It might feel like you’ve got plenty of time between now and November, but with the year flying by, the clocks will soon be rolling back, the nights will be longer, and Black Friday (BF) and Cyber Monday (CM) will be upon us. As an SEO and PPC agency, we’re always thinking ahead to seasonal periods for our clients and, most importantly, planning a strategy for those seasonal peaks. BF and CM is, without a doubt, the busiest period for our B2C clients, so it’s no surprise we’re already thinking about – and implementing – specific strategies to maximise our client’s return during November. In digital marketing, preparation and planning are 90% of the battle; the launch of a campaign is the easy part. So, with that said, here are some of the strategies and advice we’re giving:
Consistency is key
Whether you operate in a single digital channel or several, your Black Friday messaging needs to be consistent. That’s from the headlines of your paid ads to the copy of your SEO-optimised landing page. Think big picture – you want your audience and target users to immediately know the offer on the table; nothing spells out a disaster quicker than mixed messaging and a confused user base who came to your site for a deal but left with a headache. The best way to execute this is to identify your unique offering for the sale period – whether that’s fun messaging or a quirky discount amount that will stick in the user’s mind. Once you’ve got that messaging, make sure it’s everywhere. That way, if a user sees a PPC ad and then a couple of days later, an ad on Meta with the same messaging, you’re reinforcing the offer and increasing the chances of conversion. Keep it simple, keep it uniform, and apply that to all of your marketing channels for a full-circle approach.
Website structure is important
During BF and CM, you want the spotlight on everything in your sale. Pushing your discounted products profitably and in large volumes are all the happy makings of a successful BF campaign. You’ve got to use all the tools available to you to achieve this, and in the digital space, no tool is more important than your website. You can have the best PPC campaign and the most optimised SEO pages in the world, but if your site isn’t structured and clear, that traffic isn’t going to turn into revenue. A good approach here is to create a BF section of the site that stands alone and apart from the usual product catalogue. This allows you to create a unique identity for that part of the site (where you can also align the messaging mentioned above!). Creating a unique “Black Friday Hub” on the website is particularly useful if you have a dedicated, repeating client base. Directing them to a specific part of the site reserved for your BF promotion will feel new and exciting, promoting purchases. But, even if you don’t have a big repeat client base, creating that section delivers a very defined user journey, and an end-to-end approach where you’re thinking about the first click all the way to the checkout page.
Look outside your current channels
BF and CM are the perfect times to gamble. For example, if you’re just running an SEO campaign, a short-term PPC campaign can help capture the heightened search activity over the sales period and catapult you to the top of Search Engine Result Pages. Likewise, if you’re digital marketing channels are only paid channels, starting an SEO campaign now could allow you to build up authority and rankings by the time BF rolls around, giving you exponentially more opportunity to gather traffic and conversions without be contained by your PPC ad budget. Email marketing is also a fantastic opportunity to alert potential and existing customers of what’s on the horizon – teasing certain offers or deals to get them watering at the mouth for when BF rolls in. Whatever it might be, if you want to build year-on-year success over the period, it’s worth looking at the opportunities you’re not currently targeting.
Start now
Ultimately, for a successful Black Friday 2024, you should be starting to implement strategies now. Don’t just think about the days themselves, but the weeks and months building up to BF and CM. Start creating hype and excitement around your offering. Think about the offers themselves – how do you make those unique and stand out but in line with your company and brand identity? You can also review your BF and CM from 2023. What worked last year and what fell flat, and how can you build on those tactics and make them better this year? It’s never too soon to start planning for a fiercely competitive period that also offers a fantastic opportunity to hit your business goals and objectives.
If you want to learn more about how we research and plan our marketing strategies, or how we can help you execute a successful Black Friday digital plan, then don’t hesitate to get in touch.