Black Friday is quickly approaching so you need to get your ducks in a row for the biggest sales opportunity of the year. In this post we’ll show you the Black Friday basics and how to pull off a sale with ease, in three simple steps.
Step 1: Hype it up
You have three key objectives in this step:
- Designing enticing teaser posts.
- Creating and/or building your mailing list.
- Growing your social media followers.
You’ve seen the emails. The Instagram Stories. Facebook ads. It’s everywhere. Everyone seems to do Black Friday so easily, right? You know the sales are coming, the proof is right there in front of you. But how do you make it work for your business?
One of our favorite ways to hype up the interest factor is with a teaser campaign.
Why should you tease your campaign? It builds curiosity and anticipation. Your followers know you’re doing something and they will come back to see what that something is. Teasing your campaign can also keep your full promo details hidden from your competitors, making it easier to keep that differentiation strategy under wraps until the big day.
So, how do you do this? There are three simple steps to a great teaser campaign for your small biz:
Build your follower list
For a small business, this is essential to maximize your reach during peak sale time. If you haven’t already, start this now. You can try two methods: Post your product/sale teaser and ask followers to like and share with their friends or drop hints to what’s coming and make them want to come back.
Hot tip: Now is not the time to be shy. Take a “support small business” angle and ask for their business this Black Friday. Double up your efforts on Small Business Saturday the following day, which is fast becoming an established event on the sale season calendar.
Build your email list
A good mailing list is a goldmine for ecommerce sales. Give yours some love to get it looking its best before Black Friday.
Bulk up your email list before Black Friday by offering early access to your sale, a sign-up bonus like discounts or free shipping, making the email easy to share with friends (and offering referral bonuses), or partnering with other small businesses to cross-promote each other.
Build anticipation
Getting followers and subscribers is only half the battle. Your next task? Keep them engaged.
Post regularly in the lead-up to your promo, so you stay top of mind for when sale time hits. This can include running a competition or asking followers to guess what you’re teasing for Black Friday.
Once they sign up, thank them for their support and let them know when your promo starts.
Hot tip: Send a calendar link to sync with your sale launch if you want to be extra fancy!
Now that you’ve created the hype, it’s time to sell!
Step 2: Sell, sell, sell!
You have three key objectives in this step: launching your promo, maintaining excitement, and securing last-minute sales.
You’ve done the prep, your sale is ready to launch, Black Friday is almost here… so what now?
It’s time to hustle, that’s what.
Let’s break it down into three easy-to-implement steps:
The kick-off
An obvious starting point is to shout about it on your social platforms. As we all know, looks count on visual platforms, so it’s worth making your posts really eye-catching and in harmony with your brand’s aesthetic.
This doesn’t need to take hours. Using templates in GoDaddy studio (like the ones in this post) makes it quick and easy to create professional-looking posts in minutes. Post them your feed, to your stories, and use hashtags to ramp up your visibility: #BlackFriday #CyberMonday #BlackFriday2021 #Sale #BlackFridaySale #BlackFridayDeals.
Keep the hype going
People drop in and out of Instagram all day long, and it’s easy to miss things if you’re not paying attention.
Posting regularly throughout your sale will help you stay visible amongst the crowds. Use a mixture of mediums — video, images, text — across Stories and posts to tie your campaign’s aesthetic together.
Product carousels are a great way to show off a wide range of products, without spamming your feed. You can do this by showing off some of your best-selling products or with a deep dive into one big-ticket item, detailing all its features and benefits.
Hot tip: Show off products that are selling fast, or even sold out. Not only does it create a sense of urgency, but it also leverages social proof.
The final push
You’re in the home stretch now, but the day isn’t over yet! Time for one final push.
Now’s the time to really yank on that urgency lever, and remind your followers that if they want to get in on your sale — they’d better move fast.
Check out these template designs we have for inspiration — or customize these designs with your brand’s own colors, fonts, images, and logo.
