Black Friday is approaching fast and online stores need to be prepared. It’s expected that this year’s online purchases will surpass last year’s when 77% of Black Friday transactions were made online. This, of course, comes with numerous challenges for e-commerce merchants.
We have collected the 5 most effective Black Friday marketing strategy ideas to boost your chances of standing out from the crowd and getting the most out of one of the busiest months of the year.
Black Friday Marketing Ideas
Good Black Friday marketing strategy will combine organic and paid advertising, efficient customer support and a seamless delivery process.
To excel with Black Friday 2021 marketing, consider using some of the following ideas and get the maximum benefit.
1. Focus on Customer Support
While good marketing informs your customers why they should choose your brand over others, great customer service ensures them why they should keep coming back. And this makes providing excellent customer service one of the most important marketing strategies.
Here are some tips to provide excellent Black Friday customer service:
a. Enable an informative self-service option.
Almost 90% of customers expect to have an option to find a solution to their problems on their own before reaching out to customer support. And Black Friday is no different.
Look back at what were the key issues during Black Friday in previous years and make sure to update your FAQ section or knowledge base with the most common questions customers had. This keeps customers happy and saves your customer support agents valuable time so they could focus on more demanding issues.
b. Make it Easy to get in Touch.
Customers want their questions answered momentarily and there’s nothing more frustrating than trying to understand how to get into contact.
Include different options to reach out to you and present them clearly in your store. For instance, display your email and phone number at the bottom of the page. But also consider including a contact form and a live chat option for further convenience.
c. Use customer service software.
A help desk is a great tool that brings all your communications on one platform. Such software usually offers features such as pre-made templates, automated responses, tags, and more.
This will help your customer service team be on top of their game by organising tasks and tickets and efficiently delivering solutions to customers.
d. Stay patient.
Black Friday can be very demanding for customer support representatives as people contacting support are often annoyed about something. The key to handling the madness is to stay calm and not let emotions take over.
If there is something that requires more time to solve, let customers know that someone is looking into their problem. This will reassure them their issue is not overlooked and that you value them as a customer.
2. Make it Personal with SMS Campaigns
SMS marketing is said to be one of the most personal platforms for businesses to reach out to their customers. Therefore, launching Black Friday Text Campaigns is a certain way to develop your brand-customer relationship and encourage customers to choose you over your competitors.
For launching an outstanding Black Friday SMS marketing campaign, start with the following:
a. Build your subscribers list.
Promotional SMS messages are permission-based and require customers to opt in before you can start reaching out to them this way. Some ways to attract SMS subscribers are informing your email list, adding a pop-up to your store, organising a contest or inviting people to sign up at the checkout.
Whichever approach you use for building your subscribers list, make sure to be clear about what they can expect from your messages and emphasise the exclusivity of your SMS subscribers.
b. Personalise your campaigns.
80% of customers are more likely to make a purchase when offered a personalised experience. The key is to know your audience and segment them based on location, age, gender, previous purchases, etc. This will help customers feel valued and they are more likely to take your desired action.
c. Use CTAs and include a link.
A clear call to action lets your customers know what they need to do next. You can use phrases such as “Claim your discount”, “Check out the deals”, “Shop while stock lasts”, etc.
For the CTAs to work, don’t forget to include a shortened link that will direct customers right where they need to.
3. Create Dedicated Landing Pages
Black Friday is the main shopping event for customers and they will be looking through online stores to find the best deals. If your visitors cannot find something that appeals to them immediately, they won’t stay for long.
Most likely, you only have up to 15 seconds to grab your customers’ attention and win them over. This means that focusing on the effortless user experience through your content is a must when putting together your Black Friday marketing campaigns.
Help your visitors to easily gain an overview of your Black Friday offers and get the most out of your dedicated landing pages by:
- Keeping your copy short and on point.
- Using images to grab attention.
- Emphasising the value that your offer brings and play on urgency (e.g. use phrases like “Limited-time offer, “Available only today”, or set up a countdown timer)
- Paying attention to the landing page loading times and try to keep it to a minimum.
4. Meet Customers Delivery Expectations
It’s crucial to offer an easy delivery process and be transparent about your shipping and return policies. If it’s not simple, customers are not likely to proceed to the checkout.
a. Offer Shipping Alternatives.
People have different preferences and therefore it’s important to provide multiple options on how customers can receive their packages.
Many choose to have their parcel delivered directly to their door, yet click and collect, and store pickup are both still widely popular as well. The latter is also a great opportunity for retailers that have both a physical store and an online store. In such cases, customers can place their orders online and pick up their order from the store only a few hours later.
b. Be Transparent about Shipping Rates.
Nothing is worse than proceeding to the checkout to find out that suddenly the cart price is notably higher due to some hidden shipping fees.
In fact, 93% of shoppers are eager to buy more if a free shipping option is available. Therefore, lowering shipping costs for Black Friday is a clever way to encourage customers to shop with your brand.
C. Pay Attention to the Post-Purchase Experience.
While your goal is reached once a customer has purchased from you, this is not where your relationship should end. Sending out order confirmations and shipment updates via email or SMS message will keep your customers calm knowing their order is on the way, while also greeting excitement about the soon-to-be-delivered package.
A pleasurable post-purchase experience will likely result in the customer happily shopping with you again in the future.
5. Add Reviews on your Website
Reviews are an excellent way to ensure prospective customers that it’s worth their time to shop with your brand. And as 90% of customers like to look up reviews before making a purchase, collecting and displaying other customers’ experiences is a must.
For creating a strong first impression through reviews on Black Friday this year:
- Ask for customer reviews. This can be done after a customer has purchased from you, once the order has been delivered or after they have reached out to your customer support and you have been able to solve their problem.
- Set your business up on 3rd party sites such as Google My Business, Facebook, Yelp.
- Reply to reviews you have received. Either thank them for their business and for taking time to leave a review or in case of a negative review, show initiative to get to the bottom of the problem why they had a negative experience.
The Bottom Line
Without a doubt, Black Friday brings many challenges to eCommerce merchants and it might seem difficult to keep up with the competition and ever-growing customer demands.
However, when preparing your team for the busy time and focus on providing pleasurable and personalised experiences in every step of the customer journey – from finding the best deals until they have received their order, you will be ready to face the madness of Black Friday and increase your store’s revenue.