While Black Friday is the Friday following the very American Thanksgiving holiday, the phenomenon has now crossed the borders of the United States. Both brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce sites worldwide now offer promotions, and the event marks the beginning of the peak holiday season. The momentum for Black Friday marketing starts earlier and earlier each year.
Brands offer promotions throughout the month of November, and even launch social media ads as early as October to refine the targeting they’ll use on the day.
From a marketing standpoint, many businesses optimize their SEO in advance, review their website speed and the consistency of their product pages, or even set up their chatbot to assist targets on Black Friday.
But what if you didn’t launch your Black Friday strategy early on?
Well, before you have a full-on panic attack because you dropped the ball and som ehow forgot about the biggest sales event of the year – stop for a second.
Take a deep breath.
Read this post.
And then have your panic attack.
(Kidding. This post will hopefully help you avoid that last part).
And in this post you’ll find 30 solid marketing tips for Black Friday, divided into 18 broader actions, to help you achieve the best ROI possible for your campaigns, avoid a panic attack, and also keep your job. So let’s get started.
Announce your offers with flair on social media
Whether you’ve planned your Black Friday marketing well in advance or are getting to it a bit late, social media is a key channel to announce your offers and attract buyers.
For example, you can post:
1. “Mystery offers” that create suspense. Let users guess which of your flagship products will be on sale. For instance, you could post a blurred image of a product or choose to reveal only a part of it.
2. Countdowns, which build anticipation around your Black Friday offers.
3. Polls, to find out what types of promotions your audience would like.
4. Educational content to explain how they can prepare for the influx of Black Friday orders.
@samsungnz Ok FINE, you can PowerShare with me… you owe me though #Samsung ♬ Attenzione pickpocket x montagem – jovynn
In this post, Samsung New Zealand capitalizes on one of the TikTok trends from the end of 2022 to dynamically and humorously present its Black Friday promotions.
Leverage the sense of urgency and FOMO
The idea here is to entice your audience to act immediately and make an impulse buy – though a measured one, thanks to your responsible marketing strategy.
This can be done by:
5. Offering limited-time discounts or flash sales, which you highlight across all your communication channels.
6. Offering exclusive access to discounted products. For instance, post a promo code in an Instagram story, an Instagram broadcast channel, or on the last slide of a carousel, so only the most engaged targets see these promotions.
7. Highlighting low stock levels on your website.
8. Emphasizing the number of customers who’ve already ordered to induce FOMO, the notorious Fear Of Missing Out. You can display this on your website as users browse, or in stories on your social media.
9. Offering free shipping or an extra gift for the first X customers to order, rewarding the fastest ones.
Offer tiered promotional benefits
To encourage your customers to increase their average cart size on the day, and thus boost your return on investment, offer them additional benefits when they order above a certain amount.
For instance, offer them:
10. A multi-level promotional offer. For example, a 10% discount applies to orders over $100, and another 20% off for orders over $150.
11. A free gift included beyond a certain order amount.
12. Free shipping from a certain order amount.
Set up bundle deals with your business partners
Do you know another non-competing business offering services or products that complement yours and that potential customers love both?
13. Partner up with them for your Black Friday marketing!
The idea here is to create bundled offers or mutual discount codes, expanding your audience while cutting promotion costs.
Launch a dedicated email campaign for your loyal customers
You probably know this: email remains one of the most ROI-driven channels for your marketing campaigns – whether it’s for Black Friday or any other initiative.
14. Highlight your most enticing promotional offers in each newsletter specifically dedicated to Black Friday.
Start a “pre-registration” campaign
For many targets, Black Friday is seen as a time when they can “miss a good deal” if they’re not fast enough.
15. Capitalize on this trend by creating a “VIP” contact list for both your loyal customers and prospects. Inform them in advance via email about your exclusive Black Friday offers. This type of campaign should be promoted on your social networks and all your other marketing channels.
Promote Black Friday gift guides
Do you know about gift guides? They consist of product selections grouped by categories that guide individuals in their gift purchases for the holiday season. For instance, you can group your gift ideas for fathers, partners, children…
16. Post your gift guides as a carousel on social media or as snack content videos.
View this post on Instagram
In this example, the Bando brand perfectly merges the TikTok vibe with the gift guide concept by categorizing gift ideas based on astrological signs.
Properly using hashtags on social networks
On all your social media accounts, it’s crucial to use hashtags to increase your post visibility.
17. Use hashtags specifically dedicated to Black Friday or promotional themes, such as:
#BlackFriday
#BlackFridayDeals
#Sale
#Promo
#LimitedOffer
#FlashSale
#Shopping
#TodayOnly
@reesebros Still don’t know how to turn it off #tap #onoff #dad #childhood #angrydad #aussie #bogan ♬ original sound – Reese Bros
But also consider hashtags related to the peak season, like #GiftIdea or #HolidayShopping. For example, here, the Wethenew brand discreetly inserts #blackfriday into the caption of its TikTok. Enough to make it stand out more easily in the For You page of sneaker fans.
18. Another idea: you can also create your brand-specific hashtag (or branded hashtag) in addition to the Black Friday-specific ones. On D-day, you encourage your audience to share their Black Friday purchases, boosting your brand awareness on social media.
Launch a marketing contest for Black Friday
For your Black Friday marketing strategy, a contest is ideal. It helps draw the audience to you and get more organic reach.
19. Give users the chance to enter a raffle when purchasing a product during Black Friday for a chance to win an enticing prize.
For this operation to be successful, ensure you clearly define the contest terms. Is purchasing a product on your site enough to enter? Or do they also need to share your campaign hashtag on a social media post? Tag someone on that post? Repost one of your contents?
