Black Friday Marketing and Cyber Monday Marketing Campaign Tips for Businesses
Itâs that time of year again when businesses all around the world gear up for their biggest shopping days of the year: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. For many businesses, these are two of the most important marketing campaigns of the year. If youâre not sure where to start when it comes to running your own Cyber Monday or Black Friday marketing campaigns, donât worry â weâve got you covered! In this article, weâll give you some November promo ideas and our top tips on how to prepare for these events and generate more revenue for your business.
Advice on Creating Compelling Black Friday Marketing Campaigns
The best time to start planning for the biggest sales event of the year is now. If you wait too long, you may not have time to implement your strategy. Before you know it, itâs Black Friday, and youâre missing the momentum to carry your sales. If you look at any successful e-commerce company, youâll likely find that its Black Friday marketing starts in the months leading up to the event, rather than days or even weeks prior.
Thorough planning is a crucial element of successful Black Friday marketing. Your overall success will depend on running Black Friday campaigns that are irresistible. Start preparing now by growing your email list, planning your deals, expanding sales channels, and optimizing your site to ensure the sudden increase in traffic wonât affect your customer experience. Every year, Black Friday traffic jams US warehouses and crashes websites that arenât prepared for the influx of buyers, leading to delays and pain points that lead your customers elsewhere. Black Friday store reviews tend to be very impassioned. If your site crashes or doesnât accurately reflect your pricing and inventory, you can expect a slew of negative reviews.
Black Friday Marketing Tactic 1: Ads
When it comes to Black Friday crazy ideas can be your best friend. The onslaught of marketing materials that will be bombarding your audience is so dense and so constant that you need something out-of-the-ordinary to stand out. The most creative Black Friday campaigns are typically the most successful, so be sure to let your imagination ride shotgun as you build your campaign. Develop branded Black Friday assets like eye-catching graphics and videos to accompany your copy and increase engagement. When you launch monitor Black Friday-related search trends so you can fine-tune your approach as necessary.
Black Friday Marketing Tactic 2: Email and SMS Campaigns
A well-crafted Black Friday message informs customers and clients of your deals and incentivizes action. Urgency and exclusivity are the flavors of the day, and your messaging should reflect those two concepts equally. Create a few personalizable Black Friday SMS templates to send out a week before Thanksgiving, in the evening on Thanksgiving, and early in the morning on Black Friday.
Other Black Friday marketing ideas for email and SMS campaigns include offering early bird discounts, doorbusters, and countdown timers. For social media campaigns, consider creating a Black Friday hashtag, running a contest or giveaway, or partnering with an influencer to promote your products or services. And finally, donât forget to track your results so you can adjust your strategy for next year!
Black Friday Marketing Tactic 3: Social Campaigns
In terms of social marketing Black Friday is a hotbed of activity across platforms. If you want to make sure your Black Friday engagement post doesnât get lost in the fray, be sure to use scroll-stopping graphics and engagement-driven copy to make your post stand out. Black Friday social media posts should begin long before the day arrives to ensure customers have a chance to see them before the flood of Black Friday messaging begins.
The best time to post on Black Friday is early in the morning when people are checking their phones for deals before they start their shopping. However, make sure youâre scheduling throughout the day as wellâespecially if youâre running extended sales through the weekend or into Cyber Monday. For your social media Black Friday launch monitor trending tags to give your posts the best chance of reaching your intended audience.
Advice on Building Cyber Monday Marketing Campaigns
Much like the preparation for Black Friday, Cyber Monday marketing success depends on thorough planning and integrated campaigns that span multiple channels. Even more so than its weekend counterpart, Cyber Monday has the potential to crash your site if you donât take preemptive action to ensure a smooth, seamless, and satisfactory customer experience.
Make sure to consult an experienced UI/UX designer and developer to make sure your site will be able to withstand the influx of traffic. Even the best Cyber Monday marketing ideas will be wasted if the shopping experience doesnât live up to the expectations of todayâs discerning online shoppers. Keep in mind that youâre competing against global, multibillion-dollar entities like Amazon and Wal-Mart, who prioritize and optimize their customer experience as well as crafting engaging omnichannel campaigns. You will need to do the same to see similar results.
Cyber Monday Marketing Tactic 1: Ads
For an ad-based Cyber Monday strategy, you need to make sure your ads are well-targeted and that youâre using the right keywords. You also need to have a clear call to action (CTA) and make sure your landing page is optimized for conversions. A good deal of Cyber Monday sales and marketing tactics piggyback on your Black Friday campaign to present your cyber deals as an extension of the shopping weekend. Remind your customers that they missed the Black Friday window and encourage them to act now so they donât let these discounts slip through their fingers as well. This type of messaging creates the sense of urgency and exclusivity you want to convey for these events.
Cyber Monday Marketing Tactic 2: Email and SMS Campaigns
The best Cyber Monday email examples weâve seen take the urgency of the event into consideration and drive immediate action with powerful CTAs carefully integrated with the sales alerts and concise copy. Cyber Monday subject lines should be catchy and get straight to the point â shoppers on this day are looking for the best deals, and they donât have time to waste on long, drawn-out emails. Be clear about what your offer is and use images to highlight any special discounts. You can also segment your list so that youâre sending relevant offers to specific groups of customers.
