As Black Friday approaches, we know that brands and retailers are preparing for the busiest shopping season of the year. This event is not only an opportunity for immediate sales, but also a crucial time during which to build customer relationships that will need to be nurtured with retention activities in the following months.
Black Friday 2023 showed significant growth trends, with an increase in sales in online channels but also a change in consumer buying habits.
Not only online but also offline the buying process starts many days earlier, in fact more and more consumers start planning their purchases well before Black Friday week. The average time to make a purchase is 17-18 days, highlighting the importance of an early presence in the market.
Marketing Strategies to Increase Sales: Anticipate Competitors
At such an important time of year for any online shop, it is essential to implement a number of strategies to achieve your business goals, let’s look at some of them:
1. Start early
Planning, profiling start building your strategy months in advance. Put in place engagement activities that will then culminate with Black Friday discounts.
2. Update and optimise campaigns with real-time data
Constantly monitor the performance of your campaigns and make changes based on the data collected. Small optimisations can lead to significant results. During this period, competitiveness is very high, which is why it is essential to monitor your campaigns at all times.
3. Establish the right budget
Based on historical data from previous years and the strategy, establish an appropriate budget so that you can keep your campaigns running. Define daily budgets to prevent the entire budget from running out before the main days. Also take into account that conversion costs usually increase in Q4, which you have to take into account.
4. Create Personalised Promotions and Offers
Create personalised offers for different audience segments.
Manage the entire user purchase funnel
During Black Friday you need to be ready, so it is essential to create a strategy that focuses on personalisation and profiling to maximise sales during Black Friday.
The strategy cannot, however, be limited to the short term, i.e. just the days of Black Friday, but must be developed in such a way as to take into account all phases of the funnel and the entire customer journey of the user.
But let us see together what these phases are and what activities need to be carried out
1. Acquisition Phase
Use first-party data to target active and potential buyers. Reach your audience with personalised messages and exclusive promotions.
2. Engagement Phase
Reactivate existing and historic customers. Personalise your communications for each segment, emphasising discounts and special offers designed specifically for them.
3. Post-Black Friday Phase
Don’t forget customers who may have missed out on offers. Keep sending personalised communications, use copy that leverages aspects such as urgency to try to drive them to conversion.
How to maintain sales even after Black Friday
If Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the most important times of the year for sales, the period after is crucial to maintain the impulse to buy and retain customers. Indeed, we cannot forget that the following Christmas holidays offer further opportunities to increase sales and retain new customers acquired during Black Friday.
Among the various:
1. Continuous Promotions: After Black Friday, continue to offer highly personalised promotions and discounts to attract last-minute shoppers.
2. Loyalty programmes: Introduce loyalty programmes to encourage future purchases. Offer exclusive benefits to members to incentivise return.
3. Cross-selling and up-selling: Take advantage of the Christmas period to offer complementary or higher-end products to those purchased during Black Friday. This strategy can increase the average order value and improve your profitability.
4. Data Collection: Use the information obtained during the Black Friday season to refine your strategies and improve the customer experience.
5. New Customer Loyalty: Black Friday offers you the opportunity to acquire new customers. Use the festive period to retain them by offering loyalty programmes, discounts on future purchases or exclusive content to keep them interested in your brand.
6: Prepare for winter sales: finally, start planning your strategies for the coming year, using the lessons learnt from Black Friday. Consider launching end-of-year campaigns or New Year’s Eve promotions that will keep your sales volume high even after the holidays.
With these marketing strategies, not only will you be successful during Black Friday 2024, but you will also be able to maintain a steady flow of sales throughout the festive period and beyond. Careful planning, effective execution and detailed post-event analysis will allow you to maximise your return on investment and build a solid and loyal customer base.
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