Want To Stand Out on Black Friday? Don’t Make These Mistakes

MarketingSales

Nov 15

Gone are the days when you could stay home, turn off the TV, put down the newspaper, and ignore Black Friday.

Email inboxes are flooded with sales, social media feeds are inundated, and traditional marketing channels are still pumping out the ads. There’s no escaping Black Friday.

As a consumer, it’s a nightmare, and as a small business owner, it can feel pointless trying to break through the noise — and the ad budgets of big business.

However, Black Friday is still an auspicious opportunity for sales, with many consumers planning specific purchases for the shopping holiday.

If you want your sale to stand out on Black Friday, don’t make these mistakes:

Not following the Rule of 100

When promoting a Black Friday sale you want your customers to feel like they’re getting a huge discount. Deciding whether to offer a percentage or dollar discount should be based on the Rule of 100:

If the original price of your offer is under $100, use a percentage discount.

Ex. Your item is $50. A 20% off sale sounds more enticing than $10 off, the equivalent of 20% off.

If the original price of your offer is over $100, use a dollar amount discount.

Ex. Your service is $300. A $60 off sale sounds more enticing than 20%.

Waiting for Black Friday to promote your sale

When the clock strikes midnight the evening after Thanksgiving, the Black Friday floodgates unleash a tsunami of promotions.

And yours could easily be drowned out.

Instead of waiting to announce your sale on Black Friday, share it earlier in the week, preferably the Monday or Tuesday before Thanksgiving when people haven’t yet checked out and shifted into holiday mode.

Announcing your sale early — but waiting to make it live on Black Friday

If you follow the strategy above, ensure the discounts are applied to your products and any coupon codes are live as soon as you make the announcement.

It’s frustrating to open a sale email, click the link, and not be able to shop the sale. And when Black Friday does roll around, your customers likely have forgotten about your sale and/or gone down the rabbit hole of the other promotions they’re being bombarded with.

Sure, you could send a reminder email when the sale is live, but by that point shoppers will have received so many other Black Friday emails that yours could be overlooked.

Increasing the sale amount as the days progress

This happened to me.

I purchased an expensive product on sale during Black Friday and the discount was increased a day later. It was infuriating.

Reward your early buyers.

If you want to offer different promotions across Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, offer the biggest deals earlier in the week. And make sure to promote that the sales will decrease or change each day.

Encouraging early purchases also allows you to capture shoppers before they’ve maxed out their budgets.

Deactivating discount codes when the sale ends

Your sale has ended and you’ve removed the announcement banners from your website, social media, and other marketing channels. Don’t deactivate your coupon code just yet.

Many potential customers may not check their email or social media during Black Friday. Meaning they may not know about your sale until it ends.

If they do know about your sale, it’s easy to be forgetful over a holiday break.

It can be frustrating to sit down at your computer the day after and realize you missed a sale you would have taken advantage of. But there are plenty of shoppers who will still test your coupon code, just in case.

Take advantage of that.

Extending your sale by 1–3 days gives your customers a win and yourself a boost in revenue.

You don’t have to be obvious about it. If your sale utilized a coupon code, you can remove all Black Friday mentions from your website and marketing channels. If the coupon still works, shoppers will use it.

If you discounted the actual price on your product listings, it’s a good idea to post that your Black Friday sale has been extended and share the new deadline.

Having a Black Friday sale

If your business isn’t in retail or you offer something that wouldn’t be put under a Christmas tree, don’t have a Black Friday sale. There’s just too much noise and competition.

Instead, host your biggest sale during your slowest period. People will likely have more money to spend anyway. Holiday shopping and necessities always take priority during Black Friday.

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