Online Marketing Strategies for Black Friday
By: Tuğçe Gör
Tags: Black Friday, Ecommerce, Online Marketing, Digital Marketing

In the following content, I’m going to explain what online marketing is, and why Black Friday is vital for e-commerce businesses. Then, I will give you some tactics to take advantage of this beautiful opportunity. I hope you can easily apply those online marketing strategies for Black Friday to your digital marketing plan!

What is Online Marketing?

Online marketing comprises of some fields such as email marketing, social media, SEO, SEM, content marketing, PPC and affiliate marketing to reach your potential customers.

In a nutshell, you use online marketing tactics to turn people into your loyal customers!

Why Black Friday Matters?

Whether you’re ready or not, it’s coming! On November 29, 2019, you’ll see the busiest shopping day of the whole year. It matters because it is a great chance to generate more leads, increase sales and conversions!

According to The Balance, Black Friday sales have picked up and reached $717.5 billion in 2018 — a 4.3% year-over-year increase! This year, it seems to be the massive shopping season that makes up 34% of all sales for the year.

Let’s have a look at these crazy statistics on Black Friday;

According to Adobe Analytics, U.S. retailers earned a record $7.4 billion on Nov. 23, an increase of nearly 18% from a year ago.

Mobile spending alone totals over $2.18 billion in sales on Black Friday.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s net worth passed $100 billion the day after Thanksgiving.

Considering that this madness is something real, isn’t it time to benefit from it?

I don’t mean something bad, I am just emphasizing on the importance of the biggest day in terms of sales! If you offer products in your e-commerce store, you should be aware of what’s going on here in the market.

Why not take advantage of this pretty cool period of the year called Black Friday & Cyber Monday?

You should push some marketing tactics to increase sales and conversions. It is probably the most important day for your ROI. Before diving into the details about Black Friday, I want you to focus on your marketing tactics and determine which ones need to be reconsidered!

You may start by making a list, or whatever you like. The main purpose of this request is to plan everything ahead of time and be ready to launch.

Cheers, everyone. We’re starting!

Email Marketing TIPS for Black Friday

If you’re following my blog posts or watching my videos on PopupSmart’s Youtube channel, you’ve probably heard that I generally talk about the importance of email marketing. 🙂

Well, this is true. Email marketing is a sustainable way to deliver huge ROI. In this case, you need to prepare your email marketing campaigns before Black Friday.

You should prepare attractive email messages with some valuable content and images to make your customers happy. You can announce Black Friday promotions, discounts and offers via email marketing to encourage your customers to purchase.

Email marketing is a strong method to build transactional relationships with your customers. So, you should take advantage of this powerful resource especially in sales season like Black Friday or Cyber Monday. You may send a friendly reminder email to prevent cart abandonment or suggest products that best fit your clients’ interests based on their purchase history.

1. Drive Email Subscriptions with Opt-in Forms

You can grow your email list with the help of this beautiful event in November 🙂 People can’t wait to get something for free or on discount. In this case, you may show your unique opt-in forms to increase email subscriptions as well as your conversion rates in the long run.

2. Send Personalized Emails with Catchy Subject Lines

If you’re running an e-commerce store, this is something you should definitely do!

Hurry up, segment your subscribers into specific groups based on distinct features such as location, interest and purchase history. After that, personalize each message and offer a value that can’t be turned down!

Considering that our inbox folder will be bombarded by stores’ special offer emails etc., you should come up with an effective, eye-catching, interesting and unique email subject line. You should implement a sense of urgency in your subject lines with words such as “Hurry, Act Now, Deadline Approaching…”

If you’re wondering about the importance as well as the impact of a compelling email subject line or how it affects the email open rate, check this out!

If you’re convinced, you better trigger your campaigns with powerful subject lines to drive more sales! 🙂

3. Create a Sense of Urgency

As one of the most powerful marketing tactics, creating a sense of urgency works for campaigns. You should definitely create compelling emails that boost your conversions and email open rates. Believe me, you’ll convert your subscribers into paying customers during the Black Friday week.

