Black Friday, a term coined by the United States to describe the frenzy of holiday shoppers jostling their way for discounts on everything from toys to tech and everything in between. While in the United Kingdom we may not experience the same levels of chaos descending over the city streets as our cousins over the pond, our enthusiasm for holiday shopping remains unwavering.
In 2022 alone, a staggering £8.7 billion was spent over the Black Friday weekend (from Black Friday to Cyber Monday), with £4.8 billion spent online. While not everyone may embrace this manic early onset of the Christmas spending spirit, the revenue potential is undeniable. So, fellow marketers, the question arises: should you start thinking about how to incorporate Black Friday marketing efforts into your digital marketing strategy?
If you haven’t done so already – not to worry! We’ve curated a collection of the most appropriate digital marketing tools to help get the ball rolling.
Online Black Friday Marketing Tools
Retargeted ads are a powerful tool to re-engage previous website visitors, displaying products and services they’ve engaged with or left in their cart at a significantly lower cost-per-click (CPC). Retargeted ads appear across all Google properties and Display Network, with a click-through rate (CTR) 10x higher than that of typical display ads. This helps to ensure an efficient means of re-engaging and guiding consumers down the sales funnel in a cost-effective way.
Craft attention-grabbing headlines that convey the excitement and urgency of your Black Friday deals, emphasising the money-saving opportunities, limited availability and exclusivity of the offers. Additionally, incorporating unique selling points (USPs) in ad copy gives you a competitive edge as shoppers hunt for the best value deals.
Ad copy isn’t the only place you can feature your hottest seasonal deals. Google Ads offers a diverse range of ad extensions to set your ads apart from the competition. Among these is the promotion extension, perhaps the most crucial for Black Friday. This extension simply showcases the monetary or percentage savings to consumers, enhancing the appeal of your ads by providing potential buyers with a clear understanding of the incredible discounts they stand to gain.
When it comes to email marketing, every business will inevitably be sending out Black Friday deals to their email lists. But how can you stand out in a cluttered inbox? Email personalisation allows you to harness consumers’ first-party data to present content that resonates with the recipient. By segmenting your email lists in a strategic manner, you gain the ability to deliver personalised emails, resulting in a potential increase in open rates by more than 20%.
Simple personalisation may be as straightforward as changing the subject line to include the reader’s name to create a connection, such as ‘Black Friday Weekend Starts Today, James’. More advanced personalisation may leverage behavioural data to show consumers recent products they have engaged with on your website. In particular, those who have left products abandoned in their cart on Black Friday can receive timely reminders on Cyber Monday about the impending deal expiry. Furthermore, you can tailor content based on demographics, like gender, age and location, to offer the most appropriate products to the perfect segments of your audience, increasing the likelihood of more conversions.
For effective social media marketing, we recommend starting organic product campaigns early. This helps to build anticipation for desired products through gradual drip-feeding of content to your audience, keeping your products at the forefront of their mind when Black Friday finally rolls around. Begin with a captivating announcement, before moving into what consumers want to see like special product offers and finalising with a countdown to the big day.
Increase engagement and brand visibility by leveraging each platform’s distinctive features. Instagram’s recent introduction of Broadcast channels provides an excellent opportunity for businesses to connect and build stronger relationships with their most loyal customers. Broadcast your Black Friday deals to those who would value them most to drive conversions. Listening to your audience is also key. On Twitter (or should I say X) and Instagram Stories, polls give the ability for businesses to gauge which deals and products consumers are anticipating, so you can tailor your product promotions accordingly. Additionally, across the majority of social media platforms, carousels allow businesses to display multiple products in a single post. Why not experiment by strategically grouping your products, and showcasing the full extent of your discounts to the audience?
Similar to PPC, social media retargeting ads, using platforms such as Meta Ads, enable you to reach prospective customers who have shown an interest in your business or product through engagement. Starting your Black Friday social media ad campaigns early or even before the weekend would hopefully mean more ad interactions. Therefore, when Cyber Monday arrives people who have shared your ads, liked your posts or visited your website from social media can be given that extra nudge to convert with a retargeted ad.
So, from retargeting ads to personalised emails, there are a whole host of tools and techniques to add to your roster that will have your products flying off the shelves this Black Friday. We offer all of the above here at Signify Digital, with a few more digital marketing tricks up our sleeve. Contact us today to get your online Black Friday marketing underway.
