The second half of the year always seems to fly by. One minute we’re complaining that it’s too hot, then it’s raining every day, then the kids are knocking at your door asking for sweets and chocolate, and then all of a sudden festive hits by Mariah Carey and Michael Bublé are the only sounds to be heard on the radio!
We’re not quite at the Christmas blog post themes yet, though – there’s one more ‘holiday’ we need to discuss first: Black Friday / Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend.
When is Black Friday, and why should you care?
In 2024, Black Friday falls on November 29th, with Cyber Monday following on the 2nd of December. The timing of this holiday aligns perfectly with the start of Christmas spending, with many people using the BFCM sales to secure gifts for their loved ones.
Research from Finder revealed that Brits are estimated to spend a whopping £3.8 billion during the BFCM sales. Three in five adults plan to spend during the Black Friday weekend, up 8% on 2023 and 20% on 2022, so anticipation for the holiday seems to be growing. E-commerce brands would be silly to neglect this opportunity to secure more sales.
Simply putting your items on sale isn’t enough to fully utilise the BFCM hype. Here are some marketing ideas to help strengthen your BFCM campaigns.
Utilise your email subscriber base
There are plenty of ways to promote your BFCM deals to your email subscribers that are more enticing than a simple “We’re participating in Black Friday!” message. You already know that anyone subscribed to your mailing list is aware of your brand and has an interest in your products, so it’s an ideal group to target with your BFCM marketing.
Share a countdown timer
Send out an email with a working countdown to show when the savings will begin.
Tease upcoming deals
Start sharing product highlights of the popular items that will be discounted over BFCM weekend. Provide extra value by sharing some of the main benefits of the product, positive reviews, or demonstrations of people using the product – what you have to use here will depend on the types of products you sell. Subscribers may see a particular product that they’ve been wanting to purchase for a while, and this nudge might be enough to bring them back to your site once the sales have begun.
Offer early access
Give your email subscriber base early access to your BFCM deals – this could be 24 hours early, or even just from midday on the day before. Position your messaging around ‘getting ahead of the rush’, implying that once Black Friday properly begins, products might begin selling out.
Offer additional savings
Allow your subscribers to redeem an extra 10% off of any BFCM deals. A big psychological push behind BFCM is that consumers don’t want to miss out on deals that are ‘too good to pass up’, and offering an additional percentage off the price only amplifies this feeling.
Rally up the hype over social media
Social media is a great place to grow excitement for your BFCM deals.
Run a poll
Ask your followers what products they want to see discounted over BFCM weekend. Not only will this build hype for the sales, but it’ll also give you a good indication of what products are most in demand over the busy shopping weekend.
Encourage email signups
Share some of the benefits that you’re offering to email subscribers, and encourage your followers to sign up and receive them. This is a great way to boost your email subscriber base for future marketing campaigns too.
Sell directly on social media
Over BFCM weekend, consider listing some of your popular products directly on your social media, with links back to your website for people to purchase. You may capture consumers who had no intentions of purchasing, but just couldn’t resist the deal when they saw it on their feeds.
Run a competition
Give your followers the chance at a boost over BFCM. Offer extra discounts or early access through a social media competition. To enter, you could ask your followers to engage with your content, which in turn helps get your message out to more people.
Some other Black Friday marketing ideas…
Create gift guides
Many consumers use BFCM as an opportunity to save money on Christmas gifts, so creating some gift guides for parents, siblings, partners, friends, etc, (depending on your product type) allows you to promote your products in a digestible way. Showcase the products with the best deals, and be sure to include their usual retail price so consumers know the amount they’re saving. These pieces of content can go a long way – place your gift guides as a blog post on your site, send them out to your email database, and share them on social media.
Offer incentives
Offering incentives when customers spend over a certain amount is a great way to encourage further spending. You could offer free shipping, additional discounts, or a free gift. The gift could be a product that’s inexpensive, but loved by your customers, or even some brand merchandise like a branded tote bag. Providing a free gift that can be repurchased, such as a bag of coffee beans, or a skin care product (again, depending on what sort of products you sell) can result in returning customers.
Create bundles for extra savings
What’s better than getting one product on sale? Buying more for an even bigger saving of course! For example, a clothing brand may have a certain style of t-shirt on offer for 50% off over BFCM, costing only £10 each, but by allowing customers to buy a ‘bundle’ of three of this particular t-shirt design for only £25 sounds like an even better deal for the consumer. You could even do a mix ‘n’ match deal, such as allowing customers to purchase any three items within a certain price point or product line, then offering an additional 20% off of their three picks.
Time-sensitive product deals
There are no rules for BFCM. You don’t have to put out offers that span the entire weekend. Try running special deals for shorter periods of time, such as a few hours, or even just for one hour. Make sure you promote these deals via email and social media to build up hype around them. Create a sense of urgency to drive people to your site.
Paid advertising
A classic marketing method that shouldn’t be overlooked, paid advertising helps to get your products in front of the right people. Remarketing can be very successful over BFCM, reminding previous visitors of your brand and promoting the current savings on offer.
You can discount your products at any time of year, but BFCM is a widely recognised opportunity to capture sales. It’s worth spending a little bit of time and money to promote your BFCM deals, not only to boost conversions, but also to get your brand in front of new potential customers that may well stick around once the discounts are done.
