Black Friday and Cyber Monday Marketing Strategy

Want to develop a successful marketing campaign for Black Friday and Cyber Monday? We are ready to tell you the truth about the craziest shopping days. Every year, new trends come out and capture attention. Besides the top strategies for your ecommerce and brick and mortar, we’ve decided to carry out research and share the most interesting social media insights.

What is Black Friday?
What is Cyber Monday?
How to Prepare for Black Friday & Cyber Monday: Top 15 Tips
Black Friday vs Cyber Monday – Social Media Statistics

The BelVG marketing team has decided to update this article with the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday tips. The biggest sales are yet to come out and while people may already think about the guest lists and Thanksgiving menu, we need to get ready to upstage the competitors in an all-embracing discount mood.

It may sound obvious that you need to come up with effective and appealing deals, nevertheless, it is not enough. Having an unstoppable flow of customers buying at the same time can not bring you the glory if you do not prepare well for Black Friday buzz and Cyber Monday web activity. To keep up with customer’s needs and make money with the help of top marketing trends, learn some tips and tricks that will help to boost your conversions and stir up the sales as never before.

Ready to find out more about Black Friday history? It is the most popular retail holiday in the USA which has successfully spread around the world winning the popularity in Europe and Australia.

What is Black Friday?

What are the origins of Black Friday? This event dates back to the middle of the last century. The day after Thanksgiving celebration was reckoned as a “dark” one in terms of safety. The streets were clogged with vehicles and disruptive pedestrians that came to Philadelphia to the famous Navy-football Game. The American Philatelist magazine introduced this term in print for the first time, in 1966 and in the next 10 years, it spread across the nation referred to as a festive sales boost.

However, you probably have seen Black Friday ads along the year, because retailers apply Black Friday ads and flyers to other seasonal sales just up to handle. Black Friday trigger works as a great marketing tool to inform the customers about some special offerings on any other occasion of the year. According to the National Retail Federation, roughly 174 million people shop on Black Friday [1]. It is an incredible opportunity for retailers to get a piece of this pie.

When is Black Friday?

Usually, Black Friday falls on the day after Thanksgiving weekend that launches the Christmas season shopping season making it a huge shopping day and kicks off the shopping season till the very Christmas. Even though the Friday itself is a regular workday, many blue and white-collar workers have both Thanksgiving and the following Friday off. These two days plus the following regular weekend make the Black Friday a four-day event ensuing quite a high yield for vendors, whether they are selling in a real store or online.

When do Black Friday ads come out?

According to our research, the hottest date is likely to be 2 weeks beforehand. It is just enough to reach every single household in the area, still not going off the grid. Some giants, especially willing to grasp the nettle, make their first official shot in the very first day of November. However, most fervent deal seekers know that stores post their ads in media outlets prior to releasing the full Black Friday ads on their websites. Walmart, for example, usually takes the lead, starting its “holiday” deals at the end of October. So, be all eyes on November sales!

What is Cyber Monday?

The term Cyber Monday was introduced by the US’ National Retail Federation and Shop.org presenting a chance for online retailers and smaller shops to compete with Black Friday giants. And now it has grown to the biggest online sales event with no queues, no fights for the last shoe pair and no winter chills. Cocooned with a cup of hot chocolate, people are swiping the items of all kinds looking for the best price in webstores.

One of the most popular sources to look for Cyber Monday sales is CyberModay.com, which provide the information on more than 800 online retailers. Coasting along the Black Friday deals flow, e-commerce businesses ales record each year as well. The numbers are promising: $6.6 billion spent online on Cyber Monday 2017 vs. $7.9 billion spent online on Cyber Monday 2018 [2].

When is Cyber Monday?

You will be surprised, but on Monday, definitely. As the demand for online shopping increases, retailers are willing to shift Cyber selling closer to Thanksgiving Day every year. The Cyber Monday date changes every year but every time it falls on the Monday after Black Friday. Although, top stores like Walmart, Amazon, and Target launch their Cyber Monday sales on Thanksgiving Day itself. Despite the fact that online shopping is supposed to save a lot of time, the figures speak for themselves: 95 million hours in total, which is 11,000 years – Americans spend on Cyber Monday online shopping every year.

Fortunately, we have prepared some easy and proven tips for your business to guarantee you make money on Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals flow. Come along and you’ll love the results.

