Updated: Oct. 1, 2018
Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday are
the busiest shopping days of the year. And though they may seem far away, if
you haven’t started planning your strategy for the holiday shopping weekend -
now’s the time.
The key to a successful holiday sales season is early
planning and consistent marketing, especially as a small business competing
against retail giants like Amazon, Walmart, and Target.
Here are 10 marketing tactics to get your business ready for Black Friday
promotions:
1. Revisit Past Data
Repeat successes, not failures.
Find out which keywords, content, and promotions lead to the highest traffic
and conversions for your business last year. By looking at this data you can
get a wealth of knowledge that will steer which types of campaigns and
strategies you should launch for your business this season.
2. Send Engaging
Emails
Email marketing is responsible for about 30% of holiday
sales. But creating email campaigns that stand out from all of the other emails
that your customers are receiving can be a challenge.
Here are a few tips from Shopify
for making your emails stand out and be more effective:
- Keep things simple and get right to the point with a
clear CTA
- Offer a free gift with every purchase
- Run a contest or giveaway
- Create urgency with scarcity
- Raise awareness to a cause or charity
3. Use Social Media
Using social media as a marketing tactics for Black Friday should be obvious. Just like
with emails, you can share coupons, promotions, contests, and your best Black
Friday deals on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Don’t forget to
use relevant hashtags, such as #blackfriday.
4. Make Sure You’re Mobile Optimized
About 25 million
holiday shoppers will use a mobile device to shop on Cyber Monday according to
the National Retail Federation. That doesn’t include all of the shoppers who
will use their smartphones to research products and make purchases on the days
prior.
Having a website that is mobile-friendly and loads quickly
is the most important. Your customers need to be able to quickly and easily
find what they’re looking for. You know people will be viewing your website,
emails and social content on mobile devices, so make sure they display
correctly.
5. Pay for Ads
As a business owner, you’re probably familiar with AdWords
and Facebook Ads. Even though you have to make bids against thousands of other
marketers, a PPC campaign or Facebook ad can still be an effective way to get
your promotions out in front of potential customers.
6. Offer Something
Different
If you know that all of your competitors will be offering
sales on one particular product try to do something different to avoid getting
into a bidding war. Think of ways that you can differentiate yourself, whether
it is by offering a low-cost item for free with purchase, free gift wrapping,
in-store pickup, or even just promoting a more unique product.
7. Plan Your Offers
and Upsells
Once you see what has worked for your business in the past
and thought about what your competitors might offer, it’s time to create the
offers you will push with your promotions.
After you have decided on those, create upsell or cross-sell opportunities that
could pair well with your original offers. This will help you make the most of
your marketing dollars by increasing the amount of each purchase.
8. Go After Abandoned
Carts
Only about 5% to 8% of your customers will convert the first
time they visit your website. But, you can chase those abandoned shopping carts
by doing some retargeting. You can do this with retargeting ads via Facebook or
Google even if none of their information was entered. If they did enter some of
their information, you can retarget them using automated emails with
specialized content or offers to get them back for the sale.
9. Sell Before and
After
If you focus all of your promotions too narrowly and wait
until the last minute to advertise, you will have already missed a huge portion
of shoppers. Online searching for holiday shopping is already picking up prior
to Halloween. By offering Black Friday deals a week early, and extending Cyber
Monday deals through the beginning of December you can beat the bigger
retailers to the shoppers’ wallets and catch any last minute deal seekers.
10. Don’t Discount
Everything
Larger retailers can afford to slash prices everywhere, but
you don’t need to do that to reap the rewards of holiday shopping. In fact,
that could actually hurt your profits.
Instead, try using a tiered discount system where your higher-priced
items have the most aggressive discounts.
Bonus!
Don't forget that sometimes it's the little things that push consumers to take the plunge and make a purchase.
According to a survey done by Inc. Magazine, the top two benefits that consumers say encourage them to do more online holiday shopping are:
Free shipping (80%)
Fast shipping (54%)
If you need help implementing any of these tactics
discussed, such as mobile optimization, advertising, or retargeting using
marketing automation, call us today at (407) 682-2222 or use the contact form
below. We can get you ready for your holiday promotions and beyond!