Need inspiration? Check out our article on the six types of contests, from classics to the most original.
Take advantage of Social Shopping features on social networks like Instagram or Facebook
20. If you haven’t already, consider setting up your integrated store on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok for Black Friday. These online shops allow your customers to directly purchase your products on social media, hence streamlining the purchase process during Black Friday.
These features also allow you to tag your products within your social media posts, making them easily shoppable for your audience..
And good news: tagging products in your posts can be done directly from Agorapulse 😉 (Sign up for a free trial and see how you can start doing that right away.)
Dive into live shopping
Live shopping is an engaging trend where you live stream to showcase your products in detail, answer your customers’ questions, and provide a behind-the-scenes look at your company.
It’s a great idea for Black Friday to attract more customers to your offers.
21. Launch a live on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or YouTube, which you promote beforehand to entice your audience to discover your deals live!
Set up a Pinterest board dedicated to Black Friday
Pinterest is an interesting social platform if your brand has a well-developed graphic universe, and you sell visually appealing products.
22. For Black Friday, you can opt to post pins specific to the event or the holiday season on your Pinterest account to inspire users.
This is what Conforama does on Pinterest, for example:
23. It might also be relevant to create a board dedicated to posts related to the deals you’ll offer during Black Friday. This can help establish a unique aesthetic around your brand and spark interest in your promotions ahead of the event.
Invest in influencer marketing for Black Friday
24. Today, you can’t do social media without considering influencer marketing. For Black Friday, it’s also fitting to collaborate with influencers to promote your deals in advance.
Ensure you choose influencers who:
– Have an audience that aligns with your target customers.
– Have a high engagement rate (it can be useful to possibly consider working with micro-influencers for this reason)
– Are true enthusiasts of your brand or can become one.
– Understand the principles of your Black Friday operation and can communicate it effectively.
Need some advice? Dive into our guide on finding the right influencers for your brand and your Black Friday campaign.
In this Instagram Reel, the CupShe brand collaborates with a beauty influencer to present the ideal silhouettes to adopt for the end-of-year holidays. And obviously, a specific promo code is promoted in the post, which also includes hashtags relating to Black Friday and the holiday season.
Nail your retargeting strategy
25a. Another angle to consider for your Black Friday campaign: retargeting. This consists of targeting individuals who have already interacted with your brand, whether by visiting your site, interacting with your posts, or having already made a purchase.
Retargeting strategies can be extremely effective. By re-engaging with users who’ve shown interest, you increase your chances of getting them to convert.
Consider using the dynamic retargeting option on Facebook, for example. With this feature, you can show your products to users based on their previous behavior on your site.
Highlight your user generated content to convert more
User generated content , i.e. content generated by your customers and users, has become essential to stimulate the trust of your targets.
“79% of consumers say that UGC highly impacts their purchasing decision,” according to Search Logistics.
25b. For Black Friday, UGC allows you to highlight authentic social proof around your product , and thus make your targets want to buy it. You can distribute UGC on social media, or even integrate it directly into your ads or product pages of your website.
Promote your offers through paid advertising
26. Beyond organic marketing techniques, consider also deploying an advertising campaign specifically dedicated to your Black Friday offers , on search engines, but especially on social networks: TikTok Ads, YouTube Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, etc.
These advertising channels are truly great for a higher ROI, since they allow you to target very precise audiences, within your core target, and to control your budget over the entire period.
Ideally, prepare your audience at least a few weeks in advance to offer well-targeted social ads at the given time and lower your costs. Prepare for high costs during the Black Friday period, due to a higher influx of ads , and be prepared to adjust budgets along the way to optimize your results.
Implement a retargeting and abandoned basket relaunch strategy
During Black Friday, your targets visit several sites at the same time. All the more reason to revive those who abandoned their purchasing journey along the way !
27. You can relaunch them with retargeting advertising, to put them back in front of your brand and your promotions.
28. Another possibility: set up an abandoned cart reminder email workflow, to encourage them to make the final purchase.
Push the event to Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday
November is an intense promotional month in the peak holiday season.
After Black Friday come two events:
Small Business Saturday, which promotes the purchase of products from small businesses the next day
Cyber Monday, which is an online ecommerce event that always falls on the Monday after American Thanksgiving
29. If your business wants to extend the shopping madness of Black Friday, it may be worth offering special promotions for Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday.
Also participate in Giving Tuesday
Do you know about #givingtuesday? This is the Tuesday following Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which is a day of donations initiated by a growing number of companies and associations .
30. This complementary event to the peak season allows you to also attract targets who expect commitments and values from a brand, as well as those who do not appreciate the strong consumerism promoted during Black Friday. Get involved on Giving Tuesday too!
Challenges of Black Friday
1. Stock management: This is the number one challenge for e-commerce during Black Friday. Do you have enough stock to meet the demand?
2. Logistic bottlenecks: How do you plan to manage the surge in orders? Are your logistics partners ready for this massive influx? Do you have enough staff, and for ecommerce sites can your website servers handle a large influx of traffic?
3. Customer support: You’ll likely face a surge in customer inquiries, from order issues to post-purchase questions. Is your customer support team prepared?
Facing these challenges head-on and ensuring you’ve got the appropriate measures in place will significantly help in navigating the Black Friday chaos.
As always, planning is crucial. But with the right strategy, tools, and determination, Black Friday 2023 can be a huge success for your brand.
Don’t forget – using Agorapulse can make it easier to manage the social media chaos on Black Friday (or any day for that matter). Get your free trial today – no strings attached.
