Black Friday and Beyond - 5 Tips For Marketing into the New Year

Marketing 3 min read

Congratulations, everyone! You made it through the discount filled-fog of Black Friday - Cyber Monday!!! Hopefully, your sales numbers are a bit higher and your gift lists (including the one that you made for yourself!) are a bit shorter.

Black Friday - Cyber Monday (BFCM) is the sales event of the year for many businesses, with eager shoppers spending literal billions during the four day period. This year Cyber Monday raked in $13.3 billion alone, making it the biggest online shopping day of all time. Of course, online shopping hasn’t been around for most of time but still, impressive nonetheless.

This shift to online purchases versus brick and mortar presents a tremendous opportunity for anyone selling on the internet. Recent data suggests that around 75% of Black Friday - Cyber Monday sales happen online, so if you have an ecommerce store, you’re in a great position to get a piece of that billion dollar pie. But even if you didn’t see yourself hitting ten figures in revenue during the BFCM weekend, there is still time to make the most of the shopping season.

Here are five ways to use BFCM sales data to keep the momentum going through the end of the year. And beyond!

Get ready to remarket - People who purchased from you during Black Friday - Cyber Monday are familiar with you, your product, and your website. Familiarity can be a great asset when people are making last-minute purchases ahead of the holidays. Reach out to your BFCM customers with special promos and incentives that encourage them to buy. This could be a special “thank you” code for a % off, flash sales, BOGO deals, or anything else you think would resonate with your audience.
Dive into the data - Use the data available to you from your BFCM sales to hone in on what your audience responded to and what wasn’t working. This could include which social posts received the most engagement, coupon code performance, email open rates, or anything else you used to drive sales for BFCM. Look for patterns and see what you can replicate.
Create customer groups - Can you group together people who purchase print books only, those who purchased ebooks only, or folks that bought other products and services? Grouping these customers together can make it easier to remarket and share offers that will specifically appeal to those groups. This can help boost conversion rates by sharing the right promos and offers with the right people.
Focus on your holiday audience - Your target audience will likely shift around the holidays. Keep in mind the three groups you’re speaking to during the holiday season: gift buyers, bargain hunters, and holiday lovers.
Gift buyers are looking for something special, bargain hunters are looking for a deal, and holiday lovers are looking for seasonal items. How can you effectively message each group? I would also add last-minute shoppers to the list. What can you offer that doesn’t need to be shipped? This could be a consulting session, white paper, ebook, or gift card to your website.
Ask for reviews - Reviews can give your products or services the edge for indecisive shoppers. A few great reviews might be the last little push a potential buyer needs before hitting “Add to Cart.” Follow up with BFCM purchasers and ask for reviews. Positive reviews can be added to your website and turned into social proof that helps you reach and convert more customers.

The biggest shopping weekend of the year might be over, but your marketing efforts shouldn’t be. Use these five tips to sale into the New Year and beyond!