Black Friday is a highly anticipated event – not just for shoppers, but also for retailers. It’s the one day every year when businesses can expect to make huge sales.
But 2020 isn’t like any other year. The pandemic has sent most customers indoors and led to businesses moving their sales online.
With all the changes this year, how can businesses market their Black Friday sales to drive profit?
We share eight marketing ideas brands can adopt for their 2020 Black Friday campaign.
8 Tips for Improving Your 2020 Black Friday Marketing
1. Black Friday Gift Guides
Black Friday doesn’t exist in a vacuum – it is one event in a long holiday season. Why not use that to your advantage in your marketing campaigns?
Tap into customers’ needs for the upcoming holiday season by offering them advice on what to buy.
You can create a Black Friday gift guide like the example below to help customers decide what to purchase.
Design gift guide infographics that make for engaging and attractive content – these also make you stand out in the crowded online marketplace.
2. Multiple Black Friday Discounts and Deals
Offering discounts and deals is the whole point of Black Friday. But the notion that dropping prices is enough to bring in customers is false. The products need to be relevant. It is worth spending time structuring your discount announcements according to your target market, like this sale announcement.
Offer major discounts to loyal customers as a reward for supporting your brand, and newly engaged customers to reel them in.
A different deal can be made for VIPs or customers within a certain geographical area.
Though it may seem counterintuitive, offering gifts with your deals can boost sales. People love gifts so it makes the sale look more appealing.
3. Black Friday Drip Campaigns
You want to reach out to your email list first when you plan out your Black Friday campaign. But you don’t want to send random emails and hope your customers see it. That is why you need to design a drip campaign as you see in the example below:
Examine your previous campaigns to determine the best times to send out emails. But you also need to decide how many emails to send.
You might want to announce the sales two weeks before, but by the time the event comes around, customers will have forgotten about it.
Send regular reminders more often the closer you get to the event and send another reminder when the sales start so your email list never misses your deals. Use a timeline maker to visualize the best times to email your list and to plan out your drip campaign.
4. Pick Up and Delivery for Black Friday
Since the pandemic has made it so difficult for customers to go into stores, your Black Friday marketing should focus on how you will get their products to them. Highlight the fact that you are offering curbside pickup and shipping, but make sure to let them know whether you are charging for delivery.
5. Optimize Black Friday Landing Pages
Your Black Friday sales should be announced on your homepage but where can customers avail of these offers?
It is best to create a Black Friday landing page, like the example below, where your customers can get all the details in one place.
Remember to add a visible call-to-action that people can see and want to click on.
When creating the landing page, don’t crowd it with too much information. Too many deals, and you might confuse visitors and lead them to close the tab. You also don’t want to clog it with so many visuals that the loading time slows down. Run tests on the page before going live so there are no glitches when customers are making purchases.
6. Black Friday Mobile Experience
Customers are increasingly using mobile devices to do everything including buying products, as recent studies have shown.
Mobile app monetization and designing responsive sites have become imperative for events like Black Friday.
Test your site and app on mobile and examine the customer journey so that you can engage with customers where they are.
7. Use Black Friday Hashtags
Whether you use social media to announce your Black Friday sales or to sell on Instagram, you need to use hashtags. That’s the best way to get eyeballs on your posts.
Use the following hashtags for your content:
- #BlackFriday
- #BlackFridaySales
- #FreeShipping
- #Discounts
- #CyberMonday
Also, use your brand hashtag and any tags associated with your niche.
8. Go Beyond Black Friday
Black Friday doesn’t have to be a one-day event. Over the past few years, the sales day has been followed by Cyber Monday, when brands share online sales opportunities.
Since most of the sales happening this year will be online, why not make it a longer event to capture more customers?
Take advantage of the entire weekend by offering more sales – that will help you reach customers browsing the internet during their days off and attain your sales goals.
If you have the ability to extend sales beyond Cyber Monday, you can reach audiences who may have missed your earlier sales days.
Key Takeaways: Black Friday in 2020 is a Different Ballgame
Black Friday this year is unlike anything we’ve had before. Brands need to reach audiences where they are most comfortable and that’s how you should market the event.
Here are the best Black Friday marketing ideas to adopt in 2020:
- Create gift guides
- Offer tiered discounts
- Create drip campaigns
- Offer pick up and shipping
- Optimize landing pages
- Create a mobile experience
- Use the right hashtags
- Don’t stop at one event
Using these ideas will help brands reach more customers and boost revenue.
