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    Tag: Black Friday

    Your 6-point checklist to prepare for Black Friday & Cyber Monday

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    Are you a business owner who’s always on the hunt for some digital marketing tips? Since online shoppers love a good deal, if you haven’t started preparing for Black Friday/Cyber Monday, now is the time to get your e-commerce store ready for customers who’re looking to indulge in some pre-holiday spending. After all, seasonal sales are the bread and butter for many merchants and there’s an assortment of ways that you can reach out to new and existing customers using our 6-point checklist below.

    #1 Offer deals in October

    With an influx of people looking to shop online for their holiday purchases, it’s best practice to plan your Black Friday/Cyber Monday strategy in October. This ensures that you have plenty of time to carry out your digital marketing campaigns and provide customers with enticing coupons and special offers that they can use leading up to the shopping holiday. 

    #2 Troubleshoot your site speed

    While it’s never recommended to change your website’s functionality within the months leading up to the holiday season, a lack of speed is a sure-fire way to turn customers off. Before drawing too much traffic to your website through special offers, consult with a web development company to ensure that your website is performing how it should and that the checkout process is ready for orders. 

    #3 Ensure that you have some enticing product and service descriptions

    It’s one thing to have really great products and services, but it’s another when their descriptions tap into the shopper’s emotions, influencing their values, and enticing them to buy. Aside from having SEO-friendly copy to get the traffic you need, we also recommend that your content be professionally written and express some urgency to persuade shoppers who may be uncertain. For example, adding phrases such as “limited time only” or “selling out fast” can make a huge difference in your sales. 

    #4 Cross-sell your products and services

    You don’t just want your customers to purchase the one thing they came for only to leave your site forever. In fact, once they landed on your website, you should use this opportunity to refer them to something that will naturally fit well with their interests. For example, if you own a footwear store and a customer has come in search of shoes, it only makes sense to also offer them some socks. That said, to consolidate your Black Friday/Cyber Monday efforts, you may want to create a specific holiday landing page or the navigation bar to make deals easier to grab for customers who’re ready to take advantage of your cross-selling approach. 

    #5 Utilize social media

    Social selling is a powerful way to prepare for shopping holidays, especially if you don’t own a business with a physical storefront. Whether you run advertisements through Facebook or schedule posts on a variety of channels, it’s important to create hype so that your campaigns reach people within your target market. Also, keep an eye out for trending hashtags that can be incorporated to boost your posts.

    #6 Send out some emails

    While the above digital marketing tips are all great ways to prepare for Black Friday/Cyber Monday, the best way to marketing to loyal customers during this annual event will always be through email to the inbox. Just because your newsletters should be actionable and sent out during the sale doesn’t mean that they can’t be prepared well in advance by having content and images ready to go. That said, if you’re sending out regular emails, alludes to your upcoming sale and leaves hints at what you will be offering for when the time comes.  

    What other points make it onto your prep checklist? Let us know in the comments section below. 

    How to market your website’s Cyber Monday sale

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    Every business wants to capitalize on holidays that have a crazy shopping demand, which is why the weeks leading up to Cyber Monday and the holiday season are where many e-commerce companies see an influx in purchases. While it’s never too late to re-work your holiday digital marketing strategy, the sooner you start making changes, the sooner you will be able to see the results. 

    Send out emails to create a buzz of interest 

    If your business is planning to host a Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, or Cyber Monday sale, we recommend sending a couple of emails for each of your outreach sequences. Often subscribers will see new promotions show up in their inboxes, but it may take some different type of copy to entice them to click over another potential shopper. So, if email one doesn’t do the trick, there’s further opportunity throughout your promotion to reach your target audience. 

    What are some ways that you can get a higher response to your sales email?

    • Write a strong subject line
    • Avoid using spammy words such as “final” or “reminder”
    • Include relevant copy in the body
    • Add a call-to-action (CTA) in the closing copy
    • Include a professional signature and/or logo 

    Update your social profiles to notify followers 

    While posting a custom image on your social feeds the week before your promotion is a good incentive for followers to engage, if you really want to notify your target audience that a big sale is approaching, consider developing a holiday digital marketing strategy which would include a lengthy countdown to the big event. So, in terms of BF, SBS, and CM, you should start advertising for this weekend-long sale by November 20th, but preparing your materials now. 

