10 Ways to Market Your Small Business this Black Friday
Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. Stores bustle with activity as shoppers search for the best deals on holiday gifts. And while it's mostly associated with big box stores and major retailers, there's no reason small businesses can't get in on the action.
Here's a look at 10 Black Friday marketing strategy ideas to ensure this special day is a success for your small business!
Black Friday Marketing for Small Businesses
Black Friday is the perfect time for small business owners to start marketing for the holiday season. However, Black Friday can also be a challenge for small businesses.
Black Friday deals that are "too good to be true" can often lead to disappointed customers who feel that they have been duped. The goal is to know what specific offers will entice customers to take advantage of your great deals and holiday sales!
In addition, Black Friday marketing campaigns that are not well-planned can end up costing small businesses more money than they make in sales. For example, you may have the best Black Friday ideas and most creative Black Friday campaigns, but without proper planning you will be unlikely to see your desired results. It is essential to carefully consider black Friday marketing strategies before implementing them.
Why is Black Friday marketing important? Because with careful planning and execution, Black Friday marketing can be an extremely effective tool for small businesses this holiday shopping season. Read on to learn about 10 effective strategies for Black Friday marketing for your business.
Black Friday Marketing Ideas
1. Get social
As a small business owner, there's a lot of potential revenue to be had on Black Friday. One of the best ways to reach prospective customers with your Black Friday offers is through social media posts.
Social media is a powerful tool that can be used to reach a large number of people at a relatively low cost. Creating social media ads and posts that promote your Black Friday deals is a great way to generate interest and get your customers excited.
Here are some tips for using social media to market your Black Friday sale:
Choose the Right Platforms
Not all social media platforms are created equal. Different platforms reach different demographics, so it's important to choose the ones that are most likely to reach your target audience.
For example, if you're selling products or services that appeal to a younger demographic, Snapchat and Instagram are good choices. Facebook and Twitter are good for reaching a more general audience. LinkedIn is better for B2B marketing.
It's also important to understand what kind of content performs well on each platform. For example, on Instagram and Snapchat, visual content like photos and videos tend to do well. On Facebook and Twitter, text-based posts perform better than visuals. LinkedIn is a little different; here, articles and long-form content perform best.
Create Engaging Content
Now that you know what kind of content performs well on each platform, it's time to start creating engaging posts and ads that will promote your Black Friday sale. Create a promotional content calendar and fill it up with engaging content targeted to your ideal customer.
Be sure to include relevant hashtags (more on that in a minute) and make use of platform-specific features like Instagram Stories and Facebook Live. These features will help you capture attention and generate excitement about your sale.
For example, keep your Black Friday deal in front of your customers by utilizing a countdown timer to your Black Friday shopping event in your Instagram stories.
Use Relevant Hashtags
Hashtags are an essential piece of your Black Friday marketing strategy on social media. They help users find your content, and they also make your posts more visible in search results. When choosing Black Friday hashtags, be sure to select ones that are relevant to your business and your sale (e.g., #blackfridaydeals).
You should also consider using trending hashtags throughout Black Friday shopping weekend, such as #shoplocal and #smallbusinesssaturday. The right hashtags will ensure your crazy deals are easily discovered by holiday shoppers!
Social media is a great place for marketing your Black Friday sale, whether you are promoting sales at online stores or brick and mortar. By choosing the right platforms and creating engaging content, you can reach a large number of new customers at a relatively low cost.
2. Create a landing page
A landing page is a website page that is specifically designed to convert visitors into leads or customers. Creating a landing page for your Black Friday deals is a great way to ensure that interested shoppers are able to easily find and purchase your products.
This page should include all of the information about your sale, such as the dates and times of the sale, the discounts that will be available, and any special promotions you will be running.
Creating a landing page for your Black Friday deals is a great way to centralize all of the information about your promotions in one place. Be sure to include clear and concise information about your deals, as well as eye-catching images and call-to-action buttons.
3. Use email marketing
Another great Black Friday marketing idea is an old faithful: the good old fashioned email!
Sending out an email blast with information about your deals is a surefire way to generate interest and drive traffic to your website or store. In these emails, you can highlight some of the deals that will be available throughout the holiday season and encourage customers to start shopping early. You can also use these emails to build excitement for your sale by offering exclusive discounts or giveaways.
Email marketing is an effective way to reach a large number of people with minimal effort. Here are a few tips for using email marketing to promote your Black Friday deals:
Keep Your Subject Line Short and Sweet
Your subject line is one of the most important elements of your email blast because it's what will entice recipients to open your email. With that in mind, keep your subject line short and sweet. Something like "Black Friday Deal Inside!" or "Don't Miss Our Black Friday Flash Sale!" will pique recipients' interest and entice them to open your email.
