In this article I speak with years of experience from the agency side of not only what positives can be attained through marketing Black Friday the right way but also the difficulties and considerations retailers must take into account to make this period truly successful.
Over recent years, Black Friday has become more and more prevalent and normal in the UK. Starting in the US and the successes allowed the ‘idea’ to work its way into the UK retailers minds. Agencies up and down the country faced another big online sale period to factor into their calendars which helped form what we know as the ‘Golden Quarter’. Read more about this in my article about the Golden Quarter.
Retailers are wanting guidance from the agencies a lot of the time and this has allowed Everything Digital more opportunities to build trust and understand finer inner workings of the retailers business, forging solid relationships, and clear goals we need to strive for. Another thing to note is that even though Black Friday allows us to target the higher influx of online users during this period it also opens up opportunities to scale the retailer’s brand, attract long life brand ambassadors and analyse what ‘new users’ are looking for to keep coming back time and time again.
My opinion may differ to others within the industry who, due to the eCommerce ‘covid bubble’ definitely now bursting, that this ‘Black Friday’ won’t be as big as previous years’. I still firmly believe this is a great chance to springboard brands into a new area of received online revenue but maintain this through 2023 also if done correctly as this is what has happened for a number of brands we work with directly on paid ads marketing. (In our next Black Friday article – The Sequel we will show some YoY results from our retailers.)
Things To Put In Place As An Online Retailer
- Start Planning Early
- Start Early
- Target Your Strong Keywords
- Shout About Your Offers On Social
- Nail Your Email Subject Lines
- Plan The Paid Strategy
- Have Hands And Eyes On Real Time Results
- Performance Based Budget Adjustments
- Consider Extending Offer Period
- Make Sure Stock vs Demand Is Available
Our Head of Paid Search who has 10 years experience of running sales period strategies on Google has his say:
Everything Digital ‘Head of Paid Search’ (Jordan Gatenby)
“Black Friday is great to not only clear old stock but also upsell newer full price stock to your customers with a strategy in line with this. Shopping cart abandonment rates tend to be much lower around Black Friday weekend, so think ahead and make full use of this! Even by giving discounts, you are essentially buying new customers and can use valuable information to re-engage with these customers through Google and Social Re-marketing and also through email marketing lists.”
Shopping Behaviour During Black Friday
‘Survival of the Fittest’ or ‘Last Retailer Standing’ are terms I hear a lot when discussing Shopping during Black Friday – hopefully nobody gets hurt. But the reality is that consumers online feel a genuine buzz and increase in emotions searching and obtaining the best deals.
Giving users exactly what they want to appeal to the instant delight is a big driver for this online sales period. With everyone’s lives as busy as ever, time is a key factor to consider with over 60% of online shoppers deciding to exit a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Make sure that your ‘shop front’ ie your website is optimised for user experience with the fastest possible load speeds you can obtain. This coupled with the ‘right’ offers and clever implementations as ‘promo codes’ could be the difference of thousands of pounds of valuable revenue for your business.
Comparing prices, products and consideration periods at the highest during this period with around 75% of users increasing there search behaviour leading up to this period it is important for an agency to divulge this information with online retailers so they understand the fluctuations before and during Black Friday.
The benefits however outweigh the pre Black Friday considerations with it being proven that the new user influx will ultimately result in post sales period customers to your brand allowing you to ring fence and build on your already loyal customer base, creating opportunities for scalability and online growth.
Co-Founder of Everything Digital (Kourosh Taher) has his say below:
“Black Friday is not only a great opportunity to increase basket values by offering bundle deals but a perfect time to start increasing new users to the brand. Don’t forget, with the right tracking you can retarget these users later down the line through paid ads and potentially gain a new customer for life.”
Search Term Stats From 2021
Below are a number of stats for particular search terms from 2021 which highlights the popularity and demand online consumers are looking for. Again, giving retailers and agencies food for thought when deciding what to promotions to run with. Things such as: promo codes and even free delivery (even if for a short period.)
Search Term – ‘Best Deals’ Stats from Google Trends *popularity from 0-100.
Search Term – ‘Discounts’ Stats from Google Trends *popularity from 0-100.
Search Term – ‘Promo Code’ Stats from Google Trends *popularity from 0-100.
Search Term – ‘Online Sale’ Stats from Google Trends *popularity from 0-100.
Search Term – ‘Free Delivery’ Stats from Google Trends *popularity from 0-100.
I will be summing up Black Friday 2022 with another article which will display Year on Year comparisons from some current retailers we work with to be completely transparent and also to see if i was right in my thinking this year should be bigger than ever. Keep your eyes peeled for Black Friday – The Sequel.
