Maximise Your Sales This Black Friday and Cyber Monday...
Black Friday marks the official start of the holiday season and is the busiest shopping day of the year. Here's how you can maximise your sales this Black Friday and Cyber Monday...
Happy New Week!
If you didn’t already know, this Friday is Black Friday and the Monday that follows is known as Cyber Monday. Black Friday marks the official start of the holiday shopping season and is regarded as the busiest shopping day of the year with discounts and savings offered by brands worldwide. Brits plan to spend an estimated £4.8 billion on Black Friday and Cyber Monday purchases this year, according to Finder.com
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are excellent opportunities for retailers to maximise their sales. It is a great chance to build brand awareness and generate some holiday profits but you’re also competing with virtually every other brand and business online. Here are some strategies to maximise your sales this Black Friday and Cyber Monday:
Build your Black Friday email list. You need to grow your email list with subscribers that are interested in your offers. It is important that you segment your email list and set up email campaigns targeting different types of customers. For example, you will have those that have visited your store once, your regular customers, and those who haven’t bought yet but a discount could be enough to incentivize them to make a purchase. Personalising your emails can yield an average of 20% in conversion rate.
Optimise your website and landing pages. You have to make sure your website is ready for an increase in traffic. Load test your website, so it doesn’t crash with an unusual amount of traffic. Your website taking long to load can also lead to a potential loss in sales. You can check your page speed using the free google tool Pagespeed Insights; simply enter your site URL to check how your website stacks up.
Display your Black Friday deals and discounts. Let it be known that you are participating in Black Friday and the sales you have going on. Make noise on your social media and by email. You can offer discounts and promotions to early-bird subscribers or VIP customers. With an increased amount of traffic coming to your website, this is a great moment to shine a light on your most popular products.
Make sure your store is mobile-friendly. 70% of online traffic on Black Friday in 2020 was from mobile devices. Google’s mobile-friendly test makes it easy to do a quick glance over your site and identify any pain points that need optimising. All you have to do to check is insert your URL and they analyze the rest.
Use urgent messaging and social proof to increase conversion. Social proof helps you build trust with potential customers. Displaying reviews and testimonials show how great your product is to customers who may be a bit hesitant to make a purchase. Urgent messaging creates a sense of urgency and FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) making customers make the purchase there and then. You can use tactics such as displaying how many other customers have viewed a certain product or using messaging such as ‘low stock’ or ‘going fast’ to drive the urgency home.
Utilise paid advertising. Through paid ads, you’re able to increase your brand’s reach and expose your product or service to people outside of your current audience. Use creative copy (captions/call to action), that is engaging and going to appeal to your target audience. The creative (video, photos, gifs) are the most important part of the ad when it comes to generating sales. This is followed by the ad copy.
Someone leaving your site without making a purchase isn’t the end. You can still retarget them through email, Facebook, and display advertising. Retargeting is one of the most important things when converting customers. The average customer needs to see your ads seven times before they convert. With the use of your pixel, you can set up retargeting campaigns to target everyone who has been on your website in a certain time period but has not yet purchased. You can also use abandon cart emails to remind customers who have added products into their cart but haven’t yet purchased. Sending them a reminder or offering ‘free delivery’ could be the final push they need to be converted.
Black Friday for small businesses isn’t just about maximizing sales on a single day (or however long your Black Friday event lasts); it can also be a valuable opportunity to gain new customers. Black Friday shoppers don’t have to be one-time customers. By providing the best shopping experience with easy communication, Black Friday can be the start of a long-lasting and valuable relationship with your brand.