Black Friday and Cyber Monday are typically held the first Friday after Thanksgiving (last week November) and the following Monday. The rule of thumb is that Black Friday is a better time to buy newer, big-ticket items and shop in stores. Cyber Monday is a better day to shop for tech deals and smaller gifts.
The next dates are:
Black Friday 29th November 2024
Cyber Monday 2nd December 2024
You can create an extended sales period covering the entire festive period and the build up to it. Involve your Sales & Product Managers and Product Development for upcoming products (these can be advertised without being on promotion but shown as 'limited stock available'). Consider the impact on despatch of increased orders, profitability per order (to avoid 'busy fools' syndrome) and increasing AOV.
Whilst primarily Retail-focused, consider how this affects your dealer/distributor network and what promotions can be offered to them. Remember to segment campaigns by relevant product groups and user types within groups as well.
| October | November | December | January | |
| Period | Mid-month Early Xmas shoppers, lower discounts, limited editions (premium price) | Pre-Black Friday Black Friday Cyber Monday | Extended Black Friday Late Xmas shoppers Boxing Day Sales | January Sales |
| Products | Higher margin products Bundles (associated products, also bought together, mix of high demand + clearance, limited edition premium price) New products (not discounted) Consider offering Limited Editions of products e.g. different colours. Feed this into Pre-orders. Pre-Advent calendar for lower cost items / 12 coupons for different product groups. | Overstocked items Clearance Advent calendar for lower cost items / 12 coupons for different product groups. | Easy to fulfill Merchandise products Stocking fillers Boxing Day: Overstocked items Clearance | Overstocked items Clearance |
Summary Of Key Tasks
- Define your key objectives
(e.g. more sales to retail buyers, gaining new customers, rewarding loyal customers) - Plan your timeline for running the event and building up excitement
(it doesn't have to last just one day) - Select which products are in the promotion and what bundles to put together
(and that you have enough stock / fulfilment / support capacity)
& which new products you may wish to show that are not on offer - Work out your specific offers to hit your sales / profitability / AOV targets
(e.g. blanket 15% versus 20% off orders over £200)
Consider how this works with other coupons, VIP Clubs, Google Ads Discounting & groups: Retail & Dealers/Distribution - Select which channels you are pushing the promotions through and what costs are involved
(e.g. Ads, email campaigns, website banners, forums, influencers, social media Stories, posts, whatsapp etc)
Set website content to display differently for retail v dealer/distributor groups. - Tee up influencers and forums to promote your products and use affiliate tracking to calculate their rewards;
tee up your ad campaign service providers for changes to ads - Communicate your deals and monitor results
Track results throughout the event and record what has worked best and what hasn't - Turn BCFM shoppers into loyal customers
Drive repeat sales and LTV
1. Define Your Key Objectives
What do you wish to achieve and how are you measuring it e.g. more revenues but hitting certain profit margins promoting high interest products that don't normally convert promoting products that lead to other sales further down the line clearance only products | Decide how much you wish to spend promoting deals e.g. Running prioritised paid ads for higher profit products / gaining better LTV customers Email campaigns Creating graphics for banners, ads etc Printing material to send out with orders |
Decide how to segment your offers e.g. retail users only, new prospects, loyal customers different deals per channel to grow followers | Work out how to get maximum attention Using a 'jaw-dropper' offer to headline your campaign (a single item or a product bundle?) Build excitement via social media posts and influencer mentions |
2. Planning Your Event Timeline
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are no longer limited to just those two days. A lot of retailers run the event over a 7 day period or longer and a third of shoppers buy before the event. Big retailers are known to run events that start as early as 10th October. |
- Create your timetable so that you know what you will be promoting each day.
- If using Google Ads for the first time allow at least a week to get your data set up and into Google.
