How to Market Your Business for Black Friday

One of the biggest days for retailers is fast-approaching, and when done right can boost customer sales enormously. However, as one of the busiest shopping days of the year, it can be tricky for businesses to get the attention from shoppers when every other competitor is fighting for it too.

With so much competition on what can be an essential day for sales, how do you make your business stand out from the crowd? How do you market your business for Black Friday?

Here, TechRound explores advice from a number of experienced marketing professionals, offering up their advice and opinions on how to market your offering correctly for the 26th November.

 

Our Marketing Experts:

• Rick Harris – Managing Director at Customer Faithful Limited
• Riannon Palmer – Managing Director at Lem-uhn
• Ed Ziubrzynski – Head of On-site SEO at Fibre Marketing
• Jack Shepherd – Co-Founder & Marketing Director of The Social Shepherd
• John Lamphiere – RVP EMEA & APAC ActiveCampaign
• Achille Traore – CEO at White Label Loyalty
• Lucy Hinton – Head of Client Operations, Flashtalking by Mediaocean
• Gregory Zakowicz – Senior Marketing Expert at Omnisend
• Lauren Petrullo – Multi-Founder and Content Marketing Expert
• Laura Norman – Marketing Consultant at Chroma Marketing
• Sarah Rew – Senior Director, Global Marketing, LoopMe
• Emily King – Commercial Director at Tug
• Dave Randall – Commercial Director at Future plc
• Angela Witter – Chartered Marketer and PR Professional
• Gal Ekstein – General Manager EMEA & LATAM at AppsFlyer
• Farhad Divecha – Founder and MD of AccuraCast
• Hannah Holland – Managing Director of HLD Group
• Carl Walker – Fluid Commerce’s Ecommerce Director
• Lee Bellon – Founder at Wishfinity
• Thibaud Clement – CEO and Co-Founder of Loomly
• Treavion Davenport – CEO/Sr. PR and Branding Strategist
• Kate Nightingale – Consumer psychologist working with small business marketing and design partner Vistaprint
• Meraj Kunarajah – Senior Director Client Success, MediaMath

 

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.

 

Rick Harris, Managing Director at Customer Faithful Limited

 

 

“It’s tempting to use marketing to contact everyone who has ever shopped, signed up or reached out about Black Friday! It’s a numbers game, right? The more you send out, the more responses you’ll get? Well, not quite. With the mass popularity of Black Friday, that’s not going to work that well – not if you send everyone the same blanket email anyway – your generic message gets lost in the crowd. Instead, segmenting and targeting is key.”

“First, SEGMENT your customers, splitting out your most recent, frequent and highest monetary value shoppers. The easiest way to do this is to sort your list three times from high-to-low, grouping the top 30% of shoppers together into three segments (most recent, most frequent, highest spending).”

“These three groups now require TARGETED marketing messages.”

“For your highest spending customers, consider targeting bundled offers like “3 for $xxx” or “FREE gift when you spend over $xxxx”- don’t sell yourself short with entry-level deals.”

“For your most frequent shoppers, reward them with early bird “exclusives” and “secret vouchers” to thank them for their loyalty. They know their way around – just give them an extra reason to visit.”

“And for most recent buyers, leverage the feel-good impact of their last sale by cross-selling them “Black Friday Specials” from the same brand or related product category.”

“Finally, make a special segment of everyone who bought an item last year between Black Friday and Christmas. Many shoppers visit some retailers only during the holiday season, so take the opportunity to reactivate them, with hooks like “Get ready for Christmas with our Black Friday Spectacular!”

“Black Friday is wonderful but also very crowded. So spend time segmenting your audience and crafting appropriate marketing messages to each group – it will be worth the effort……”

 

Riannon Palmer, Managing Director at Lem-uhn

 

 

“Black Friday is a key holiday in the calendar and a great opportunity to get your products in front of a big audience. Magazines and newspapers usually cover Black Friday offers in round-ups.”