How to Prepare for Black Friday & Cyber Monday: Top 15 Tips

1. Run Black Friday early ads to outrun the others

It is not about putting more products on sale, but about showing what the customer will benefit from buying the product today, compared with any other day. And you are not alone in the flood of leaking offers and oncoming sales. You can only involve the customers in your play team if you are the first one in the surroundings. to capture their attention Tease it up by introducing your company and some perky ideas. And closer to the date, let them know about the precise time of your sales’ start and finish. Early bird grabs the worm, indeed.

2. Impress potential customers with Black Friday landing pages

Make your customers fall in love with your brand at first sight. The first thing a user encounters after clicking to an ad is the landing page. Its purpose is usually to make a visitor proceed further to the website or give some personal information for a future request from your company. Instead of scaring the user off to close the popup, the Black Friday landing page needs to present a scarce and clear call to action. Aside from increasing conversion rates when properly placed, the landing page will magnet newcomers, which can be a deciding factor in the effectiveness of Black Friday marketing campaign.

Keep the messages clear, do not put plenty of information or screaming deals on your homepage as well. Dimmed colors coupled with glittering go-to button and a single decoration could be enough to immediately induce the interest in the upcoming event.

3. Get ready with Plan B

Do not let challenges bring your Black Friday marketing campaign down – prepare a Plan B. You don’t have to predict the future to tell that during Black Friday and Cyber Monday chaos, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. No one can promise that the mess will pass your store by – you know what they say – whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.

You need to take some time to prepare a step-by-step back-up plan including shipping, alternative suppliers – in case of very smooth selling, and a much-expanded delivery team to ensure productivity. Not less important is to be prepared for the aftermath. You need to review your daily business routine and adapt it to the amount you are ready to sell now, and the number of products to be supplied when the customer flow levels off.

4. Do Webstore Tests and more

Prepare your website for high loads. Black Friday could raise a cloud of dust even in seemingly well-organized business. You have to remember that during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, your website will experience high pressure. Contact the website support team and your hosting provider to make sure they will keep your website alive and fast-loading. Your online store will need an additional backup, and all the bugs must be fixed in real-time.

Also, you need to be sure that all the technical issues are in order – test everything. Make sure your support team is ready to handle any challenges. Shoppers are especially likely to have a look at your rating and customer reviews on the company’s website before buying on Cyber Monday or Black Friday.

In the same way, as clients feel more invited to come in a more spacious and well-arranged brick and mortar shop, they will be more engaged with an updated user-friendly interface. Analyze all the information, products description and visual effects – everything should be clear and up-to-date. Refine the website look and place lots of helpful Q&As, as it saves time greatly.

5. You can win the race

Do not let the competitors steal the clients. No matter what products are a part of your Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, they have to be displayed from the best side. Try to create something special and unforgettable for your customer. But you also need to stay aware of what your competitors have off-the-shelf. You’ll discover that this approach is useful for understanding your advantages. Follow these tactics to leave your competitors far behind:

• Make sure you know your product from all sides to offer the hidden insights;
• Explore and analyze the competitors’ ads and banners to improve your Black Friday marketing strategy;
• Do marketing research beforehand, analyze your target audience and give them what they really want.

Besides, you can make a step further via your commercials. Whether you represent a small eco-friendly shop or home-made pie factory, it is not a secret, that each niche has influencers. People often rely on their recommendations and reviews. Why not collaborate with some of the local ones. Simply send them a sample of your product and ask if they would like to showcase it in social media or participate in your Black Friday advertising video? It will take only one product pack, and you have nothing to lose.

6. Your customers use smartphones

Want to get more? Do not let the smartphone users down. A mobile phone and a credit card are the top musts today. Last year $2.1 billion Black Friday purchases were made on smartphones [3]. And the wonder is not the figures, but the fact that still, not many stores proceed to an omnichannel commerce strategy.

Before turning to “how-to-do-it-better” part, it is worth mentioning that it is vital to have desktop version coincide with mobile. Yet, one-third of cyber customers buy online using their tablets and smartphones. With this in mind, you need to ensure your website adjusts to every device and screen size. Adjusting the webstore look for all devices should be done beforehand or your conversion rate will drop down quickly when the users can’t access your store via the phone.

