Your Ultimate Black Friday Marketing Toolkit: Strategies, Tips, and Tools for 2023
If you need tips and tricks on how to start your Black Friday marketing strategy, you’ve come to the right place. We’re giving you all the info you need to get started and blow your competition out of the water.
Posted 6 months ago
Written by
Mackenzie TaylorPosted 6 months ago
With Black Friday shopping right around the corner, getting a plan in place for your Black Friday marketing is essential. For most businesses, Black Friday is the start of the holiday shopping season. In 2022 alone, Black Friday generated a record-breaking $9.03 billion in online sales, so not having a strategy in place means losing out on some major sales.
If you need tips and tricks on how to start your Black Friday marketing strategy, you’ve come to the right place. We’re giving you all the info you need to get started and blow your competition out of the water.
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What is Black Friday Marketing?
Black Friday, which happens the day after American Thanksgiving in November, is considered the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season. On this day, most businesses give significant discounts, special promotions, and more to get customers to buy buy buy for the start of the holidays.
Black Friday marketing is when brands and businesses have various strategies and tactics to help promote and maximize their sales on the day.
How to create engaging content for a Black Friday marketing campaign
Creating engaging content for a Black Friday marketing campaign is essential to capture your audience’s attention and drive sales (and that’s what you’re here for, right?). Here are some creative ways to create compelling content for your Black Friday campaign:
- Teasers and Countdowns: Start building excitement in the lead-up to Black Friday with teasers and countdowns. Use social media, email marketing, and your website to provide sneak peeks of the deals or announce how many days are left until the big day.
- Interactive Social Media Content: Run interactive contests, polls, and quizzes on social media. Encourage user participation and engagement by offering prizes or discounts to winners.
- Behind-the-Scenes Content: Share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your preparations for Black Friday. This could include showcasing your team’s efforts, setting up the store (if you have one!), or creating the products.
- User-Generated Content: Encourage your customers to share their experiences and purchases on social media using a specific hashtag. Repost the content to your own pages to build trust and authenticity.
- Video Content: Create short, attention-grabbing video content to showcase your Black Friday deals. This could be product demonstrations, unboxing videos, or animated graphics.
- Email Campaigns: Craft engaging email content that highlights your Black Friday deals. Use catchy subject lines, vibrant visuals, and clear calls to action to entice subscribers to click through to your website.
- Personalization: Utilize customer data to personalize your marketing messages. Tailor your content to each customer’s preferences and shopping history, suggesting relevant products.
- Storytelling: Share stories that resonate with your audience. This could include stories about your brand’s history, values, or the people behind the products. Stories can help create an emotional connection.
- Live Streams and Webinars: Host live streaming sessions or webinars that provide value to your audience, such as product demonstrations, Q&A sessions, or expert tips related to your products.
- Limited-Time Offers: Emphasize the urgency and scarcity of your Black Friday deals. Use phrases like “Act now, before it’s too late” or “Limited stock available” to create a sense of FOMO!
- Influencer Collaborations: Partner with influencers in your niche to promote your Black Friday deals. Influencers can provide authentic recommendations and reviews, which can be highly persuasive to their followers.
- Flash Sales and Daily Deals: Announce new flash sales or daily deals each day leading up to Black Friday. Make sure these announcements are attention-grabbing and shareable.
- Customer Testimonials and Reviews: Showcase positive customer testimonials and reviews to build trust and social proof. You can create visually appealing graphics or videos featuring these endorsements.
- Mobile-Optimized Content: Ensure all your content is mobile-friendly, as many shoppers use smartphones for online purchases. Optimize your website and emails for mobile devices.
- Visual Storytelling: Utilize compelling visuals like infographics, carousel ads, and GIFs to present information about your products and deals in a visually appealing way.
- Gamification: Incorporate gamification elements like spin-to-win wheels, scratch-off cards, or interactive product discovery tools on your website to engage visitors and reward them with discounts.
- Email Drip Campaigns: Plan a series of email campaigns leading up to Black Friday to gradually unveil your deals and create anticipation.
- Sneak Peek Catalogs: Create online catalogs or lookbooks that showcase your Black Friday product lineup. Allow customers to browse and save items they’re interested in.
How to leverage social media for Black Friday Marketing
Ready to bring your Black Friday marketing to social media? Well, it’s time to get ready! You can leverage social media platforms for Black Friday marketing by creating engaging and visually appealing content. Showcase your products or services by taking high-quality images and videos that highlight the benefits! Why should someone buy your product or service? What pain point are you solving for them? Be sure to highlight all of that and more when it comes to your social media content.
Next, you can run targeted ads on social media. Most social media platforms offer advanced targeting options that allow businesses to reach their perfect audience based on demographics, interests, and general behavior online. By creating compelling ad copy and imagery, you can start effectively promoting your Black Friday offers to your exact target audience every single time.
Another thing you should tap into is content creators! By using content creators, you can tap into their niche audience and increase your brand visibility, credibility, and online sales during Black Friday.