“We’d recommend sharing any Black Friday offers with shopping journalists. The main things to include are a short description, high-resolution imagery, the Black Friday price off and a link to the product on the website.”

“This will help to grow a businesses brand awareness and in turn sales, as well as boosting the website’s SEO when featured in online titles.”

 

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.

 

Ed Ziubrzynski, Head of On-site SEO at Fibre Marketing

 

 

“Black Friday is crucial for a lot of businesses – as this is often a sales event as big as Christmas in regard to the number of sales and revenue generated.”

“To ensure your website is ready to capitalise on this increased influx of website visitors, alongside stark increase in search volume and frequencies, it would be beneficial to do the following:”

Analyse the previous years trends to set you up for the future:

“Past years provide a myriad of data that can shape the future of your marketing strategy. Reviewing search trends and frequencies will help shape the way that you position Black Friday on your website.”

“This data will also aid in identifying keyword targets for your organisation at this time.”

Create an ‘evergreen’ page:

“When it comes to organic search, consistency is key. We recommend creating a dedicated website page that will remain live for your Black Friday offering. This will allow any authority and visibility you have generated across previous years to be retained – meaning you don’t have to start from scratch each year, reducing the ongoing fight for visibility.”

“This page can be marked as “Deals Coming Soon” throughout the remainder of the year, with the page not being visible in your main navigation. The page can then be re-added to your websites navigation closer to the event – meaning that search engines acknowledge the existence of your page, without resulting in a ‘restart’ each year.”

Assess Your Site’s Current Load Times and Performance:

“Your website needs to load fast and function well throughout the year – particularly at times of high traffic throughout the holidays. Ensuring a positive user experience and fast website is critical, in accordance with the above, to ensure a successful sales period.”

 

Jack Shepherd, Co-Founder & Marketing Director of The Social Shepherd

 

 

“We recommend businesses to start driving as much traffic as possible to their website from new users weeks in advance. As most consumers know that the majority of brands will have offers on Black Friday weekend, they wait until that date to purchase. So increasing the amount of awareness you have of your brand in the weeks running up to Black Friday will help tremendously during that period.”

“Then during that period, you want to focus on retargeting campaigns across Paid Social, Search & Display, to ensure those new users re-visit and make a purchase.”

“As well as this, businesses should be creating content about Black Friday & the gifting season in advance too. So their existing customers are ready to make a repeat purchases.”

“A lot of brands are also looking at alternative ways to create Black Friday deals. For example, giving a percentage to charity instead of giving a percentage off to the customer. Which is the majority of cases, generates a better long term brand effect. Rather than seeking out people who are after a quick bargain!”

 

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.

 

John Lamphiere, RVP EMEA & APAC ActiveCampaign 

 

 

“All companies, regardless of size, can harness the Black Friday hype and use it to their advantage. It does however require a few considerations.”

“Planning is key – think about your end goal. Do you want more sales or increased visitors to your site? Are you targeting warm or cold leads? Each segment will require a different approach. Once you’re ready to create your campaign, think about the design – video or eye-catching visuals will stop the scroll and result in a higher conversion rate.”

“Tracking and testing of your emails and website is also vital. These will show which products and messages triggered customer actions to respond and which areas require improvement. Having a central technology, like a customer experience automation platform, will make it easier to send and measure messaging across channels so data insights are easily accessible. Most importantly, check and test your email messaging for potential errors before sending.”

“You also need to consider whether your server can handle the increased traffic and that your website is optimised for mobile users. Mobile shopping continues to increase and if a website is not optimised for mobile use, this could jeopardise the whole campaign and potentially damage your brand reputation with negative publicity.”

“Begin creating excitement by sending out your initial and reminder emails about upcoming offers, making sure to continually monitor your email engagement with each customer segment. This will help determine whether the style, frequency and number of email reminders are resulting in attracting and converting these customers.”

