How to prepare your E-Commerce business for Black Friday
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, most businesses need to consider whether they will participate in the yearly promotion frenzy. Indeed, we’ve seen a few businesses like Me+Em vocally opt-out or move against the discounting trend in recent years or swap to Giving Tuesday, taking a more mindful approach that aligns with their core values. In the middle of all the noise, we’ve put together our core Black Friday checklist for planning your multi-channel activity. We’ve also included some of our favourite resources for more in-depth advice.
Plan your strategy
To Discount or not Discount:
Before you plan anything else, it’s worth considering if you should or should not participate in Black Friday discounting. If you indeed decide to offer discounts, keep your promotion simple and familiar to avoid confusion.
Whilst customers love a bargain, it may also be something that goes against your brand’s value proposition and messaging. There is still plenty you can say and do without offering a direct discount. Some examples we’ve loved in recent years were Rixo and Me+Em donating to worthy causes for every purchase made, rather than discounting their lines, MUD Jeans launching a denim leasing service (following the launch of their mending & repair service with MENDED), and Ikea offering a Buy Back Service on pre-used items in return for shopping vouchers.
Map out your timeline:
Whether you’re doing a promotion of some kind or are decidedly not partaking, it’s worth mapping out exactly what and when you’re communicating to your audience. Not only is it a great way to gain an overview and schedule, but it also allows you to prioritise workload to turn your plans into reality.
More resources: Later - alternative Black Friday Ideas, The best alternatives to Black Friday
Prepare your Website
Test & Fix Bugs:
To prepare for the surges in website traffic during BFCM weekend, take time to thoroughly test your core website functionality and resolve issues. It can also be wise to action UX improvements so that shoppers will find the experience smooth and easy, with nothing stopping them from completing their purchase.
Test your offer:
Make sure your planned offer works, especially when using functionalities outside of your native platform’s offering, i.e. by using a third-party app.
Have Creative that packs a punch:
Ensure the creative for your Black Friday & Cyber Monday campaigns is effective, draws on what you know works for your audience, makes the offer easy to understand, and is consistent across all of your channels.
Be ready for sales:
Ensure your best sellers are well stocked and you’ve got plenty of products to sell. It may also be worth exploring pre-order options for items that sell out, letting customers purchase with your promotion, but delivering their order on a later date.
More resources: Squarespace - Holiday Hub, Shopify - Black Friday Checklist, Shopify - Black Friday for E-commerce
Nail your Email Marketing
Prioritise what works for your audience:
Don’t leave your messaging up to guesswork! In the few weeks and months leading up to the Black Friday weekend, spend time A/B testing creative, subject lines, personalisation options, etc. until you know exactly what works for your email database.
Monitor your deliverability:
There’s nothing worse than having the perfect campaign and it ends up in everyone’s spam folder. Check in on your deliverability score (platforms like Klaviyo make this super easy) in the 2-3 month lead-up and take action to resolve any red flags like low open or click rates and high unsubscribes.
Optimise for personalisation:
Personalisation is more and more vital in standing out amongst the noise. Check in on your audience segments, optimise them as much as you can and consider asking your subscribers what they’d like to hear about.
Reward your most loyal customers:
Consider giving your most engaged and loyal customers special treatment with exclusive VIP offers or early access to your promotions.
More resources: Klaviyo’s BFCM Hub, Klaviyo - How to optimise your email for BFCM, Mailchimp - Black Friday Success
Know when to invest in ads
Test & Learn:
Start your testing of creative and copy early to master it by the time Black Friday weekend rolls around.
Capitalise on lower-cost ad types:
With advertising costs on a constant rise and BFCM being notorious for many advertisers wanting a piece of the pie, we recommend capitalising on lower-cost campaigns like a lead generation campaign during the month and gathering sign-ups to your newsletter list. Not only is this more cost-effective from an ad budget point of view, but you can also nurture them via your email marketing at a much lower cost and drive them towards conversion.
Be ready to invest:
Plan to drive up spend of your campaigns over the BFCM weekend to ensure they get the exposure they deserve. It’s a very advertising-dense weekend, so expect CPMs and CPCs to be much higher, and having more budget allocated to this period will help you compete in the ad auction against your competitors.
More resources: Pinterest - Top 10 Black Friday ads, Pinterest - Top 10 Pre-Black Friday ads, Meta - Holiday Marketing Guide, Google - Holiday Consumer Behaviour Insights
Engage your audience on Social
Connect with your audience:
Use your organic social media platforms to build emotional connections and trust with your followers ahead of November. The more they connect with you ahead of the Black Friday noise, the more they’ll be inclined to check your offering first.
Drive sign-ups:
Encourage your followers to sign up to your newsletter list, so you’ll be able to nurture and reach them more easily. Promising early access or exclusive promotions to those who do is always a strong motivator for them to take that extra step.
Rally your advocates:
Use strategic influencer & content creator campaigns to promote your offer, but also consider having a campaign to support your early access sign-ups.
More resources: Later - How to plan a Month-long BFCM strategy for social, Hootsuite - 49 BFCM Social Media Post Examples
There you have it, our top advice on nailing Black Friday this year and taking the guesswork out of the year’s busiest sales period. Don’t forget to thoroughly evaluate and analyse your results to inform your approach next year and help you allocate resources to the most impactful channels.
Do you need help with your Black Friday or Cyber Monday strategy or managing a particular channel? We can help! Get in touch here or via the form on our website to enquire and let’s maximise your BFCM results together.
