If it’s pumpkin spice season, you know what else that means? It’s time to get your Black Friday and Small Business Saturday strategy framed out and ready to roll. By starting to plan for Black Friday well in advance, you can choose competitive deals, make sure your website is ready, and connect with your target audience to make sure that your online store earns a spot on their Black Friday shopping lists.
I totally understand that, for many people, they think they have plenty of time, but I promise you that not only does good marketing plans take time to plan, build and execute, it will also be here before you know it! By starting your planning for Black Friday and Small Business Saturday in advance, you give yourself plenty of time to figure out your very best offers and your different target audiences for your offerings.
Here are a few things to get you inspired and thinking for your best Black Friday/Small Business Saturday sale:
Email List Prep
It’s September…if you follow my advice and start now, you have plenty of time to look at your current list and do some clean up and organizing. Can you have more than one offer so that you offer different specials to different audiences? We all know a highly targeted sales message will always perform better than mass email that doesn’t resonate with a portion of your list. Segment your list so you can segment your offers.
Plan Ahead and Plan Long
If the average buying action takes seven touches and that’s not in the midst of heavy shopping, we should plan on a more comprehensive approach to Black Friday/Small Business Saturday. On average, consumers get over 100 marketing emails on any given Tuesday. Right now, you can expect more than 11 million marketing emails on Black Friday alone! By planning ahead, you time to create a marketing plan just for this weekend. How many touchpoints can you create? How can we incorporate marketing strategies beyond email (I hear your text messages!). Running one ad or one email will do little to make you stand out from the competition. Plan to plan!
Take Advantage of Abandoned Cart
Abandoned Cart is when someone visits your website and puts something in the shopping cart, but does not purchase. Researchers say, on average, companies that implement an abandoned cart strategy can recover 30% of their lost sales…that is huge! So, if you have an online store be sure to have a plan for how you want to recover these potential customers. You never know where that relationship might take you…and this is a strategy you can keep running all year round.
Discounted Products
Everybody loves a good sale at the start of the biggest shopping weekend of the year. I can’t offer a blog with inspiration for Black Friday/Small Business Saturday without mentioning discounts and it doesn’t matter if your products are t-shirts or massages or anything else. What can you offer, of value, that you might be able to set you and your brand apart from the competition and also move the sales needle for your business.
Plan for the Worst
Don’t get me wrong…you know I love technology and I love all things automation, but let’s be honest, technology can also fail or malfunction or simply be overburdened by all the other people trying to do the exact same thing you are. So if you think you can set up an amazing email marketing campaign that drives traffic to your online store, making you millions while you’re out running the local turkey trot, you might want to think again. Testing and re-testing can greatly reduce the potential for errors with little things like links and online shopping carts, but being prepared for things to not perform the way they always do might save you bigger stress down the road because you are there and ready to respond and pivot if needed.
If you’re looking for ideas and inspiration to get your Black Friday/Small Business strategy under way, let’s talk! Schedule a call with me!
