As the holiday season approaches, eCommerce businesses are gearing up for one of the highest-stakes shopping events of the year — the Black Friday Sale. While it is easy to get excited about it, you still need to plan your marketing efforts carefully, and this ultimate guide will help you with this task.

In this article, we will tell you how to get ready for the most awaited shopping event and then unveil seven expert strategies to help your business make this Black Friday your most successful one yet!

Getting Ready for the Biggest Sale of the Year

Before discovering revenue-driving marketing campaigns and ideas for Black Friday, let's make sure your eCommerce business is ready for holiday sale exposure. Below are not-to-miss steps you have to make in advance.

Set the Goals and Plan Beforehand

There are five common goals retail brands usually set before the Black Friday sale:

• Increasing sales revenue
• Acquiring more customers
• Improving conversion rate while decreasing cart abandonment
• Increasing the Average Order Value (AOV)
• Managing inventory more efficiently

Each of the goals is equally important for a successful ecommerce business. Still, you have to prioritize them depending on the current state of your business and your future plans. For each of the goals, it is necessary to set realistic KPIs you are planning to achieve during Black Friday.

Segment Your Customers

Customer segmentation involves dividing your customer base into distinct groups based on shared characteristics, behaviors, and preferences. Such a simple tactic allows for better allocation and personalization of your marketing efforts during the sales peak. It empowers you to enhance the customer experience, reduce cart abandonment, and maximize cross-sell vs upsell opportunities.

For instance, you can provide loyal customers with early access to sales or offer exclusive deals to first-time shoppers. Depending on the previous purchases, you will be able to come up with personalized product recommendations shared by email with a Black Friday promo code. Next, we will discover more winning strategies based on user segments.

Ensure Mobile Optimization

Since mobile commerce is on the rise, ensuring mobile optimization becomes essential, especially for those retailers with no mobile shopping app. To make your website mobile shopping-friendly on Black Friday, consider the next simple tips:

• Perform a thorough mobile site audit to identify and rectify any issues, paying special attention to slow loading times. To fix it, you can optimize images and media.
• Prioritize a responsive design that adapts seamlessly to various screen sizes and devices.
• Simplify the checkout process, making it mobile-friendly with minimal steps. You can also consider adding a one-click order form.

Opt for an Omnichannel Approach

While some retailers may consider focusing on a single channel, the truth is that leveraging multiple channels is often more effective. Omnichannel approach allows to communicate with clients through all channels united in one system using the same data. The matter is that modern customers are used to communicating with brands across various channels and platforms. By diversifying your marketing efforts across them, you can meet your clients where they are and cater to their preferred channel, ultimately increasing your reach and potential for conversions.

During the Black Friday buzz, the majority of retailers will do their best to grab the attention of the customers, so standing out requires more than a one-dimensional approach. That's why it's necessary to keep in constant touch with them through email, web and mobile push, interactive widgets, in-app, SMS, and Viber messages. With the help of the Yespo Omnichannel CDP, you will be able to leverage them all, creating personalized and automated marketing strategies for each of your customer segments.

Be Creative With Marketing Ideas and Content

Black Friday is one of the greatest opportunities to unleash marketing creativity. During the biggest sale of the year, you are welcome to come up with new marketing ideas, test them with your audience, and discover what works best for your customers. So, let’s do it!

Black Friday Marketing Ideas for Retail Brands

1. Making Your Website Drive Sales

According to statistics, product recommendations account for more than 30% of ecommerce website revenue. During Black Friday, you have the opportunity to skyrocket this figure by providing your shoppers with relevant, tailored, and behavior-based product offerings coming at a better price. Below are the most popular ecommerce product recommendations mechanics you are welcome to leverage.

• Best Sellers. This is the most popular recommendation algorithm the majority of retailers have long implemented on their website, like in the example below. Indeed, highlighting popular and trusted products helps customers make purchasing decisions faster.

• Black Friday Featured Deals. Attract more attention from your shoppers by creating a dedicated product recommendation section devoted to the best deals of Black Friday. You can also consider implementing such a section in advance, building anticipation among your shoppers. Here is how Kasta, one of the largest Ukrainian retailers, does it.