    Here are some effective ways to drive up your sales using social media: 

    • Use a variety of social channels
    • Create content that isn’t too salesy or pushy
    • Make it easy to purchase right from your social posts
    • Create a sense of brand awareness by pre-posting about your promotions
    • Utilize channel specialties (I.e. Instagram stories and shoppable posts)

    Strengthen your SEO to increase organic traffic 

    Search engine optimization (SEO) should be an essential element in your holiday digital marketing strategy. Since the majority of consumers are using search engines like Google to find new brands, products, and services, it’s very important for small business owners to invest in the tools that can improve their ranking. Since there are many different factors to consider when climbing the organic ladder, improving your ranking (especially in a short period of time) can be a challenging task. 

    Use the following tips to improve your reach online: 

    • Use clever keywords 
    • Write thought-provoking content
    • Grow your reach with social media
    • Utilize your local environment to gain traction
    • Optimize for mobile traffic
    • Professionally manage your reputation 
    • Develop and integrate a strategy that will keep you on track 

    Since there are only a few weeks left before the craze of holiday shopping commences, have a word with our team to see how we can help launch a holiday digital marketing strategy for your business. 

    Which of the above suggestions does your business need more help with? Compare it with other readers in the comments section below.  

    How Black Friday and Cyber Monday will change amid coronavirus pandemic

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    While shopping holidays like Black Friday/Cyber Monday may look a little different this year, it doesn’t mean that you can’t utilize the months leading up to the infamous weekend to properly prepare your business to meet the demands of consumers during the pandemic. After all, this new normal has been great e-commerce business traffic and online conversions!

    What impact has COVID-19 had on businesses? 

    At the start of the shutdown, many small to large-scale businesses were forced to conduct mass layoffs and dig deep into their pockets due to their financial fragility. Since then, the economic impact of COVID-19 has only grown, leading to company closures as the take-up rates and fear of contracting the virus have kept consumers out of their stores and saving for a future rainy day. This major economic shock, even with the help of government aid, has devastated the retail sector, alongside arts and entertainment, personal services, food services, and hospitality. While it has been a few months since, remaining businesses are still feeling the aftermath amid this global crisis, and the uncertainty of when or if their operations will be able to return to the normalcy of pre-coronavirus is still unknown.  

    What are the consumer’s expectations? 

    While the famous saying, “business as usual”, is merely a form of marketing designed to assure customers that operations will be conducted the same as they always have, amid the pandemic, this marketing phrase has undergone some re-thinking to not strike the wrong tone with consumers. 

    Right now, while purchasing products and services for personal use or gifting is still shoppers want, they also want a company that aligns with their current values. This means that prospective customers and returning shoppers expect you to regularly update your business procedures for upkeeping provincial/state regulations and maintain your communication with them by providing comforting words to encourage them that shopping can be continued safely. 

    Are you doing your part but need the help of a professional digital marketing agency to do more? 

    Here are some suggestions on what they can assist you with to meet your consumer’s expectations:

    • Educate the public using brand authority. 
    • Highlight more sales and ways to obtain discounted products. 
    • Bring people together on your social channels to help bridge the gap that has been imposed through physical distancing. 

    More shopping will be done online

    Some big-box retailers like Wal-Mart, Kohls, and Target have already decided that they will remain closed this year during the annual shopping weekend with many more to follow as the greenlight for high-traffic, in-store shopping remains on hold. However, while you can’t bank on brick and mortar shops to shop the deals of Black Friday/Cyber Monday, you can be sure that online retailers will be stepping up their game to make this year’s shopping experience one to remember. 

    If you’re the owner of an e-commerce business, here are some ways that you can reap the rewards of Black Friday and Cyber Monday amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

    • Start building a cohesive search engine optimization strategy (SEO) to improve your search rankings. 
    • Attract buyers by hyping up your sales event using company social channels.
    • Run pay-per-click ads based on messaging that proved high-performance and appealed to your target audience in the past. 
    • Send out a vibrant email to your subscription list to ensure that they know what type of promotion you will have and which item(s) and service(s) will be on sale. 

    For those who need assistance getting off the ground and running or simply prefer the expertise for such an important e-commerce shopping weekend, it’s worth hiring a professional digital marketing agency to handle your online affairs and set the groundwork for some successful conversions. 

    How does your brand plan to keep up with the new normal? Drop a comment below to share with other entrepreneurs.