Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday are all coming up this month!!

This is a busy time of year with Christmas coming up, Black Friday is often the day that people do their Christmas shopping. If you haven’t heard of Black Friday, it is a holiday sales event that originated in America as it occurs after Thanksgiving. This event is where businesses launch bold promotional offers and significant price reductions. Traditionally this event was only hosted on the Friday, but it has now become a month-long sales event. Irish shoppers are set to spend over €25,000 a minute during Black Friday so this is an important time to make the most of these enormous sales.

When it comes to Black Friday marketing strategies, there isn’t a one size fits all approach. You must know who your audience is and what works best for them. The first thing you need to look at is your website as that is where you will be sending all of your customers, and it is where you will be making your sales.

It is important to start off by auditing and optimising your website by checking for broken links and 404 errors. Always consider user experience when designing or updating your website. A way of improving user experience is by having a simple cart process and clear and conscious website layout. In an event like Black Friday, customers expect online stores to load fast, so they can quickly find the best deals and purchases. Consider upgrading if your website is near its resource limit. Auditing can show you files that are likely to slow down your site, having keywords and phrases in place can help with your SEO to direct more traffic back to your site. Black Friday can create a lot of traffic on your website, so it is important to keep it updated, functioning well and user friendly. Make sure you have full descriptions of your products with multiple photos and user reviews to give customers everything they are looking for and to make their purchasing decision easier.

When it comes to your website, think about what page you are going to be directing traffic through to.

There is no point in spending money on any advertising campaign to have a poor landing page. Make sure you have Google Analytics connected as well as your Facebook Pixel for tracking and measurement. It is also beneficial if you chose to run a remarketing campaign. Look back on what posts worked better than others in the past so you can improve your strategy for the future.

Build an email list to contact your customers about upcoming deals. It could be worth it to contact previous customers with Black Friday offers to entice them to make another purchase. If you want to increase your email list, offer an incentive for people to sign up to your mailing list. When emailing customers, personalise the email content based on the subscriber’s needs. Showing your customers what’s on offer and your current deals is a great way to entice your existing customers to visit your website on Black Friday.

When it comes to social media marketing, start by planning what you are going to post and when. The type of content you post is all related to who your target market is. Get to know your audience and what content they will most likely engage with. Plan your content on a calendar so that you can organise your posts and keep track of what you will be posting. Plan the type of posts you will have (informative, entertaining, promotional, etc) and in what format (video, reel, story, etc). Doing all this work in advance will really help you out in the long run.

Don’t forget to promote your sales in the lead up to Black Friday. Don’t leave all the promotional posts to the week before. Keep your customers informed on your upcoming Black Friday sales. Create pre-sale brand curiosity so that on the day your customers will know to go to your website for their Black Friday shopping.

Have your graphics created in advance. Make sure they are eye catching and informative. You want your posts to stand out so don’t be afraid to get creative. As well as posts, have stories and reels prepared too. You can interact with your audience through stories by using polls, questions, etc. Customer support is important around this time so have chat boxes set up and reply quickly to comments and messages.

The copy you use in posts is very important. You need to create a sense of urgency as you are competing for the customer’s attention. Some ways you could do this are by launching a flash sale, and by notifying customers about stock levels and quick selling products. Use time sensitive language in your copy and don’t forget to use hashtags to reach a new audience.

Make the most of maximising your sales on Black Friday and don’t let any opportunities slip away. Use these tips to intensify your marketing campaigns and boost your sales during this season. If you need any help with your marketing strategy or content planning, feel free to reach out to the team at Elevate Marketing to help you make the most of the Black Friday weekend.