Are you ready for the biggest shopping day of the year? Black Friday is just around the corner, and if you want to take advantage of all the sales and traffic, you need a solid game plan.
In this post, we'll walk you through everything you need to do to market your eCommerce store successfully over Black Friday. We'll give you a step-by-step blueprint that will help you make the most of this huge opportunity!
So read on, and let's make this your most profitable Black Friday yet!
Make Sure Your Store or Landing Page is Black Friday Ready
First things first, before Black Friday, your store or landing page should be converting at a minimum between 1-2% of all traffic. If it’s not, then there’s definitely some work to be done to get your site ready for game day.
So what can you do to optimize your site for the big day? Here’s a few key questions to ask:
- Is your offer/hook clear when people visit your website? You should have a compelling message that makes it crystal clear to visitors what makes your product/offer unique coupled with a killer call to action that makes them want to hit that buy button. Poor messaging = poor sales. So make sure your direct-response copy is fired up and ready to sizzle.
- Does your store encourage urgency? For example, do you have BF/CM banner at the top of your page, or a pop-up encouraging them to snag a discount code to shop now? You may even want to consider adding a countdown timer to your landing page to up the ante.
- Can customers clearly find and access your offer? This might sound like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many stores “bury the lead” making it difficult to find the products that are on sale. Our advice? Follow the KISS method - Keep it simple, stupid. Make it obvious which items are discounted and exactly where and how to purchase them.
- Is your checkout process working smoothly? BF/CM is not the time to troubleshoot checkout issues. Run a few test orders via different payment methods to make sure everything runs as smooth as butter.
- Can your site handle the increased demand? Is your website prepared to handle a large amount of traffic? Watch for slow site loading times with oversized graphics and videos. You only have a few seconds to capture someone’s attention and win the sale, and if a visitor gets hung up with slow loading times, they’ll bounce and move on.
Build Hype With a Buzzworthy Black Friday Email Sequence
This is by FAR one of the easiest, cheapest, and most effective ways to win massive BF/CM sales, yet SO many business owners overlook the power and value of email marketing. And no, blasting out an email or two about your BF/CM offers, isn’t going to cut it.
You need to view your email list as one of your most valuable assets. These are people who already like, know, and trust you, and have already purchased from you in the past. Aka, a hot pipeline of low-hanging fruit that needs little convincing to come back, purchase again, AND tell their friends.
Here’s an example of a simple yet powerful BF/CM email sequence you can implement to maximize your list and sales in one shot:
Example BF/CM Sequence Flow
Wednesday Email #1: Send your list a killer sneak peek of the EPIC deals they can expect to see on Black Friday
Thursday Email #2: BF starts early - reward your subscribers by giving them exclusive early access to shop your best sales/offer
Black Friday Email #3: BF starts now - open up the floodgates to subscribers and all traffic to shop your best deals. You can also sweeten the deal with an additional incentive like FREE shipping or a BOGO offer valid through midnight.
Black Friday Email #4: BF ends soon - it’s easy to get distracted, so give people that final nudge to come back and finish shopping. A countdown timer is an excellent way to bring them through to the finish line.
Small Biz Saturday Email #5: Keep the good times rolling - BF might be over, but the best deals and sales don’t have to be. Offer your customers a NEW offer (bigger discount, BOGO, bundles, etc.) to incentivize them to come back for more.
Sunday Email #6: Cyber Monday preview - time to tease your CM sales. Again, keep this fresh and juicy. Think outside the box and make your offer irresistible.
Monday Email #7: Cyber Monday starts now - open up the doors to your very limited CM offer. Consider adding in an irresistible up-sell as an impulse purchase to increase your AOV (Average Order Value).
Email #8: Cyber Monday ends at midnight - whip out that good ole’ countdown timer here again to add some valid urgency/scarcity for your best sale ever.
Drive Conversions with Headlines & Subject lines that CONVERT
Last but not least, let’s have a quick chat about headlines and subject lines. Whether you’re running Facebook Ads or sending out click-worthy emails, you HAVE to nail the headline. While many brands think humor or wit will win the sale, it’s actually much more simple than you might think.
Countless studies and data have shown that users respond best to the following keywords below when it comes to BF/CM conversions. Want to increase those conversions? Keep it simple and drop in a few of these high-converting keywords in your FB ads and email subject lines.
Top Converting BF/CM Keywords
- The sign “%”
- “Black Friday”
- “OFF”
- “Sale”
- “Cyber Monday”
- “Now”
- “Free”
- “Deals”
- “Save”
- “Free shipping”
- “Get”
Fail to Plan. Plan to Fail.
Don’t be “that” guy (or girl) who waits until November 25th to slap together a few half-baked marketing ideas hoping to win BIG. It’s not going to happen. Top eCommerce brands, service providers, and coaches have been mapping out their BF/CM for MONTHS to prepare.
So if you don’t already have your game plan in place, it’s time to get started. And the sooner, the better.
Need help crafting the perfect irresistible messaging for your biggest Black Friday yet? Visit our online store to order all the high-converting copy you need to make your BF/CM campaigns a massive success.