how to get black friday sale ready
25
Oct
eCommerce

How To Get Black Friday Sale Ready

There is no doubt that customers love sales. Even more so, they love a good sale in the lead up to Christmas. When you have long lost aunties, cousins, nieces, nephews, grandparents and more to shop for any sort of bargain is welcome. After a very uncertain year, where we have been kept apart from family through border closures and forced to isolate within our homes, online shopping is going to take over this festive season as people hope to reach out to their loved ones who they have been unable to visit.

According to the 2019 eCommerce Industry report, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have now taken over Christmas as the peak shopping period – this year, it is only going to be bigger. What does this mean for your business? Put simply, you need to be ready.

plan ahead for sales

Plan Ahead

Like any big business event, you need a plan in place. While entering into Black Friday with an amazing deal on your products is great, without building anticipation and letting your clients know about it beforehand, your sales are likely to be on the smaller side. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

  • What products do I want to discount?
  • What will this discount look like?
  • Will these discounts change between Black Friday and Cyber Monday?
  • Will I use a code, or will it automatically apply?

You don’t want to make things complicated, which is why it helps to sit down and work out the details.

promote sales early

Promote Early

Once you know what you are going to discount, you need to start getting your promotional material ready for a number of different marketing avenues:

  1. Email: According to Australia Post’s eCommerce Market Update, 39% of shoppers heard about a promotion via email. It’s direct, lands in their inbox and isn’t going to get lost in a feed. Email is one of the best ways to cut through the noise and speak directly to your customer. Make sure you have an engaging subject line that shares your offer to encourage people to click through and read.
  2. Socials: your social media channels are the best place to start some teaser posts in the lead up to your sale. It builds excitement and has the potential to reach even more people if you post consistently over the weeks. Make use of sale hashtags: #BlackFriday #BlackFriday2020 #BlackFridaySales to reach a wider audience interested in a discount!
  3. Lives: another great way to engage with your audience is Facebook and Instagram lives. Show them more about your product/s on offer. Talk to them about how they made the best gift or present for yourself! It’s all about laying the foundations, so that when sale time comes, all your customers need is a little nudge to get them over the line and purchasing.

paid marketing

Paid Marketing

Consider putting some spend behind your marketing efforts. You won’t be the only store running a Black Friday sale, so how can you stand out?

Facebook Ads: One of the most cost-effective ways to reach your audience is leveraging Facebook Ads before an upcoming sale. Remember, people love a sale. They actually WANT to hear what you are offering. So put some money behind it and reach as many people as possible. Just make sure they are your target audience!

Google Ads: Once again, a cost-effective way to advertise your product. Many people will be using Google to take advantage of the Black Friday sales, so make sure your product is the one they come across. Think about the keywords you want to rank for and put in a bid.

Test Everything

The last thing you need is for the big day to roll around and…your coupon code doesn’t work. Or your shopping cart is broken. Or you are showing products you don’t have. You need to make sure you test your website in the lead up to the sale and have all the correct quantities of stock updated, so you don’t over or undersell. It is also important to make sure your site is mobile friendly. According to Australia Post studies show one in four purchases are in fact made from a mobile device. Think of all those leads you capture, scrolling their social feeds on their mobile and coming across your sale. You want to present them with the best version of your site to help them follow through with a purchase.

Then you’re ready to go! Watch the sales come rolling in from all your happy customers.

If you’re looking to marketing for Black Friday in 2020 – let us help you!