The period between now and New Year’s Eve is a marathon for business owners, with multiple opportunities to boost their sales and customer base, thanks to Halloween, Christmas and the Boxing Day Sales.
In this blog, we’re going to focus on an annual event that falls between 31st October and 24th December – Black Friday. What used to be a one-day dash around the shops to find the odd bargain has become a multi-million-pound, four-day bonanza for businesses.
As you might expect, it takes a little planning, so settle back and soak up our top tips to get your Black Friday offer out to market.
Plan, plan, plan. Then plan some more
One of the keys to a successful Black Friday campaign is preparation, structuring your sales and marketing strategy to ensure the message about your product or service is being sent loud and clear across your social media platforms.
Create a content calendar so you know exactly what you’re going to be posting, when and where (the major site’s analytics will help you identify when your audience is at its most attentive). We can help with this, if you’re stuck for time and inspo!
Prepare to spend some pennies
You only get out of things what you put in, so the paraphrased saying goes, and never was it truer than for Black Friday advertising and marketing campaigns.
A little extra investment at this point in the year could reap huge rewards, as customers who are attracted to your campaign and introduced to your product or service may well come back for more at Christmas. They’ll also tell their friends.
Give ‘em a sneaky peek
A great marketing strategy is to give your customers a glimpse of future attractions, and you can actually have a lot of fun with this if you’re a creative sort.
Extreme close-ups or partial shots of your products, or cryptic posts hinting at your services will whet people’s appetite, start conversations and – above all – build excitement before the big reveal.
Hit that email list
This is where the email list you’ve carefully cultivated over the course of the year really comes into its own. That sneaky peek? Send it on an email blast. Want to make your most loyal customers feel special? Include a VIP discount code.
Want to make sure recent, new buyers don’t miss out? Create a gift guide and make sure your images are clickable (or even shoppable) to pique their interest.
The joy of text
We never miss an opportunity to go old-school and use texts to grab customers’ attention. It’s possibly the most immediate form of communication and has a massive 98% open rate.
Black Friday is all about whipping up a sense of excitement and being against the clock, so sending a text to let clients know about upcoming deals or offers that are set to run out reinforces that theme.
Streeeeetch that sale
Once the main event is upon you, hopefully there’ll be a frenzy of activity on your site and social media pages, and it’s worth keeping up that momentum across the entire Black Friday period into Cyber Monday, even if you’re not selling tech and even beyond, if your energy levels allow.
Tease your audience with flash sales (which are a great way to get rid of excess stock), join forces with local or national influencers who will promote your business, and keep an eye on what’s trending in your sector that you might be able to piggy-back and capitalise on.
We help lots of business owners and entrepreneurs as they gear up for the year’s busiest periods, and we can help you too. Virtual Assistant Whiz offers vital admin support on an ad-hoc or regular basis. Contact us at info@virtualassistantwhiz.co.uk and let’s find out what we can do for you.
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