Prepare your marketing strategy for Black Friday
Can you believe Black Friday is almost here again? There will be five Saturdays between Black Friday and Christmas this year and retailers are bracing themselves for the rush!
Here is how to prepare if you haven't already!
Determine Your Promotions in Advance
It's time to think about your hot sellers and best promotions for Black Friday. Of course, there will need to be a bit of wiggle room if you need to jump on a new trend (that fits your store) at the last minute, but you should have the majority of your bestsellers figured out.
Which products in your inventory need to go?
Think about what kind of discounts you can create so you can still make a decent profit. Slower sellers can be heavily discounted along slightly discounted best sellers. If you have accessories that can be sold alongside other products, think about offering Black Friday Bundles.
Determine Your Discounts Now
Think about creating several tiers of discounts. For example:
First week of November: 10% off certain items
Second week of November: 25% off certain items
Third week of November up to Black Friday: 40% off certain items
Black Friday Weekend and 4th week of November: 60% off
This way you can offer something sweet for the early birds while saving your best deals for Black Friday weekend, when customers will be the most likely to purchase and keep coming back for more.
Decide What Campaigns and Channels You’ll Use
Once you've figured out what promotions and products you'll showcase for Black Friday, you can think about what campaigns to use for the holidays.
Plan things out in advance, here's what you can do from the beginning:
Plan your search and social ads in advance
Start testing your audiences and keywords in advance and determine how you'll target your ads for the holidays.
Write ad copy now, and use Google Trends for relevant keywords
Using Google Trends early on will allow you to figure out exactly what your customers will be looking for. You can adjust your copy to fit into their searches, including using long-tail keywords that are less expensive.
Create visual support now
Think about the different formats you'd need: email headers, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Shopping ads, site banners, etc all to drive shoppers into your retail store.
Prepare Your Email List
Email is going to be your best friend during the holidays, but know that every retailer (both brick and mortar and physical) that will be pulling out their best campaigns for Black Friday.
There are a lot of things to do to take advantage of this profitable marketing channel:
Clean up your email list
First thing's first: it’s time to clean up your email list. Either remove or segment out any addresses that have not been active or engaged for one year. This will improve your campaign engagement, after all, why send campaigns to those who clearly aren't interested?
Not only that, but it will improve deliverability, which will be critical for your Black Friday campaigns.
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