No matter your thoughts on Black Friday, it presents opportunities for your business to maximise sales in the build-up to Christmas.
It’s less than a month until Black Friday, and as Christmas marketing experts, we’re here to help you maximise sales during this retail phenomenon. According to Mintel, total sales during Black Friday 2022 reached an estimated £12.3 billion, up 8.3% year-on-year.
Mintel’s Black Friday market research outlined that: “the financial squeeze in 2022 actually heightened the event’s role, with 63% of consumers agreeing that the financial concerns made Black Friday promotions more important than last year. With deals to be found throughout the majority of November, many use Black Friday as a way to spread costs during Christmas and will make use of deals to buy Christmas gifts – something the cost of living crisis has served to strengthen.”
Black Friday isn’t just about discounts; it’s also an opportunity to boost the visibility of your business and engage with your audience.
Black Friday is no longer a case of promotions focused on a single day. Rather it spans all promotional activity from the middle to the end of November. The majority of sales are online, moving the focus from brick-and-mortar stores. Google Trends shows that there’s typically an increase in search traffic from the beginning of October, while most retailers begin to communicate their Black Friday offering prior to Halloween.
It falls on Friday 24th November this year, but you should be thinking about how you would like to approach Black Friday now. Start by deciding which offers you would like to lead with then consider how to present them to potential customers as part of your Christmas campaign.
Here are a few tips to help you make the most of the opportunity this year.
01. Start early with teasers
The excitement for Black Friday starts building long before the day itself. Content marketing is great for this, without being too pushy or giving too much away too soon.
We can help you craft engaging online articles that highlight your upcoming Black Friday deals, share shopping tips, or showcase your top products. We can publish these articles on our network and you can share them on your website and social media channels to generate anticipation among your audience.
02. Don’t give too much away too early
It can be tempting to tell your customers exactly what your deals are going to be, but this can take away one of the major factors when it comes to succeeding on Black Friday: the suspense.
Make sure customers know you’re going to be offering Black Friday deals but don’t share the exact discount rates or exact product details. Instead encourage them to come back to your premises or website on the day. Taking this approach will give your customers a sense of urgency on the day itself and you can make the most of that fear of missing out (FOMO) feeling.
03. Make your offers clear and compelling
Customers are super savvy now and are unlikely to fall for a product or service that’s discounted but isn’t the same specification of what they’ve looked at before. If you give customers a bad experience on Black Friday they won’t just stop shopping with you for the day they’ll stop for good.
Clear offers such as percentage discounts, multi-buys or product packages are the way to give people a real sense of value. Black Friday is highly-competitive and a really busy time for your customers who will have their eye on certain products. They don’t have time to work out complicated deals so make it obvious. Make it too good to miss.
04. Audit and update your product pages
With the majority of sales being online, you’ll need to make sure your website is at its very best. Spend time making sure your product pages are as good as they can be.
You’ll want to ensure that your key product descriptions are accurate and include the right keywords to attract web searches. Also confirm that your product imagery is high quality (but at the same time optimised so that it doesn’t affect page load speed). If you have reviews then display a selection of them alongside the product.
