Preparing for Black Friday: Proven Ways to Boost Revenue
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just around the corner, which means the biggest sales of the year are right around the corner too. Black Friday is known for being a day of crazy discounts and deals on just about everything from televisions to toys. This can be great for consumers but it can also be difficult for businesses. In order to help you prepare, we’ve compiled some proven ways that will help increase your revenue during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales!
What Makes This Year Different?
Black Friday is going to be a very big deal this year. According to retail analyst Springboard, foot traffic in stores will be up 80.9% over last year and online will be bigger than ever. With last year’s Black Friday being mostly online due to the coronavirus pandemic, it is expected that shoppers are eager to get back into the store this year.
Knowing that your customers and future customers are going to be ready and eager to shop, it is imperative that your business is overly prepared. Lack of Black Friday preparation can lead to last-minute scrambling, fulfillment issues, and being less than impressed with your BF/CM revenue.
The Importance of Preparation
Black Friday is known for being a day of crazy discounts and deals on just about everything from televisions to toys to services. This can be great for consumers but it can also be difficult for e-commerce stores in order!
To prepare, you will need to check your inventory, understand your margins (and how Black Friday will affect them), optimize prices, deal with shipping times, provide customer service before Black Friday hits, and you might even want to hire temporary help or overtime hours. Black Friday can be successful if e-commerce stores are prepared with good systems in place that allow them to focus on Black Friday while the e-commerce store hums along in the background.
Here are 7 ways you can prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2021.
Plan, Plan, and Plan Some More!
We are only a few weeks from Black Friday and people are already starting to scout out the best deals. Knowing this, the best time to start planning is now if you haven’t already!
The last thing your customers want to feel on this big shopping holiday is underwhelmed, so come up with a series of promotions and discounts that are sure to wow them and have them clicking Add to Cart.
Set Your Goals and Targets
Success looks different for each individual company. Set goals that are realistic for your business’s sales and have a plan in place to track your metrics accordingly. A good rule of thumb is to use benchmarks from previous years and calculate the YOY growth of your business. That way, you can have an achievable goal that you can be excited about.
The whole idea of Black Friday and Cyber Monday is to have an excess in sales. But don’t feel like you quadruple your sales in order to have a successful BF/CM promotion.
Optimize Your Website
A slow website leads to an exponential number of bounces and missed sales opportunities. Ensure that your website is running well by testing these specific areas:
- Ensure your site is mobile-friendly. The days of using a separate mobile site or app are over – you need your design to be responsive and work across all devices.
- Test load times. People want to find what they want quickly and get out of your site so they can do something else. But if your website loads too slow, they’re going to get frustrated and leave. And chances are, they’re not coming back.
- Have captivating headlines. Your website is your 24-hour salesperson, so it’s important to make sure that you have well-written headlines.
- Include clear CTA’s and minimal exit points. It’s important that all CTAs are clear and easy to find because if they’re too hard to notice, then no one will click them!
Making simple improvements in these areas can drastically help your website and create a much better user experience. When visitors have an exceptional experience on your site, they’re far more likely to move forward with a purchase.
Carefully Select Your Sale Products and Product Descriptions
If you’re running an e-commerce store this Black Friday, one of the most important things you’ll want to do is carefully select your products and product descriptions.
Don’t lose track of your bottom line! Is it true that you may see a large increase in sales if you drastically mark down all of your product prices? Yes. However, you need to be smart about it and make sure you’re still making a profit. Incorporate the costs of marketing, fulfillment, customer service, and the product itself.
While describing these products on the product page, write product descriptions that make people feel like they can’t live without your product or service. Show them the benefits, show how it solves their problem, and create an emotional connection with your website visitors.
Create Hype on Social Media
Social media is a great place to get people excited and create a buzz about your upcoming sale! Build suspension by teasing at your upcoming promotions, hosting a giveaway, or offering smaller Black Friday deals in advance. Plus, if you make it easy for your visitors to share this information, they will!
Post beautiful content that’s enticing to your audience. A good way to build trust and rapport with potential customers is through social proof. On your social channels, share client testimonials and reviews. People are more likely to trust the word of their peers than a company that they haven’t ordered from quite yet.
Send Out Exciting Emails
Similarly to posting on social media, you should also tease your upcoming BF/CM
Email marketing is a powerful tool for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are a time of year where people are more likely to spend money on things they don’t need or buy items that they wouldn’t normally buy. Black Friday and Cyber Monday is also the busiest day of the year for e-commerce stores, so it’s important to use email marketing as a way to get people excited about your Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions. In order to leverage Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you’ll want to send out email promotions leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
When sending out e-mails, make sure you create an engaging subject line. This will help get your customer’s attention when they look at their inbox.
Offer a Great Customer Experience and Learn for Next Year's Black Friday!
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the busiest days of the year for e-commerce stores. It’s important to carefully select your products, create hype on social media leading up Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions, send out engaging Black Friday/Cyber Monday emails, offer a great customer experience throughout Black Friday. The rewards can be substantial!
Not sure where to get started with your Black Friday graphics? NLC is here to help. Below, you’ll be able to download your free Black Friday templates! Simply download the templates, add your images and logo, and post on social media, use for advertisements, send out in email and SMS campaigns, and more. The options are endless!
Prefer to leave it to the professionals? We offer unlimited graphics plans to accommodate all business sizes. Click here to view our graphic packages.
Free Black Friday Templates
Boost Black Friday Sales With Fresh Designs!!!
Download our FREE Black Friday Ad Templates. Get access to high quality, performance driven ad concepts from our top designers. We’ve made our templates easy to use with free editing programs like Canva, so you can drop in your product and start your campaign.