Let me tell you the reason behind this situation. Your customers are more likely to make a decision quickly when they think they’re about to miss an opportunity. Personally, it’s not fair, but this is marketing. I want you to know that your competitors will use this tactic. So why shouldn’t you?

Put yourself into your customers’ shoes. If you’d be the one that wants to buy those pair of shoes and if you’d be the one who experiences such an urgent situation, wouldn’t your brain force you to make a decision instantly?

Well, desire loses its value without a sense of urgency. That’s why you should trigger your customers with an immediate call to action.

You may create unique notification popups or a progress bar that will show up announcing that there are x hours & min left before missing the opportunity or when that particular product you’re looking for runs out of stock!

This is the other way to create a sense of urgency: set a deadline for a hot deal! Whatever your business is you can apply this tactic to get more conversions.

4. Customize Your Landing Page

A lot of people searche for products before Black Friday. In this case, you need a landing page strategy that will help your SEO efforts. So, what you need to do is boost Black Friday sales on your landing page before the weekend of Black Friday.

You should convey a simple and clear but powerful call to action with a unique “Black Friday” design.

Don’t forget to promote something valuable and provide it with your CTA. You may also link to other places of your e-commerce store.

You may want to boost your traffic to your landing page by paying for clicks on Facebook or Google AdWords. It’s another option to attract members of your specific target market. There is nothing wrong with paying only when someone clicks-through to your landing page when you consider the sales conversions.

5. Provide Combo Promotions with Discounts

I think we all use some promotion tactics in e-commerce businesses. Well, it works but you need something dynamic. To provide the best experience, you should think about what you can do.

Think about your limit. Is it better to give a discount on one particular product or is it better to give out offers on product combinations to elevate the average order value?

Personally, I recommend creating discount coupons for a package which consist of various products relevant to each other.

For example, it could be useful to offer a special discount on wet dog food multipacks when your customer buys a sofa dog bed. It’s just an example of retaining relevancy.

Considering that both the previous week of Black Friday and Cyber Monday make for an amazing sale season, you should trigger your campaigns to increase your conversions. Don’t you like to buy something which has bonus benefits on top of the exact order value?

Give them an experience that will make them feel like winning a reward, engagingly.

6. Boost Sales with Social Media

Social media is one of the main fields of today’s marketing landscape. It helps you build your brand voice and engage with your subscribers. It is a productive way to engage with your customers, listen to them and provide their expectations.

Consumers indeed often turn to social media to engage with brands. About 58.6 percent of American consumers interact with brands on social media about one to three times per day.

So, Black Friday is definitely something you should make an effort over, to increase your conversions through social media. You should boost your related social media posts with special discounts and offers.

Don’t forget to use hashtags in order to promote your discount codes. Using #BlackFriday will be helpful to reach many more people who are interested in your products.

Remember, it’s always better to organize your social media channels based on the Black Friday & Cyber Monday context. That means, your different social media channels should reflect the same thing, “Black Friday”!

You should optimize your cover photo, profile picture, a bio with a call-to-action button, banner, link, and description to stay up-to-date and let people know that you’re very well prepared and ready!

7. Get Benefits from Referral Marketing

There are thousands of people who choose to take up Black Friday offerings from home. So referral programs are useful to boost your online sales. But let me properly explain what I mean.

With referral marketing, you can develop exclusive offers to make your valuable customers happy. While building your long-term loyalty, you can still acquire new customers.

Imagine that you provide something valuable for your existing customers. Give them something exclusive if they share an offer with their friends around Black Friday.

Think about it! Wouldn’t it be great to gain word of mouth and capture great insights to boost your conversions? I sure think so 🙂

Let 2019 be your year of boosting sales conversions!

All you need to do is establish a referral program that gives you a chance to engage with your customers and reward them for their loyalty.

Are you looking for proven methods to boost your sales via digital marketing? Click here now!

Enjoy the best of both worlds.