Black Friday is coming up fast. Are you ready for it?
This article will get you where you need to be.
I’ll be giving you the strategies we’ve used with clients to drive 30% increases in Black Friday sales.
This is some “behind-the-curtain” stuff which may or may not get me fired.
Let’s get rolling nonetheless, and if the article cuts off somewhere in the next 1200 words, you’ll know I’ve been sacked.
The first thing is to get your brand out there and get it seen by prospective customers.
The easiest way to do that is through social media and advertising.
This section will cover promoting your brand on Facebook, with Facebook Ads, and with Google Ads.
Create your social media posts
You should start promoting your Black Friday deals at least a week before the day itself.
Remember that people consider the week around Thanksgiving as a bit of a holiday, so social media usage tends to drop off. As a result, be sure you get your posts in under the wire before people start travelling.
Here’s a good idea of social media usage around the Holidays:
What you’re seeing there is Thanksgiving in the bottom quartile beneath the average, and the weeks before in the second quartile above it.
Here’s a Black Friday post example from Home Depot:
What I like about this post:
- Focusing on the products, and making them look good
- Focusing on Holiday products – things you need to buy as gifts or for the holiday season
- “Lowest Prices of the Year” implies that, if you miss out on these prices, you’ll have to pay more later
- Big, clear font
Related Reading
For a guide to holiday social media, check out “7 Social Media Hacks for the Holiday Season.”
Create your Facebook Ads
Before we dive into online advertising, there’s something you should be aware of:
Ads cost about twice as much between the third week of November and the New Year as they do the rest of the year.
The graph looks, depressingly, like this.
So, there’s a strategy we use to maximize our client’s ad budget…
Bonus Tip: Creating Early-access Campaigns.
These campaigns, promoted with online ads *in the weeks before Black Friday*, give people access to your deals 24 hours before anyone else.
As the president of Savings.com says, “If you’re going to buy a big-screen TV, you’re only going to buy one, so whoever gets it first wins.”
Equally, whoever sells it first wins.
So don’t get persnickety about the day itself. Instead, create a campaign page to collect prospective customers interested in saving big before anybody else.
Here’s an example from last year, from our client JustLive:
Then, create an email drip campaign which is sent to all your entrants giving them access to exclusive Black Friday deals 24-hours before you open those deals to the public. This exclusivity is also effective in ramping up conversion rates.
Okay, back to the article.
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If you decide to do Facebook Ads around Black Friday, be sure you get them right.
Here are a few Black Friday Facebook Ad examples from businesses like yours from last year:
Advertising platform AdEspresso has a really good, searchable library of Facebook Ads. If you’re looking for inspiration for your Black Friday ad, I recommend you check them out (after finishing this post, of course).
Equally, if you do decide to run Google Ads, do them right as well.
A few Black Friday Google Advertising best practices:
- Reference “Black Friday” in the ad copy itself. It’ll grab the eye of searchers
- Put the time limit right into the ad. For instance, “Sale Ends in 5 Hours.” Then update the ad throughout the day.
- Include the inventory limitations throughout the day. For instance, “Only 14 left at this price” right within the ad.
For example:
Reminder:
Google determines the cost of a click based on traffic for the search term. Around Black Friday, search traffic is going to explode. As a result, you need to increase your ad budget, significantly, to be seen at all. For instance, searches for toys go up 50% around Black Friday. Budget accordingly.
This is especially true if you’re targeting a keyword with “deal” in it:
Update your website to drive people to your Black Friday sales
On the day itself, my recommendation is to have your website visitors avoid your homepage entirely.
You’ll drive more sales if you point people in the direction of A) a page specific to the ad they clicked on, or B) an experience oriented around the discounts you’re offering.
So instead of directing people to your homepage, create a redirect towards a Black Friday-oriented product directory, and exclusively drive people there for the duration of the promotional season.
For instance, this example from Home Depot:
Not sure how to create a redirect?
There are a few options, depending on what platform your website is built upon. Check out this guide for WordPress, and this Google search for everything else.
Next, create department-based, Black Friday landing pages, like this one:
What I like about this page:
- Countdown timer adds urgency to the buying experience
- Discounts are in orange and clearly visible
- “Today only” also adds urgency
- Clearly displays how much the products are normally, without discount
Popups, though controversial, are an awesome way for you to notify Black Friday traffic about your deals, as well as turn them into leads.
A simple entry popup to make every website visitor aware of your deals:
An entry popup offering a bonus promotion exclusively available to subscribers:
Top Tip:
I recommend you focus on turning Black Friday traffic into subscribers, either through the “Early-Access” campaign I showed you above, or through popups like this one. 90% of your website traffic isn’t going to complete a purchase the first time, but with email campaigns (especially abandoned cart emails), you have a chance to convert them down the line.
Final Thoughts
The Black Friday period (the weeks surrounding the big day) is the biggest consumer time of the year.
Online traffic is high. Competition is fierce. You need to stand out and make sure your website is ready for what’s the come.
If you have any questions about anything you’ve read in this post, don’t hesitate to reach out in the comment section below.
I hope you have a huge holiday season!