How brands can prepare for Black Friday
Black Friday 2023 is fast approaching, and it’s imperative that your brand is prepared. Retailers looking to truly make the most out of the Black Friday weekend should invest in developing a solid marketing strategy to catch Australian shoppers with irresistible promotions and exclusive deals. To maximise your conversions this Black Friday, you’ll want to start your campaigns early, building your CRM database and ensuring your website is optimised for sales and success.
Black Friday and Cyber Weekend originated in the United States and served as an event to signify the start of the Christmas shopping season. With huge Australian brands jumping on the bargain bandwagon over the past decade, the Australian consumer has come to expect retailers to have massive discounts that rival Boxing Day sales.
Black Friday 2023 will land on the 24th of November, and for many retail businesses, it is one of the busiest days of the year, providing customers with irresistible deals to drive sales. For companies participating in Black Friday 2023, being prepared is an absolute must. Whether it’s retail giants, smaller fashion labels or multibillion-dollar online retailers like Amazon, it is essential to prepare early for the Black Friday sales period and maximise opportunities for business success.
How can you be prepared?
The earlier, the better. Don’t be afraid to launch your Black Friday offers before November 24th. Sales throughout November 2022 rose a massive 25% over the year before, while Black Friday sales itself only rose an average of 1-2% depending on the industry. Remember, your audience won’t hold back on purchasing if they find a product at the price they want. You also don’t want to lose that customer to competitors who did launch their sales earlier.
Utilise your CRM
Potential customers are much more likely to sign up to CRM lists leading into Black Friday sales periods to capitalise on early access to store catalogues and exclusive deals. You should consider utilising a portion of your media spend to create a lead generation campaign leading up to Cyber weekend sales and convert through email and remarketing. In an ideal world, a lead generation campaign for Black Friday and Cyber Monday should run towards the end of October and into November.
Streamline friction points
One of the biggest reasons customers abandon their cart is a result of friction points such as the shipping cost of products. Can you do something to ease the customer journey by removing or lowering shipping requirements?
Consider cross-sell and up-sell
Could you reward customer behaviour for spending more or adding additional products to the cart? Trends regarding buying behaviour, such as #girlmath, are currently trending on social media, meaning your audience is willing to spend more if it means saving a little. Bundling products to provide customers with deals is a fantastic way to add value for the customer and upsell your products.
Other key preparations
- You’ve never heard of Apple running out of iPhones. Ensure you have a healthy stock for all your best sellers.
Your shopping feed fuels organic and paid media channels, so make sure to take care of it!
- Ensure you upload all correct product information, including the correct product identifier (GTINS). High-resolution product images will also increase the likelihood of your product appearing in search queries.
- A healthy feed is essential! Start your journey strong by setting up the required feed attributes. Don’t forget that Google’s channel will automatically update your product feed when you add, edit or delete products from your Shopify admin.
- Ensure you have enhanced product titles, specific and accurate, which will help Google show your products to the right buyers.
How can Alpha Help?
If you need help preparing for Black Friday and the Cyber weekend, Alpha Digital can help. We offer a variety of services across the digital marketing spectrum, including:
- Paid media services to drive near instantaneous results leading into the holiday sales period.
- Assist in lead generation to develop early access for significant sales events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
- Management of your ads displayed throughout different channels to help you reach more of your intended audience.
- SEO services to help you appear in more search engine results pages.
- Utilise key partnerships with the likes of Google ads, TikTok, Meta and many more to help your brand succeed over multiple channels during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
- Creative and Content writing services, including organic social management, copywriting, creative ideation and more for your Black Friday campaigns.