“Finally, personalise your messaging as customers become inundated with other Black Friday offers. Consider exclusive deals and discounts for existing email subscribers as they can entice new customers to sign up just to grab those bargains and ultimately remain with you long after the sales have ended.”

 

Achille Traore, CEO at White Label Loyalty

 

 

“Black Friday has become a race to the bottom regarding who can offer the biggest discount. As a single shot tactic for customer acquisition, it’s one of the best around but any work and investment made by brands is quickly lost if they don’t have a retention strategy in place. This is exactly why Groupon is not as big as it was when it first came out as businesses have realised that while they can acquire new customers through such drastic discount channels, customers gained in this manner are extremely difficult to retain.”

“This sales period is a time when customers are adventurous and happy to try new products and brands, making it an ideal time to spark enrollment. But simply offering big discounts is not enough. Not least because this year, we’re also going to see product lines, availability and delivery times squeezed with the supply chain issues. To stand out from the crowd and encourage new customers to remain loyal long after the event, brands need to look to other complementary offers. This includes things like loyalty programmes, additional perks and personalised experiences.”

“In this day and age, there is no excuse for not personalising communication instantly while follow-up messaging is also crucial in the post-purchase stage. User-referrals too are key. The biggest mistake a brand can make is over-promising and under-delivering as any fault in customer service will be broadcast on the internet by customers loud and clear.”

“Taking all this into account, to ‘win’ in the end of year sales period, brands must ensure their user experience is faultless and working overtime to cultivate customer loyalty is the name of the game.”

 

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.

 

Lucy Hinton, Head of Client Operations, Flashtalking by Mediaocean

 

 

“Black Friday continues to be a key moment in the seasonal shopping calendar. But in an increasingly crowded digital space, it can be difficult for businesses to stand out and reach relevant audiences, and to ensure they are converting the browsing of online offers into actual purchases.”

“This year will see additional challenges, with predictions of stock shortages and calls for shoppers to buy earlier to avoid disappointment. But some consumers may also have more money saved and a greater willingness to spend it after the restrictions of lockdown. To make the most of any impetus around Black Friday will require businesses to have an understanding of changing consumer behaviours, and an ability to be flexible to meet their needs.”

“There are a number of ways companies can ensure their products and services get noticed. For example, having a variety of creative messaging for any ads and special offers, and delivering these using data-driven technology means they can adapt and optimise campaigns to reach specific audiences, and to reflect any changes in supply and demand.”

“Also, having an omnichannel strategy when it comes to any marketing or advertising campaigns allows a business to target a wider audience, but also reach specific consumers on specific platforms. For example, the growth of video and social formats, and the rise of new platforms such as CTV and TikTok provide the opportunity to deliver more impactful messaging. Over the last year, TikTok has successfully achieved high engagement levels thanks to its use of short and creative videos, which should be considered by advertisers when planning their marketing strategy for Black Friday.”

 

Gregory Zakowicz, Senior Marketing Expert at Omnisend

 

 

“Businesses have to keep in mind that Black Friday is not a single day or even a single weekend sales campaign anymore. It’s now at least a 10-day period and knowing how to navigate these 10 days is the key to making the most of these sales.”

“Many businesses will try to get a larger piece of the shopping pie and boost their revenues and will start their Black Friday campaigns the Sunday before Black Friday or even earlier.”

“My advice: don’t wait for the key dates. Opt to start your Black Friday campaign a little earlier too. If you were planning to offer discounts, give serious thought: is it best to hold great deals hostage until the Cyber Weekend? Starting earlier not only means you will not be late to the party but will also reduce shipping bottlenecks.”

 

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.

 

Lauren Petrullo, Multi-Founder and Content Marketing Expert

 

 

“Confirming in October who wants deals in November by putting together VIP lists for deal signups has helped us prepare for a lower sales month because of those holding out for bigger deals. In the past, we would mention which products would have deals but not specify how much. Now we are communicating to buyers that if they are holding out for a specific flavour that won’t be on sale, buy it now when you want it and try the new products when they go on sale.”