• Recently Viewed. Those in doubt about making a purchase can also get closer to the conversion if you show them previously browsed items. When implementing this algorithm during Black Friday, it would be great to highlight the amount of discount they get.
• Bought Together. Foxtrot, one of the largest Ukrainian electronics retailers and Yespo customer, have implemented such an algorithm on their website. Together with other recommendation mechanics, the retailer grew accessories sales by 16%. Implementing the "Bought Together" recommendation during Black Friday can also become a proven way to sell more and increase customer satisfaction with their purchase.

• You May Also Like. Implementing a "You May Also Like" product recommendation feature is a winning tactic to help customers in doubt choose the item they need.

• Running Out of Stock. Triggering a Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) during Black Friday is a proven strategy to make customers buy more, and implementing a "Running Out of Stock" product recommendation feature on the website is only one of the tactics to do it. This simple idea can also significantly reduce the cart abandonment rate during the holiday shopping season.

With the help of the Yespo Customer Data Platform, you can set up any of these product recommendation blocks, and take advantage of more than 180 custom-made algorithms that will take into account your shoppers' behavior and preferences.

2. Warming Up Your Subscribers with Emails

After you’ve made your website ready for one of the biggest sales of the year, it's time to warm up your customers and make them anticipate great discounts and exclusive offers. Below are some of the ideas on how to do it with email newsletters.

• Sneak Peek Teasers. Sneak peek teasers are short, and enticing previews of the upcoming Black Friday deals and offers that you plan to offer during the sales event. So, consider sending them ahead of Black Friday to generate excitement and build anticipation. Your letters may include hints about the types of products that will be on sale, the magnitude of discounts, or specific offers that will be available, without revealing all the details to maintain an element of surprise. Designing and sending such letters with the Yespo email marketing tool is intuitive and easy.

• Mystery Coupons. To add engagement and gamification to your Black Friday email campaign, you can consider distributing mystery coupons, allowing your subscriber to test their luck and get a promo code with a personalized discount, which, as an option, can be applied to buy their wishlist products, Black Friday specials or storewide.

• Thank You Letters. In addition to being one of the largest sales of the year, Black Friday is also a good reason to show your appreciation to your loyal customers. Take the example below for inspiration and run a Thank You Letter campaign to begin the Black Friday sale on the ultimately positive vibe.

• Black Friday Survival Guide. As for some creative Black Friday email content pieces, consider preparing a BF survival guide for your customers. In this letter, you can provide them with valuable tips on how to shop smartly, plan their shopping budget, and choose the best deals — of course, among those your store is about to offer.
• Gift Ideas for Different User Segments. The main benefit of segmenting your users depending on different factors is the opportunity to provide them with more relevant content and offers. Before Black Friday, you can consider running segmented campaigns showing different user groups relevant gift ideas. For example, Ostriv, a fashion concept store, created a segment of users who have kids to send them more relevant product recommendations in email letters.

3. Capturing New and Engaging Existing Customers with Widgets

When used strategically, website widgets turn into powerful tools for grabbing users' attention, converting leads into customers, building loyalty, and increasing sales. During Black Friday, they can drive even more benefits. Discover both common and creative ideas for using them this year.

• Subscription discount. Subscription widgets are the most popular tools for capturing new website visitors. Black Friday isn't an exception but an opportunity to offer the most attractive bonus or deep discount in exchange for the new user email address.

• Wheel of Fortune. Since gamification is an essential part of modern marketing, your new and existing customers will be willing to play a sales game and spin the wheel. A lot of retail brands use a wheel widget ongoingly to capture new website visitors but during Black Friday, it can drive even more curiosity and engagement. Just make sure to offer Black Friday-worth discounts as prizes.

• Black Friday sale countdown. Using countdown widgets on your website is another way to build anticipation. See how MustHave, a Ukrainian clothing brand, does it to help its customers get into the shopping mood before Black Friday starts.

• Exit intent popup with a limited-time offer. Exit-intent widgets can be a highly effective strategy for getting your visitors back to your product range. Widgets with limited-time offers, in turn, create a sense of urgency, making your shoppers act quickly to take advantage of a deal with a rapidly approaching expiration.

• Cart abandonment popup. There are a lot of ways to decrease cart abandonment rate, and using widgets is one of the most effective ones. During Black Friday, consider offering some more bonuses to those who added the products to the cart but abandoned them. The opportunity to ship the order for free can work wonders in this case.
• Mobile app download widget. Those eсommerce retailers who have a mobile app can significantly increase the number of mobile users using widgets. For example, Fishka, a Ukrainian loyalty program with more than 8 million customers, turned 30% of website visitors who clicked such a widget, into mobile app users. During Black Friday, growing mobile user base becomes easier if you hint at app-only deals, better discounts, and exclusive offers.