7. Let email marketing boost your sales

Use all the channels to approach a customer. Email communication can turn even a bystander into the most loyal client. According to the global email marketing company, the best-to-send days are Thursday and Tuesday. Non-pushy messages on your upcoming deals will make the addressee feel as VIP client having access to the information that nobody knows about. There are some easy-to-follow rules:

• The lead comes first. Catching titles and descriptions filled with the most important information and witty lines can win the hearts of your customers.
• It is the inbox competition for the customer’s attention. Make the design nice and sleek.
• Product-to-click-on. Surprisingly, your deals should not be the prime topic of the letter. Showcase at least a couple examples of your best bundle offers. As the reader skips the number of sales but notices the picture he likes, the call-to-action button is right here to help.
• Send a “secret” limited coupon, explain the benefits, and put an easy-to-click link. Users will be tempted to investigate the range of products that they could buy using a given 5$ coupon.

8. The clock is ticking

Always keep your customers informed about the final sales day. Put a countdown clock on your webstore, highlighting the time when the deal expires to create the feeling of urgency. It will stimulate those coming to the site to at least have a sneak look on some deals, what if you really have the best ones? It is also a good idea to create separate short-term deals that will expire in an hour or so, with an eye-catching banner with a ticking clock.

And how come without doorbuster – a strategy that attracts clients in the less favourable hours of the day. This strategy is to slash away the price just for a limited time and for a limited number of items only. Offered in a loss even, the deep discount items work as a promotion for the oncoming sales and a particular product. In such a way, customers are likely to return and buy later boosting your profit after all.

9. Earn more with bundle products

Still, do not know how to boost sales? Create special sets of products with the best deals. Selling the item, that requires the use of another one, is a way to make people purchase more. It’s hard to resist buying a blender when it comes with a bestselling “Top 100 smoothie recipe book”. The customer will surely embrace the spirit of creativity. Bundles work well with electronics of all kinds, gadgets and kitchen supplies.

Don’t forget about “Pay for One, Get Two” bundle as it is proved to be of good service for years. Customers love hot deals, especially during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This strategy is helpful when you want to sell the products that you have in stock for a while and need to sell fast. However, be careful and always make sure that the expiration date has not gone by – your customers will not appreciate a decayed surprise.

10. Hidden germs for special customers

Want to create more buzz around your brand during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales hours? Just think about hundred of clients yawning in line on a cold November morning waiting to investigate new deals at brick and mortar shop. If you would like to get such a crowd waiting for the banners with the hottest deals to pop up on your website, offer even more special discounts for the first 100 customers. Hand out some 10$ Black Friday flyers or discount coupons to turn on a playful mood. This will instantly wake them up to buy more aspiringly.

With a lot of great offers that are beaconing around, it’s getting exhausting to choose the right one. There are brands that have truly lucrative stuff to sell. Some companies try to be more generous in particular Black Friday hours. People want to know what to expect, so make sure to inform them properly about your exceptional massive discounts beforehand.

11. Warm-up sales by posting relevant blog articles

Use content marketing strategy to drive sales. Posting useful articles usually provides some kind of customer engaging effect. Try not to overwhelm your customers with vivid colors and bright pictures. Pay more attention to the words and their essence. Use different conversion tools, including the call to actions, intelligent chatbots, speaker messages, surveys and others to make your customers proceed to the relevant product pages. If you have a blog on your website, it is essential to publish only relevant articles.

Aside from serving as an entertainment component, your blog articles will increase your visibility for search engines. When searching for Black Friday deals or Cyber Monday sales, customers can find a link to your website blog if it contains the most desired information about the topic. Likewise, if the article displays in-demand items or outlines the ongoing sales, the link is more likely to be positioned higher in the search rankings.

Posting useful articles can help you to become an influencer in your sphere. Use the power of words and go right ahead to the new scale. As a retailer, you might know a lot of insights about the products that your customers will appreciate to learn about. Share the best tips for Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping and explain how to pick a juicy deal out of hype. Sincere appealing to the customers’ interests will help you build a trustworthy relationship with your customers that you can keep long after the hot deals are over.

12. Make sure your team is ready

How does your team handle rush hours? It is good if they manage the customer flow well. However, Black Friday event is something different. This shopping frenzy can knock over even the toughest ones, and your team needs to be backed up. Hire more employees or call for support personnel. Every happy customer will bring much more than just covering extra salary costs. Explain the precise work plan and why every employee needs to put twice as much effort during the whole week and how it will be beneficial to the entire team.

