Our 9-step Black Friday prep plan for e-commerce brands
Written by S8 Team
Whether you love them or hate them, it’s safe to say that most consumers still can’t resist them. So with some of the biggest sales events of the calendar year just around the corner, how can you make sure you’re doing everything you can to get in on the action?
Here’s our 9-step Black Friday prep plan for e-commerce brands.
1. Decide on your offer. And make it a good one.
Your customers won’t settle for the kinds of discounts you get for simply signing up to a mailing list. They’ll be holding out for big things when it comes to Black Friday. They may even have their favourites list and basket filled up already. So make sure it’s an enticing enough offer that will cut through the noise and convince them to part with their cash in the first few hours.
2. Check out how your checkout performs.
A lot of time is spent focusing on the front end of your site—but it pays to give a bit of love to the checkout, too. How seamless is the cart journey on mobile? Are there features you could be utilising to increase the average cart value, like upsell or cross-selling tools? Is it worth adding buy now, pay later options or shortcuts like Shop Pay? If it makes the purchase journey easier, then it’s worth considering (and testing) ahead of time.
3. Prep your store for an influx of traffic.
If you’re using a managed platform like Shopify then relax—everything’s handled for you. But if your website is on a self-hosted tool such as WordPress or Craft, then it’s a good idea to know how to monitor your server resources. If you need to scale up your hosting to deal with additional demand, there are caching and CDN tools like Cloudflare and Fastly. But, if you’re expecting a huge surge in traffic, you could always look into implementing a virtual waiting room using Cloudflare, Akamai or AWS to prevent any overloading.
4. Visualise your sales funnel.
By that, we mean go back to basics and make sure your tactics align with every consumer you might encounter throughout the sales period.
Top of the funnel: the awareness phase
Broad, top-level targeting that intros your brand to new audiences with messaging around deals and promos.
Middle of the funnel: the consideration phase
If users have shown an interest, retarget them with content such as reviews, testimonials and limited-time offers.
Bottom of the funnel: the conversion phase
Now’s the time to drive urgency with countdown timers, reminders and exclusive discounts for last-minute shoppers.
Post-purchase: the follow-up phase
Over the next 3-7 days, encourage repeat purchases with personalised follow-up orders and upsells.
Figure all of this out ahead of time and trust us, your strategy will be foolproof.
5. Build your database well in advance.
If you’re continuously capturing leads via a newsletter sign-up, then ramp things up in the run-up to Black Friday. Creating a landing page that captures email and phone numbers in exchange for early access to the sale is an easy win. Or, you could supercharge your subscriber sign-ups by throwing additional things like discounts, free gifts or mystery sign-up offers into the mix.
6. Be ready with your email campaigns and flows.
Of course, you’re going to need a fully-fledged email plan that targets your subscribers with your Black Friday offer. But think about revamping all your existing flows, too. Feature Black Friday messaging in your welcome flows during the Black Friday period, and optimise any automated flows like your abandoned cart journey, too. It’s simple tactics like this that can be done well in advance but are super effective.
7. Create ad campaigns that stand out from the crowd.
Catchy creative is one thing, but delivering the right message to the right people at the right time is where you’ll really see results. Make sure you’re considering Meta ads for targeting and retargeting specific audiences, utilising assets such as customer testimonials to build trust. Plus, be sure to roll out broad audience targeting with personalised dynamic ads, too.
8. Have a plan in place for community management.
Managing your social media community is important throughout the year, but during peak sales periods like Black Friday, the stakes are even higher due to the massive influx of engagement. As more users will be interacting with your ad content, it’s vital you have a plan in place for monitoring comments and inboxes. As a minimum, make sure you:
- Prepare a set of pre-written responses for common queries to save time and make sure your voice is consistent.
- Prioritise comments that are most visible or influential, like those on popular posts or those that get engagement, fast.
- Automatically filter and hide comments with offensive words, phrases, or spam.
- Have a plan for how to quickly escalate more complex issues, like a dedicated Slack channel with your customer support team.
- Keep interactions authentic to ensure genuine connections with customers.
9. Get prepped with your post-purchase activity, too.
Black Friday is just the beginning. With the right kind of post-purchase activity, you could have a new wave of brand-lovers on your hands. So get ready with those post-purchase email flows and campaigns so you can start engaging with your new buyers right away.
Need a hand getting Black Friday ready? Talk to our growth marketing team today.
