15 Best Black Friday and Cyber Monday Marketing Ideas for a Reliable Sales Strategy
The end of Thanksgiving marks the countdown timer for the two busiest shopping days of the year. Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing ideas are your ticket to record sales, provided you produce a Black Friday marketing campaign ahead of time.
Black Friday eCommerce tips are full of classic business marketing tactics that have developed over time. Still, as more shoppers spend their cash exclusively online, you can’t rely solely on a good deal and discount to boost sales and attract new customers.
Practice your eCommerce store strategies by reading these Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing ideas.
Getting Prepared for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sale
In 2021, on Cyber Monday alone, online retailers earned $10.7 billion in revenue, slightly decreasing from the record high of $10.8 billion in 2020. Black Friday received $8.9 billion. Revenue has remained higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Issues from a decreasing Black Friday growth rate can be attributed to long-term disruptions in supply chains and rising inflation. Nevertheless, the post-pandemic transition to eCommerce has increased the online sales revenue of apparel, accessories, and pet supplies during holiday sales.
If you’re a print on demand merchant, you’ll be happy to know that apparel items are the most purchased products during Black Friday sales. Cyber Monday traffic experiences the most significant online discounts, with an average of 18% off for clothing and apparel.
The Black Friday weekend starts after Thanksgiving (November 25, 2022) and continues the following week with Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday deals.
We’ll look at the current standards among online marketers – 15 potential Black Friday marketing ideas to practice how to make money on Black Friday and Cyber Monday and drive sales for your online business.
TOP 15 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Marketing Ideas
Any Black Friday marketing idea can be a template for your other seasonal marketing campaigns. The structure and step-by-step approach are pretty straightforward.
Before creating a plan of action for your Cyber Monday and Black Friday marketing ideas, ensure your store is up-to-date with optimized SEO and external social media accounts to drive potential customers for holiday shopping season promotions.
- 1. Know Your Customer Persona
- 2. Start Planning Your Marketing Campaign Early
- 3. Decorate Your Store and Create a Dedicated Landing Page
- 4. Engage Your Social Media Followers
- 5. Create Irresistible Deals
- 6. Inform Customers about Special Offers via Email Marketing
- 7. Upsell, Cross Sell, and Bundle Up for Multi Sales
- 8. Offer Limited Discounts
- 9. Offer Free Shipping
- 10. Set Up Cart Abandonment Emails
- 11. Encourage Customers With a Free Gift and Coupons
- 12. Make an Interactive Experience
- 13. Use Hashtags
- 14. Don’t Forget About Customer Satisfaction
- 15. Extend Your Offers for the Whole Cyber Week
1. Know Your Customer Persona
Consumers increasingly prefer looking for a Black Friday sale via small business channels rather than big corporations.
During the Black Friday season in 2021, 71% of the 51 million buyers on Saturday – known as Small Business Saturday – shop specifically to support small businesses. This makes an independent eCommerce store an excellent option if you want to make money before Cyber Monday.
On a micro level, know what your customers want and stick to a niche in which you’re already making sales. Black Friday is when your best-selling items should stand in the spotlight, and too much experimenting can lose sales.
You may also have the potential of starting the holiday season early, bringing Christmas-themed apparel for the late gift-giving audience.
2. Start Planning Your Marketing Campaign Early
It’s a great idea to begin Black Friday campaigns as soon as late October. With the added time, address your campaign angle and timeline to optimize your store and define your target audience expectations.
For online retailers and eCommerce businesses, advertise Cyber Monday promotions with consistent updates throughout November, utilizing social media posts, email newsletters, and promotional discounts ahead of time.
Ideally, your campaign preparations should begin right after Halloween sales – updating your store, creating new landing pages, and informing your followers to keep tabs on future Cyber Monday deals.
3. Decorate Your Store and Create a Dedicated Landing Page
A landing page is an informative section in your eCommerce store that showcases specific products, events, and marketing campaigns. It informs the user in one place, offering promo codes and options for earning a significant discount – defining your sales opportunities.
For a Black Friday deals landing page, make sure to create a catalog of discounted items, a timeline of sales releases, a sign-up to your newsletter, or any other marketing strategy you intend to utilize.
4. Engage Your Social Media Followers
Set aside time for your social media content calendar. Before the promotional campaign goes live, most retailers sort out their social posts and promotional emails ahead of time for the potential to generate traffic and create buzz for more sales.
Scheduling teaser posts, last-chance notifications, and reminders in advance is a surefire way to drive interest from potential customers.
5. Create Irresistible Deals
Cheap Cyber Monday deals are one of the more classic seasonal Black Friday marketing ideas and should be a central promotional tactic for all online stores. However, discount rates have decreased over the last two-year period, with apparel items falling to 18% in 2021 from the previous year’s 20%.