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Additionally, if you’re not interacting and engaging with your audience, you need to start! Responding to comments, DMs, and mentions will help you build up your online community and a sense of trust with future customers. By promptly responding to inquiries (you can even set up a chatbot to answer FAQs for you in seconds!) and providing helpful information, you can enhance your customer’s overall experience and encourage what you really want–conversions!
Lastly, you need to utilize your social media analytics! Monitor your key metrics like reach, engagement, click-through rates, and more to help you identify what strategies are working and which ones could use some major adjustments!
Tips for creating a step-by-step plan for Black Friday marketing
Creating a successful Black Friday marketing plan requires careful planning and execution. Not sure where to even begin? Don’t you worry! Here are the key steps to follow:
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Set clear goals
What are you wanting from your sale? Start by defining your objectives for Black Friday. Are you looking to increase sales, attract new customers, or promote specific products? Setting clear goals will help you stay focused and measure the success of your marketing efforts.
Understand your target audience
Who the heck is your audience? Identify who your target audience is and what they are looking for during Black Friday. Do market research to gain insights into their preferences, shopping habits, and needs. This will help you tailor your marketing messages and offers to completely resonate with your audience (and trust us, that’s what you want!).
Develop a compelling offer
Why do people want to spend their money on your offer? Black Friday is known for its attractive deals and discounts. Create an offer that your audience simply can’t refuse! Consider offering exclusive discounts, bundle deals, or limited-time promotions to entice customers to choose your products or services over competitors.
Leverage social media
Pull out the big guns! Social media platforms are powerful tools for promoting your Black Friday offers. Develop a social media marketing strategy that includes creating engaging content, running targeted ads, and leveraging content creators to reach a wider audience. Use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X (FKA Twitter) to generate buzz and drive traffic to your website or physical store.
Optimize your website
Something that many people forget about—ensure that your website is ready to handle the increased traffic during Black Friday! Optimize your site for speed, mobile responsiveness, and user experience. Create dedicated landing pages for your Black Friday offers and make it easy for customers to find and purchase your products or services.
Implement email marketing campaigns
Do not forget about emailing your customers! Email marketing is such an effective way to reach your existing customer base and keep them informed about your Black Friday offers. Create a series of engaging emails that highlight your deals, provide useful information, and create a sense of urgency. Personalize your emails based on customer preferences and behaviors to maximize their impact.
Monitor and analyze results
Throughout your Black Friday campaign, closely monitor the performance of your marketing efforts. Track key metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates, and sales to evaluate the success of your strategies. Use analytics tools to gain insights into customer behavior and make data-driven decisions for future marketing campaigns.
By following these steps, you’re officially ready to take on your Black Friday marketing!
Successful Black Friday Marketing campaigns
To help you really nail down your Black Friday marketing, let’s take a peek at what some other businesses have done that worked well for them:
REI
A few years ago, REI did an #OptOutside campaign for its Black Friday marketing. Instead of going the traditional route of discounting absolutely everything and running up its sales, REI decided to close (yes, close) its stores and encourage people to spend the day outside.
It was such a successful campaign because REI knew its customers well—people who want to spend more time in nature than in a store spending money on material possessions. The #OptOutside campaign created a lot of buzz around the brand, and honestly, it was all positive. It showed that the brand knew who it was speaking to when it came to its audience, and showed a unique approach to the typical Black Friday marketing.
Target
Back in 2019, Target decided to offer guests a 10% discount on all gift cards, both in-store and online, for one day only. Why are we talking about this specific campaign? Well, because it not only made customers want to go to Target and spend on Black Friday, but it also encouraged them to come back at a later date and spend their gift card.
A very winning strategy if you ask us.
Patagonia
In 2016, Patagonia donated 100% of its Black Friday sales to grassroots environmental organizations. The “100% for the Planet” campaign highlighted Patagonia’s brand values but it also connected with its customers who are socially conscious as well.
By choosing to donate its profits to a charitable cause, Patagonia stood out among the crowd and attracted more customers who wanted to make a positive impact with their purchases.
Tool to help you get started with Black Friday marketing
Flick
When it comes to building your Black Friday marketing, you need a tool that is going to help you with brainstorming and scheduling your content. You don’t want to spend hours and hours and not come up with anything good for your strategy, so having a tool like Flick will help you get those hours back.
With the AI Assistant, you can brainstorm unique content and caption ideas in seconds, so you’re not staring at a blank screen trying to come up with exciting ideas. Inside our platform, you can also schedule all of your content in one place, so you never miss a single post! This way you can stay consistent at all times, and post your content at the best time for your audience. Inside our Scheduler, you can also ask the AI Assistant to help you find the best hashtags for your content and even create AI images that work perfectly for your content!
The AI Assistant writes completely in your brand voice and uses caption templates so each post is unique and sounds like an actual human!
Ready to try? Start a free 7-day trial today!
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