How To Prepare for Black Friday Marketing (and Cyber Monday)

Are you looking for the best and easy-to-follow Black Friday marketing guide? Look no further!

For eCommerce businesses, holiday sales marketing like Black Friday represents more than just dates on a calendar. They are golden opportunities to skyrocket sales, attract new customers, and improve brand loyalty.

But with great opportunity comes great competition. Every brand, big or small, is gearing up to grab a slice of the BFCM pie. So, how do you ensure your business stands out in this bustling marketplace? 

In this post, I’ll share a marketing calendar specifically tailored for Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) marketing. This to-do list will help you ensure that you remain on track at every step.

Whether you are a seasoned pro looking for a fresh Black Friday marketing strategy or a newbie looking for actionable Black Friday marketing ideas, this guide will have you covered.

With this calendar, you can plan ahead and avoid the last-minute rush. For ease of navigation, I have organized the post into a week-by-week plan you can follow throughout the holiday season.

If you want to read about what exactly to do for Cyber Monday marketing, for instance, you can click on the 2nd week of November to jump directly to that section:

Note: Don’t forget to check out the ultimate holiday gift guide designed specifically for entrepreneurs and small business owners:

Let’s get started with the week-by-week overview of the BFCM marketing plan!

1st and 2nd Week of October: Planning

To begin with, I’ll discuss what must happen in the 1st couple weeks of October.

Although Black Friday doesn’t come until the end of November, the excitement for the Black Friday sales starts picking up in early October.

Plus, brands that prepare themselves for holiday sales marketing seasons in advance have more time to craft effective marketing campaigns that resonate with their target audience.

1. Plan Your Sales

Refrain from deciding on a whim what products you will put on sale on a given day. You’ll inevitably run into inventory issues or forget to turn the sale pricing off.

Considering slashing 75% off on certain products because your rival brand is doing it? You might eat into your margins by forgetting to turn off the promotion!

That’s why it’s much better to plan out your sales in advance.

You can use something as basic as Google Sheets to create a tracking spreadsheet for your sales. Here’s the information you’ll want to track:

1. Product
2. Regular price
3. Sale price
4. Sale start date and end date
5. Type of sale (e.g. Flash, coupon, limited-time offer)
6. Promotion channels (e.g. email, social media platforms, paid ads)
7. Discount code, if any

You don’t need to list all your products in this spreadsheet. Instead, use it for only special deals that you plan to promote during the BFCM season. Also, you don’t need to use it if you’re marking down sitewide.

If you use an eCommerce platform like BigCommerce, WooCommerce, or Shopify, be sure to check out what’s available in their app stores. You’ll most likely find an app like Sale Scheduler or PW Sales Scheduler that will make scheduling sales easier if you don’t want to track it manually.

2. Test Your Tech

Do you know what’s the worst nightmare for most digital marketing professionals?

You create a beautiful site, plan your Black Friday Cyber Monday marketing strategy to the finest detail, and craft the perfect email marketing copy. You even see an uptick in your site traffic since 5 am on your sale.

It’s 8:30 am, and you now have a significant influx of traffic from your latest email that you knew would be good.

And then, your site crashes.

Here’s an example from Lowe’s that had its website crash probably due to a sudden influx of visitor traffic:

Here are a few tips for you to test your tech in advance to avoid the last-minute tech meltdown during Black Friday and Cyber Monday:

• Performance Testing: Simulate load testing to see if your site or app can handle the Black Friday rush. Identify bottlenecks that could slow things down.
• Security Testing: Ensure your systems are secure from cyberattacks that might target increased holiday traffic.
• Usability Testing: Make sure your checkout process is hassle-free on both desktop and mobile. Test functionalities like adding items to a cart and applying discounts.
• Internal Communication: Conduct dry runs of campaign launches with internal teams like sales and customer service to ensure everyone is prepared for potential customer inquiries.
• CRM and Marketing Automation: Test integrations between your CRM system and marketing automation tools to avoid campaign delivery issues.
• Landing Pages and Promo Codes: Test landing pages for smooth customer experience and mobile responsiveness. Ensure promo codes automatically apply discounts and don’t lead to errors.

Testing early can help you fix issues beforehand and ensure a smooth holiday shopping experience for your customers.

