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Black Friday is approaching. And this year, with the unfortunate Covid19, it is very likely that ecommerce sales are even higher than last year. Certain US flagship shops have already announced that for Black Friday, their shops will be closed.
Are you ready to make the most of that campaign?
We have prepared a list with more than 26 tips to get you ready. You can also download our free checklist in Google Sheet format.
Prepare your ecommerce products for Black Friday
Decide beforehand which products you will promote and/or put on offer during this period. You can choose a set of products or you could offer a discount on a different product every day until the end of the promotion.
What can you do?
Select your products
- Look at what sold well last year and what’s hot this year.
- Check stock availability; it would be a shame not to be able to serve your customers due to lack of availability.
- Consider using the surplus or older stock to offer very large discounts.
Apply discounts
- Apply usual discounts for your industry; don’t lose margin by offering discounts far below what is usually applied in your sector.
Anticipate the work
- Start creating product packages now and let them spread (SEO) before the big day.
- Prepare orders (pack) as much as you can now so that when Black Friday arrives, all you need to do is stick the label on the boxes.
Prepare your ecommerce creatives for Black Friday
Once you have selected the products and decided on the discounts you will apply, you can start the creative work. You will need images, videos in different dimensions for your campaigns on the different advertising platforms.
In addition, you will have to design your email templates, without forgetting the different texts (copys).
Great graphics and visuals will get people excited about sales. Whether you’re planning to use banners to promote your holiday sales or change the main image on your website to Black Friday, it will make the whole sales event a festive and more exciting one.
Images
Your creative team has to prepare the images in various sizes, to be able to enjoy all the possibilities of your advertising platforms. We leave you the specifications for Facebook and Instagram here and here for Google Ads.
Videos
Videos also need different formats. We leave the specifications for Facebook and Instagram here. Google Ads also has specifications for video ad formats.
Emails
Don’t wait for the last moment to have your emails designed. Don’t forget to test the links, optimize the weight and have your UTMs on every link.
Copy
Finally, and probably a part you should take very much into account, the copy you will use. Your texts should be consistent with your brand, your offers and your products.
Prepare your technical infrastructure for Black Friday
You’ve got the products, the offers, and the creative… all right!
Now, it’s time to think about the tsunami that will hit you the day you activate your campaigns. Make sure your infrastructure is ready to ride the wave.
Server
Sometimes, too many simultaneous requests to your website can clog it up and potentially collapse it. This type of incident usually requires a huge amount of traffic, but it is still a good idea to make sure that the server can handle a traffic spike.
You can discuss with your team the use of tools such as ApacheBench (server with Apache) that allow you to know the current performance of your server
Page speed
Slow sites kill conversions.
In fact, 47% of consumers expect websites to load in two seconds or less. And 40% will leave a page that takes three seconds or more. If your site takes more than three seconds to load, you lose almost half of your visitors before they reach your site.
That alone is a big blow to your potential conversions.
Free tools like PageSpeed Insights or GTMetrix are highly recommended to discover where you can improve your pages for better results.
Configure Google Analytics
If you haven’t already done so, set up Google Analytics for your shop and your email campaigns. It is a powerful and free traffic tracking tool that every business owner should use. Here you can see how to have your Google Analytics account audited.
Prepare your advertising platforms for Black Friday
Without advertising, all your previous efforts are useless. You will have to prepare several advertising campaigns on your usual advertising platforms.
Planning your ads in advance gives you the opportunity to think more about the copy and placement of the ads.
If you plan to do paid advertising, it is a good idea to prepare your advertising budgets as well. You may even want to hire a digital marketing agency to help you create a paid advertising strategy that suits your business.
Remember that offers may be more expensive during the Black Friday season, and you may need to increase the price of your offer on specific keywords or for certain audiences to increase the visibility of your ad.
Facebook/Instagram
As with Google Ads, costs are likely to be higher during the Black Friday period, so check your budgets and if you have a monthly limit, you may want to change it. The promotion of your ecommerce for Black Friday has to be adapted to market conditions.
Prepare your emailing campaign for Black Friday
Emailing campaigns are still very powerful. If you don’t email, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. For Black Friday, you will also have to prepare that facet of your ecommerce.
List of best customers
You can prepare a list of your best customers, to give them some special offers.
Design
Remember that your design has to be original but consistent with your brand image. Emphasize supply, availability and duration.
Campaigns
Announce your Black Friday campaign
Send the sale details in advance to existing subscribers and then send a reminder email when the sale officially begins.
Last reminder before the campaign ends
There’s an increase in the volume of emails sent during Black Friday week, so it can’t hurt to remind your subscribers that your campaign is almost over to make sure they’re aware of it.
Exclusive sale only for email subscribers
One way to get attention is to send an offer that is only available to your customers who are on your email marketing list.
In addition, if you communicate that your subscribers benefit from special offers, you may get more subscribers that way too.
Get your ecommerce team ready for Black Friday
Your team is the heart of your company. During the period from Black Friday to Reyes, they will be under a lot of pressure. Take some time now to get them ready so they can make the best of their big day.
Logistics
As mentioned above, if your offers allow you to do so, you can prepare packages before you activate your campaign. Also make sure that your transport company is informed about your campaign.
Direct support
During the days of Black Friday, the pressure on your support team is going to increase. Anticipate possible problems by giving your team a few training sessions.
Also check your FAQ page to see if you can improve the current information.
After-sales service
It is almost certain that at the end of the campaign many requests will enter your after-sales service (returns, products with problems, size changes,…). Offering a quality after-sales service is one of the recipes for building customer loyalty.
Prepare your clients
You could stay silent until the day of the Black Friday campaign. But, all that work deserves to be valued, advancing the event with your clients. Warming up engines to try and make the most of the Black Friday campaign.
Prior notice
Whether it’s by email, Google Ads, Facebook/Instagram Ads, you have many ways to give your clients advance notice. Your most loyal customers and those who want your products will thank you if you inform them first.
Countdown
A few days before you start your campaign, you can add a countdown on your page, in the Facebook and Instagram Stories. All of this, like the previous notice, is part of building expectation.
Blog with product recommendations for Christmas
Many people take advantage of Black Friday offers to do their Christmas shopping. You can create an article on your blog with gift ideas to help your clients choose their gifts.
Offer free transport in addition to the offers
If your finances permit, you can offer free delivery in addition to your special offers. People who visit your site will not be able to refuse your offers 😉
Bonus: If you don’t do Black Friday…
Some companies do not participate in Black Friday, either by closing down completely or promising to donate a portion of their income to causes that interest them – and presumably their clients.
If this is your case, we recommend the following
Tell it!
Yes! Deciding not to participate in Black Friday does not mean staying silent. In fact, being so out of the herd, it may be news that will allow you to present your values.
Organize a special campaign without discount
For example, Patagonia made a lot of noise in 2016 by pledging to donate 100% of its Black Friday profits (over $10 million) to environmental organisations fighting to protect vital natural resources such as water, air and soil. In 2019, they were still in the same campaign, so something positive could come out of it…