“Another technique is to massively diversifying your ad build up for retargeting across more than just Facebook. With iOS changes from this summer, we really committed to ad diversification in a way that’s totally new for some of our brands, like using SnapChat and TikTok.”

“With Facebook and ShopPay making deals and soon TikTok shopable stores, we’re investing significant time and content into our ecommerce social stores. We started this now so that come Nov 29th they’re set up for success. What’s amazing? We’re already seeing MASSIVE impression returns, wishlist adds, and product saves. Customers are getting notified when new products drop as they’ve raised their hand in interest for what our store is already doing, to gear up for BFCM.”

“To the ecomm brand with limited budget, start doing traffic and video ads right now at scale and build your retargeting list. Lock in your first party data retargeting with Facebook video retargeting and pixel retargeting during November, which is the most expensive media buying month coming this year.”

 

 

Laura Norman, Marketing Consultant at Chroma Marketing

 

 

“Black Friday is one of the biggest sales events of the year for businesses, with consumers primed to purchase. With that in mind, it’s vital that companies stand out from the competition and a great way to do that is by launching marketing campaigns which resonate, inspire, and add value. There are a few steps which can be taken to do this.”

“Firstly, setting some clear and measurable goals, alongside milestones you want to achieve for the marketing campaign will give you a driver for your activity. This could be the number of sales you want to achieve, the level of website traffic, the amount of blog hits, or magazine features.”

“Once you’ve identified your measurable outcome, you can build a strategy around where to position your brand to reach the most of your target customer as possible. If you know how they behave and where they hang out, this is where you should prioritise putting your marketing messages. Moreover, you can then combine various platforms – such as targeted Facebook Ads and local community events – to give several touchpoints for consumers to become aware of your brand.”

“Now that you know where to position your brand to reach your target audience, it’s time to design your campaign. To do this, start by defining your key Calls-to-Action. These define your hero piece of content, to drive lead generation. The campaign surrounding this should build momentum and interest from your audience, pushing people towards these.”

“Within this campaign is where you focus on building relationships with your audience. Highlighting lifestyle content to inspire your customers, or educational content which showcases the difference your product will make to their life. Rather than focusing on the features of your product, that’s how to encourage customers to invest in your product.”

 

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.

 

Sarah Rew, Senior Director, Global Marketing, LoopMe

 

 

“This holiday season, marketers will need to prioritise measurement solutions that allow them to track and optimise real-time performance if they are to align with fast-moving shopper habits. Reliance on proxy metrics – such as click through rates and impressions – won’t cut it, especially at such a competitive time of year.”

“Our consumer survey results indicate that 46% of consumers are intending to make, or are considering making, a purchase on Black Friday/Cyber Monday, so it’s vital marketers draw on data from first-party interactions, purchases and audience intelligence research to effectively target shoppers during this key retail period. Moreover, with supply chain shortages continuing to cause chaos in the industry, marketers must be able to pivot ad spend quickly, meaning solutions that provide the full performance picture are more important than ever for helping brands adjust to unfolding retail trends.”

 

Emily King, Commercial Director at Tug

 

 

“Currently, “climate anxiety” is the top concern for UK customers. Our research shows that this is now being reflected in shopping preferences during the ‘Golden Quarter’.”

“In fact, the majority (78%) of consumers said that whether or not brands clearly communicate their sustainability efforts will have ‘somewhat’ of an impact over where they choose to shop on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend. This means it’s crucial that retailers effectively deliver their environmental messaging over the next few months.”

“For example, an integrated, multi-channel approach that reaches consumers across multiple touchpoints – not only when they are in-market to purchase, but also when they are in browsing mode – will enable retailers to maximise sales during this key commercial period.”

 

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.

