The busiest e-commerce moments in the year are coming close! Black Friday and Cyber Monday—the centre of discounts, the days when desperate customers are trying to get the best deals, and company webshops are on the brink of traffic overload. Yet, as you know, these days can also be tricky. You’ve been expecting this for a long time, so it’s essential to make sure you do everything to make the best out of it! But don’t you worry, for here we’ve got some tips for you.
There are millions of things to do to improve results during these vital days for your campaigns. The message you’re sending, whether it’s via the image you promote or the text itself, has to encourage customers to purchase, or merely to convince them that your company is the one. All the tips below will assist you with this process. How do I attract my existing or potential customers? What can I do to improve my marketing strategy? All those answers are answered here. Just keep on reading!
1. Checking your ad formats
One of the most recommended ad formats for Cyber Monday and Black Friday is the banner. Banners are highly-creative, to-the-point displays that catch the attention of potential customers and buyers thanks to their colourful, bespoke design. This is why they tend to be highly useful during these two holidays; the aesthetic pleasure they generate on the customer plus the urge to purchase is the perfect combination!
Yet naturally, if your ad has the correct format but isn’t visually attractive enough, then we’ve got a problem. In order for ads to be successful, you need not be that creative with the colour design. I mean, it’s Black Friday—that tells you everything, doesn’t it? The same goes for Cyber Monday. Some companies include visuals related to technology to emphasise that it’s Cyber Monday, and the colour green is usually used. Sometimes a black and white/green design with a hint of your company colours will be more than sufficient to catch the customer’s attention and immediately recognize your business.
Yet, what should I include in the ad? The next section will tell you more about it, primarily to increase your social engagement.
2. Increasing social engagement
When we think of social engagement, we immediately associate this with social media. Your presence on these platforms will be key since customers tend to look for ideas, products, or specific services not only on Facebook, Instagram (and usually Pinterest) but also Google!
When we talk about social media advertising during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we advise that you start posting holiday-related content in advance. Prepare your customers for what’s coming next. Encourage them to keep tuned to your social media page. The early bird catches the worm.
But if we talk strictly about content, we’ve got some tips for you, both for social media and SEO:
- Create urgency: add time-bound (flash sales) or show limited product quantities. This encourages to purchase now. They won’t be able to afford to miss this offer.
- Be clear: be straightforward, no beating about the bush. Show your product clearly, and obviously, mention anything worth sharing, like open days and times (you can use ad extensions for this if you’re advertising on Google).
- Be relevant: for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you need to show the percentage off being offered, as that is most likely what customers are looking for. Likewise, be relevant regarding your product display; if you’re offering a laptop discount, you can maybe offer them a free laptop case as well!
- Remove distraction: don’t explain, but mention. What is worth mentioning, though? The product name, the percentage off, and a benefit the customer will get when purchasing.
- Be ready to take action: you can use remarketing ads to remind the customers that have abandoned the purchase that they’ve looked at a specific product. Show them the picture of that product, and naturally, don’t forget to mention the discounts!
- Include keywords: whether you’re advertising on Google or Facebook, keywords are essential. Google Ads Keyword Planner will assist you in the process, offering you relevant keywords and bid estimates so you can have a more successful campaign. On Facebook, this means you need to include holiday-related words in your ads or even make the language more precise depending on who you’re targeting. For example, if your target is young adults (18-25), you can adjust your vocabulary to match theirs.
3. Taking a look at your PPC campaigns
Pay-Per-Click Campaigns refer to a model of online marketing in which advertisers pay every time your ads are clicked. In essence, instead of ‘earning’ your customers organically, you ‘buy’ visits to your site.
By using this method of advertising, you display a set of ads that refer to the different stages of your customers before purchasing, instead of running a static group of ads all the time.
Flighting is a method that will help you run PPC campaigns more effectively. This is a technique akin to scheduling, in which you select a set of ads (or ‘steps’) you’ll activate during a specific period. What’s the benefit of this? You’ll get a higher conversion rate, as you will be leading your customers throughout the funnel with bespoke advertising.
For example: from 31st October to 5th November, you offer 20% off. Then, in the next period, you decrease the offer and then increase it again as soon as Black Friday and Cyber Monday are actually here.
Another point to consider is to enlarge your budget. Since there’s more traffic these days, this results in more competition. Following the previous example of flighting, you would begin with a low budget and, the closer you get to the actual events, you would increase your budget proportionally and gradually.
And, finally, as we said before: keywords. Words like free, percentage off, Cyber Monday, Black Friday, discount, deals, promotions, savings, offers, opportunity and chances will not only add the holiday touch to your ads, but they will also be a disguised call-to-action!
4. Simplifying the messaging and checkout experience
Cyber Monday and Black Friday tend to be mad days. This means customers are more likely to contact you, as traffic clearly increases, so you need to be adequately prepared to handle the number of enquiries coming from your desperate customers. This is why it’s important to have messaging options ranging from Facebook Messenger to email and phone number. Anything to make the lives of customers easier.
Likewise, shopping cart abandonment is a phenomenon that often occurs, mainly because of the amount of competition during the Holiday Season. But the problem even increases when webshops offer complicated systems; a path that seems to be endless until customers reach the final destination. Offer a seamless experience (i.e. avoid a stilted purchase process; make it as simple as possible) for your customers so that you retain them until the last step.
5. Other tips: what about email marketing?
Email marketing is an add-on to your Holiday Season strategy. For specific days such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, there are some tips you could take to improve your experience even further:
- Send teaser emails: what’s going to happen in Black Friday? What are we going to offer? Prepare the customer for what’s coming next.
- Shipping deadlines: include deadlines in the subject lines and headers so that the customer knows when deals end.
- Make it catchy: this might sound silly, but emojis do help a lot! They’re proven to catch the customer’s attention even quicker than words.
- Extend the offer: once the events are over, offer surprise deals for those who missed the original ones.
- Differentiate yourself: make it clear for the customers that you’re unique. Establish your differences from your competitors and highlight your USPs.
- Offer shareable content: send offers for sharing on social media platforms. For example, ‘Share this email with your friend and get a 10 euros discount’
Final advice
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are events that deal with a high amount of traffic, an insane number of customers desperately trying to access the best deals and discounts, and finally, tons of companies trying to offer the best services and products.
It is for all these reasons why you need to be adequately prepared. If it’s too late already and the events have arrived, don’t worry! There are still loads of actions you can take to make these days profitable for your business. This blog has offered you tips on how to prepare and, likewise, how to benefit from Black Friday and Cyber Monday during the Holiday Season.
Connect with your customer by targeting the right people, creating relevant ads, and offering a proper and decent service. As every single year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday will be days to remember.
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