3rd and 4th Week of October: Build Your Marketing Campaigns

During the last 2 weeks of October, you’ll need to spend most of your time creating the campaigns and copy to build excitement and get buyers to your store.

Here are some actionable tips on how to build campaigns that spark curiosity in your customers and convert them:

• Roll Out Limited-Time Offers: Generate a sense of urgency with flash sales, exclusive deals for early birds, or limited-edition product bundles.
• Contests and Giveaways: Host online contests or giveaways with exciting prizes to generate excitement and encourage social media sharing.
• Personalize Your Campaigns: Tailor your marketing through email segmentation or paid ads to cater to specific customer preferences.
• Offer Free Gifts: Offer free shipping or other incentives for a limited time or with a minimum purchase amount to encourage customers to buy from you.

Here are some useful resources for more tips to help you craft the perfect campaign copy:

3. Create Your Images and Themes

People expect the typical holiday imagery to go along with Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing.

They usually expect marketing campaigns to feature the bright red and white colors of a winter wonderland because these elements are strongly rooted in tradition and nostalgia.

For instance, red and white are prominent colors of Santa Claus and candy canes, while winter wonderlands evoke feelings of childhood memories and cozy holiday cheer. This familiarity creates a sense of comfort and nostalgia for customers.

You can leverage these positive emotions by using bright colors and happy imagery to create an emotional connection association with the customers.

You don’t need to be a graphics design whiz to create beautiful images for your website or Black Friday marketing campaigns. Check out these free visual content creation tools to make it easier for yourself.

Related Content: Looking for ready-to-use Black Friday marketing designs? Check out our Done-for-You Black Friday Popup templates!

4. Start Writing Your Copy

There are several different types of holiday sales events and announcements. But not all have to include the words ‘Black Friday’ or ‘Cyber Monday’ to attract buyers looking for those deals.

Here’s a list of several different types of Black Friday Cyber Monday marketing pieces you can create for your email, social media, and print campaigns:

• Doorbuster sale announcements: Standard in-store Black Friday offers with special discounts.
• Exclusive sale announcements: These sales events are for loyal customers, such as online-only, mailing list–only, or Instagram-only members.
• Time limit sale (24 hours only!): These sales take advantage of psychological marketing triggers like fear of missing out (FOMO).
• Black Friday sale announcement: Standard marketing campaign aimed at getting people to shop from you at discounted prices.
• Cyber Monday sale announcement: Standard Cyber Monday marketing aimed at improving online sales on the heels of Black Friday promotions.
• Sale reminders: A way to keep your customers informed about upcoming BFCM sales and promotions via email, SMS, social media, or mobile apps.
• Reminder sent before the sale ends: A marketing tactic brands use to nudge customers into buying before a sale or promotion expires via email, popup, notification, or SMS.
• Order deadline announcement: Marketing messages that brands send, especially during peak sale seasons, to inform customers about the latest date and time by which they need to place an order to ensure they receive it by a specific date.
• Abandoned cart emails: Automated emails that brands sent to customers who added items to their shopping carts but left the website without buying them.

There’s no shortage of content to produce, and this doesn’t even scratch the surface of everything you could choose to offer.

If you are looking for more ways to step up your email content game, check out these tips for writing better emails.

Interested in creating better content overall? Have a look at our beginner’s guide to content marketing.

5. Create Content for Early Shoppers

According to a Bankrate survey, 50% of holiday shoppers plan to begin making purchases before Halloween (end of October). Buying early allows consumers to budget and spread out the financial burden over a longer period.

It’s critical to create content for the early shoppers before it’s too late and they’ve already done their holiday shopping.

Retailers like Best Buy plan their Black Friday deals earlier than their rivals:

Another great way to engage with early shoppers is by creating gift guides.

You can add these to your website, print them on glossy paper for your brick-and-mortar store, and share them on social media.

Here’s an example from Macy’s who have their gift guide published on their website:

These are just a couple of ways to engage with early shoppers.

You can also use popups to encourage shoppers to follow you on social or by signing up for your email list to be the first to get early access to the shopping event.

6. Run a Contest

Online contests are a great way to grow your email list, boost social media followers, increase referral traffic, and generate targeted leads. 

You can create, manage, and run an online contest quickly and easily with RafflePress.

RafflePress is the best WordPress giveaway plugin on the market. It has a drag-and-drop builder that makes it ridiculously easy to build a stunning contest landing page or giveaway widget in no time.

