How to Make Black Friday Work for Your Brand

After Thanksgiving, the holiday season really heats up for many industries, beginning on the most infamous day of the year- Black Friday. If you’re one of the stores who is usually effected by the mass of post-Thanksgiving shoppers, you may be looking forward to the day with a mixture of excitement and fear. Afterall, the large boost in profits is often associated with a destroyed store or overloaded website server. Make this year different! Here’s a few things you can do to make Black Friday better for you and your customers:

Create Social Media Exposure

Instead of people frantically trying to find your best deals, use Twitter and Facebook to let them know ahead of time what to expect. Not only will they know what your best deals are, they can compare them to your competitors and know for sure that your store will have what they are looking to buy. Create posts for people who already follow you, but also newsjack on trending hashtags like #blackfridaydeals to create awareness with potential customers who don’t already follow your accounts.

Offer Deals on Your Website

If you offer the same deals online, you may find that people use your eCommerce site to order it online, rather than fight the crowds on the actual day. If you’re worried about heavy traffic on your website all at once, you can follow the example of many websites and offer them all weekend.

Prepare for Higher Website Traffic

If you’re offering great deals on your website, which you should be, you should expect to see a spike in your traffic for the weekend. It’s important to understand your web host’s policy on these traffic increases. Services like Shopify and BigCommerce will automatically adjust for this so there is no downtime and decrease in customer satisfaction. If you're unsure whether your server can handle it, reach out to your web developers.

Incorporate Email Campaigns

Now is a great time to fire out some emails to everyone in your database to let them know about the sales and keep your brand name fresh in their mind. Be sure to use engaging subject lines to let them know that a list of the Black Friday deals is inside, but don’t make it overly aggressive or your message will go straight to SPAM. For instance, instead of:

Sale! Sale! Sale! Find Out More NOW!

use

(Recipient's name), Your Black Friday Deals Are Waiting Inside

One is much friendlier and has a personal touch, making it more more likely to be opened and clicked through.

Get Listed on Apps

For several years now, serious Black Friday shoppers have used their smartphones to access all of the best deals and plot their day’s shopping routine. Apps, like RetailMeNot and TGIBlackFriday, could bring in a lot of new customers, so submit your coupons and ensure that you are found by people looking for what you are selling. These apps aggregate all the Black Friday deals for your potential customers by category, retailer and by ‘newest,’” so classify yourself correctly and you’ll get maximum exposure.

Whether you sell jewelry or coffee, Black Friday can be a huge day for you- if you plan ahead. The most important thing is you can do as a small business owner is to make sure you are visible anywhere you customers want to find you and your deals, whether it’s on your website, in their inbox, or on social media. That’s the best way to adhere to the inbound methodology and delight your customers this holiday season. Download our free eBook The Beginner’s Guide to Inbound Marketing for more information about getting your marketing strategies in the right direction.