18 Black Friday marketing ideas that will boost your sales

It’s that time once more — time to plan your Black Friday marketing campaigns in time for the most important procuring week of the yr.

Complete vacation season sales are anticipated to succeed in $1.3 trillion (!) in 2024, with Black Friday procuring alone accounting for nearly $10 billion.

Desire a slice of the three.1416? Stew over these Black Friday marketing ideas, bake up a proposal your viewers can’t refuse, then sit again in your stretchy pants and click on “Launch” on your most profitable Black Friday marketing marketing campaign ever.

Black Friday marketing stats

Everybody is aware of Black Friday = procuring. In case you promote something, listed below are 13 the explanation why you’ll want to get into the Black Friday marketing campaign spirit:

Black Friday sales have been $9.8 billion within the U.S. in 2023.

Usually thought of a part of Black Friday marketing campaigns, Cyber Monday 2023 sales within the U.S. have been even greater at $12.4 billion.

Supply: Black Friday, Cyber Monday sales 2023, Emarketer

Black Friday 2024 and whole vacation season sales are anticipated to develop 4.8% to $1.353 trillion in america alone this yr vs. 2023.

Cyber Week (together with Black Friday and Cyber Monday) ecommerce solely sales have been $298 billion globally in 2023, up 6% vs. 2022.

Black Friday 2024 ecommerce sales are anticipated to rise 9.5% in comparison with in-person sales at 3.7%.

Supply: US Vacation Buying 2024, Emarketer

A document 200.4 million folks within the U.S. shopped through the 5 day Black Friday/Cyber Monday interval in 2023.

Supply: Thanksgiving Vacation Weekend Buyers, Nationwide Retail Federation

Black Friday marketing goes past america: Chile’s three day Cyber Monday sales have been $426 million USD in 2023, whereas Cyber Monday sales grew 10% year-over-year in Europe in 2023, in comparison with 3% within the U.S.

Cell guidelines: Buying on cell units was up 10.4% on Black Friday 2023 vs. 2022, which is more likely to improve much more in 2024.

The typical on-line conversion fee in 2023 was 6.5% on Black Friday and 6.9% on Cyber Monday on desktop, and three.2% and three.5% respectively on cell units.

54% of on-line orders have been accomplished on cell units on Black Friday 2023, and 59% on Thanksgiving Day. That equated to $5.3 billion on Black Friday alone.

“Buy now, pay later” orders rose 72% through the week of Black Friday 2023 procuring in comparison with the earlier week, a development anticipated to proceed in 2024.

Folks incomes between $50,000-$99,000 elevated vacation spending by a median of 26% in 2023, whereas these incomes $200,000+ elevated by 22%.

27% of buyers, dubbed “high spenders,” are chargeable for 68% of whole vacation season spending.

18 Black Friday marketing ideas that will drive sales

1. Put together your marketing lists

Black Friday marketing begins effectively earlier than Black Friday. Main as much as the massive marketing campaign, get your electronic mail marketing lists and customized advert focusing on audiences in tip-top form.

Test to make sure issues like your Meta Pixel is monitoring precisely, and that analytics and different buyer knowledge sources are correct and syncing every little thing they should be.

Plus, encourage folks to subscribe effectively earlier than Black Friday to beef up your lists and construct anticipation with sneak peeks of upcoming offers.

2. Begin early

There’s a purpose it looks as if you see extra “pre-Black Friday” flash sales yearly: they work.

As professional ecommerce electronic mail marketer Emiel Dingemans advises, “In the week leading up to Black Friday, focus on stress-free shopping and that everything is still in stock. If you combine that with a buy one, get one free offer or special bundle deal, you’ll already generate a ton of revenue before Black Friday actually hits.”

Supply: Emiel Dingemans on X

Your early Black Friday marketing can begin the week earlier than, or perhaps a month earlier than. Amazon affords deeply discounted Prime Days each October and this yr, Goal is providing its members-only unique sale, referred to as Circle Week, from October 6-12, 2024.