Hot tip: If you’ve added new products to your online store, or restocked your sale since it launched – let the people know! You never know who’ll be tipped over the fence at the eleventh hour.
Three tips for outsmarting the big guys
It can be tempting to try and compete with big businesses during these huge sales, but that can end up doing more harm than good to your bottom line.
Instead, try to tip the scales in your favor by focusing on where you can differentiate:
- Over-communicate: Dealing with longer shipping times? Have stock delays? Let your customers know. Your business isn’t alone in experiencing delays, but how you handle it can set you apart. Emails, FAQ pages and Instagram Story Highlights are all great places to keep this info front and center. Your customers will love you for personalizing your messages and keeping it real.
- Focus on your strengths: You might not be able to give a massive discount, but you can cater to a niche audience. If people love you for your hilarious screen-printed totes, give the people what they want.
- If something isn’t working, don’t be afraid to shake it up: Big brands usually can’t change course mid-campaign. You have the agility edge, here. Use it.
That’s it! Black Friday and Cyber Monday are done for another year. Phew! *Wipes brow*
Wait — we’re not done yet ….
A whole range of selling and engagement opportunities open up in the wake of your big promotion, and you’d be wise to maximize these too. The final step in the BFCM campaign process is to keep your beautiful customers engaged after the sale.
Step 3: Keep them engaged
Your four key objectives in this step are:
- Continuing to grow your base by promoting more regularly.
- Requesting reviews, referrals, and mentions.
- Thanking all your supporters.
- Review your results.
You did it! The craziness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday is over for another year, and you can (kind of) relax.
But before you put your feet up, take a little extra time to ride the momentum built up during the sale, and set yourself up for success going forward.
Hot tip: If you haven’t already, now’s a good time to put out a quick post thanking everyone who supported you during the sale. Every like, share, tag and purchase matters!
Ask for reviews & referrals
Ah yes, the other R&R. Reviews are so important these days — some studies suggest that around 95% of buyers read reviews before making a purchase, so underestimate them at your peril.
Try adopting a protocol of asking all buyers to review their purchase, and let their friends know about your business. Buyer behavior is definitely shifting in favor of supporting small businesses, so put yourself out there.
Hot tip: Sweeten the deal with a small monthly giveaway entry for everyone who leaves a review!
Share unboxing videos
From unboxing to haul show-offs, shopping vicariously through others is officially on-trend. If you’re new to this world, a quick glance under the hashtag #unboxing and the niche haul hashtags (try #makeuphaul and #bookhaul) should show you what it’s all about. We should warn you though — it’s a rabbit hole.
How to work it: Leverage the insanely addictive power of these videos and invite your followers to tag you in their own unboxing or BFCM hauls! Then share them on your feed. User-generated content (UGC) for the win.
Capture the snoozers
When the sales are done and dusted, there’s always a few who’ve slept on it, and ultimately missed out. Nudge them to sign up for your mailing list now. Then, they’ll be first in line next time you run an amazing promo! Win-win.
Hot tip: For the love of everything good, keep promoting yourself throughout the year — not just at sale time!
A good rule of thumb? For every promotional post you do, post two brand-building posts (behind the scenes, about you, meet the team, etc.), and three value-adding posts (tips, hints, advice, quotes, etc.).
Time to reflect
If this is your first rodeo, it’s a good idea to look at your analytics, post-sale, so you can establish a baseline to work off in the future.
If you’re a seasoned pro, compare this year with the previous years and note any changes or significant numbers. Note your social activity, any ads you ran, and put together a mini report. It’s like a business love letter. To you, from you.
Elbow bumps and virtual high fives for your best BFCM ever. Until next year that is…
Ready to create? Why not use one of the templates in this post as your starting point? Try out GoDaddy Studio right now, for free, and search "Black Friday" in the template feed. We have dozens of on-trend designs to make your campaign on-trend, on-brand, and unmissable.