With its awesome list of features, you can easily drive website traffic, increase social media follows, and grow your email list. 

And a free RafflePress Lite plugin is available in the WordPress plugin repository!

Bonus Content: RafflePress Review: Is This Giveaway Plugin Any Good?

7. Use Social Proof

Research suggests that close to 98% of online shoppers check out product reviews before purchasing.

Why? Because they want to know that other folks are happy about doing business with your company.

Adding TrustPulse is one of the best ways to add social proof to your site (and get an instant lift in conversions of up to 15%).

TrustPulse lets you show off the most recent site activity from your customers in the form of small, eye-catching popups.

You can show purchases, registrations, signups, any verified site activity, and use cool ‘on fire’ notifications when you have a really popular product.

These notifications work really well for leveraging FOMO on homepages and checkouts.

Plus, TrustPulse only takes about 3 minutes to set up, from signup to running on your site.

Click here to get started with TrustPulse for free.

1st Week of November: Optimize for Conversion

Before you launch your BFCM campaign publicly, there are a few things that you need to do on your site’s category and product pages to optimize them for conversions.

8. Optimize Your Content

Go through your category and product pages to make sure that your descriptions contain useful keywords and information to help shoppers find your products.

Northmen ditches conventional product descriptions altogether and tells the story of their product. This is how they describe one of their products, an American Felling Axe:

Writing original product descriptions also allows you to incorporate the right keywords in your product page and get you the SEO ranking benefits.

Want specific tips on how to optimize your product page for higher conversions? We have an excellent blog about creating high-converting product pages that you should check out.

9. Optimize Your Checkout Process

There are quite a few things you can do to streamline your checkout process and make it delightfully easy for shoppers to complete their purchases. Here are some specific tips:

• Minimize the checkout process to offer an easy user experience (UX). The fewer steps a customer needs to take, the fewer instances of cart abandonments you’ll see.
• Trigger an exit intent popup that appears as shoppers try to exit your site from the checkout page.
• Create a countdown timer to create a sense of urgency or FOMO.
• Show total costs upfront including taxes, shipping fees, and any additional charges clearly to avoid hidden surprises.
• Include multiple payment options to make it convenient for customers to choose what they prefer.
• Offer guest checkout as an option alongside account creation. Many users prefer the convenience of guest checkout, especially for smaller purchases.

For more ideas, check out this detailed list of the best ways to optimize your checkout page.

10. Optimize for Mobile

A survey by Morning Consult in 2022 found that over 60% of American adults find mobile shopping convenient for online shopping.

With 59% of total online sales during Thanksgiving 2023, mobile shopping exceeded sales from desktop devices.

These statistics suggest that mobile commerce might be finally gaining ground. It also means your eCommerce store needs to make sure that your store looks good on a smartphone.

The best way to do it? Go through the entire purchasing process yourself on mobile, from browsing through checkout. This will help you know where it will break down for the customer.

How many fields does your checkout process require the shopper to fill out? If it’s too many, they may bounce.

Check with your eCommerce platform to see what payment options you can offer and find one like Google Pay that lets shoppers autofill saved information to reduce keystrokes.

11. Highlight Your Policies

Don’t keep your policies hidden from customers. Your site should proudly display shipping, returns, and refund policies in simple, easy-to-understand language.

Clearly communicating your online store’s policies sets the right expectations for both you and the customer. This helps avoid misunderstandings and potential disputes down the line.

You can even show them directly on each product page. Zappos has a separate landing page dedicated to its shipping and returns policy:

Making your policies known to customers upfront can help them make informed decisions about their purchases. For example, knowing the return window or any restocking fees allows them to weigh their options before buying.

More importantly, customers who are not sure about your return policies or shipping costs might abandon their carts at checkout. Making these policies available upfront helps them complete the purchase without any doubt.

2nd Week of November: Start Marketing

The 2nd week of November should ideally see your holiday marketing in full swing. It presents a strategic sweet spot for launching your BFCM campaigns.

This is also an ideal time to start your holiday email marketing campaigns and get your social media followers thinking about sugar plum fairies and eggnog.

By this time, you have bypassed the Halloween rush and captured the attention of shoppers before they are overwhelmed by Black Friday shopping hype. This allows you to stand out and establish yourself as a thoughtful gift-giving resource.