 

Dave Randall, Commercial Director at Future plc

 

 

“Not only are day-to-day spending habits returning to normal but consumers in the UK have also amassed nearly £200bn in lockdown savings, our September survey of 2,000 UK respondents reveals. Retailers should take note – the vast majority (78%) are ready to put these savings towards Black Friday and Christmas purchases, with 41% planning to buy festive gifts in the Black Friday sales.”

“To prepare for the highly competitive Black Friday and Cyber Monday advertising frenzy, retailers need to grab cash-rich consumer attention with relevant and specific content.”

“Vast amounts of first-party data gives premium publishers the ability to understand far beyond broad demographic insights and allows them to help retailers connect effectively with relevant audiences this holiday season. Meanwhile, publishers’ in-house deal experts and specialist editorial teams can ensure retailer messaging is placed alongside quality and trusted content that resonates with target buyers. With online remaining the top source of inspiration to buyers over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, this level of personalisation and agility will provide retailers the key to unlock the pandemic spending pot.”

 

Angela Witter, Chartered Marketer and PR Professional

 

 

“Here’s my 5 TIPS to pitch your marketing messages for Black Friday:”

Tip 1. “Put yourself in your customers shoes and make sure your message is worth reading. We’ve all seen signs asking us to take action – but standard instructions are rarely read – you need to PERSONALISE the message and give your prospects a good reason to take action – choose which critical emotion you wish to arouse – is it FEAR or VALUE?”

TIP 2. “As much as I’m focussed on getting your content writing at its best – you need to make sure your prospects are seeing what you see. Get out your visual brain and share some really distinct IMAGES so they can pick up your message in a flash!”

TIP 3. “As well as pictures, use snappy descriptions to help them get a clear picture of what you’re offering. Relate your services to something TANGIBLE. If your products and services take them on a journey to a better life or a safer life – describe it!”

TIP 4. “If you want to be remembered – then make sure you ask questions to alert CURIOSITY in your customers. Give them a quiz and a prize – share some secret information – make it memorable. Does your chocolate lollipop contain a golden ticket?”

TIP 5. “Do this last! When you’ve completed your message – read it thoroughly and ask yourself what it really means. Tweak it – remember if you don’t get it fast – no one else will. Now – sum it up with a catchy HEADLINE and place it at the top of the message.”

 

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.

 

Gal Ekstein, General Manager EMEA & LATAM at AppsFlyer

 

 

“2020 saw explosive growth in Black Friday sales; a culmination of Covid-19 shifting traditional shopping behaviour and accelerated digital transformation. Notably, we witnessed the mobile economy gain momentum, with consumers enjoying the ease and convenience of streamlined purchase pathways at the touch of their fingertips, and eCommerce apps experiencing increased app install rates and revenue gains. In fact, last Black Friday consumer spend in retail mobile apps was up 143% compared to activity from the three previous Fridays.”

“It is highly unlikely that consumers will ever return to their pre-2020 shopping habits and looking ahead to 2021, marketers must respond to this fast in a bid to attract rising eCommerce spend. Tapping the mobile landscape and providing unbeatable web to app experiences is key to maximising sales and achieving substantial revenue growth. We’ve already seen a rise of over 30% in marketer spend on iOS shopping apps since early October. In parallel, consumer spend in iOS shopping apps has jumped almost 50% this month.”

“However, there are uncertainties ahead. Diminishing iOS data driven by Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework in iOS 14.5+ means increased reliance on aggregate data to inform mobile campaigns in the lead up to Black Friday. It is advisable that marketers take stock of owned channels, such as leveraging in-app messages, push notifications, and email to re-engage consumers during the peak periods ahead.”

 

Farhad Divecha, Founder and MD of AccuraCast

 

 

“As a digital marketing agency, Black Friday season truly inspires us. After all, this is the time that brands are really fighting for consumer attention and truly have to pull out the big guns when it comes to standing out from the crowd. It’s difficult to avoid how saturated the Black Friday market is but there are several ways in which brands can succeed:”

“Meaningful social media – This one should really go without saying but at the moment, we have the world at our fingertips. With the advent of Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, we can reach more people than ever before. In fact, according to Checkout.com, 68% of consumers hope to shop more frequently directly within social media. The team at TikTok seem to be all over this as they’ve released a range of shopping and commerce features just in time for Black Friday. But as a brand, you must remember to appeal to potential customers using things they care about.”

