Don't hate me, but I'm going to start talking about Black Friday.
I know, I know -- holidays seem to start too early every year.
Who wants to see Christmas decorations in September?! No one.
But bear with me...
For the majority of retailers and ecommerce companies, Black Friday kicks off the biggest money-making quarter they're going to have.
In fact, a lot of companies make the bulk of their annual revenue in the final quarter of the year -- and for some, their stocks rise and fall based on their Black Friday performance.
So, trust me...it's NEVER too early to start talking about Black Friday.
Especially this year.
Black Friday has always been an evolving beast. And with the influence of the global pandemic, 2020's Black Friday is poised to become something else altogether.
I'm going to go out on a limb here with 4 predications about this year's Black Friday...
Prediction #1: Say "Goodbye" To In-Person Mayhem
Retailers know that COVID has people worried and staying home. Malls and department stores are suffering with massive overhead (leases, payroll, inventory) while they are seeing record-low store visits.
Governments and health officials keep telling people to stay away from large groups, stay indoors, wash your hands, wear a mask -- the masses have been trained to avoid public spaces.
Rather than risk opening up a store during Black Friday with long lines and already frantic customers, big box brick-and-mortar retailers will avoid potentially negative press.
They'll use a PR angle that highlights their commitment to safety. In reality, they know they don’t want bad press over the holidays which could kill their last chance of driving the highest quarter of their annual revenue historically.
And THIS will affect Black Friday sales in a number of ways...
Failing to get a holiday sale out by the first week in November will place your business at the end of the list when it comes to holiday shopping.
Prediction #2: Say "Hello" to The Longest Running Black Friday Season Ever
Retailers will go online with a force never seen before.
They will launch sales much, much earlier and run the sales longer.
They can afford to do this. First, their fixed costs will likely decrease due to drop shipping rather than an in-store sale.
Shrinkage (theft) will drop as well as other security costs. Additionally, there is no limit for online capacity compared to legal restrictions for store capacity over the holidays.
Prediction #3: There WILL Be Record-Breaking Online Sales
This year we will see record breaking online sales.
Additionally, following the COVID shut-down and the move to virtual, even the older generation who did not trust online buying and preferred in-person shopping have now grown more accustomed to shopping online.
It has become the comfortable normal for the majority of the last segment of more traditional shoppers.
For the first time ever, the full spectrum (age and demographics) of shoppers is now online and we can capture all audiences for our holiday sales.
Prediction #4: If You're Late To The Party, You WILL Regret It
Longer running holiday sales by your competitors mean that people will spend earlier and exhaust their budgets faster than ever before.
Failing to get a holiday sale out by the first week in November will place you at the back of the list when it comes to holiday shopping.
Shoppers simply won't have anything left to spend! Most individuals and families have a budget for the holiday season, or a credit card limit. Regardless, they have a limited amount of resources to spend during this time. With each offer they're presented or every purchase they make, the less is available to spend with you.
You HAVE to capture the largest share of the buyer’s wallet EARLY before they have exhausted their allocated funds.
To beat the big retailers, you need to plan and build everything earlier than ever.
Our proven Black Friday Strategy still works here.
The timing of our proven Black Friday Strategy was always its strength, and remains its power, especially now.
With just a couple of changes -- such as launching this strategy earlier and adding a few more offers to refresh the deals to prevent offer fatigue -- you can apply this plan directly to this year's COVID Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Start making sales before most businesses have even started thinking about their holiday strategy.
**IMPORTANT**
Almost Any Business Can Take Advantage of This
We know Black Friday and Cyber Monday are traditionally retail and ecommerce holidays.
However, even if you don't sell retail items you can still take advantage of this strategy.
Let me share an example...
My award-winning marketing agency, Built by Love, had a client who sold pools, outdoor kitchens, and backyard fireplaces. Winter was NOT their season to sell by any means.
As a matter of fact, where they're located, the ground is frozen come late November and they couldn't build a pool if they wanted to until Spring. So, they never ran Black Friday offers nor did they believe this strategy would ever work for them.
But then I had an idea.
Why not use Black Friday as an opportunity to stock up pre-orders for Spring?
That way, instead of having a "dead season," and then rushing to collect sales during March and April, the client could collect pre-orders with a Black Friday sale and have a production queue ready to go by Springtime.
The client was still hesitant but said, "Okay, let's give it a shot."
They made over $100,000 from that sale alone.
Not only that, their customers were thrilled! What an amazing present to give to the family over the holidays by saying, "Guess what? Our family is going to have a pool by Summer!"
Moral of the story? Just because you’re not selling widgets online, doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of this strategy.
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Below Is the Framework For Your COVID-Resistant Black Friday Strategy
2 Weeks Before The Sale: Ask Before You Assume
The first email you send out will ask your customers what THEY would like to see deals on. You can even suggest a variety of options and see what they like best.
Why?
Because most people LOVE to give their opinion. Asking your audience engages them before the actual sale, piquing their interest.
Plus, with Black Friday, you can’t shove sales on your audience and expect things to just happen.
By asking for your audience's input, you are already crafting orders and sales they want to see.
Depending on their answers, you can adjust your offers accordingly.
Week Before The Sale: Incentivize
In this email, if someone hasn't answered your question, you want to incentivize them to engage.
Simply repeating your question is an easy way to bubble back into their inbox.
If you use HubSpot or Infusionsoft/Keap, then you will have automation that will make this easy as you'll be able to see who has answered it and who has not.