3. Drop hints main as much as your Black Friday marketing campaign

Construct up your electronic mail record and anticipation for your upcoming Black Friday promotions by teasing what’s to return.

You may trace at what your reductions will be, or use it as a possibility to make your marketing campaign much more profitable by asking your viewers what they’d most wish to see on sale this yr.

Supply: ASOS on Instagram

4. Align on-line and offline Black Friday marketing campaigns

Join the dots between your ecommerce campaigns and in-store affords to maximise sales from in-store buyers. Over half of U.S. Black Friday buyers who went to a retailer regarded up product opinions or data on-line first.

Glossier is thought for together with actual buyer messages and suggestions into their social feed. This carousel put up rounds up workers’ favourite merchandise, conserving the identical group really feel to their Black Friday marketing posts, whereas nonetheless selling the sale.

Supply: Glossier on Instagram

5. Automate customer support with a chatbot

It goes with out saying the busiest on-line procuring week of the yr will ship, most certainly, the best net visitors of the yr. Instantaneous, useful customer support can put together for the inflow and seize misplaced alternatives.

Utilizing an AI chatbot for customer support on your web site could be the distinction between somebody getting the reply they want and trying out, or bouncing off to a competitor—particularly through the frantic tempo of Black Friday procuring.

Wow prospects with an AI chatbot that can:

Mechanically reply widespread FAQs, like your transport information or enterprise hours.

Advocate merchandise.

Reply queries like, “Where’s my order?” by trying up monitoring or account data.

Intelligently reply to advanced questions utilizing pure language processing.

Supply: Hootsuite Inbox

Proceed the short service by automating your social media inbox replies, too. With Hootsuite Inbox, you may assign and reply DMs and feedback throughout all your platforms proper inside your Hootsuite dashboard, in addition to save time with automations. Arrange auto-responses and one-click saved replies and good collaboration instruments to make sure your workforce doesn’t miss any replies, or reply to the identical message.

Take a look at how connecting your social media to customer support delights your prospects:

6. Create reward guides

Of the 200 million folks within the U.S. who shopped through the Black Friday interval final yr, most have been on the lookout for presents for others. Make their jobs simpler—and the probability they’ll store with you larger—by creating curated reward guides.

You are able to do this with social media content material or by including them to your web site navigation.

Supply: Macy’s

A couple of ideas for reward guides could possibly be:

Presents for mothers, dads, brothers, sisters, and many others

Presents beneath $25, $50, $100

Host/hostess presents

Stocking stuffers

Plus further guides tailor-made to your merchandise. For instance, bookstores might curate lists by curiosity, equivalent to “Gifts for home cooks,” or, “Gifts for history buffs.”

7. Work with influencers

Influencer campaigns could be a highly effective addition to your Black Friday marketing technique to get you in entrance of latest audiences.

ASOS partnered with social media creators to share their “hauls” forward of Black Friday to construct momentum for the sale. The creators additionally listed every merchandise of their descriptions so folks might copy/paste them into the ASOS web site shortly on Black Friday.

Supply: @im.5ft on TikTok

8. Share your values

Most Black Friday campaigns are price-focused. In case you can’t (or don’t wish to) compete on worth, compete on values as a substitute. Remind your prospects why they need to select you vs. “the big guys” in all your Black Friday marketing efforts.

If your merchandise are handmade, present your course of. You don’t have to bad-mouth mass-produced manufacturers, however high quality all the time justifies a high worth for consumers occupied with supporting artisans.

For instance, sustainable clothes model Tentree permits prospects to promote pre-loved clothes through their web site for money again. Specializing in this distinctive program, and the values behind it, is sufficient to lure eco-conscious prospects away from different manufacturers.

Supply: Tentree on Instagram

9. Plan advertisements strategically

There are numerous issues that go into making a profitable Black Friday advertisements technique, together with budgeting. Whereas prices differ extensively by platform, format, and enterprise class, one factor is a given: advertisements value extra in This fall.