“For example, it’s becoming more and more common to see animals used in ads. Aside from the fact that a huge population have a soft spot for our furry friends, they may also be more likely to be shared with friends and followers. In fact David Anderson conducted a study in Japan which found that over 96.2% of participants attributed feelings of joy when seeing images of animals – definitely a feeling you’d want your brand to be associated with.”

“Doing good, and believing in it – ‘Sustainability’ seems to be the latest buzz word of this generation, and sadly for many brands, a buzz word is all it is. By showing that your brand’s values and beliefs really do align with that of the consumer when it comes to ethics, you’re more likely to grab their attention and win their custom. A great example of this is in 2016, when Patagonia decided to donate 100% of its revenue from Black Friday sales to a good cause. The result: Total sales on the day tripled their original projections, doing more than $10 million in sales on Black Friday, with 70% of online purchases made by first-time customers.”

“Don’t exclude yourself if your customer isn’t a consumer – Some B2B companies are under the impression that because they sell to other businesses, they can’t participate in Black Friday. This isn’t necessarily true. B2B companies could see a jump in revenues during the holiday sales frenzy, just like B2C brands do. Chances are, they would be one of the few companies in their market offering a sale to other businesses.”

“B2B brands can change the way they market Black Friday deals by focusing on offers such as free consultations. This would increase their lead volumes whilst retaining higher profit margins, as well as pushing passive prospects who are on the fence to make a decision.”

 

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.

 

Hannah Holland, Managing Director of HLD Group 

 

 

“With the COVID-19 lockdowns, physical in-person events were cancelled and brands had to completely reconsider how to reach consumers with many businesses pivoting their strategies to a heavier digital focus, this included influencer marketing and looking at new channels – including TikTok.”

“Influencer marketing won’t be going away anytime soon and your customers are more likely to have their purchasing decisions steered by influencers due to their authenticity and familiarity.”

“Start your influencer marketing campaign early on, Black Friday is a staple in content creators diaries just as much as brands and their calendars fill quickly. Lockdown your roster of influencers early and take into consideration time for contract negotiation, product shipment and content sign-off.”

“Partner with influencers you know makes you sales, Black Friday is arguably the biggest retail moment of the year and not a time to test out new Influencers. Review who you have already partnered with earlier in the year and identify who will meet deadlines, produce high-quality content and generate revenue based on past performance.”

“Use these influencers to maximise sales by offering them personalised discount codes to followers – personalised codes will not only incentivise their audience to purchase, but you can also track sales attribution and identify top-performing influencers after the campaign is over.”

“The digital world is going to be overloaded with promotions, it’s not just about pushing a discounted price to remember it’s also about educating followers on your brand and products so focus content on unboxing videos, tutorials on how to use your products and product reviews.”

“According to studies, digital traffic and online shopping on mobile devices have increased. When using influencers, especially those with over 10,000 followers, use the Instagram swipe up feature when posting on their stories so their audience can land straight on the web page to purchase.”

 

Carl Walker, Fluid Commerce’s Ecommerce Director

 

 

“Every year, Black Friday discounts and promotions drive huge numbers of shoppers online to find the very best bargains. Some savvy customers will have prepared a shopping list, ready to grab Christmas presents and other gifts, while others will casually browse in search of a great deal.”

“Due to this, there are two essential things ecommerce retailers need to focus on so their online business is ready this Black Friday:”

• “Provide a fast and stable website
• Offer clearly marked promotions”

“It is the ecommerce retailer’s responsibility to ensure each and every visitor has an excellent experience while on their site. Too often sites and servers are overwhelmed by the uplift in shoppers during this time, resulting in slow speeds or – even worse – the website crashing altogether. I’d advise business owners to check in with their hosting provider and web developers as soon as possible to ensure their platform and infrastructure is capable of handling the traffic volume increase.”