Week Before The Sale: Tease The Offer
At this point, you're excited to share some of the details about the sale with your audience, but you don’t want to give it all away.
You’ll want to leave out some key details to intrigue them and pique their curiosity, also while letting them know there’s some scarcity. This offer isn't going to last forever!
Week Of The Sale: Sneak Peek
This email should continue to build hype, curiosity, and momentum.
By providing a "sneak peek," you will continue to stoke your reader's excitement all the way up to when your sale finally launches.
Some tips for your sneak peek:
- Reveal some of the products included
- Share actual savings for some of the offers (numbers are better than percentages)
- Continue to emphasize limited quantity and timing
Week Of The Sale: The Need-to-Know Details
The point of this email is to make all the shopping details of the sale as easy as to find out as possible. You always want to be removing obstacles to purchase.
Provide useful information, such as:
- What time the sale starts (be sure to list multiple time zones)
- Payment options
- Return/refund policies
At this point, the timing will be getting more aggressive.
Momentum is building. And by this point, your audience is most likely getting offers from your competitors.
1 Day Before The Sale: The 3-Lined Email
This email keeps your audience's mindset in mind -- they're busy, they're stressed, they're getting a lot of different emails.
So, we want to keep it short and sweet and just remind them...
- LINE 1: Early bird starts soon
- LINE 2: Here’s the date
- LINE 3: Here’s the time (give multiple time zones)
Okay, we're halfway done!
We've made it through the "hype" part of the Black Friday Strategy and now we're ready for the actual sale to begin.
If you're ready to implement this strategy yourself, then rock on!
But if you're getting exhausted just reading this and want to hand it over to a full-service agency to do all the work for you...then check out the offer below.
Otherwise, keep reading for the rest of the strategy.
Get The Perfect Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sale.
Each package includes the complete Marketing and Product Pricing Strategy as well as custom copywriting.
- THE HOLIDAY SALE BASIC: Sales Strategy, Product Offer Creation, Custom Email Copywriting
- THE HOLIDAY SALE VALUE: Sales Strategy, Product Offer Creation, Custom Email Copywriting, Custom Landing Page Copy
- THE HOLIDAY SALE DELUXE: Sales Strategy, Product Offer Creation, Custom Email Copywriting, Custom Landing Page Copy, Email Marketing Campaign Build
When you book your consult, we'll send you the free recorded webinar of this exact strategy. Just click the button to schedule your call now.
1st Day Of Sale: BEFORE Thanksgiving
Alrighty, you made it to the first day of the sale, which is where this strategy really shines.
And that's because you are launching your Black Friday Sale BEFORE Black Friday.
Heck, you're doing it BEFORE Thanksgiving!
Remember the "largest share of the wallet" idea?
You're competing for a finite share of resources. If you launch your Black Friday Sale before Thanksgiving, your offer will hit people before the MILLIONS of other Black Friday promotions, and you'll have a greater chance of success that they will buy.
In the email, you'll want to tell them that the sale is live and give them an obvious link to click.
Mention products and savings in dollars and then give them another obvious link to click. Make it easy!
X Day of Sale: The Thanksgiving Email
In between your first few days of your sale and Black Friday, you will hit Thanksgiving.
Even though it's a day committed to food and family, it is also a HUGE shopping day (with more than $3.7 billion spent on Thanksgiving Day alone in 2018).
You'll want to wish your readers a Happy Thanksgiving; and in doing so, you can remind them that you have great offers going on (give them the link), that they can peruse AFTER they have enjoyed their time with family and friends,
That personal touch can go a long way.
Black Friday Day of Sale: New Offers
It's now Black Friday.
And by this point, we're already several days into our sale...which means we're several days ahead of our competitors.
This Black Friday email should announce a few more special offers. This will freshen up the sale and keep it interesting, enticing those who haven't purchased yet to take a look.
Small Business Saturday: FAQs
"Small Business Saturday" is meant to highlight small, local businesses.
It's also another huge shopping day. What I like to do here with our Black Friday Strategy is to build in some "FAQs" that address your customer's "No."
Addressing the "No" means you ask specific questions about common concerns, doubts, or hesitations to buy, and then answer that question with a slight sales slant.
- For example, one question could be: "Will I ever see these prices for these products again?
- The sales-slant answer: "No, these special prices are online exclusive and limited-time only and will never be seen again. Click here to take advantage of this offer now. "
Always link to your landing pages/sales pages/website if possible!
"Last" Day of Sale: Sunday
This is the last day of the Black Friday sale, so you'll want to push scarcity in this email, e.g. only a few hours left, last time you'll see this sale, once-in-a-lifetime offer, etc.
Keep it short and of course, have an obvious button or link they can click to shop.
What About Cyber Monday?
No Black Friday Strategy is complete without a Cyber Monday promotion, especially now.
And you can get the entire Black Friday strategy now 100% free inside our Member's Portal. Just click the button below to sign in and get access to the guide + webinar for the entire Black Friday Strategy.
If you're a business owner in need of a full-service team to create, implement, and execute parts of this strategy for you, then keep reading....
Want a full-service agency who does all the work for you?
Get the perfect Black Friday & Cyber Monday sale. Each package below includes complete Marketing and Product Pricing Strategy.
THE HOLIDAY SALE BASIC
Designed to give you only what you need.
$
1997
THE HOLIDAY SALE VALUE
Best value for those who aren't afraid to do some of the work.
$
2497
THE HOLIDAY SALE DELUXE
For those who want the work done for them.
$
2997
