Big box stores and craft stores aren’t the only people getting in the holiday mindset right now. If you’re in marketing and haven’t started thinking about your Black Friday campaigns, this is your sign to start strategizing! Black Friday might be months away, but planning now will mean you’re ready to hit the ground running when your campaigns go live.
Although Black Friday started as a one-day retailers would offer amazingly low prices on certain items, it has gradually become its own season. Deals are starting earlier and earlier, and promotions are running into the beginning of the year for some brands. So, how do you make sure your brand stands out in an overwhelmingly saturated marketing time? Strategic planning, and utilizing all of your marketing outlets. Here’s our guide to making sure you’re set up for Black Friday success.
- Get your website optimized for increased traffic. When it comes to websites crashing brands large and small can fall victim if you’re site isn’t ready for increased traffic. While we’re talking about your website, are you collecting email addresses? If not you need to! (We’ll come back to this later)
- Use social media to create buzz and a sense of urgency. Don’t just post about your sales on social. Use social platforms to create buzz about your upcoming promotions. Ask people what they want to see on sale, or what they think you’re going to offer. Make sure you’re engaging with your audience, and even give them some sneak peeks if you want.
- Digital ads are your friend. Yes, every brand is going to have ads going, but if you are creative, strategic, and utilize all of the platforms to their full potential your ads will stand out from the crowd. Make sure you’re utilizing Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, and OTT ads. You can never have too many digital ads if they are all working together.
- Think about your customer’s online shopping experience. When they go to your website are your sales easy to find? If you need a checkout code is it accessible? Once they start the checkout process is it smooth and easy? Do you use Meta platforms for shopping to give your customers another way to buy from you? These are all questions you need to answer before your Black Friday sales go live. Having amazing offers but a clunky online shopping experience won’t make people want to purchase from you.
- Set up your email for success. If you have an online store grab all of the abandoned carts and send them an email highlighting your promos. Set up an email for all the emails you’ve collected from your website, (remember what we said earlier) and send them an exclusive sneak peek. You don’t want to overload people with emails, but you can send different emails to different audiences to create a personalized email for each audience.
Think outside of the box for Black Friday, but don’t do it on the fly. A good Black Friday campaign is well thought out and planned. Use planning software for your social media, have your ads ready to go, email templates ready to just add audiences to, and one of the most important things, make sure your graphics and images are high quality. A lot of brands use Black Friday not only to drive sales but also build loyalty and trust with customers. Use this as your time to shine and show people what your brand is about.
If you need help with your Black Friday Marketing plan, or how to execute that plan Hexcode Marketing is here to help. Our 100% in-house team is ready to tackle your marketing efforts. We work hard to become an extension of your team and learn as much about your business as we can. Call or email us today and let’s start talking holidays!