How To Run Sales Oriented Black Friday & Cyber Monday Campaigns in 2018

Why You Should Read This Article

This post is actually my first article under Growth Marketing Category on my blog.

In this post, you are going to learn hacks about Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2018 campaigns that will drive guaranteed sales.

If you are associated anyhow with E-commerce, B2B, Cloud Computing, Saas, VPN or Digital Service businesses then its a must read for you.

Leveraging From Email Marketing on Black Friday in The Light of an Expert Quote:

Email Marketing is one of the most successful strategies in Black Friday Cyber Monday campaigns.

Rachel gray, an email marketing expert shares Black Friday tips on Quora as follows:

“Start your campaign early. Some emailers are sending out emails now “warming up” for Black Friday and building an anticipation in their readers.

Again, whether you do this is going to depend on both your product and your subscriber base.

Don’t be scared to use the hashtag, #blackfriday in your subject line – it’s going to help you with the open rate because people will be expecting to see a deal with they open the email.

Likewise, include some sort of deal otherwise you’re just misleading them 😉

Black Friday is an increasingly online event (some retail stores are even closing for Black Friday this year and keeping everything online open).

Make sure you’re optimizing for mobile and creating a smooth, easy to navigate CTA.

Finally, make your emails fun! Black Friday is very much a millennial trend (93% of millennials intend to shop in Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales) so make use of GIFs & hashtags, use humor, FOMO & exclusivity.”

From E-Commerce Perspective:

Usually, e-commerce stores run Black Friday campaigns by announcing discounts on products without even trying to distinguish with the competitors.

But if every store within the niche is doing the same, then what’s the difference. Why customers should buy from you, not from your old competitor in the market.

Think about Customers perspective. Are you not bombarding your user persona only?

Success Story of MVMT Black Friday Cyber Monday Campaign:

MVMT is brand of affordable watches started by two students Mr.Kramer Laplante and Jake Kassan.

Data suggests that the growth of this brand is the result of amazing email marketing and social media campaigns.

Last year, a weekend before Black Friday they ran a campaign of giving 20% discount. It was though not a big number.  

MVMT just packed watched in a limited edition gift box. This Exclusivity proved to be a vital factor in increasing sales.

Next, on Cyber Monday, they sent emails with a timer imposing an urgency. Their email revenue got increased by 262% due to drip sequences and very smart email segmentation.

How To Leverage from Social Media on Black Friday Cyber Monday Campaigns?

Beyond ad itself, social media Black Friday Cyber Monday campaign should be supported with different social platforms.

A successful campaign requires that you should maximize the reach of offers and discounts. Of Course, it requires spreading awareness in the beginning and ending of the promo. 

8 Steps for Creating Black Friday Cyber Monday Campaign:

Creating Black Friday Cyber Monday hype, you should take the following steps:

1. Start marketing with a Facebook video.
2. Start a live video.
3. Create a mini commercial.
4. Create stories on Instagram and Facebook with bite-sized black Friday content.
5. Educate followers and fans.
6. Don’t forget CPC over Facebook will rise over black Friday weekend, so execute your strategy accordingly in prior weekends.
7. It’s also good if you promote cross channels social media efforts with an email list. It includes teaser emails and post-holiday offers.
8. Also, think about running a remarketing campaign for following up with the audience who hit landing page or website.

10 Hacks for Black Friday Cyber Monday Marketing:

1. Design Clearly Offer Defining images:

It includes:

Image: Select HD image or even a close up of the product.

Copy: Write a headline which reflects core advantage.

Call to action: Keep it unique and to the point. For example: Write “This is Mine ”instead of Getting it now”.

2.  Design Newsletter:

• Select an email template from a library of a tool like MailChimp.
• Customize it according to your product or services.
• Add countdown timer according to your sale start and end date.

3. Schedule up to 8 Emails:

Start sending emails prior to a couple of weeks before Black Friday as follows:

10 to 14 days earlier:

First Email:

“Your Black Friday Sneak Peek, [Name]”

Our secret Black Friday sale starts Thursday.

Here are a few of the items getting that 50% discount:

*images*

Are you in? Tick. Tock.

Save the date: *insert countdown timer on Editor*

Second Email:

“Don’t stay behind, [Name]!”

You can’t stay behind!

Not with these prices!

Here’s one of our favorite items this year: *image*

We’ll keep them coming!

Third Email:

“Do your Xmas shopping for less on Black Friday!”

Just looking out for you!

Spend up to 65% less for your Xmas gifts and steal the show as if you were the Grinch!

Mark your calendar: *launch date*

10-5 days before

Fourth Email:

“What’s your Black Friday schedule?”

Start your spree from our fully stocked shop on Thursday 21st.

*insert a high-speed gif, featuring popular items on sale enriched with random inspiration photos.

Fifth Email:

“We’re discounting 120 more items! Oh, yes, we are!”

Stepping up our Black Friday game here!

We are happy to inform you we’ll be releasing 120 of our most viewed and purchased products!

Sixth Email:

Make emails from this point on, product-category specific. For instance, you can send out

“Our designer make-up, up to 85% off”

So it starts.