“To ensure solid performance during high traffic periods, business owners should ask about optimising site content and code, stress testing servers and scalability, CDN’s and advanced caching. They should also check their security product settings to make sure the influx in traffic isn’t mistaken as a threat, and to question what real-time monitoring is in place to help identify problems before they occur and should they happen, with data it takes less time to diagnose and rectify any issues.”

“Merchandising the landing page and category pages correctly is also incredibly important. The customer must be able to easily see the available promotions, stock levels, delivery timelines and returns policies. Separating your products into distinct Sale categories will avoid the appearance of a jumble sale. Labelling products with a clear ‘Sale’ badge is also a handy practice. In addition, displaying the previous price or highlighting savings so that customers can see what kind of bargain they’ll get is a great way to incentivise sales.”

“For a detailed checklist on how to excel this year, we’ve put together The Ecommerce Retailer’s Guide to Black Friday, featuring top tips from Klevu, Klarna, Klaviyo, Trustpilot, LoyaltyLion, PureClarity, ShipStation and Gorgias.”

 

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.

 

Lee Bellon, Founder at Wishfinity

 

 

“The holidays are a unique time of year when consumers shift from buying for themselves to buying for others. Shoppers peruse their family and friends’ gift lists for desired merchandise — and if retailers don’t have products in those registries, they lose sales opportunities. We suggest marketers exploit Wishlist Marketing to ensure their inventory takes advantage of the $1T Gifting Economy.”

“Traditionally, Black Friday marks the rush of holiday shoppers to bricks and mortar retailers, with eCommerce shopping occurring the following Monday (Cyber Monday). Considering the busyness of Thanksgiving (US), we see most of our consumers loading up their wishlists by the Wednesday before (also known as Wishlist Wednesday), so gift-givers have all the information they need to buy perfect presents.”

“As a marketer, your goal is to get into as many wishlists as possible. To achieve this, call-to-actions during the holidays must include “Add to Wishlist (+W)” next to the standard “Buy Now.” Gift-receivers aren’t buying; they’re building their registry to share with loved ones. So retailers only method to push merchandise into more carts is to offer the add-to-wishlist functionality — this can happen on their eCommerce site and throughout their marketing (advertising, emails, social, catalogs, signage, price tags, etc.).”

“A Universal Wishlist makes gifting easier for everyone involved. Rather than shopping from dozens of isolated and unconnected sites, consumers gift everything the receiver wants from a single, centralised registry. All brands are represented, and the retailer retains the transaction. Beyond tier-one retailers (Amazon, Walmart, Target), buyers don’t have time to juggle between smaller merchants’ on-site wishlists. So it’s imperative that marketers leverage the universal wishlist opportunity.”

 

Thibaud Clement, CEO and Co-Founder of Loomly

 

 

“Black Friday has evolved into more than just a weekend of sales. Even if you run deals for the entire week, generating awareness early is critical.”

“Besides advertising and email marketing, leveraging your social media following is a great way to create awareness through word of mouth. Your followers on social media are your greatest advocates, even more so than ad viewers or email subscribers. Throughout the year, you’ve created brand affinity with the content you post. Utilise that affinity by enlisting followers to share your Black Friday deals.”

“A good start to this is posting quality, shareable content. One way to further incentivise sharing is to offer special deals to those that share a post, or you can create contests with free gifts. Get creative with this. You know your customers better than anyone, including what they are more likely to respond to.”

“Customers will pit your Black Friday deals against competitors’. Reduce friction so customers have one less reason to consider shopping a competitor’s sale.”

“Using social media features like live shopping and shoppable content makes things easier for customers. You can generate awareness and capture demand in a single step by allowing customers to shop your posts. Combine this with flash sales or limited offers and you will be able to capitalise on the spontaneous nature of Black Friday shopping.”

