A Guide To Black Friday Marketing

In just two weeks on 26th November, Black Friday 2021 will take place, shortly followed by Cyber Monday on 29th November. What started off as a celebration in America following Thanksgiving Day has now turned into one of the biggest shopping events of the year in many countries around the world. Whilst shoppers may prepare by looking into the sales and discounts to expect across the weekend, both online and physical retailers will be getting prepared too – these preparations will involve creating a marketing strategy (or, at least, they should do).

As someone with experience in fast fashion, I’ve seen first-hand just how big of an event Black Friday can be for retailers too, and not just consumers. The planning and preparation that goes into the event can be extraordinary and there really is no underestimating the power of a well-thought-out sale, paired with a genius marketing strategy.

Whilst, for some, the creation of a marketing strategy is likely to have taken place months before Black Friday, there are still a few last-minute things you can do to successfully market your sales and discounts over the next couple of weeks and on the day/weekend itself. In this blog, I’ll take you through some simple tips and tricks to nail your marketing for this upcoming Black Friday, Cyber Weekend, and Cyber Monday, regardless of what area of retail you’re in.

A Guide To Black Friday Marketing

Master your email marketing

Let’s face it, if they aren’t already, your consumers’ inboxes are going to be swamped on the build-up to Black Friday. Don’t let this put you off though – you should still use email marketing, and by following a few easy tips and tricks, there’s no reason why it can’t be a successful marketing channel for you.

Build your email list 

For any email marketing strategy to be successful, you firstly need to have a list of valuable subscribers that are interested in your products and offers. In the lead up to Black Friday, you should schedule a pop-up on your site that allows customers to sign up for exclusive discounts during the Black Friday sales. This pop-up should also contain an engaging call-to-action, such as ‘Give Me Exclusive Offers’, or ‘Send Me 20% Off’.

Master your subject line

As mentioned earlier, the inboxes of both your potential customers and existing customers will be swamped, which is why mastering your subject line is so important. It’s this crucial bit of copy that can be the difference between your email getting opened immediately, or being thrown straight in the virtual bin! Your subject line should be direct – spell it out clearly! Why have you emailed this user? What is it that they can expect from your email? A good subject line might make the user feel important too; a subject line like ‘you’ve been chosen to receive our Black Friday deal’ might just do the trick!

Offer discounts to those signed up 

Offering another discount code to those that subscribe to your email marketing campaigns is a great way to entice users to sign-up and then stay tuned for your emails that contain the exclusive code. Users love a discount, and if they know that they’re going to get more money off when they sign-up, it’s likely that they’ll do just that. When your sale starts, which might be on Black Friday or sooner, send the code early that morning. Then, at least a few hours before the sale ends, send an email with a reminder that might trigger the user to make the most of their exclusive code before time runs out!

Make consumers feel special

No matter what your marketing promotions entail, they should always make the user feel special. There are a few different angles that you can approach this from – you can offer discounts and deals such as:

VIP discounts: This could be for loyal customers that have spent so much with you over the past year, or the past few months.

Discounts for previous customers: If you’ve got previous customers that haven’t spent money with you in a while, why not boost your online sales by enticing them with an exclusive offer?

Early-bird discounts and exclusives: This could be for users that have signed up for an exclusive offer, or for your most loyal customers. Either way, early-bird discounts would likely give users early access to sales before the offer extends to the general public. This would involve using a dedicated URL/landing page or a code that gives users access to the products.

Give a free gift with every purchase: Another good way to entice users is to offer complementary products to your online shoppers if they spend over a certain amount. Users love to think that they’re getting great value for their money – if they’re close to spending over a certain amount and know that they’ll get more for their money if they do, then it’s likely that they will. This is an effective tactic to boost conversions!

Build anticipation & excitement before and throughout

Give sneak peeks: One of the best Black Friday marketing tactics is building anticipation and excitement about your offers and exclusives. One of the best ways to do this is to give sneak peeks and to tease users with what they can expect from your sale. You can make use of multiple marketing channels to do this, such as email newsletters, social media, and Search & Display ads.

Launch a new product: You can coordinate your sales with the launch of a new product too in an attempt to boost interest and anticipation. As with the point above, be sure to give sneak peeks and tease your audience with what’s to come!

Mix it up with a different deal every hour: One of the ways that you can keep your online sale exciting and interesting is by changing the deal that you offer every hour, or any other time frame that suits you. This tactic also creates a sense of urgency – if users like what they see, they need to act quickly to reap the benefits of it before that offer ends!

Use a countdown: Who doesn’t love a countdown? Get your audience excited by counting down the days to your sale or exclusive launch. You could do this via email, or by using features on social media such as the Instagram countdown.

It’s all in the words: Copy for any Black Friday marketing materials such as emails, landing pages, and adverts should be carefully crafted to build excitement. Writing effective copy to assist with your marketing efforts and to bring your marketing ideas to life isn’t always easy – there’s a lot of thought and consideration that needs to go into it, especially if the content needs to be search-engine optimised too. That’s where the likes of our Content Team are on hand to help…

Looking ahead to next year?

Whilst the list above contains just a few last-minute ideas for your Black Friday campaign ideas, to be as successful as possible it’s important to plan ahead when it comes to any type of marketing, including for Black Friday. For example, we know that it can often take 3-6 months for a website to reap the benefits of any SEO improvements in the form of their search engine results page (SERP) rankings. By looking to master your marketing all year round then, this will lay the foundation for a successful Black Friday as the holiday season approaches.

Here are just some of the things that you can do to aid the success of your Black Friday campaigns in the long-run…

Focus on long-form content to boost SEO and engage readers as Black Friday approaches

Here at Embryo, we’re always championing long-form content and the SEO benefits that come with it. Long-form content written with Black Friday and the broader holiday period in mind can help you to boost your organic traffic in time for the sales. Some of the best pieces of long-form content include gift guides, where you give a rundown of your products on-site and why they would make a great gift. You could categorise your gift guides based on gender, age, interests, price points, and other factors.

However you approach it, with content that’s engaging and optimised for SEO, long-form content can help users to find you online and take an interest in your offerings.

Boost your social media presence

Having a strong social media presence isn’t just for Black Friday…it’s crucial all year round. Having optimised social media accounts, using social shopping features, ads, and promotional posts can all help to set you up for success by the time Black Friday comes around. Of course, it’s important to post engaging content too, including user-generated content. When Black Friday comes around though, remember not to overdo it – avoid being too ‘salesy’ as you’ll only annoy your followers!

Make sure you’ve nailed your user experience (UX)

This is perhaps the most important point in this blog post – providing a great customer experience is vital for sales, and SEO. If you take your checkout process as an example – if this part of your site is hard to navigate and gives users a bad experience, they might just abandon their cart and take their money to other eCommerce businesses. A good online shopping experience will take place on a well-designed site that is built with the user in mind, and that is quick to load. This will include making considerations for both mobile users and desktop users. With all this in mind, it’s worth investing in your site long before Black Friday to ensure that it delivers a positive experience!

Thinking beyond Black Friday and looking to nail your marketing strategy all year round? Get in touch with us today!

As mentioned before, investing in your marketing all year round will lay the foundation for seasonal and promotional events, such as Black Friday. Here at Embryo, we help clients in a range of sectors to master their marketing – with multi-channel campaigns and innovative strategies – all year round. If you’d like to find out more about our previous success, be sure to check out our case studies. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help your business, get in touch with the team today.