*Upload all participating items to a gif!*

CTA: Make up my mind

4. Send Real-Time Updates:

During the whole period of time, when the sales stay effective, Send Real-time updates through a newsletter.

Few are the subject line ideas:

“These shades won’t be here forev–“

“Omg, I need this!”

Important: Never use spammy terms in your email subject lines

5. Automate Campaign:

Don’t you want to send offer emails to those who have purchasing history with you or remind those people who have visited the specific landing page earlier?  

You may choose a tool like Moosend for this purpose.

6. Send Gift Cards to Most Engaged Audience in Emails:

Reward your most engaged subscribers over Back Friday Cyber Monday emails, send them gift cards now.

7. Leverage all Social Media Channels:

Post every once in a while counting down to Black Friday sales date on following channels:

Facebook:

Post every day on a fan page. Don’t forget to include short copy, eye-catching visuals and a direct link to web page.

Instagram:

Record live videos, post Instagram stories. Show customers videos of packing, collection departments, etc. never forget to use relevant hashtags like #blackfriday #cybermonday, etc.

8. Offer more than your Competitors:

For an EPIC, Holiday season campaign, you need to go beyond your competitors. Offer something extra like a gift card, free shipping, etc.

9. Automate a Thank you Email:

Once the sale is over, it’s time to appreciate your customers. Automate an email showing “Thank you for your purchase”.

10. Add Tracking Parameters:

For future reference, you should track all your campaign activities. Use UTM parameters provided by Google to keep tracking of all the traffic that comes from a specific activity. Later on, you can check in Google analytics that which of the campaigns performed better and then strategize your next campaign efforts accordingly.

8 Effective Tips To Drive Traffic on Black Friday and Cyber Monday Campaigns:

You are never to get results if you have just launched a campaign and waiting for the customers to come and buy.  Once you have launched, its time to get people on board.

Now it’s time to drive traffic from web across 360-degree channels marketing.

Tip#1: Using Social Channels for Black Friday Cyber Monday Campaigns:

Very first step for promoting your discount deals is to reach the existing fans and followers.

They are actually the list of people which have some purchasing history with you. Might be they have shown interest in your product or service by either subscribing to your mailing list or by following you on social media.

Instagram Tip:

To visit your campaign, post a short clip or image along with CTA linking page in the bio. Update instagram stories to let your followers know that you’re running a Black Friday Cyber Monday promotion. Also, you can leverage from an Instagram business account.

Twitter Tip:

Share an engaging call to action along with the campaign link on twitter.

Facebook  Tip:

Change cover photo such that it highlights that you are running a black Friday Cyber Monday promotion. This is so because it’s actually the very first interaction whenever peoplevisits your page.

Tip#2: Use ads in Black Friday Cyber Monday Campaigns:

Nothing can bring high quality targeted traffic and engagement then running ads on Google and Facebook.

If you are a small sized business then don’t think about google ads, It may go beyond your budget.

Tip#3: Follow up With News Leads of Black Friday Cyber Monday Campaigns:

Once you have sent discount codes, you can pitch them to buy. For this purpose, you can extend your promotion with an extra day. It will help you to not only add an extra layer of urgency but to convert people as well.

Tip#4: Tracking Black Friday Cyber Monday Marketing Efforts:

Use google sheets to track very basic information such as sale start date, sale end date, product, regular price, sale price, discount code, promotion channels and sale type.

Tip#5: Optimize Content for Black Friday Cyber Monday Campaign:

Its very important task to research on potential keywords related to black friday and cyber monday and then optimize your content accordingly. Make sure that your product descriptions have the keywords which customers will use to find products.

Tip#6: Do Optimize the Checkout Procedure:

To make the purchasing process delightful for your customers, take the following steps:

1. Display cost of shopping at up front.
2. Display popup when a user crosses your site’s tab on the browser.
3. Show countdown timer.
4. Let your customers avail multiple payment methods.

Tip#7: Make Black Friday Cyber Monday Campaign Mobile Friendly.

Shopify revealed last year that mobile purchases got increased during Black Friday Cyber Monday campaigns.

So, make your sure that your campaign looks pretty good across all mobile devices.

So QA your purchasing process on other devices and optimize accordingly.

Tip#8: Design a Conversation Oriented Landing Page for Black Friday Cyber Monday Campaign:

1. To do so, take the following steps:
2. Place countdown timer here as well above the fold.
3. Display rating or reviews to attract customers.
4. Give multiple channels contact information such as phone, email, chat, etc
5. Display deals and discounts.
6. Display a referral policy so that visitors may share with the friends.

Wrapping up:

Black Friday Cyber Monday are the biggest events for nurturing sales in an online market. Black Friday is more about the retail market. Companies in all over the world wait for these events a whole year. They break sales record during this season. Adopting a proactive approach can lead you as well to new sales records. What you all have to do is follow the above tips and guidelines. Summarizing the whole article, you just have to play with announcements, Press Release, Drifting emails, Newsletters, Paid Campaigns on Social media and Google. Please share your experiences and practices about these mega events in the comments section.