Get Straight to the Point
Once recipients have opened your email, you want to make sure they know exactly what your Black Friday deals are. Don't beat around the bush—get straight to the point and list out your deals in an easily digestible format. Include images and links so recipients can easily click through to learn more about each deal.
Use a Call-to-Action
Once you've listed out all of your Black Friday sales, make sure you include a call-to-action (CTA) so recipients know what you want them to do next. Whether it's visit your website, come into your store, take advantage of an online sale, or utilize a discount code, make sure your CTA is clear and concise.
Note: Although we are focusing on digital marketing here, direct mail is not dead. If your biz calls for it, mailers can be an extremely effective way to get your deals in front of your ideal customers eyes.
4. Run a contest
Running a contest or giveaway is one of the best Black Friday promotion ideas! Contests and giveaways are a great way to generate interest in your Black Friday promotions. You'll quickly find out that shoppers LOVE free gifts on Black Friday!
Promote your contest or giveaway on social media, in email marketing campaigns, or on your website. Be sure to include information about how customers can enter the contest or giveaway and what they can win.
Keep reading for some tips on running a successful Black Friday contest or giveaway:
Pick a Prize That Will Appeal to Your Target Audience
When choosing a prize for your Black Friday contest or giveaway, make sure it is something that will appeal to your target audience. For example, if you sell cosmetics, your prize could be a Black Friday makeup bundle. If you sell home goods, your prize could be a Black Friday gift card. If you're an online store, you could offer a digital gift card.
By offering a prize that is relevant to your business, you can attract shoppers to your contest or giveaway, keep current customers engaged, and generate interest in your products or services.
Choose a Hashtag for Your Contest or Giveaway
Creating a hashtag for your contest or giveaway is a great way to promote it on social media. When choosing a hashtag, make it short and easy to remember. You also want to make sure it is relevant to your brand and the contest or giveaway itself.
For example, if you are giving away a $100 gift certificate to your store, you could use the hashtag #blackfridayyourbizname100. Hashtags can be used on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Be sure to promote the hashtag in all of your social media posts about the contest or giveaway.
Set Some Rules for Your Contest or Giveaway
When running a contest or giveaway, you will need to set some rules. These rules will help ensure that the contest or giveaway is fair and that only eligible entries are submitted. For example, you may want to require entrants to follow your brand on social media or subscribe to your email list before they can enter the contest or giveaway.
Once you have chosen the rules for your contest or giveaway, be sure to write them down and include them in all of your posts about the contest or giveaway. This will ensure that everyone knows what they need to do in order to enter and that there is no confusion about how winners will be chosen.
Select a Winner (or Winners) for Your Contest or Giveaway
One option for choosing a winner is to choose from all of the eligible entries. Another option is to have people vote for their favorite entry via social media likes, comments, or shares. You could also have a panel of judges select the winners based on creativity, originality, and adherence to the theme of the contest or giveaway.
5. Collaborate with other businesses
According to the National Retail Federation, Black Friday weekend 2021 saw 179.8 million unique shoppers! With so much money up for grabs, it's no wonder that businesses are eager to get a piece of the pie. However, with competition being so fierce, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd. One way to do this is by collaborating with other businesses in your industry.
Collaborating with other businesses has a number of benefits. For one, it allows you to reach new customers who may be interested in your products or services but who might not have heard of you before. Partnering with other businesses also helps build relationships and goodwill within your industry. And last but not least, collaborating with other businesses is a great way to increase sales.
So how can you go about collaborating with other businesses this Black Friday?
One option is to partner with them on social media contests or giveaways. This is a great way to reach a wider audience and get people talking about your Black Friday deals.
Another option is to collaborate on email marketing campaigns. You can each promote the other's deals in your newsletter or send out joint emails advertising your Black Friday specials. If you're a brick and mortar business, consider partnering with an online business in a parallel industry, or, if you're an online retailer, reach out to partner with local businesses!
Whatever route you decide to go, partnering with other businesses is a great way to make sure your Black Friday sales are anything but ordinary.
6. Utilize influencers
Influencer marketing is one of my personal favorite Black Friday marketing ideas! Influencer marketing is a form of marketing that involves working with individuals who have a large following on social media or other online platforms. Utilizing influencers to promote your Black Friday deals is a great way to reach a larger audience and generate interest in your products or services.
Before you start working with influencers, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.
Creating a Successful Influencer Campaign
What are your goals for your Black Friday marketing campaign? Do you want to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, or boost sales? Once you know what you want to accomplish, you can start to identify the influencers who can help you achieve your goals.
Your Black Friday marketing campaign will only be successful if it includes content that is truly engaging and informative. Work with your chosen influencers to create content that will not only capture attention, but prompt users to take action.