Supply: Skai

A part of why prices are larger in This fall has to do with competitors and intent. Extra advertisers are operating advertisements over the last quarter, so it prices extra to compete with them.

As for intention, we all know 200 million folks within the U.S. alone plan to buy Black Friday sales. Chances are high in the event that they see an advert for a deal they will’t refuse, they’ll click on it.

Simply because advert prices are larger shouldn’t dissuade you from making an attempt them. Black Friday advertisements could be extraordinarily highly effective with the precise technique, inventive property, and viewers focusing on. Earlier than leaping in, ensure you’ve dialed in these three components first.

New to advertisements? Begin with the information in our information to social media promoting.

10. Supply long-time prospects a particular deal

Supply your loyal prospects and long-time subscribers one thing further for Black Friday. Make them really feel valued by providing a horny loyalty program, an extra low cost, or early entry to buy your offers, like this electronic mail despatched by PRESS Meals.

Supply: PRESS Meals

11. Optimize for cell

Sure, within the yr 2024 A.D. (After DOS), we’re nonetheless saying “optimize your website for mobile.” It nonetheless will get ignored.

54% of on-line orders occurred on cell units on Black Friday 2023 and Adobe is predicting the identical for this yr. However crucially, despite the fact that the cut up between cell and desktop is pretty even, sales quantity isn’t: cell buyers spend extra. Adobe predicts cell ecommerce will outperform desktop by 13.6%, a distinction of $15.4 billion.

Supply: Adobe

With the short tempo of Black Friday offers, a buggy or troublesome checkout course of is sufficient to flip your buyer towards a competitor as a substitute, or on the very least trigger frustration.

And earlier than you assume, “Couldn’t be me!”… Sure, it might. Web site glitches occur to everybody and whereas they’re by no means best, you particularly don’t need something that might decelerate sales on the busiest procuring day of the yr.

The primary rule of Black Friday marketing membership is, “You do not forget to test your website and checkout process on mobile.”

The second rule of Black Friday marketing membership is, “You do NOT forget to test.”

12. Supply “buy now, pay later”

Purchase Now, Pay Later choices proceed to be well-liked with customers, who used suppliers like Klarna, Afterpay, and others 14% extra through the 2023 vacation season.

However crucial purpose it’s best to supply some of these cost choices? Clients utilizing BNPL companies spend extra. The typical BNPL buyer spent 48% extra on Black Friday in comparison with prospects paying money or credit score.

Much more urgent is that 22% of customers say they’d store elsewhere if a retailer doesn’t supply Purchase Now, Pay Later choices.

In case you supply BNPL, let prospects know effectively earlier than they attain checkout by displaying the supplier’s brand on your web site. Frequent areas are the footer, and even proper within the product description so folks know instantly they’ve the choice, which might entice them to buy with you this vacation season.

Supply: Vistek

13. Use SMS marketing

In case you already textual content your prospects (often known as SMS marketing) then nice, work your Black Friday offers into the combo.

If not, it’s time to get on board with this excessive attain, excessive engagement channel. Black Friday is a superb alternative for this as offers and buyers are each transferring shortly, with luggage in a single hand and their smartphone possible clutched within the different.

Contemplate providing your SMS subscribers a brilliant particular low cost or reward for Black Friday, or change your deserted cart emails to textual content messages as a substitute to capitalize on fast motion.

The important thing with SMS marketing is to maintain it “in the moment.” Don’t ship a promo the week earlier than Black Friday. Ship it both the morning of Black Friday, or the day earlier than at most.

14. Goal deserted carts

Clearly you all the time wish to be recovering deserted carts, however planning your Black Friday marketing campaign is a superb time to retest and ensure deserted cart emails (or texts) are going out correctly, and say what you need them to.

Attempt experimenting with personalization choices, like displaying the precise merchandise the person left behind, to extend conversions. Or supply a particular Black Friday “come back” bonus deal.

Supply: Vistek

15. Create particular bundles

In case you supply a Black Friday deal just like sales you already run all year long, folks will be much less more likely to take you up on it since there’s a lot extra competitors.

