Black Friday Marketing Ideas for eCommerce

Let’s face it, if you’re running an online business, you simply can’t ignore Black Friday. It’s one of the most important retail holidays not only in the United States, but now in Canada too.In this post, I’m not going to bore you with statistics or studies trying to convince you why Black Friday is important.  It is very important and you can't afford ignoring it.  So just do it!Instead, I’m going to share some actionable ideas on how eCommerce businesses can prepare their digital marketing efforts for Black Friday.Let’s get started!

When is Black Friday in 2019?

This year, Black Friday falls on Friday, November 29, 2019.  It’s usually earlier in November but not this year.

When to Start Black Friday Promotions?

There’s a couple of ways of going about when to start your Black Friday sale.There are many retailers who start their sale very early on while others may start it one week or a couple of days before.Here’s what I usually recommend for online stores:

Should I Start an Early Black Friday Sale?

Do you need to have an Early Black Friday sale? No, but you know what, many retailers have started promoting their sale early during the month.  While I don’t recommend promoting your actual Black Friday sale just yet, you can take advantage by creating an Early Black Friday Sale.Here’s how it works: I usually like to promote only specific items and not the actual full Black Friday Sale.  This will help create buzz and anticipation for the actual sale when it starts on Thursday.  For example, you can have a daily flash sale during your Early Black Friday on one product and eventually have all those items available during the Black Friday promotion.

Where to Promote a Black Friday Sale

Here’s a list of digital channels you can use to help promote your sale Black Friday deals in order to drive traffic to your online store.

• Online Store (obviously)
• Email
• Facebook Page Post, Stories & Ads
• Instagram Post, Stories & Ads
• Display Ads (retargeting ads included)
• Search Ads (Google Ads)
• Affiliates, Cashback Sites and Coupons Networks

How to Plan Your Black Friday Marketing Campaigns

Here’s a simple list of things you need to do so you can plan a successful Black Friday for eCommerce.

1. Start planning early (1-3 months prior)
2. Decide on the promotion (discount amount, specific items on sale)
3. Make sure you have enough inventory available
4. Communicate details about the promotion with your team including customer service and shipping departments
5. Assign tasks to team members to help plan promotion
6. Setup up campaign in your shopping cart (coupon codes, pricing rules, start/end dates, number of uses, discount amount…)
7. Prepare a landing page for your sale (include promotion details or items on sale)
8. Choose digital channels where you will promote the sale (website, email, social, affiliates…)
9. Plan advertising campaigns in your calendar so you know when and where to start promoting
10. Plan all marketing campaigns on all channels so you know what content to prepare (banners, headlines, copy, captions, URLs)
11. Prepare campaign content
12. Make sure everything is tracked in Google Analytics
13. Create and schedule all campaigns
14. Test, test, test!
15. Launch and enjoy the results!

12 Black Friday Promotion Ideas for eCommerce

Now that you know what it takes to plan a successful Black Friday campaign, decide on what type of promotion should you have.NOTE: I will be updating this post with actual examples in the future.Here’s a list of ideas you can try:

1. Offer a discount % or $ (sitewide, specific categories or specific products)

2. Offer a discount with minimum purchase amounts (Save 35% on orders over $100)

3. Offer a gift with purchase

4. Offer free shipping on all orders

5. Create an exclusive bundle offers

6. Create a daily deal for each day leading to or during BF

7. Create hype by having an Early Black Friday Sale

8. Create a preview (sneak peek) of items that will be on sale through email and social media

9. Create a guide highlighting list of items people might buy for gifts

10. Referral incentive (refer a friend this week and get $x credit)

11. Donate to a cause on all purchases made during Black Friday

12. BOGO Sale

10 Ideas on How to Promote Black Friday Promotion

Now that you’ve got an amazing promotion planned for Black Friday, here’s a list of ideas on how you can promote this sale across the Internet.NOTE: I will be updating this post with actual examples in the future.

1. Promote it on your homepage (hero)

2. Showcase sale in website header (visible sitewide)

Example of this tactic is visible on a hemp-derived CBD oil product line by Everyday Biocare.

3. Send multiple emails to your subscribers

4. Promote it on Facebook (page, stories & ads)

5. Promote it on Instagram (page, stories and ads)

6. Create an event for it on your Facebook page

7. Create an Instagram Story with a countdown

8. Use popular Black Friday hashtags on social media posts

9. Create an exit-intent banner so when people leave the website, they’re told about the sale

10. Work with influencers

13 Ways to Increase Conversions & Sales During Black Friday

Here’s a list of eCommerce tactics you can implement to help you get the most out of your Black Friday sale.  These tactics will help increase engagement, conversions and total revenue.

1. Add email signup form on your Black Friday page before the sale starts so you can notify customers when sale starts
2. Add a countdown in your emails
3. Add a countdown on your Black Friday landing page
4. Add a countdown on product pages that are included in the sale
5. Retarget shoppers with ads showcasing items they've looked at but didn’t buy
6. Send cart abandonment emails of items people forgot in their cart (include countdown)
7. Email customers reminding them how much time left before sale ends
8. Create upsells when they add items to their cart or during checkout
9. Provide live chat for quick answers to customers especially on product pages
10. Add Extended hours for customer service so you can reply to customers faster (before sale ends)
11. Highlight your returns policy on product pages so people feel reassured
12. Email customers with different subject lines if they didn’t open or click on previous Black Friday emails
13. Retarget visitors of your online store (those who haven't purchased) in the last 7-30 days with a message telling them how much time is left before sale ends

Conclusion

I hope this post has given you many ideas on how to plan for a successful Black Friday. If you need Black Friday email subject lines or want to learn more about how you can plan your email campaigns, take a look at our Email Marketing Planner.Happy selling!