It’s almost that time of the year again! So do you want to have a marketing strategy for this last quater. The busiest shopping week of the year is right around the corner. As always, it’s going to be chaos in the streets and in the shops. If you a business or a shop, it’s not too late to start preparing for the week-long rush.
So what is the exactly Marketing Strategy for Black Friday and Cyber Monday?
Black Friday
Black Friday is a day after Thanksgiving where countless brands and businesses throw a massive discount on all of their products. Countless shoppers all over the U.S prepare for this massive shopping festival/chaos. The term Black Friday was initially used in 1961 in Philadelphia. Back then, it was not as huge as it is today. Black Friday used to be a one-day shopping festival but soon it stretched out the entire week from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. Soon it spread over many countries as they now celebrate this festival as well.
Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday began in 2005. The purpose of Cyber Monday was to boost online sales for e-commerce retailers. It was an occasion targeted to increase the attractiveness of online shopping. Thanks to Cyber Monday, e-commerce businesses have bloomed since then not only in America but in various parts of the world as well.
Why Should We Care about Black Friday/Cyber Monday
So, why are black Friday and cyber Monday important for business? why we should follow Marketing Strategy. Let’s talk about statistics. In 2018, the week of Black Friday and Cyber Monday brought more than $10 billion just from online sales.
The e-commerce sales only (not physical sales) in 2018 rose 16.7% from its performance in 2017. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), on average per shopper spent about $1,007.24 on the physical and online store, it was $200 more than what shoppers spent in 2014.
These numbers tell us how important Black Friday and Cyber Monday are for any business.
If you have a business regardless of large and small and want to use that particular week to bloom your business, here are 20 effective marketing strategies that will aid you in your overall sales.
1. Start Planning Early
The event is on Friday and you think you can start promoting your products on Thursday? Nope! The customers prepare their shopping research as early as mid-October. so you have to do follow some Marketing Strategy now.
Don’t wait until it’s too late, jumpstart your promotions early and get ahead of your competitions. Build up your promotions leading up to the week. Create a solid digital marketing plan. This will gather your prospective customers for your business and create momentum among your competitors.
2. Social Media Campaign
This is the biggest segment of your marketing strategy as well as the most crucial one. Even the smallest of details such as scheduling your post to larger such as special content creations matters.
Create different content at different stages of your promotions, like one kind of content for the early stage when the prospective customers will be researching your business and the products you sell. this is what asctullay Marketing Strategy. Thats how it become big.
More than 70 percent of online shoppers check out product reviews before making a purchase because customers trust other customers more than marketers! That’s making sure to build a positive image of your brand on different social media platforms.
This will be a social proof of your brand. Furthermore, if you have a community on Facebook or Reddit, keep them excited by posting about various deals and promotions and exclusive products which will be available soon. Don’t forget to boost your content and keep track of your performance and always optimize your content from time to time.
3. Compile a Product Guide
A product guide will help you to enlighten your customers about your business and the types of products you sell or the services you offer. This can be a brief guide only highlighting the exclusive products or a long one listing all your products in a simple guide. its a part of Marketing Strategy.
This can be a route map for your customers on what to buy. You can hand out this guide as flyers/posters in front of your shop to passerby. You can also upload a pdf version of it on your website/social media profile.
4. Offer a Flexible Return Policy
With so many deals here and there and from so many shops, the customers get confused about where to rely on. Give them an assurance, make them trust you. Flexible return policy can reduce the risk they feel in buying from you and in return they’ll be able to rely on your brand. Even if the product turns out to be faulty, you can exchange it or give store credits.
5. Bonus Gift
Keep offers like buy 2 get 1 or “get a bonus gift with these products”. It’s not like without bonus gifts, your products won’t be sold. Think beyond holiday season! Bonus gifts will sweeten their experience among the chaos of shopping and spending large sum of money.
6. Email Newsletters
Since email marketing is more of a personalized form of marketing. Those of whom have your subscription are guaranteed to receive your promotional offers and deals.
We all know how email marketing works, a sudden pop up of attractive offers and deals in their phone/tablet will surely make them more excited to visit your store physically or check out your online store.
7. Launch your Exclusive and Premium Products within a Time Frame
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the perfect occasions to launch all your exclusive and premium products. These are basically the limited time or first come first serve offers. This creates a temporary sense of urgency among the customers.
Customers are psychologically attracted to offers that are limited or only certain customers will receive. This gives them a premium feeling of obtaining those products. The brand new products which are launched within this category usually get the highest of priority. So how to do it you have to think about Marketing Strategy and more. and make some unique Marketing Strategy for your business.
