Here we are in November, rapidly hurtling towards the festive period and the new year. Before we get there however, there’s just the small matter of Black Friday to deal with!
Black Friday is one of the most important events of the year, particularly in the retail and eCommerce sectors, as it’s an opportunity to significantly increase revenues due to large scale customer demand.
Black Friday across the world…
In 2021, UK consumers spent £9.42 billion over the Black Friday weekend, with online sales accounting for more than 60% of that total figure. Meanwhile, across the pond in the United States, $8.9 billion was spent last year, which was slightly down on the previous year.
The USA also leads the way in terms of the number of Black Friday related searches, which is no surprise given the size of the population, but interestingly the Americans are followed by the Germans and Brazilians, who in turn are followed by those in the UK.
Source: Statista
With such search demand and potential spending power, Black Friday is an event which every retailer must get on board with and offer some form of sale to their customers. Those businesses which don’t run the risk of being left behind by their competitors. So how can you take advantage of the incredible popularity of Black Friday and Cyber Monday? We have five top marketing tips ahead of the sales event of the year.
Landing Pages
Black Friday landing pages are essential when it comes to increasing visibility for related search terms. Your potential customers will often search using keywords such as “Trainers Black Friday” or other terms relating to ‘discounts’, ‘deals’ or ‘sales’, and by using tools such as Google Trends and Keyword Planner, we can see what the most popular keywords like these were and are likely to be!
Once you have the keywords, you can set about building the content for your landing pages, ensuring that it contains the keywords you want to rank for. However, do not stuff the content full of keywords. This is a massive no-no and will likely result in your page struggling to rank, and your site possibly being penalised altogether!
Of course, if you are going to create dedicated landing pages, then it’s better to do so as far in advance as possible, so that there’s enough time to gain traction within the search engines, potentially attract links, and so it’s ready to go when the Black Friday weekend gets here!
When you’re ready to launch these pages, make sure that they’re submitted to your XML sitemap and that it is being read correctly in Google Search Console. Also, include them in your site’s main menu navigation for maximum exposure.
Paid Media Strategy
Your Paid Media Strategy will likely be key to the success (or otherwise) of your Black Friday sales campaign. Too little budget, use of the wrong platform for your customer base or the wrong keywords targeted are all common mistakes when it comes to Paid Media activity generally, but it’s even more the case around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as brands who wouldn’t usually undertake such activity suddenly jump on the bandwagon. Of course, this increased number of advertisers also has an effect on the spend of existing advertisers, pushing the costs up of keywords for them too. However these original brands and businesses should have experienced people managing their Paid Media activity, whether in house or agency, and therefore will be prepared for anything like this which comes their way.
One of the key aspects for planning and executing a stellar Paid Media strategy for Black Friday and Cyber Monday is to do your research. Much like your Organic SEO strategy, Paid Media strategies for this time of year should be built on historical performance data and fresh keywords. If you do not know where to start with this – it could be your first year undertaking such activity – then we’d recommend looking at Keyword Planner, found in your Google Ads account, as well as other tools such as KeywordTool.io.
Which platform should I advertise on for Black Friday?
We’re often asked about which platform should be chosen to maximise performance, and simply put, there is no specific answer. However, what we can say is that you need to go where the audience is, and which provides the best return on investment. Here at Kariba, we believe in an agile ‘test and measure’ approach when it comes to selecting a channel or channels to work with, meaning that we like to put two or more channels against each other, with identical levels of spend and similar setups, aimed at the same goal; in the case of Black Friday, this goal is of course sales! After a period of time, we then narrow this down to the best performing channel against the goal, and put the majority of available budget behind that channel in order to maximise sales and return on investment.
Assets
When it comes to any form of marketing, you need your assets to stand out from the crowd. This means that you have to make them as eye-catching as possible, using colours, text and font which capture the attention and imagination of your potential customers. However, it’s still important that if you have clear brand guidelines, that you do not disregard these. Not only could it cheapen the brand, but may also cause confusion with your customers too.
Your assets should also be the correct size for the platform you’re using them for! For example, Facebook and Instagram Story posts should have a ratio of 9:16, with standard images 1:1 or 1.91:1 for in-article images.
Incorrectly sized assets will underperform, or may even be rejected outright, so it’s vital that you get them right!
If you’re in any doubt, then you can check them here:
Facebook Image Sizes
Google Display Image Sizes
LinkedIn Image Sizes
User Experience
User Experience is a vital part of ensuring that you get the sales you need and want at any time of year, let alone on Black Friday and Cyber Monday! Nobody wants to come to a website which is slow to load, has menus which don’t work, or is difficult to navigate.
One of the core eCommerce user experience optimisations is around the Cart and Checkout process. This needs to be quick and simple for customers to use, and provide them with the options they both need and want. For example, some people may want express delivery and are willing to pay a premium for it, whereas others may be happy with slower delivery for less cost, or maybe even for free! Alternatively, they may want to choose between a courier or the standard postal service.
Modern consumers also want a variety of payment options open to them, so in addition to your standard credit and debit card methods, consider adding in options to pay via Klarna, ClearPay or PayPal. After all, if a customer’s preferred payment method isn’t available, they might abandon their cart, and go elsewhere.
Email Marketing
Finally, email marketing can play a crucial role in increasing sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With email marketing you can directly contact your current customer base, and provide tailored offers directly to them, and maybe even give them the heads up about an upcoming sale.
Not only can you use emails prior and during the event, but they also have other uses such as for abandoned carts. The average conversion rate for Abandoned Cart emails is over 10%, meaning they’re probably one of the most effective forms of marketing you have available! Some people are a little sceptical about their effectiveness, but the power of the cart abandonment email has been proven on multiple occasions over the years, and could potentially provide thousands of pounds of extra revenue for your business!
If you’re interested in growing your business this Black Friday and beyond, then get in touch with our team today! You can call us on 01423 593020, email [email protected] or fill out our Contact Form. We look forward to hearing from you.