Many people view Black Friday as merely a hunt for gullible customers, and holidays as a way to increase profits. But hunting is not business. While you can catch a couple of animals, the rest will invariably scatter.
A truly successful business pursues other goals.
They are, first and foremost, solidifying its market position, expanding its influence, growing its audience and contacts. Holidays offer a great opportunity to make yourself noticed, attract more loyal clients and employees, strengthen relationships with your partners, and improve the company’s climate. It’s about communication, creativity, and positivity. It’s about continuous efforts, not just a haphazard one-off event.
Big profits are born of ambitious goals. Let’s conquer space instead of trapping rabbits. Think like astronauts, not like hunters. This is a much more effective approach.
Below are some old and new methods of holiday marketing. Their efficiency is not limited to Black Friday. Even if you are already familiar with these tactics, try to see them in a new light: not as a way to maximize profits on Black Friday but as a long-term communication tool to grow your business. Use them as often as you can. Look for any chance to use the ones that are most appropriate for your business.
The closer the H-hour, the more customers are engulfed by a flow of offers and messages on discounts and promotions. How do you ensure that your message won’t be ignored?
A series of messages increases the chance that at least one of them will be read. The message should attract attention, arouse curiosity, promise some benefits, and create the impression that time is running out.
A catchy headline, a clear offer, a small GIF or animation are key to high conversions.
It’s best to create a scheme that includes not only emails but also push notifications, texts, or instant messages. Here’s a sample staged campaign:
- Black Friday Announcement;
- Thanksgiving Day;
- Black Friday;
- Cyber Monday;
- Post-campaign messages.
This is the first thing that recipients will notice in a newsletter before taking a closer look at the content. The design of the letters is crucial if you want to immediately catch users’ attention and stand out from the competition.
An attractive heading determines whether the recipients will open your message. The headline should instantly spark interest and engage, and the text should motivate the user to make online purchases from you.
Analyze your past successes and failures to find the most effective content with keywords for your audience.
The terms and conditions should be simple and easy to understand so that the customer can quickly make a purchase decision.
Use animations and unique images in your messages that match your brand style. Animated messages, especially those that are funny or cute, grab attention and win users’ favor.
This is a short but maximally informative slogan telling about the product and the special features of the promotion. Just one well-written phrase can have a positive effect.
It’s better to plan in advance which channels you’ll use to notify your subscribers about the start, course, and end of special offers.
The best option is one call and one button. It’s a mistake to overwhelm the customer with a deluge of offers. The CTA should logically follow the subject of the message and be as simple and clear as possible.
Don’t forget to make sure your CTA is displayed correctly on desktops, smartphones, and tablets.
You don’t have to change prices in your main store on Black Friday — it would be too time-consuming for a short promotion. It’s easier and more profitable to create a landing page that contains all promotional offers. You can use this landing page not only on Black Friday. The template structure will allow you to change offers depending on your promotions.
Another option is to create a separate page on your website to upload promotional offers.
Create fascinating Black Friday stories so that as many people as possible learn about your promotions and immediately go to the page with discount products. Try to make your stories interactive and include a call to action.
This format of Black Friday promotion works not only for big brands but also for small companies. A YouTube video can even be more effective than a TV commercial. Videos can be published on all major platforms and attract hundreds of thousands of viewers.
Engage curiosity: create a looping slot-machine GIF and invite users to guess what kind of discount you have prepared or what product is on sale.
This is an easy way to promote your campaign on social media and other platforms. Banners are easy to create and can be repurposed multiple times.
You can put a banner with the news of the sale on the cover of your Facebook page or on your website, post it separately, or cut it into pieces to fit the Instagram layout.
Offer expiring deals in the “discount within an hour” format and change posts every 60 minutes. Users will get excited about catching a bargain.
Invite your users to play a game: spin the wheel and win a special gift or discount. This is a great way to engage them.
You can create a landing page with a roulette wheel and place different discounts in each pocket. The user clicks on the wheel, it spins and stop at one of the discounts. When the user clicks on the link generated in the winning pocket, they will receive an X percent discount on the purchase. If you run this game on social media, it’s better to make the animation as bright and attractive as possible.
A timer creates the impression of a rapidly approaching holiday. It can be static or animated and posted on social media or a landing page. A real JavaScript countdown timer works best.
Invite users to take part in a game and win a guaranteed prize. The rules can be simple: like and share this post to get onto the list of winners. No need to complicate the task: this works best when it requires the barest minimum of effort on the user’s part.
Offer your users a gift coupon instead of a sweeping discount on the entire range. Black Friday and Cyber Monday provide an opportunity to increase the average purchase amount. Users spend more when they feel they’re being rewarded. Make the design of your message simple and effective so that the coupon code stands out and the instructions are immediately clear.
On Black Friday, you can offer users beautifully designed gift certificates for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Display the certificates on social media: let everyone see that you have a great offer for those who never know what presents to get. You can also award certificates for reposting your content.
You can sell a lot of gift certificates by offering discounts and loyalty points.
You can capture the interest of your customers by offering them scratch cards with hidden discounts and promotional codes. An animated card with a promo code can also be put into a personalized letter for loyal customers. People love to feel appreciated.
This option is popular with users and works well not only on Black Friday.
Giveaways and contests can spark even more consumer interest than traditional sales.
Organize a contest or give everyone who made a purchase an opportunity to participate in the drawing of valuable prizes. Remember to be original and always stay true to your style.
You can create a banner on social media, a post, a paid advertisement, or all of the above with the call “Click and Win.” This type of ad works perfectly for giveaways and sales promotions.
A funny message always stands out. Use humor if it doesn’t clash with your brand style. Come up with a unique subject line and prepare images.
When a person sees an offer with a limited expiration date or available range, it looks like a “Take Action!” button. You can limit the number of products on sale.
Show appreciation for your loyal customers. Offer gifts or extra points to those who made purchases throughout the year or bought in bulk.
Motivate clients to tell friends about your discounts by offering loyalty points. Many people go by their friends’ opinions on what and where to buy.
Offer access to promotions and discounts a few hours earlier to your long-term clients.
Not all people have time to take advantage of Black Friday offers. Extend your promotion at the last minute when your competitors have finished their campaigns. This will give customers an additional opportunity to place an order. Surprise your customers with even greater discounts.
If you’re planning a Black Friday shopping festival, party, or another event, advertise it on Facebook and other social media platforms. This is a great way to draw attention to yourself on the market and arrange a big sale.
Many brands today run sales and then donate part of the profits to charitable causes. It doesn’t increase short-term profits but brings much more positive results in the long run. It is the company’s image, brand recognition, customer loyalty and respect, expansion of the audience, and most importantly a priceless sense of being involved in a charitable act.
We wish you all a merry and successful Black Friday!
The Outcrowd team