8. Hold Contests and Giveaways
Hold these events before the actual occasion! Arranging competitive contests or giveaways will keep the customers excited for the actual occasion. Giveaway something that will make them come back to your stores like discount coupons or in-store credit.
Free products and gift baskets are also very tempting. The customers you gain throughout the contest or giveaways will increase your regular conversion and drive more sales.
9. Partner up with Other Small Businesses
It can be really hard for a small business to stand out amongst the bigger companies like Amazon or Wal-Mart. That’s because during the occasion these top companies will also be giving away a large amount discount on their products.
It’s very natural for customers to be tempted by those offers. So, it’s hard for smaller companies to catch the attention or limelight from the customers. That’s why teaming up with a few other businesses can be a good idea to gain visibility.
It’s not like you’ll be selling each other’s products! That’s definitely not it, instead the business can cross-promote their deals to each other’s audiences. It’s a form of complimentary promotion, not competitive.
10. Fancy up the Physical Store
Even though online sales make up a significant portion of Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping, your brick-n-mortar store is the real deal (unless your store is an e-commerce store). Make sure your store is decorated well enough to catch the attention of customers even from a nearby store.
11. Release Promotional Deals and Offers in your Website
Surprisingly, only about 50% e-commerce retailers use their home page as a means of their Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotional offers and deals. Your home page is the face of your website; this is where you drive your visitors to different sales pages.
You can increase your conversion more than 10x during this holiday season if your home page provides your visitors with good enough deals to direct them to the sales pages.
12. Dedicated Landing Page for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Black Friday and Cyber Monday come only once in a year! However, the hype it brings tends to last an entire year until the next one comes. Therefore, it’s wise to create a dedicated landing page for Black Friday and one for Cyber Monday. Make sure to keep it active all year round.
However, the confusion that arises about keeping it active all year, why not create the landing page just before the holiday season? That’s because creating one just before the occasion won’t help you rank top in the Google search for Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
Keeping it active all year will boost your SEO and your customers will be able to find you easily in the Google Searches for Black Friday promotions and offers.
13. Integrating Chatbot or Messenger Bot
It’s not possible to converse with every customer personally, especially during the holiday season when visitors start flooding your website. Chatbot or messenger bots come with automation.
They will converse with your audiences on behalf of your business and offer them promotional deals.
It’s fully run by A.I so your visitors won’t be disappointed with having a conversation with the bots. It’s an easy way to increase conversion since they can handle an absurd amount of visitors at a time!
14. Utilize Cross-sell and Upsell
Offer complementary products when they are looking for their original products. For example, if they are looking for pajamas, offer them sleepover bags or something like that. This helps to get in the customer’s mind as they think the complementary product should be important as well.
15. Go beyond Black Friday and Cyber Monday
The holiday seasons like these are the perfect opportunity to gain some new loyal customers. Don’t limit your business to only Black Friday or Cyber Monday, extend their deals beyond the holiday week. Prepare a customer engagement plan, especially for the new customers. Request feedback from them and send them offers and promotional deals afterward.
16. Create a Facebook Event for your Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale
It’s a simple process. Create an event, invite people and wait for them to respond. Don’t forget to boost your event so that it can reach a wider range of customers. If they respond to your invitation, they’ll receive notifications every time you post promotional content.
17. Offer Rewards to your Loyal Customers
Those who have the most customer lifetime value are by default your most loyal customers. Why not show them some extra love and give them some exciting discounts which are only exclusive to them. This will sweeten up their shopping experience and of course they’ll keep on staying your most loyal customers.
18. Retarget visitors who have Abandoned Carts
They are basically those who have added products in their carts but have not made any purchase. Many people leave the e-commerce stores after they’ve added products in their carts. You can retarget them personally by offering them some code or discount coupons of the products they’ve added in their cart. You can also use pop-ups to let them know that they have products in their cart that they “forgot” to purchase.
19. New Customer Rewards
We have basically broken the customers into four different categories, this is the third one. They are your potential customers. They deserve somewhat special discounts as well. That’s because they will have yet to form any sort of impression on your brand. So why not make their first impression long-lasting by offering them special discounts on their very first purchase from your store.
20. Recycle your most sold products
Bring back all your top-selling products to your customers with a Black Friday or Cyber Monday discounts. These products are already proved to be the most sold products. So when you’ll add them in your product line, they are bound to get sold like as they now have an attractive discount tag on them.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday comes with a challenge to the customers to find their desired products before it gets sold out. We all know how chaotic and busy it can be, both the online and physical stores. So, to ensure your stores gets flooded with customers too, follow the above marketing strategies for effective sales.