- Ensure staff and suppliers are available to create graphics, create/change ads etc
- Ensure forward ordering / manufacture of products to be promoted
3. Selecting Products To Promote
- promoting best sellers with the highest margin
- promoting high interest products that don't normally sell (use Price Compare to check for overpricing)
- promoting products that lead to other sales further down the line
- clearance only products
- new highly desirable products that are not on offer but could still be purchased
- product bundles that could include slow moving products
Identify products NOT to promote:
- Products that are difficult to fulfil
- Products that are not in stock or likely to go out of stock
- High demand products that will sell anyway
- New products that will attract buyers based on desire rather than price
Use the Top Products Report to check which products are:
often viewed but not sold to price check and run promotions on them - sort by Unique Views
bestsellers which can lead your promotions to pull people in - sort by Quantity Sold
Use Price Compare to check your pricing against competitors:
- set this up prior to the promotions to understand your price position and profitability
- monitor competitor prices running up to the event - they might start their campaigns earlier than yours
Keep an eye on your competitors...
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4. Workout your specific offers
You may have different offers based on user group (e.g. retail versus trade), channel, product group, loyal customers, influencer-exclusive promos.
- Work out the type of deals you will be offering including 'shareable offers' (single use per customer coupons)
- Reward loyal customers by:
- emailing them the BFCM offer early to beat the rush
- putting coupons covering the BFCM period in with their deliveries in the days and weeks prior
- giving them more exclusive group pricing for an extended period
- Set up timed special prices that become available automatically at the start of your event
Calculating & protecting your marginGiving away a blanket discount like '15% off for the Black Friday weekend' may cut into your overall profitability more than a 'spend more to save more' deal which pushes up your average order value (using in-cart deals or product bundles). Example: Blanket discount versus 'spend more, save more': "20% off when you spend over £200" may be better than "15% off all products today". Other deal types could include free delivery, product quantity break prices, gift sets / product bundles, including a free gift with orders from clearance stock, sending out samples, including a service at a discount e.g. fitting / customisation. Adding undiscounted cross- and up-sell items to product pages (alternate / associated products) can also help lift margins and average order values. Use Price Compare to check competitors' pricing and make sure your offers are not too far below their prices so you can retain more of your margin. |
5. Promoting Your Sales Events
- Add / update a page on your website for your event
- Add a blog post for your event
- Update your site exit popup to mention your event
- Put your coupon deals on voucher sites - example sites to try
- Create matching promo banners for your website, ads, social media etc
- Create email campaigns and ensure your email address databases are clean and ready to send out.
- Neverbounce have a low cost data cleansing service
- Use our Mailgun integration when sending emails via REC+ Email Manager
- Set up ads (including retargeting previous customers and visitors) including setting key promo products as a priority for ad spend
- Create ad extensions to go onto your text ads (e.g. 20% off all items today)
- Post out on Google My Business
- Set up your abandoned cart emails to tempt shoppers back and reduce the time after which they are normally sent
- Update order notifications with Black Friday teasers
- Discuss and agree promos with any influencers you engage with and set up affiliate tracking
All good to go?Review your customer support to help customers and boost conversion
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Monitor your event & follow up with key buyers
Track the progress of your event on a daily basis and adjust your deals based on what works, what doesn't work and product availability.
- Check which key customers have not opened your emails and follow up with them via personal contact i.e. email them a link to the email content with personalised message or ring them up directly.
- Set up high value abandoned cart alerts to followup
Review and learn from your event
Once the event is over, review performance and takeaway any learning points for the next event you run.
- Send thank you emails that go out post-event
Turn Black Friday shoppers into loyal long-term customers
Here's some ideas on how to do that:
- On your BFCM order confirmation emails include coupon codes that can be redeemed in the run up to Christmas
- Similarly, include time-limited coupons and a mini-catalogue / flyer in your parcels
- Extend your promotion all the way up to the last shipping day before Christmas
- Upgrade buyers spending over a certain level to be VIP members and receive more benefits
- Send targeted emails to buyers for associated products relevant to their original purchase
- If you sell replenishable goods, send repeat purchase emails after a set amount of time
- Continue to run highly targeted email campaigns in the New Year and beyond
- Similarly, create ongoing social media campaigns and competitions