Create one thing completely new that’s solely obtainable on Black Friday: a bundle of a number of merchandise at a reduction, your lowest worth of the yr on well-liked objects, or perhaps a value-add: purchase X, get Y free of charge.

Remember to talk the unique nature of the deal and the way it’s solely obtainable on Black Friday… and persist with it! That sense of urgency drives a “fear of missing out,” often known as FOMO.

Analysis has proven folks experiencing FOMO have “a high level of irrationality” which interprets into impulsive spending. The time period “fomsumerism” was coined to explain all of the methods urgency and wanting to slot in drive buyer habits:

Supply: FOMO associated shopper habits in marketing context: A scientific literature assessment.

16. Supply time-limited offers

Attempt providing a special promotion for every hour of Black Friday, or every day of the 5 day “Cyber Weekend,” which begins on Thanksgiving and ends with Cyber Monday.

B&H Photograph’s DealZone affords deeply discounted merchandise for sooner or later solely sales, making a purchase order a no brainer for somebody occupied with that merchandise.

Supply: B&H Photograph

In case you’re not discounting costs, or along with doing that, take into account providing a value-add like a free reward with buy or further loyalty rewards factors.

It’s also possible to supply a present card to make use of for a future order. Set a selected time prospects can use the reward card, equivalent to in January when sales are typically gradual.

This technique encourages prospects to spend extra and doesn’t value you something further proper now. Chances are high it could not value you something in any respect: research have discovered about half of customers lose a present card earlier than they’ve an opportunity to spend it.

Supply: Kohl’s

18. Comply with up

Black Friday marketing doesn’t finish at midnight, Cinderella.

Use the inflow of latest prospects as an opportunity to nurture each new and previous relationships, each instantly after an order and within the weeks post-Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

A couple of observe up ideas:

Ship order confirmations instantly, then observe up with transport/monitoring data.

Ship an electronic mail to those that didn’t buy with a particular supply, or prolonged Black Friday deal.

For brand new subscribers, ship a welcome electronic mail thanking them for subscribing and introduce your model.

Ask for a product assessment to construct up social proof.

Black Friday social media put up examples from 2023

Glossier’s solely sale of the yr

Supply: Glossier on Instagram

Cosmetics model Glossier famously doesn’t supply sales fairly often, apart from Black Friday. This helps construct momentum for it and encourage prospects to buy since getting a deal is so uncommon. Since Glossier usually options buyer feedback as social media posts, their Black Friday Sale announcement is each uncommon for a model and completely on-brand for them.

Steal this concept:

Residence Depot’s Black Friday slideshows

Supply: Residence Depot on Fb

Don’t have the finances or time to make stay motion Reels to advertise your Black Friday sale? Make a product “slideshow” video of your finest Black Friday offers like this instance from Residence Depot—completely potential to place collectively and schedule whereas nonetheless in your pajamas.

Steal this concept:

To make movies like this even sooner, save a “promotion video” template with your brand, model colours, and fonts, then simply edit the product photographs and data.

Easy sale reminder from Dick’s Sporting Items

Supply: Dick’s Sporting Items on Instagram

Identical to the above instance, making social media movies doesn’t should be difficult and even embrace a human being. This few second lengthy Reel could be shot and edited in minutes proper from your desk.

Steal this concept:

Easy could be efficient. Have a transparent level to the video and make it relatable. This one works because it’s displaying somebody prepared to buy with their reward finances record pulled up alongside the Dick’s web site.

Use daring textual content to get the purpose throughout shortly. Bonus: this may be the duvet photograph for your Instagram feed too.

Want extra Black Friday marketing marketing campaign inspiration? Take a look at 20+ recent social media put up ideas for 2024.

Construct pleasure for your Black Friday marketing marketing campaign with Hootsuite. Schedule and measure the ROI of natural and paid social media collectively, handle advertisements, reply to DMs and feedback, and spy on your opponents—every little thing you want for Black Friday social media in a single easy-to-use device. Attempt Hootsuite free right this moment.