 

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.

 

Treavion Davenport, CEO/Sr. PR and Branding Strategist

 

 

“Businesses of all types, not exclusive to retail, could benefit by offering their existing clients, as well as potential clients, access to services at a discount or special rate or incentive centred around the Black Friday season.”

“For existing clients, this might stimulate service upgrades or add-ons. For example, a client could add updated products and features like new biographies, graphics, websites or items that they may have been considering but understood that it wasn’t covered under your current agreement.”

“Offering a special promotion externally and internally to current customers and/or clients, such as an e-blast, newsletter service, or specialty training module – allows them the opportunity to benefit from the “Black Friday” discounts.”

“Also for prospective clients who are still in decision-making mode, companies could offer a coupon or a special that can be taken advantage of during Black Friday, that doesn’t have to be utilised until they are ready to activate. This way, companies are able to offer value to existing and potential consumers, while simultaneously tapping in and capitalising on the Black Friday shopping psychology of consumers motivated by “Black Friday” propaganda.”

 

Kate Nightingale, Consumer psychologist working with small business marketing and design partner Vistaprint

 

 

“With less than a month to go until Black Friday, many consumers have more choice than ever before about how they will spend their money and more control about which shops will benefit from the increased income.”

“At a time of countless options, new insights and research reveals why we’re drawn to some brands over others and the cues that small businesses can use to harness spending ahead of Black Friday to help the nation #ShopSmall. “

• Almost two times more women (28%) are tempted to go into shops by nice smells, than men (15%)
• The top five things that tempt UK respondents into stores are clothes / products they like (38%), sales or discount signs (38%), recommendations from friends (22%), nice smells (22%) and products outside of the store (15%)
• 35–44-year-olds are most tempted into stores by sales and discount signs (41%)
• Nice scents / smells (25%) are the third most popular thing that respondents notice when they enter in a shop, followed by the lighting 20% (whether it’s dim/atmospheric/harsh) and music they like (18%). However, almost a quarter of UK respondents say nice smells and scents (23%) impact their spending in store
• Female respondents admitted the first thing they notice when they enter a shop is friendly staff (32%), whereas male respondents first notice the interior (25%)
• For 16–24-year old’s, freebies and handouts impact their spending the most (30%), above nice smells (28%) and music they enjoy (25%)

 

Meraj Kunarajah, Senior Director Client Success, MediaMath

 

 

“Consumers wait all year for Black Friday’s big-ticket purchases, making the sale a battleground for consumer attention and spend. Programmatic advertising is a fundamental part of a marketer’s arsenal. People often think programmatic = display ads but it’s a method of execution that covers a range of channels and complements the wider marketing mix.”

“First, begin well in advance of Black Friday with a phased approach and address the upper funnel – create consumer desire to own new things. Consumers don’t check every retailer to find the best value on the day – the nature of black Friday is to snap up a bargain, so your brand must be top of mind to make sure you are their first port of call for deals.”

“CTV and digital audio are the perfect channels for upper funnel awareness being both addressable and at scale. Once interest is established, it’s time to create intent and phase in mid-funnel and lower-funnel targeted activity. Leverage 3rd party audience targeting – yes the cookie is going away but it’s not gone yet, so if you don’t have a 1st party data strategy or it’s not ready, use what’s available.”

“Ensure the creative is tailored to the medium, with clear CTAs to generate interest and engage users. Use Dynamic Creative Optimisation (where the creative is tailored to the individual) to deliver ads the user will be interested in.” 

“Finally, retarget your consumers. This makes sure anyone on the fence is driven back to your site, and helps recapture consumers looking for better deals elsewhere. Make sure you’re upping your bids to guarantee you win those impressions. By combining upper funnel and lower funnel tactics over the days and weeks leading up to Black Friday you’ll be able to ensure consumers buy with your business, and not the competition.”