as many advertisers will be bidding on the same number of keywords and audiences in this period. That being said, if you structure your campaign right, your ads can easily show a high ROAS. Being able to clearly communicate your discount as well as what makes your product unique is the right direction to take if you want to really see conversions.
Leverage Email Campaigns
In addition to what ways we touched on above, there are a number of ways you can use email to your benefit for Black Friday & Cyber Monday.
Build your email list with discounts
The first step in getting people to market to via email is to - unsurprisingly - have their email. You can do this by adding a call-to-action on your website asking people to provide their email in exchange for a limited-time holiday offer. People know that this discount weekend doesn’t last forever, so doing this adds some urgency.
What good is a discount that isn’t shared?
You can add a sharing link at the bottom of the email so people can show particularly enticing deals with their friends. This allows people to advocate for your brand with people who may haven’t otherwise come in contact with it.
Show them the goods.
Unless you’re only emailing people who are very active customers, you want to avoid being too vague with what’s actually on sale. Sending an email that only showcases the discounts likely won’t offer enough for people to get interested in. Instead, make sure you’re putting your product at the forefront (like with the gift guides we mentioned earlier!).
“Looks like you left something behind!”
When it comes to getting people to convert, giving people gentle reminders can help. According to a data analysis of over 15,000 brands, sending 3 abandoned cart emails resulted in 131% more sales than when only one was sent. Someone who was enticed by your Cyber Monday discount may have abandoned their cart when putting in their credit card information because they got a phone call. This person may still very much be interested, but sometimes life gets in the way, so it’s helpful to follow up a few times.
A Parting Thought
Every year, countless brands launch Black Friday & Cyber Monday campaigns. Many are less than compelling, but some really manage to stand out. It’s all about strategy - you’ll probably notice the stronger ones incorporate several of the points mentioned above. Which campaigns got you to convert?