4. Engaging Your Shoppers with Web and Mobile Push

Certainly, using widgets on an eсommerce website is an effective strategy for engaging and converting visitors, but it relies on the customer's presence on the site. Web and mobile push notifications, on the other hand, serve as powerful tools to bring customers back to the website, ensuring they don't miss out on valuable offers, promotions, and widget-driven experiences. Consider the following ideas for Black Friday web and mobile pushes.

• Exclusive Pre-Sale Alerts. By sending out such alerts, you could highlight the exclusive nature of the event, emphasizing that it is a limited-time opportunity for customers to snag great deals. This builds a sense of urgency and makes customers feel like they are part of an exclusive group that gets early access to discounts.

• Free Shipping Alerts. Such a simple thing as free shipping can make all the difference between conversion and shopping cart abandonment. According to statistics, 48% of online customers abandon their orders because of shipping costs, while 78% of online shoppers would rather prefer to buy more than pay extra for the order delivery. During Black Friday, providing a free shipping option is one of the best ways to skyrocket your sales. What’s more, you don't have to wait until your customers visit your website or open a mobile app — instead, encourage them to do it by sending a web push notification with a free shipping alert.

• Bundle Deals Notifications. Those stores with thousands of items in their product range are welcome to create complementary bundles and offer them at a win-win price during the Black Friday Sale. You can also include free shipping with your bundle deals to increase the number of sales.
• Price Drop Alerts. Prom.ua, one of the largest Ukrainian marketplaces, created a full-fledged retention strategy with mobile push notifications at its heart. Price drop for previously viewed and wishlisted products is only one of the triggers used by the company. You can also consider using this approach closer to the end of the Black Friday Sale so that you can efficiently manage excess stock and clear out surplus inventory.

• Location-Based Offers. If you have a physical store, you can invite passing-by customers to visit your shop, like Sephora does, with the help of mobile push messages.

• Limited Stock Warnings. During the peak of Black Friday sales, "running out of stock" notifications work like a charm, especially for items that the user has added to their wishlist. Depending on the platform the user has interacted with previously, you can create personalized mobile or web push notifications, informing them that the desired item may soon become unavailable.

5. Getting Closer to Conversion with App Inbox

In addition to web and mobile push notifications, you can also send app inbox messages on both web and mobile. While pushes are valuable for sending time-sensitive alerts or encouraging immediate action, app inbox messages excel at providing users with persistent, structured, and content-rich information that they can access at their convenience. So, here is how you can use this communication channel during Black Friday.

• Mobile App-Only Offers. A lot of companies create dedicated offers for mobile app users, for example, providing them with early access to shop limited collections or sharing deeper discounts compared to the web store. This is a good tactic to build the loyalty of this target audience segment and encourage them to use your mobile app even more actively during Black Friday and after it.
• Product Availability Updates. Black Friday is a day eagerly anticipated by both shopping enthusiasts and online retailers. That's why the latter often make the most of this opportunity by announcing their sales as early as Monday and gradually increasing the discount amount, reaching its maximum on Friday. And that's why it's not surprising that popular products sometimes sell out before everyone eager to buy them can do so. In such cases, you can utilize app inbox messages on both web and mobile to provide updates on the availability of products that users have previously shown interest in but either postponed or missed purchasing.

• Order Status Updates. Finally, app inbox messages are great for staying in touch with the customers and updating them on their order status and delivery process. They provide a convenient and proactive way to ensure customers are informed and satisfied with their purchase experience.

6. Finalizing the Black Friday Sale with SMS and Instant Messages

SMS messages and instant messenger notifications offer a valuable opportunity to finalize Black Friday deals, especially for customers who have shown no response to previous communication channels like email, push notifications, or in-app messages. As the Black Friday sale nears its conclusion, sending an SMS can become a last-ditch effort to re-engage these customers and provide a compelling reason to participate.

However, keep in mind that SMS is now the most expensive communication channel, so you should be smart with the messages you send to each of your user segments. For example, you can send the "The Last Call" message to those users who didn't participate in the sale at all, provide a personalized discount to cart abandoners, and/or remind them of the limited stock.