Think of it as a festive lead-up. Use your social media accounts to share gift ideas, holiday recipes, or heartwarming stories to get people in the holiday spirit.

As a side note, remember to decorate your website with festive elements and highlight your holiday product offerings or gift bundles.

12. Schedule Your Email and Social Media Marketing

Kick off your Black Friday Cyber Monday marketing with a sneak peek of upcoming sales and promotions.

You may not be offering discounts yet, but you’re definitely getting your customers into a festive mood with emails and social media posts about the upcoming holiday season.

Related Content: How to Create a Social Media Holiday Strategy in 5 Easy Steps

Will you be open on Thanksgiving? Let them know. Are you planning any customer appreciation events? Post about those.

Also, be absolutely sure to schedule emails and posts to remind customers of order deadlines for their orders to arrive by a specific date. A few years back, Sock It To Me used this awesome calendar for its December sales:

Here are a few tips on how you can plan your marketing calendar:

• One Day Before a Big Sale Event

Send an email before the big day announcing the sale and post about it on social media.

Send a reminder email and post it again on social media.

• A Few Hours Before the Event Ends

Send a final reminder that the sale is ending and post once more on social media.

What is the best time to send marketing emails?

Generally, the best day to send marketing emails is Tuesday or Thursday. As for time, if you stick with traditional business hours, you’ll be fine. Peak open rates happen at 3 p.m.

Check out the best time to post on social media for peak engagement.

Throughout the Holidays: Track and Analyze

It’s important to follow your progress for each sale and marketing campaign. The best way to do that is by using Google Analytics.

For WordPress users, MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It acts as a bridge between your website and Google Analytics, allowing you to track and manage your website’s analytics data directly from your WordPress dashboard.

Get started with MonsterInsights today!

13. Track and Monitor 

It’s critical for you to track your site and campaign performance on analytics throughout the campaign period.

To effectively track your website performance and conversions, follow our step-by-step guide to Google Analytics.

After the Holidays: Post-Holiday Retargeting

Now that the holidays are over, it’s time to stay connected with holiday shoppers to turn them into year-round shoppers.

Here are tips on how to do that:

14. Stay Connected After the Holidays

Stay connected with holiday shoppers by being active on social media and continuing to send email newsletters to your subscribers.

Offer gift cards that they can buy at a discounted price or let them know about your loyalty program to keep them engaged with your brand.

15. Segment Your Audience

Don’t blast the same message to everyone. Segment your audience based on their holiday purchases or browsing behavior.

Someone who bought a new coffee maker might be interested in coffee subscriptions, while someone who looked at winter jackets might be receptive to postseason sales.

16. Personalize Your Communication

Use the data you collected to personalize your retargeting ads and emails. Recommend related products, offer accessories for their purchases, or highlight upcoming sales relevant to their interests.

17. Shift the Focus

Move beyond the holiday theme. While some winter items might still be relevant, highlight new product lines, showcase upcoming seasonal collections, or promote access to your VIP club.

How To Boost Your Black Friday Cyber Monday Marketing Campaigns

You’ve now armed yourself with the strategies and insights needed to conquer the Black Friday Cyber Monday sales frenzy. But what if I told you there’s a tool that can amplify your results even further?

Meet OptinMonster.

Why should OptinMonster be your secret weapon this sales season?

1. High-Converting Popups: Craft eye-catching popups that grab your visitors’ attention, ensuring they check out your BFCM deals.
2. Advanced Targeting: Deliver personalized offers based on user behavior, location, and more. The right message at the right time can make all the difference!
3. Seamless Integrations: OptinMonster plays well with your favorite email marketing platforms, CRMs, and more, ensuring a smooth data flow.
4. Exit-Intent Technology: Catch potential customers right before they leave with irresistible offers, turning potential exits into conversions.
5. A/B Testing: Not sure which offer will resonate more? Test, refine, and deploy the most effective campaigns with ease.

Just take a look at how these OptinMonster customers made out:

In the world of e-commerce, every click, every visitor, and every cart matters.

Don’t let potential sales slip through the cracks. Supercharge your Black Friday Cyber Monday marketing efforts with OptinMonster and watch your conversion rates soar!

Ready to elevate your BFCM game? Get started with OptinMonster today!

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