The pre-event training for e-commerce shop employees is also a necessity. With useful tips and updates on every stage from the manufacturing process to communication strategy such as training spurs the excitement and serves as a bonding experience for every member.

13. Get more with gift cards

Holidays are getting closer, and since Thanksgiving comes right before Black Friday, your customers may find a gift card a perfect present idea. Do not limit your creativity and offer gift cards with a unique design. Make the customers choose you not only because you provide a gift card discount and best deals, but also because the card itself looks like a nice present.

Another good idea is to work for the next year in advance – offer the most enthusiastic buyers some perks for the next year, so when buying 500$+, or other amounts, depending on what you sell, let them automatically have 50$ gift card for next Black Friday event in your store.

14. Don’t Put All Eggs in One Basket

If you are lucky to be the owner of a huge store that offers plenty of products of different kinds, when Black Friday and Cyber Monday are coming, you should separate the products into two categories. Some items are more relevant for Black Friday, the others, specifically, electronics, are better to promote for Cyber Monday.

Cyber Monday takes place mostly online, so for Black Friday, you’d better put on discount everything which is not selling online well, for example, perishable products like groceries. Repeating your best of the best deals on the internet right after you claimed them to be over in real store sounds like a broken record. If you want to continue driving your profits, make sure you have different sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The client can even like both deals while you score twice!

15. Start a social media campaign

Even an attractive billboard every mile on the road won’t bring you as many passers-by as an eye-catching Instagram story with your product or a witty Twitter post. Start it now, the more time you have – the more you will be able to share. Easy and always-at-hand, social media is popular not only among younger Millennials or Generation Z. Trying to keep up with the mysteries of what is trending and worth to acquire, people check social media posts and rely on a company’s social activity.

While uncovering your most longing offers, do not forget to use the magic of hashtags – one of the best tools to be noticed in this universe of constant feed. Put the right words and your hottest Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales over the brand account, and especially, new stories and posts.

Social media should become your outstanding marketing tool during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday as well as before and after. That is the reason why we have decided to carry out research and provide you with useful insights on this matter. You can find some useful tips down below.

Black Friday vs Cyber Monday – Social Media Statistics

Men vs Women – Who are the biggest Black Friday and Cyber Monday spenders?

When you think about someone using various hashtags for a social media post, you are most likely to imagine a woman. However, this image is not fair – when it comes to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, men use hashtags much more often.

One of the main reasons is that the number of male retailers is higher in general. No wonder, most of them post the announcements about their hottest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals in social media. Below you can find the results of our research that show that men publish more posts on Instagram and Twitter about these events using hashtags.

What do people think about Black Friday & Cyber Monday in social media?

Social media is a good reflection of what people actually think about any topic. In posts, they share their opinions openly, not afraid of being judged by anyone since it is easy to hide behind emojis and funny nicknames.

There have been a lot of discussions that Black Friday is unsafe because of crowds and that it is a terrible tradition that supports the consumerism and makes people buy stuff that they don’t need [4]. Partly it is fair, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are actual winners among the days for unplanned purchases, but it is also a time when people can buy something that they have desired but could not afford before.

We have analyzed over 1000 social media posts with Black Friday and Cyber Monday hashtags to identify the overall mood around these events in social media. Over 50% of the posts do not show any negative or positive views, they are neutral and mostly consist of advertisements and promotions. Despite the criticism that surrounds Black Friday, the number of positive posts outweighs the negative ones by far.

Conclusion

Remember that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are a perfect opportunity for people to stock up for winter celebrations. Use your bean, think about what you would like to see in stores and how you’d like to be treated, be prepared – stay welcoming.

Your customers choose among the great variety of brands and products, thus, you need to create special offers based not only on the type of product but on the popular purchase decisions as well. Guide your customers along the way of popup ads and overwhelming offers. Show a place to click in case they don’t know what to do next. Work hard to meet their expectations and make them stay with you after these crazy shopping days.

Have some inspiring marketing ideas to share? Feel free to leave them in the comments below!

[1] https://marketingland.com/165-million-people-shopped-online-and-in-stores-over-black-friday-weekend-252602
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/11/27/its-not-black-friday-anymore-its-weeks-discounts-you-cannot-stop-shopping/
[3] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cyber-monday-black-friday-merge-into-one-big-shopping-holiday-2018-11-26/
[4] https://www.inc.com/zoe-henry/millennials-want-to-ban-black-friday.html