The highest grossing quarter for eCommerce is coming up quickly and the largest sales event of the year (Black Friday sale followed by Cyber Monday) will be here before you know it. As an eCommerce shop, being prepared and having a strategy to make the most of this sales opportunity can have a significant impact on revenue. Planning ahead and preparing now will help you maximize the sales potential and take some of the load off so that you are less drained during the actual sale.
We interviewed a group of eCommerce brands about their plans for Q4 and what they are doing with regards to email marketing and promotion to prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM). We wanted to get an idea of where people are in their preparation to what extent they plan to maximize their sales growth in the final quarter of the year.
Most businesses that we interviewed agree that Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are extremely significant in promoting their businesses, gaining profit, and at the same time gaining new customers. Even if BFCM is months away, you should be thinking about building and preparing your email lists and campaigns today in order to gather customers to participate in your sales events. The majority of those we spoke to plan their marketing strategy for BFCM 1-3 weeks in advance, however several such as Belle Fever, Hapsy, and the handbag brand DYLAN KAIN do this 3+ months ahead of time. To stay ahead during this biggest sale of the year, advancing your promotion can be a way to boost your brand’s sales to the top.
BFCM is largely about creating a unique buying opportunity and most customer have an expectation of an offer that is not available throughout the rest of the year. Most retailers offer large discounts however this is not the only strategy to use. Creating exclusivity, limited availability on special products, free gifts or upgrades are also very common sights. Customers are generally in a buyers mindset during this sales period so it is important to build a campaign strategies where the prospective customer feels special in some way.
Email marketing will likely be a crucial part of your campaign and invaluable for keeping your customers engaged and making them feel special. Through email marketing, you can offer special deals to your email subscribers and make them feel like they’re being treated as a VIP. You can reengage past customer and prospective ones that you have attracted to your lists with limited offers, discounts and other perks that you can offer to get them excited and buy again.
For those we interviewed the importance of email as part of their strategy is well recognized. According to Carolina Acosta of tragosgame, they saw the value immediately as the 1-5 campaigns they ran a month contributed 10% to their monthly profit. Of course, it is not as easy as it seems, but for Carolina, she finds it hard to optimize flows and click rates but is best at designing and segmentation. Another one is Bonnie Davis of dylankain who runs their store’s email marketing independently, Bonnie, too, runs 1-5 campaigns per month which contribute a lot to their average revenue! Lastly, Banjo Ben Clark, who started doing their email marketing 10 years ago is still thriving and earning well with more than 40% of their revenue coming from email marketing! This huge percentage of revenue came from 5-10 campaigns per month, and running a good deal of well-strategized campaigns, really is worth it. For a someone as well versed in email marketing like Banjo, he still has things to work on like the flow logic of email marketing and its scheduling, but their strength in copywriting sure makes up for it.
HUGE SALE STRATEGIES
For those who do not find the BFCM weekend to be as important as other retailers, which is the case for the apothecary brand Small Flower, the entire Q4 is generally a large event regardless. As a brand who provides gifts, the lead up to Christmas is full of opportunity and a strong sales period for them.
HUGE SALE STRATEGIES YOU SHOULD BE SETTING UP IN ADVANCE
- Settle your shipping and stocks beforehand
According to adobe analytics, last year’s (2021) sale during Black Friday and Cyber Monday were down 1.3%. The main issues encountered during that time beyond those from the pandemic, was not having enough stocks and shipping issues. {{ADD REFERENCE}}
To avoid the same issues, as early as today, you should prepare your shipping management. Partner with the couriers who can reach your customers immediately and can ensure the safety of the products too. Make sure that you also have enough stocked products to meet demand, especially the ones on sale or the ones that are highly sought after. This can be balanced through marketing too by pushing the products you want to sell well on those days.
- Have loyal and existing customers work or you
Why not use the opportunity to leverage your network and encourage your customers to recommend a friend. As a brand that values its customers, it is likely that you have nurtured your customers hoping that they will be loyal shoppers who favor your brand. Start a referral system and encourage them to share your brand with their friends.
As a way of giving thanks, you can give the both the referrer and new customer a benefit or discount to encourage the existing and new customer to purchase with you. Set up a function on your store’s page to enter the username/email of the person who referred your brand to them. We would encourage that you do this in a way to capture the email address of the referred customer even if they are not yet ready to purchase. Growing your email subscribers is a key point of planning your big sale, and the next step is, of course, reaching them and enticing them to shop and avail of your promos!
- Use the upcoming holidays as an excuse for your pop-up campaigns!
Prime your sales with popup and banners across your website promoting the upcoming sales events. Incentivizing people with access to your sales event can be a great gateway to get prospective customers onto your mailing list and is an enticing reason for them to subscribe. - Leverage an audience for future sales events
Since Black Friday and Cyber Monday are at the end of November, you can use that event to leverage other sales in Q4. You can:
- Tell your customers to get an extraordinary discount for the Christmas sale if they reach a certain amount in your store during Black Friday and Cyber Monday
- Design your campaigns as advance Christmas gifts/treats
- Make a raffle wherein discounts won can be used during the Christmas sale
- Offer generous discounts and deals
It goes without saying, the most common expectation for BFCM is for a generous discount that are not available at any other time of year. If you are able to facilitate that you should do what you can to provide the most impressive discounts and offers that you can.
Promoting those well in advance can help grow your list and anticipation for the huge deals ahead. Given that most email marketing campaigns from high-earning brands prepare their plans for holiday events and sales for up to 2 months before, makes it the right time for you to start today and take a few more steps ahead of the game!
- Promote products through popular social media sites and get people to subscribe to your newsletter!
Most people today spend a significant amount of time on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and TikTok. By using these platforms, you can advertise your products and have a broader prospect of people who can follow you and even subscribe their emails to your newsletter for you to push your sales events! Having a healthy subscriber list and embracing email marketing should be a key part of your marketing efforts. Gaining subscribers through social media can be a great strategy.
This coming Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale, try and obtain an email address through these social campaigns. Also, it would be beneficial for you to expose your products in a real-life scenario, such as spreading unboxing videos or ways on how your products are useful and enticing customers to know more. Make your brand known through social media and let customers come into you effortlessly
Most of the brands mentioned treat Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale as the most important event of the year, as this boost not just their sales but also their popularity among their competitors. Also, it is important to note that most of the 32 brands interviewed by us, plan their advertising campaigns for as short as 1-3 weeks with few taking that extra time to prepare further in advance! So if having the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale is what you want, start planning today!
We would like to thank all of our contributors for providing valuable information on their email marketing strategies ahead of black Friday and cyber Monday. All of those who helped provide insight we have listed below and would encourage all of our readers to check their products out!
Elephant Box