7. The Most Advanced Tactic — Omnichannel Automation

Since Black Friday is one of the most anticipated shopping events of the year, e-commerce companies continually seek innovative ways to maximize their sales and enhance the customer experience. An omnichannel marketing approach addresses both goals at once while optimizing operational costs.  By combining all marketing channels into a holistic communication strategy, brands can build fully automated workflows that will seamlessly drive the customer to the conversion.

Suppose you have segmented your customers according to the product category they shop on your website and send them an email letter with personalized product offerings and Black Friday discounts. Chances are that share of them opens an email and places an order but how can you engage those who left your email without attention? An omnichannel marketing tactic suggests getting in touch with them using another channel, for example, a web push message with an offer to discover Black Friday deals.

Some of them will engage with a push and either place an order or abandon a view or cart. To convert the second group, you can send them a mobile app inbox message with a special incentive to buy the products viewed or chosen on the website. Those who abandoned a cart again can then receive a Viber message with a free shipping opportunity, which is likely to finally make them finalize the order. The chart below describes this sample scenario step-by-step.

Step	Action	Result
1.  Personalized email	Send personalized email with a product set.	The customer doesn't open the email.
2.  Web push	Send a web push notification with an offer to explore Black Friday deals.	The customer clicks the notification, visits the website, adds some items, and abandons the cart.
3.  In-app message	Send an in-app message with a 10% OFF offer for finalizing the order in an app.	The customer opens the message but abandons the cart again.
4.  Viber message	Send a Viber message offering free shipping with an additional item.	The customer adds the complementary item and finalizes the order.
5.  Confirmation email	Send an order confirmation email with details and a thank-you message.	The customer successfully completes the order.

And here is what this workflow looks like in the Yespo omnichannel system:

Long story short, an omnichannel marketing approach allows for using every communication channel turn-by-turn, activating the next only if there is no desired action from the customer in the previous one. During Black Friday, running such automated and behavior-driven workflows becomes a cutting-edge advantage, giving brands the opportunity to capture all its customers across the touchpoints and gather valuable customer data for future use.

When Black Friday Sale Is Over — Your Not-to-Miss Points

After the Black Friday sale is over, it's a perfect time to reflect on the implemented strategies, analyze the gathered customer data, and plan for the next big sale events. Below are three points to pay special attention to.

Post-campaign Analysis

For shoppers, Black Friday is one of the greatest sales of the year. For retailers, in turn, it is also a goldmine of valuable customer data that you can gather and analyze.

For example, In Yespo CDP, you can easily analyze your revenue from campaigns by channels. You can choose the period (for example, seven days of your sale lasting for a week), see the average order value, total revenue amount, and the amount of revenue delivered by each communication channel.

Customer Retention

Successful customer retention after Black Friday should be a balance of appreciating the brand's loyalists and nurturing newly acquired customers. For each of them, you need separate retention strategies.

With the help of Yespo, you can create a dedicated segment of the customers acquired during the Black Friday sale and build communication with them being guided by the products they bought. As an option, you can extend the discount for first-time shoppers to make them feel valued and then, gradually introduce them into the breadth of your product offerings with targeted emails.

Loyal customers, in turn, need separate retention approaches. Offer them exclusive loyalty rewards and keep delivering exceptional customer service.

Planning for Christmas and New Year Sales

Many retailers would agree that Black Friday serves as a warm-up to the Christmas and New Year sales. Therefore, use your Black Friday sales experience as an opportunity to analyze the most successful strategies, identify the communication channels that work best for your subscribers, and ensure an ample supply of your customers' favorite products. Remember that during the holiday season, personalized and engaging customer experiences are paramount as shoppers seek meaningful and convenient ways to find the perfect gifts for their loved ones.

Final Words

Ensuring high sales during Black Friday requires careful planning and preparation in advance. In this article, we shared effective and easy-to-implement strategies to drive Black Friday sales, provide your customers with more relevant offers, reduce cart abandonment, and engage your shoppers with conversion-boosting messages using widgets, mobile and web push notifications, in-app, SMS, and Viber messages, and email letters.

With the help of the Yespo Omnichannel CDP, you can create automated communication workflows, using these channels strategically, and moving from the most affordable to the most expensive one, seamlessly pushing your customers to conversion. You are also welcome to embed product recommendation algorithms on your website and interact with your website visitors more effectively using popup widgets.

Our expert team will also be happy to help you get ready for the Black Friday sale and show how our system works for sales growth during one-to-one consultation!

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