Cyber Monday Marketing Tactic 3: Social Campaigns
When crafting a Cyber Monday post on social media, itâs important to start with a strong image. People are more likely to stop scrolling and take notice of an eye-catching image, so make sure yours is high quality and on brand. The caption is also crucial â use emojis, concise copy, and powerful CTAs to grab attention and encourage users to click through your Cyber Monday social media posts to visit your site. Post engagement increases reach and will draw more and more leads to your site. Cyber Monday posts perform best on Facebook and Instagram and highly benefit from motion graphics as an attention-grabbing visual.
A Brief History of E-Commerce on Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Black Friday and Cyber Monday have their origins in the US, where they are traditionally the busiest shopping days of the year. In recent years, however, these events have become increasingly globalized, with businesses all around the world now running promotional campaigns on these days. However, nothing seen across the globe quite compares to the cultural phenomenon that Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become in the United States as e-commerce has grown from a means to trade small goods with local friends into the multitrillion-dollar global industry it is today.
What Event Marked The Beginning Of E-Commerce?
The first recorded instance of e-commerce was a sale between two parties in 1971. This sale was made possible by the advent of computer networks. Stanford students used the ARPANET network to exchange snowshoes and other goods. While this may seem like a small and insignificant event, it marked the beginning of a new era in commerce. This was the first time that people were able to buy and sell goods without being in the same physical space.
What Is Black Friday?
Black Friday is the day after the United States holiday of Thanksgiving and is widely considered the biggest shopping day of the year. This cultural phenomenon has grown so exponentially in recent years that Thanksgiving is sometimes referred to as Black Friday eve. Black Fridays matter to SMBs as much as they matter to large corporations, and with the right marketing tactics Black Friday can be lucrative for nearly any business model.Â
There are even Black Friday strategies for service-based companies. As retail and e-commerce companies prepare for Black Friday SAAS, fulfillment, and other logistical and production-related services frequently offer limited-time discounts. Other B2B and B2C service providers looking to capitalize on the western Black Friday tradition without a product-based model are also likely to use this discount-driven Black Friday strategy.
History of Black Friday and E-Commerce
In the 1950s, police in Philadelphia used the term âBlack Fridayâ to describe suburban shoppers and tourists flooding into the city on the day after Thanksgiving. These visitors caused chaos in advance of the big Army-Navy football game held that Saturday every year. Now, half a century later, the term âBlack Fridayâ has taken on a whole new meaning.
In the 1990s, with the advent of the internet and e-commerce, Black Friday became the busiest shopping day of the year as brick-and-mortar retailers scrambled to keep up with the competition posed by online retailers such as Amazon. The Saturday and Sunday after Black Friday also present an excellent opportunity to offer extended deals to keep the momentum going as you head into Cyber Monday.
What Event Marked the Beginning of E-Commerce Sales on Black Friday?
E-commerce has become a staple in the Black Friday ecosystem, but it wasnât always that way. E-commerce on Black Friday is a relatively new concept. The advent of the modern internet and the widespread adoption of broadband in the early 2000s created a new landscape for shopping. Businesses could now reach a much wider audience with their products and services. In 2002, Best Buy offered the first major Black Friday deal online. And by 2006, Amazon had declared that Cyber Monday was its biggest day of the year in terms of sales.
What Is Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday is the Monday after Black Friday, and, as the name suggests, it is centered on e-commerce sales. Cyber Monday was created by retailers to encourage people to shop online. It soon became an extension of the Black Friday phenomenon, with people taking advantage of the deals and discounts on offer from the comfort of their own homes.
History of Cyber Monday and E-Commerce
While Black Friday might be the bigger event, Cyber Monday is no slouch when it comes to generating revenue. In fact, in recent years, it has become the bigger event for online sales. This is in part due to the growth of e-commerce. In 2018, shoppers spent $7.9 billion on Cyber Monday.
However, in 2021, US businesses saw post-Black Friday cyber sales fall for first time since Cyber Monday entered the cultural awareness. This year, companies are more focused on finding successful Cyber Monday strategies than ever before. Following the now notorious Cyber Monday sales fall first time contenders have been on the hunt for Cyber Monday ideas for small businesses that could help turn the tide against the downward trend.
What Event Marked the Beginning of E Commerce Sales on Cyber Monday?
The beginning of Cyber Monday can be traced back to the year 2005. This was when the National Retail Federation coined the term âCyber Mondayâ to describe the flurry of online sales that followed Black Friday. The idea behind it was to encourage people to shop online for holiday gifts. At that time, most people were still using dial-up internet connections. So, the term âCyber Mondayâ caught on because it was a way for people to shop without having to leave their homes or offices to take advantage of retail sales.
Final Thoughts on Building Successful Cyber Monday and Black Friday Marketing Campaigns
We hope these Black Friday and Cyber Monday tips have been helpful as you prepare for the biggest shopping events of the year. Need more help to get your site and your strategy ready for November? Adrian Agency can help you build your brand, expand your presence, optimize your website, and launch compelling marketing campaigns across multiple channels. Adrianâs consultation calendar is filling up as businesses begin their Black Friday marketing preparations, so donât wait until itâs too late. Book your discovery slot today, and get ahead of the competition with help from the best team in the industry!