While the expectation is there, the extent of legitimate discounts has come under some scrutiny among more prominent brands, but users will still naturally gravitate towards good deals. Younger Americans – aged 18-24 – are the most likely to purchase if they see a considerable discount.
Make It Happen Today!
6. Inform Customers about Special Offers via Email Marketing
Email marketing is an often underutilized Cyber Monday marketing idea, but it’s one of the most foolproof ways to keep your potential customers invested and returning.
Your Black Friday campaign needs to be timed for a specific day in advance, so releasing consistent updates will influence whether a user remembers to check-in. Your emails should be straight to the point, with a value statement and call to action button visible upon opening the letter.
For more email marketing tips and tricks, check out our article on creating a mailing list for your online store.
7. Upsell, Cross Sell, and Bundle Up for Multi Sales
A trick Amazon is now famous for is offering potential bundle deals that have been previously purchased together. For Black Friday promotions, consider upselling larger value product combinations.
Last year, consumers spent an average of $433 during the Thanksgiving holiday season – a 12% increase from 2020. With the expectation that larger purchases will save on holiday expenses, cross-selling promotional items, cheap gifts, and coupons for other things will attract more conversions.
8. Offer Limited Discounts
Black Friday is a frantic period in American retail, and the stakes are always high. Limited discounts influence 36% of Black Friday consumers – create a limited offer to gamify the shopping experience, causing consumers to engage in competition to find the best deals.
This is where newsletters, social media posts, and other repeated media mentions of sales come in handy. Offer limited-time offers that expire just as Cyber Monday closes, potentially skyrocketing your user traffic.
9. Offer Free Shipping
Free shipping is a determining factor for 49% of online store shoppers and will heavily influence conversion rates. Offer free shipping as a unique Black Friday marketing strategy, promoting it on social media, emails, and ads that have a link to your landing page.
Shipping rates can be fixed to a specific purchase price range, be attached to items with higher margins for a profit, or exist as a limited-time offer for your entire stock.
10. Set Up Cart Abandonment Emails
Did you know that up to 80% of all online orders are abandoned before purchase?
Abandoned online shopping carts are a drastic sink in sales. During the Black Friday event period in 2021, studies show that an average of 76.63% of shopping carts were left abandoned.
This issue may arise from pricey shipping rates – the most common factor – undecided shoppers, better competitive rates elsewhere, or window-shopping.
Regardless of the reason, creating automated abandoned cart emails has the potential to bring potential buyers back to the page they left, increasing your chances of closing the deal.
11. Encourage Customers With a Free Gift and Coupons
Coupon codes and free gifts added to the purchase encourage customer loyalty. Once a purchase is made or a user has clicked on promotional content, offer free coupon codes that go together with their sale.
Gifts don’t have to break the bank. A small trinket for a personalized experience goes a long way. This can include unique product packaging, downloadable content, exclusive letters, or accessories fitted for the product.
As a Cyber Monday marketing idea, coupons aren’t dissimilar from discounts, but they add an extra sense of exclusive access that your audience will not want to miss out on. Once a coupon is received, it seems a waste not to use it, and that’s precisely what you should encourage.
Add coupon codes to your purchase page, or place a coupon code text box on your landing page that immediately discounts certain products for the lucky customer.
12. Make an Interactive Experience
To truly take advantage of the seasonal spirit, create interactive challenges for your customers. Think of Black Friday marketing ideas that interest your niche audience and personalize their experience.
You can award timely purchases, create discount wheels, or sweepstakes contests. Create an entertaining content stream with a unique narrative beyond financial promotions. It’s your chance to follow recent trends, media, and memes to incorporate them into your brand image.
13. Use Hashtags
Speaking of trends in your Black Friday marketing ideas, hashtags are an excellent source for traffic engagement. Use hashtags in promotional social media posts, and add them to quotes, titles, and announcements relevant to your sales.
Start with specific hashtags for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, including #ShoppingDay, #BlackFridayDeals, #BlackFridaySale, and every other rendition.
Additionally, add hashtags relevant to your brand and recent trends currently highlighted in media, but make sure not to use them as spam or intentionally mislead customers.
14. Don’t Forget About Customer Satisfaction
Loyal customers are essential for return purchases. To secure the Black Friday rush of traffic throughout the year, you must bring value and develop VIP customers.
Engaged consumers will promote your brand passively, provided their efforts are rewarded. Award customers with discounts, early releases, gifts, and coupons if they leave testimonials, subscribe to your newsletter, make large purchases, and create their own media content reviewing or celebrating your products.
15. Extend Your Offers for the Whole Cyber Week
We’ve mentioned that Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the two weeks that follow Thanksgiving weekend are somewhat interchangeable. Your Cyber Monday marketing ideas are just as relevant for Black Friday and vice versa.
