Top Tips for Smashing Black Friday This Year

Black Friday is undoubtedly one of the biggest retail events of the year, with 2020's sales reaching a grand total of £6 billion in the UK alone. As we approach the 26th November, we've put together a shortlist of some top tips for smashing Black Friday this year.

It’s a social holiday

Black Friday is mostly a social media phenomenon  - with hashtags, exclusive offers and promotional material flooding social feeds throughout November. When planning your Black Friday campaign, don’t forget the impact a solid social media strategy can have on your success - especially campaigns centered around popular holidays and social events that naturally have a large social buzz. When planning out your social content - remember to not limit yourself to one platform. Cross channel promotion can be extremely effective and ensures that your message is being pumped out to as many eyes as possible. You should also make sure that you’re always keeping consistent across your other online channels including your email campaigns, blogs and any paid adverts you’re running throughout the month. Familiarising yourself with popular, effective campaigns from other brands is a great way to start mapping out the types of posts you’ll create for your own campaign. Printful have created a lovely detailed list of the top 100 Black Friday campaigns from 2020, which we’d recommend checking out here to give you some inspo. To really get the most out of social media around Black Friday - it’s also a good idea to mix up the type of content you’re posting - not everything has to be a direct promotion. You can also use your platforms to get involved in the hype of the holiday - without pushing a product or sale. Different platforms want different types of content and having a range of objectives across your strategy will help you to see a more well-rounded goal, as well as working to not spam your followers with overly-promotional posts that may be overlooked.

Stand Out

Whilst Black Friday is a great thing to get involved in, it's easy to get lost in the masses with every other business offering their best discounts on the same day. Why not stand out from the crowd by creating your own discount day that will give you the upper hand - especially when it comes to advertising as you won’t be competing with the masses for a spot on someone’s social feed. You can make this an annual celebration - or create exclusivity by making it a one-off event that won’t come around again. You could also make a splash by moving the date of your Black Friday deals to fall either before the traditional day to win some sales earlier in the month, or afterwards to scoop up those who might have missed the big day.

Offer exclusives

With the hype surrounding Black Friday - many of your followers and prospective customers won’t want to miss out on potentially the best sale you’ll have this year. Use this opportunity to build your mailing lists by offering exclusive deals and discounts to those who sign up to receive emails from your business. Your website and social media channels act as great advert spaces to promote your email marketing list and sign up as many of your visitors as possible. You’ll not only grow your email lists for any future marketing purposes, but you’ll also make sure that your Black Friday sales are exposed to as many recipients as possible. Remember, to keep your new email recipients engaged and subscribed, you’ll need to provide them with interesting, relevant content that extends beyond your Black Friday offers. Once you’ve successfully hooked a set of new subscribers, put some thought into your email content plan to make sure you don’t lose your new fans after the rush of the sales.

Sneak Peeks

Don’t underestimate the power of a good sneak-peek in building anticipation for your Black Friday campaign - whether that’s via an email, a customised landing page on your website or even just a physical flyer or poster in your salon. Whilst you don’t want to give your customer access to the discounted prices before the day, you could reveal which products you’re planning to include in your offers, or the type of discounts you plan to run. Do you plan to offer up to 50% off your entire website - or is there a BOGOF offer you want to push on your most popular products? Pulling the curtain back on your plans will help to build excitement amongst your followers and allow them to start thinking about the purchases they want to make on your site - which will only work to increase your traffic and hopefully, sales on the day.

Black Friday Now, Pay Later

Offering a finance option is a great way to encourage more sales during your Black Friday campaign by allowing your customers to spread the cost of their shopping splurge. Finder reports that 9.5 million brits avoided purchasing from merchants that didn’t offer Buy Now Pay Later options - so don’t take yourself out of the race by having limited checkout options. Everyone wants to feel like they’re in control of their finances, and that even a cheeky shopping spree won't set you back on your saving goals - which is why payment plans are so popular amongst shoppers - especially millennial shoppers - today. Giving your customers the chance to buy what they want - and spread the cost at a pace that suits their budgets, offers your customers a freedom and autonomy they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. With Payl8r you can offer payment plans up to 12 months - with flexible repayment schedules and interest free periods to open up your business to more customers. If you’re still on the fence about introducing a finance option, take a look at our success story with Outlaw Pro to understand how offering Payl8r changed the way their business performed.

If you’d like to get in touch with our new business team to find out more about Payl8r finance options and the ways it can enhance your business, you can contact us here.