So, you’ve hopped on the train headed for that special place in consumeristic Hell called “Black Friday”? Welcome, welcome.
The trip is going to be as fun as it is scary. Fun, because you’ll get to try all sorts of creative marketing strategies to make it a win. Scary, because the stakes are high. These few November days can make or break your annual revenue, with 30% of annual sales in retail occurring between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
And even if you’re not in retail, you’re not exempt from the chaos that is Black Friday. SaaS, education, consulting—everyone is trying to take advantage of people’s desire to shop like there’s no tomorrow.
In this article, we’ll explore tips, tricks, and ideas to turn your Black Friday journey into a joyride and help you get the best results with minimal stress.
What is Black Friday?
Ironically, Black Friday is no longer 'black' (meaning ‘grim,’ as it did in the ’60s), nor is it just a Friday.
Black Friday, often abbreviated BFCM (Black Friday and Cyber Monday), is the name for a few shopping days that come after Thanksgiving and mark the start of the holiday shopping season.
Having originated in the US, Black Friday has become a global event in recent years. Stores, both online and brick-and-mortar, offer customers exclusive deals and generous special offers, drawing huge crowds of deal-hunters.
Each year, sales break records during this period. In 2023, shoppers spent $9.8 billion on Black Friday, and an astounding $12.4 billion on Cyber Monday.
How to Prepare for Black Friday 2024
The success of your Black Friday campaign depends a lot on your generosity and creativity, but even more so on strategic planning. There are tons of exciting Black Friday marketing ideas, but it’s impossible to implement all of them. So, how do you pick the most effective ones?
Before diving into a giveaway and a special deals frenzy, ensure that your sales, marketing, and customer service teams are aligned and prepared for the influx of customers. And don’t forget your website, especially if you’re selling online.
Here are things to consider when planning your Black Friday marketing efforts:
🚀 Define your objectives.
Setting clear objectives for Black Friday will help you sift through the numerous ideas and strategies, and select the most promising ones. Are you aiming solely for short-term sales boosts, or do you have additional goals like growing your subscriber list or promoting a new product?
By keeping your objectives in mind, you’ll know which marketing channels and communication techniques to focus on, making it much easier to draft your marketing plan.
📈 Analyze past years' campaigns.
It doesn’t matter if your previous Black Friday campaigns were a success or a flop. What matters is that you have the experience to build upon. If something worked, see if you can improve on the strategy for even better results. If the idea didn’t land, you can safely discard it and explore other options.
🛠️ Prepare your website.
Revising your website content and implementing new tools will help ensure that you attract as many new customers as possible and that they have the best experience shopping with you during BFCM.
- Optimize your website for mobile devices: In 2023, 75.7% of Black Friday sales were made on mobile devices. With Google prioritizing mobile versions of websites for crawling, optimizing your site for mobile is crucial if you want to rank on Google’s front page. You can do this through responsive design or dynamic serving. Once done, don’t forget to check your optimization with Google’s free tools.
- Use AI chatbots for better customer support: An influx of customers will put a strain on your support team. To ease their workload and minimize client frustration over long response times, consider using an AI chatbot. Bots can assist with product information, order tracking, and even upsell complementary products.
- Create a Black Friday landing page: Even if you’re including all your products in the Black Friday sale, having a dedicated landing page helps you fill your website with relevant keywords, boosting SEO. Plus, it gives customers an easy overview of the special offers you’re running, especially if you plan to experiment with different promotions.
- Create an abandoned cart strategy: Reducing abandoned cart rates can significantly boost your Black Friday revenue. Try offering a surprise discount at checkout to encourage visitors to complete their purchases. For those who still don’t, set up automated follow-up messages to reach them through retargeting.
Black Friday Marketing Ideas and Tips
Okay, now that we’ve got preparation out of the way, let’s look at specific things you can try to attract shoppers and turn your next Black Friday into a huge success.
🎯 Use personalized recommendations for higher conversion.
The competition for customers’ attention (and wallets) gets tougher every year. Discounts and deals are standard now, but a standout shopping experience can still tip the scales in your favor.
Use AI to analyze customer data and recommend personalized products based on past purchases, browsing habits, and preferences. The beauty of this approach is that it can be integrated into emails, websites, or apps, giving you flexibility in your marketing channels.
Another powerful way to personalize the experience is through AI-driven virtual try-ons. This works especially well in the beauty, cosmetics, and clothing industries, so if that’s your niche, you’re in luck!
📘 Engage shoppers with interactive Gift Guides and Catalogs.
Many shoppers use Black Friday to stock up on gifts for the upcoming holidays, so Gift Guides and Deal Catalogs are a great way to help them shop more efficiently.
A well-designed Gift Catalog can leverage digital perks to entice customers. You can use GIFs to make items more appealing, pop-ups for additional product info, and direct links or order forms for seamless shopping. All in all, an interactive format encourages deeper exploration and boosts conversions.