Selecting the Right Influencers
The first step is to select the right influencers. You want to choose individuals who are relevant to your brand and have an engaged following. An engaged following means that their followers are active and interested in what they have to say—it's not necessarily about a huge number of followers.
Additionally, you'll want to make sure that the influencers you select have a good reputation—you don't want to be associated with someone who has a history of shady behavior.
Finally, you want to ensure that you are working with influencers your ideal customer is already following. For example, if you're selling luxury beauty products to young women in their 20's and 30's, you're unlikely to see results by working with an influencer who focuses primarily on discount shopping and couponing.
Once you've selected the right influencers, it's time to reach out and request their availability and rates. Make sure that they understand your brand and what you're trying to achieve. Be sure you agree on compensation upfront and get a signed contract.
Measuring Success
After you've worked with the influencers to promote your Black Friday deals, it's important to measure the results of your efforts. Track how many sales were generated from the promotion, as well as any other relevant metrics like website traffic or social media engagement. This will help you determine whether or not influencer marketing is a worthwhile investment for your business.
7. Run Black Friday ads
Running ads is an effective way to attract customers who may not be aware of your brand or products, resulting in more sales. Creating ads specifically for Black Friday is a great way to ensure that your target audience sees them.
Be sure to use relevant keywords and target your ads so that they are seen by those who are in your target market, therefore most likely to be interested in what you are offering.
Black Friday ads should be eye-catching and include information about the discounts that will be available during the sale. Consider adding a discount code especially for customers who are seeing your ad. Or, if you're offering any free stuff in your Black Friday promotions, consider running an ad to make sure your customers come to you for their holiday gifts!
How do you create an effective Black Friday ad? Here are a few tips:
Target your audience.
Not everyone is interested in what you have to offer. That's why it's important to target your ad so that it is seen by those who are most likely to be interested in what you're offering.
Keep it short and sweet.
Get straight to the point and tell them what you're offering and why they should take advantage of it.
Use eye-catching visuals.
An effective ad is not just about the words; it's also about the visuals. Use images or videos that will grab people's attention and make them want to learn more about what you're offering.
8. Innovate & Test New Products
Your loyal customers will have their eyes on your business this Black Friday! Now is a great time to get creative and offer an innovative new product or service for the holiday shopping season. Consider offering a limited, exclusive run for your vip shoppers as they buy holiday gifts for their loved ones. This is a great way to increase profit margins, as exclusive and limited offers allow for higher price points, raising your average order value and giving your customer the exclusivity they demand.
9. Give out freebies or samples
On Black Friday, small businesses face stiff competition from big box stores and online retailers. In order to stand out, some small businesses choose to hand out freebies and samples. This strategy can be very effective in attracting attention and generating buzz. Who doesn't love exclusive deals like a free gift with purchase?!
Here's a closer look at why handing out freebies & samples is good for business.
Freebies & Samples Show That You're Generous
When you give away freebies & samples, you're showing your customers that you're generous. This type of goodwill can go a long way in attracting new business and fostering loyalty among existing customers. People like to do business with companies that they perceive to be generous, and word of mouth spreads fast when there is a free gift involved.
Freebies & Samples Attract New Customers
Giving away a free gift or sample is a great way to introduce people to your product or service. If people like what they see, they're likely to not only enjoy their free gift, but also become paying customers.
10. Create Black Friday Sales & Black Friday Deals
As a small business owner, you may be wondering how you can create a Black Friday shopping deal that doesn't get lost in the shuffle. After all, big box stores and online giants like Amazon will be offering huge discounts on popular items, so how can your business or ecommerce site compete?
The good news is that there are plenty of ways to create special Black Friday deals for small businesses that will attract shoppers and help you boost sales.
What products or services will you offer discounts on in your Black Friday promotion? How much of a discount will you offer? Will you offer free shipping? How will you promote your deals? Will you offer an early Black Friday sale or early bird discounts to capture eager shoppers? How can you get creative to make your deals stand out?
Consider giving your vip customers a sneak peek to your exclusive deals, or maybe even early access, free gifts, flash sales, or early bird discounts and/or a vip discount to generate excitement! Implementing even one or two of these ideas is sure to attract customers!
Be sure to promote your deals early and often throughout the holiday season to ensure that Black Friday shoppers and loyal customers are aware of them.
Bringing it All Together for Black Friday Success
Black Friday is a great opportunity for small businesses to drive traffic and sales.
Utilizing social media, creating a landing page, sending out an email blast, running a contest, collaborating with other businesses, utilizing influencers, and running ads are all great ways to take advantage of this shopping holiday. Giving out freebies and samples is also a great way to entice potential customers into checking out your products.
So what are you waiting for? Get started planning your Black Friday marketing ideas today!