Top discounts occur during Cyber Monday, but customers still provide more significant numbers of traffic with the start of the December holiday season. Use what extra time – and hard work – you’ve garnered to squeeze the traffic for all it’s worth.
Make It Happen Today!
Black Friday Marketing Ideas End Goal
Your ultimate goal is to sell. Answering some or all of these Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing ideas helps you develop a step-by-step action plan that will lead you to that goal. It’s not enough to add a discount at a random percentage – you need a reason why it will work.
42% of Americans claim a discount will not impact their buying decision, and surprisingly, 19% are more likely to purchase a 50% discounted item, as opposed to 15% enticed by a 90% discount. This proves that customers are pragmatic, and their trust is earned through honest-looking discounts.
To secure your goal, don’t be afraid to research your competition. It’s ideal for balancing your margins and expenses with what your competitors are doing, seeing as they’re most likely to receive the same customers.
If your profit margins are inflexible, there are other ways to assume a leading position. Leverage your best-selling products, and offer less profitable items as gifts if you have unsold inventory.
Finally, spend more time creating content, adding blogs, articles, social media posts, and brand imagery to extend your perceived value.
FAQs
What should you sell on Black Friday?
The most sought-out products on Black Friday are electronics – computers, TVs, game consoles, and smartphones, including other audiovisual gadgets.
If you’re a small business, your best chance for high Black Friday sales is apparel – clothing, shoes, backpacks, and other accessories.
Many Americans use low Black Friday prices for their Christmas holiday gift shopping, so you may consider adding seasonal products to your list of items to sell.
Why is Cyber Monday important?
Cyber Monday marks the lowest record prices and highest discounts during the entire seasonal event, which means it’s the perfect time to sell low-performing items and invite more customers to your store, increasing brand awareness to boost sales in the long run.
Additionally, Cyber Monday is an exclusively online sales day, offering online eCommerce businesses a higher chance to produce extra revenue without the competition of physical store discounts.
How long does Cyber Week last?
Cyber Week begins on the first Monday after Thanksgiving – known as Cyber Monday – and usually lasts throughout the week. Many stores tend to extend that sales period for up to two weeks.
Is Cyber Monday better than Black Friday?
While Black Friday is the namesake of the discount sales season, Cyber Monday produces statistically lower discounts. Altogether, Cyber Monday results in higher total revenue than Black Friday.
Black Friday achieved $8.9 billion in revenue in 2021, while Cyber Monday totaled $10.7 billion. However, Black Friday often receives more consumer traffic
How much does the average person spend on Cyber Monday and Black Friday?
The average person spent $433 over the Black Friday seasonal period in 2021. The average Black Friday and Cyber Monday spending growth has increased compared to previous years.
Key Takeaways
Just winging your Black Friday marketing ideas is never good for a successful business plan. You must assess available marketing avenues where your target audience will likely find you.
Once you define the marketing strategies available throughout eCommerce – discounts, social media marketing, coupons, product highlights, etc. – you can adapt them accordingly and facilitate a truly unique shopping experience.
With a foundational strategy, you can start experiencing how to make money on Black Friday and Cyber Monday while seeing how your efforts affect the result.
When creating a Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing campaign, remember to:
- Prepare at least a month in advance
- Define your customer and niche
- Offer multiple types of discounts
- Upsell and create bundle deals
- Engage in email and social media marketing
- Use SEO-friendly tools – hashtags, content marketing, etc.
- Optimize and decorate your store page, and create a landing page
- Use relevant trends, statistics, and data to support your strategy
- Support loyal customers and facilitate follow-up engagement
- Research your competition
- Focus on increasing your traffic for the long run
- Take advantage of the entire sales week
Make It Happen Today!
Written by
Janis Lazda
Share the article
Topics
8 comments
Is printify going to have any sales? That is a huge factor in determining price points.
Hi Amanda,
For this year it appears that we are not going to have any special sales offers for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
How do I “decorate” my store when all the product images come from you? That doesn’t make any sense.
Hi Kim, thank you for reaching out – you can use https://placeit.net/ for some custom Holiday mockups. 🙂 – Elina
Thank you, very good
Once can also look into:
VPN usage is increasing day by day, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise. These tools not only allow you to access restricted content from anywhere, but also boost your public Wi-Fi security, among various other things. If you don’t have a VPN service yet, the shopping season is the perfect time to get your hands on one for less.
PureVPN has come up with an amazing VPN deal – Early Access Black Friday! Before Black Friday, we’re offering a jaw-dropping discount on our 3-year plan that everyone will remember for the days to come. If you hurry, you can score it now at 82% OFF. You only pay $69.00, a mere $1.92 per month. So, what are you waiting for? Grab it before it’s too late!
Thank you. Really helpful
Very useful