Ugh, why am I talking about the holidays in October? Take one look around at your local big box store. You’ve seen the ghosts mingled in the Christmas Tees! While I’m not advocating hanging up the mistle toe on October 1, it IS time to start planning for your Black Friday promotions. So take a sip of your pumpkin spice latte and start planning to implement these 12 steps. You’ll thank me in November.
Things to Do in Now to Prepare for the Holiday Season
- Make sure you’re using email authentication
- Don’t make sudden changes to your marketing program (that’s why we’re starting now)
- Don’t try to re-engage that inactive file; send to your engaged recipients
- Be aware of rate limiting and throttling and give your customers plenty of advance notice
- If you have to open a support ticket to one of the mailbox providers about a deliverability issue you’ve been having, stop procrasstinating and do it now
Brainstorm a Rock-solid Idea or Concept for Black Friday!
Not sure where to start? Take a moment and answer these questions:
- What is the idea or concept behind your holiday marketing campaign this year?
- What is the focus of your holiday marketing efforts?
- What products or services will you be focused on marketing primarily?
- Will you be working with influencers on your campaign? If so, which ones?
Create and Schedule Your Social Content
Once the content for your holiday marketing campaign is ready to go, set aside some time to fully plan out your social media content calendar. Yes, do it now. Imagine how much less stressful the holidays will be if you’re not worried about your social content! It will also leave you more time to actually engage with your community, which is so important if your goal is to make sales or generate leads.
Offer to Donate a Percentage of Sales to Charity
You can make your buyers feel better about their purchases by letting them know that a percentage of their purchase goes to charity. It doesn’t have to be a lot of money, even a percent of your profits going to charity is worth it.
Don’t make empty promises here! Donate the money and let customers know who received their donations. You may even get the charity where you donate money to send a thank you message to your buyers and also post this message on your website.
Polish Your Black Friday Email Subject Lines
People decide whether to read your email or not just by looking at the subject lines. So take them seriously. SmartrMail has a list of 109 of the best Black Friday subject lines you can explore, grab them here.
Create a Sense of Urgency
Urgency is a very powerful marketing tool. This is especially true when talking about email promotions. In fact, creating a sense of urgency in your emails can increase sales by over 300%! (Case Study)
Here’s how to do it:
Compelling Language. Utilizing limited-time language in your email subject lines and calls to action (CTAs) is a savvy way to create urgency and increase sales. Mirror this language with an action-based tone to create a seamless experience. Make sure your CTAs leave no doubt about what you’re offering and what the subscriber should do next to get the offer.
Countdowns. The psychological effect of seeing a ticking countdown clock is a very powerful incentive for shoppers to take action and make a purchase. Try including a countdown timer in your emails to increase conversions. For example, your countdown could tick down the hours and minutes left on flash sales or display the amount of time remaining until shipping cut-offs for major holidays like Christmas.
Fear of Missing Out. Fear of missing out, or FOMO, is a powerful marketing tactic that you can draw on through your use of language. Use phrases like “biggest sale of the year” or “best prices of the season” in your Black Friday marketing to encourage recipients to shop before it’s too late.
Create Landing Page Specifically for your Black Friday Sale
Make sure you have one or more landing pages to welcome visitors to your Black Friday marketing campaigns. Show them how they’ll benefit from your deals. Go above and beyond. Remember that other businesses are making offers too. So make sure yours stands out.
Use Trending Black Friday Hashtags
You can use hashtags like
- #Blackfriday,
- #Blackfridaysales,
- #Blackfridayoffers,
- #Blackridaydeals,
- #Blackfridayweekend,
- #Blackfriday2023 (or the relevant year),
- #BlackfridayUSA (or the relevant country where you operate),
- #Blackfridayshopping,
- #Blackfridayspecials
You can add more Black Friday hashtags. Check out this list. The goal is to get the word out about your product.
Re-engage Shoppers that Abandon Carts
As with any time of the year, there will always be some shoppers who do not complete their purchase or abandon their carts. Around Black Friday, setting up abandoned cart emails becomes an even more important tactic for businesses to win back these potential customers.
Offering discounts and other promotions is one of the most effective ways to bring shoppers back, especially during the holiday season when they are likely browsing the many different deals available.
Send Gifts to Your Top Customers
Everyone loves to feel special. So, during the holidays, send gift packages to your best customers, brand ambassadors,and strategic partners. The gift basket can be as simple as a collection of company swag like t-shirts and stickers.
Sending gifts to your top customers shows that you care. This tactic might not boost your holiday sales immediately, but it will help form healthy relationships with your customers and help your business grow in the long run.
Provide Excellent Customer Service During Black Friday (and always!)
Just because you’re on holiday, it doesn’t mean your customers are on holiday too. You still need to make sure you’re providing excellent customer service during the holidays.
It’s easy to set up an auto-reply for forms on your website. That way, when a visitor reaches out to your brand during a holiday, they’ll receive an email notifying them about your absence. You can include information about when they can expect to hear back from you, how long you’ll be out of office, and more.
“End of Year” and “Best of Best” Blog Posts
These are two types of blog posts you can publish during the holidays that will help you get tons of traffic, more subscribers, and ultimately, generate more sales.
A “Best of Best” blog post is very easy to create. Simply make a list of all of your best tutorials or blog posts throughout the past year. For your End of Year Review, share your accomplishments, milestones, and your failures (cause let’s be real) of the year.
These blog posts help you build a connection with your audience. And when your audience feels connected to you, they’ll be readers and customers for life.
If you need assistance getting all this in place, I currently have an opening for a new client. Contact me today.