Creating an interactive Gift Guide is simple. For example, with FlippingBook, you can upload a PDF and turn it into a professional-looking catalog in just a few minutes. The catalog will be shareable via a link, which you can distribute through email or post on social media.
On top of that, document analytics allows you to see how many people opened your catalog, which items they clicked on, and which pages they viewed the longest. These insights will help you measure your campaign’s success and gather actionable data for next year.
⏰ Create urgency with Flash sales and Countdown timers.
Urgency and scarcity are the essence of Black Friday, and time-limited deals are a great way to tap into this. Here are a few tried-and-true tactics:
- Flash sales: Offer discounts or special offers for a limited time. How short is up to you—some brands run hourly promotions, others go with three-hour windows or daily deals. You can implement these via website pop-ups, Instagram reels, or email—whatever resonates with your audience.
- Countdown timers: Countdowns have become a Black Friday staple, and for good reason—they work. You can make your sale even more exciting by keeping the actual deals a surprise, which adds an element of fun. Countdowns are effective across emails, social media, and websites, so pick the channel that suits your strategy best.
Source: optinmonster
💌 Reward loyalty with exclusive deals.
Black Friday is a perfect opportunity to show appreciation for your existing customers by offering them truly exclusive deals. The best way to deliver these offers is through email, where you can highlight the exclusivity and personalize the deals based on past purchases.
If you have too many offers to include in one email, consider sending out an Exclusive Deal Catalog in an interactive format. With tools like FlippingBook, you can share these catalogs privately—accessible only to those with the link. You can even password-protect the document for extra security.
In addition to discounts, consider offering exclusive products or incentives to encourage repeat purchases and reignite customers’ love for your brand.
Source: mayple
🎮 Gamify Black Friday deals.
People love games. Whether it’s darts or whack-a-mole at a fair, games have always been a hit—and now they’re part of online marketing too. One of the most popular Black Friday games is Spin-the-Wheel.
Source: edrawsoft
Here’s how it works: a customer clicks to spin the wheel and wins a prize. This method is flexible and can offer discounts to new customers or reward purchases. You can implement it as a website pop-up or embed it on your Black Friday page for maximum visibility.
#️⃣ Tap into the power of social media.
In 2024, the average internet user spends 143 minutes per day on social media. That’s over two hours of engaging with influencers, keeping up with trends, and—more importantly—shopping.
Naturally, social commerce, the blend of social media and e-commerce, is on the rise, with revenues projected to surpass one trillion U.S. dollars by 2028. That’s why using social media to promote and sell your products during Black Friday is a must. Here’s how you get can the most of it:
- Run contests and giveaways on Instagram and Facebook: Black Friday-themed giveaways on Instagram or Facebook can grow your following and boost engagement. Do it before the event to expand your reach or combine it with the sale to drive revenue.
- Partner with an influencer: Influencer marketing has a significantly higher ROI than traditional marketing and appeals to a wide range of demographics: 50% of Millenials and 33% of Gen Z-ers have bought products based on an influencer’s recommendation. Even if you don’t have a huge budget, you can work with a micro-influencer in your niche. They might have a smaller outreach, but a more engaged audience.
Source: Decathlon Black Friday Promo
- Sell directly on social media: The fewer steps your clients need to take to buy your product, the better. You can sell your products without even leaving Facebook or Instagram through an integration with an e-commerce platform, like Shopify, or even directly through Instagram’s shopping feature.
- Use hashtags to reach new audiences: Hashtags are a powerful tool for growing your followers, and Black Friday is a perfect time to utilize it to the max as you can use Black Friday-related tags for better exposure.
However, there are a few caveats. Traditional #BlackFriday and #Sale are overused, so you’ll need to be more specific and creative for the tags to be effective. Look up trending hashtags beforehand, keep them relevant and industry-specific, and limit them to around 10 per post.
🎁 Sweeten the deal with gifts and free services.
Offering a small gift or complimentary service, like free shipping, can go a long way in building strong customer relationships. It’s especially important considering the fact that holidays bring customers with the lowest lifetime value.
You can offer gifts with every purchase or set a minimum spend amount to offset costs. Just ensure your gifts are relevant and delightful—they’ll be much more effective at driving sales.
🚶🏽♀️Go against the grain.
While Black Friday has grown in popularity, not everyone is a fan of its consumerism. With sustainable shopping and mindful consumption gaining traction, some brands are rethinking their Black Friday strategies to highlight their social values.
You don’t have to cancel Black Friday entirely, but you can try alternative approaches. Run promotions earlier or later, limit sales to loyal customers, remind shoppers to buy responsibly, or donate a portion of your profits to charity.
For example, Fred Perry, a British fashion brand, focuses its campaigns on social responsibility rather than traditional sales:
Source: ReallyGoodEmails
Summing up
Black Friday offers limitless possibilities not only for boosting revenue that will sustain your business for the rest of the year, but also for growing your client base, promoting new products, trying out new marketing strategies and ideas, and even sharing your vision and values.
Whatever path you take, make sure to come well-prepared, and don’t forget to have fun!
