Black Friday: Top tips and strategies to boost your online sales
Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday represent real opportunities for advertisers to increase their profits and improve their awareness. However, like sales periods, these strong times exacerbate competition between brands and companies. It launches the start of Christmas shopping and also reflects the mood of consumers, becoming a marker of economic growth for the coming year according to economists.
In order to keep you out of trouble, our experts will offer you the appropriate advice to help you succeed in your e-commerce campaign.?
The origins of the Black Friday concept
First introduced in the United States in 1930, the term ‘Black Friday’ refers to the Friday after Thanksgiving, the 4th Friday of the month. It was introduced by traders following the 1929 economic crisis, in order to stimulate the economy.
The growth of Black Friday and the emergence of Cyber Monday.
In the mid-1960s, Black Friday began appearing on American billboards and television commercials. The success of this event has continued to grow since then. In 2000, it was officially globalized and designated as the biggest shopping day of the year. The trade battle is so difficult that some brands start their promotional sales on Thanksgiving night, without waiting until Friday morning.
Faced with the success of physical sales, online sales introduced Cyber Monday in 2005, to encourage consumers to shop on the web rather than in the store. It starts the Monday after Black Friday. Success was not long in coming; in 2018, sales during Cyber Monday reached $7.9 billion in the United States, compared to $6.2 billion for Black Friday.
The emergence of Black Friday in Switzerland
Although Black Friday arrived at our French neighbors in 2010, it was not until 2014 that it emerged in Switzerland through Manor. In the United States the promotions were originally made in physical outlets however, nowadays, Black Friday discounts followed by Cyber Monday offers, are primarily made on the web.
2021 saw a slowdown in online sales, with Credit Suisse estimating sales of CHF 130 million compared to CHF 160 million in 2020. By comparison, average daily sales were amounting?to CHF 30 million.
In Switzerland, merchants see Black Friday as a cannibalization of sales and a drop in profits. Impulse purchases are infrequent compared to planned purchases.
On the consumer side, behaviors differ between buyers always on the lookout for the biggest discounts and the emergence of a new movement, the advocation of more reasonable consumption, saying: “Make Black Friday green again.”
Our tips for a successful Black Friday
In order to make you stand out among your many competitors during Black Friday, a strong and pre-planned marketing strategy is required.
Here are some recommendations from our experts:
Define a good keyword strategy
Setting up seasonal keywords and buying trends?for Black Friday will help you more effectively achieve your SEO goals and attract consumers to your e-commerce site or physical outlets.
But how to?choose the right keywords??Inserting “Black Friday 2022” or “Black Friday sales” in each paragraph is not enough, as these are generic terms, which are borrowed by all e-commerce players! Therefore, you need to focus on?long-tail search keywords and phrases,?corresponding to your articles, and your industry. Also, consider using terms relevant to your field in your product descriptions and on each landing page. Google provides you with quality tools to help you with this task, including?keyword planner and Google Trends.?Google Analytics will also allow you to track the success of?your SEO strategy and adapt it based on your performance.
Having?landing pages specifically dedicated to Black Friday and Cyber Monday?can also maximize customer attention and improve your SERP ranking.
Optimize your website and landing pages
If you manage an e-commerce site, you know that you will have to deal with an?increase in traffic?to your site. Your landing pages must therefore be?optimized?both in terms of?quality and relevance of content, as well as in?loading time.
According to a study by the American siegemedia agency, a usual?bounce rate?(the user leaves the site without performing any interaction) for a classic site is 50.9% and on average?54.8% for an e-commerce site.?It is also more important for users on mobile than on computer. According to a study conducted by Google in 2017, a slowness of 1 to 3 seconds increases the rebound rate by 32%. Beyond 5 seconds, the rate reaches even 90%: a real scourge for a site!
A fast loading time of your?landing pages?also promotes the loyalty of your e-commerce customers. An aspect not to be neglected when we know that it costs on average 3 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain it! A great asset to generate additional sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Make sure your mobile app or website is responsive
Since 2014, mobile sales have overtaken computer sales and have grown steadily since. Is your website mobile-friendly and fully responsive ? According to Shopify, 71% of purchases are now made via mobile devices for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
We advise you to check the availability of your?application, consult user reviews to identify issues potentially encountered by users to be able to fix them quickly.
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Regarding your site, it must be perfectly adapted to the mobile format : text and image display format, navigation menus, layout of product blocks…
Build your email list upstream
The implementation of solid?e-mail campaigns?is crucial to any company active on the web and becomes particularly essential during the Black Friday period. Your Black Friday campaigns must provide interesting, personalized information designed to engage customers in your promotional offers.
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To perfectly carry out your e-mail campaign for Black Friday, we recommend that you follow the following procedure:
1. Prepare your email and newsletters
Get as many e-mail addresses as possible from your site and your CRM database: customers, prospects, visitors… This will allow you to send them your upcoming offers and promotions, which you can then personalize.
2. Tease your promotions.
Start sending details of your promotions in advance as a teaser. Whether it’s a discount, free shipping, exclusive products or a donation to a charity, it’s imperative to start creating suspense, to make consumers want to buy from you. Remember to work on your customer segments (new, lost, VIPs) and send your emails relatively early to avoid being spammed on D-Day.
3. Thank your customers for their purchases.
To create a link in the relationship with your customers and improve their loyalty, we encourage you to send them a follow-up email to thank your customers for their purchases. We advise you to send them a thank you email 5 to 7 days after their purchase, to avoid any feeling of harassment. And why not take the opportunity to offer them a promo code at the next order?
4. Relaunch visitors abandoning their baskets.
According to the English institute Baymard, the average drop-out rate in e-commerce is 68.5%. During Black Friday and the holidays, consumers often tend to put products in their basket and then change their mind or postpone their purchase. Hence the importance of creating remarketing to encourage users to come back to finalize their purchases quickly.
Run paid campaigns and ads
If organic traffic is the best way to be ranked on Google and other search engine results pages (SERP), paid ads can be very useful for Black Friday marketing. Promoting your offers with?PPC (Pay Per Click)ads seems to be useful in order to quickly increase your online traffic. About 79% of brands using PPC say it is a “big driver” of their success. With many customization options, you can easily deliver your paid ads to your target audience. Finally, choosing sponsored ads on social networks is a great way to reach your audience and increase your visibility.
Keep an eye on the competition
Competition inevitably intensifies during this period, which means constantly monitoring your competitors and newcomers: sign up for their?newsletter, visit their website or application, add a Google alert on their name to know their news, monitor their social networks…
You will be able to see the amount of discounts awarded, the targeted products and adapt your offers if necessary.
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Provide a pleasant user experience
After the argument to save money during the Black Friday period for 30% of Internet users, the possibility of making stress-free purchases comes in second position with 29% of the answers: no crowded stores, no queue, a wider choice…
In order to increase the number of visitors and the duration of the connection on your site, the UX/UI design must be pleasant and ergonomic. Have your website tested for usability and ease of navigation at all stages of the conversion channel.
If you do not offer it yet on your site, add a FAQ to answer all the questions of your (future) customers: after sales, delivery, return…
Conclusion?
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are now highlights for any online or in-store merchant. Due to the heightened competition during this pivotal period, it is necessary to anticipate both the marketing strategy and the stock forecasts in order to succeed in the business.
It is therefore essential to keep you informed of the latest digital trends and practices, in order to ensure optimal visibility on the web through your campaigns and high-performance sales through a well thought out and user friendly website.