With $8.9 billion in online sales during Black Friday 2021(Via Spendmenot), it's safe to say that eCommerce is a major chunk of holiday shopping season sales. Which begs the question – what's your Black Friday marketing strategy for 2022? How do you plan on reaching the 88 million Americans who engaged in online shopping for Black Friday in 2021 (via MoneyTransfers)? What follows is a list of key Black Friday marketing strategies to attract even more online shoppers in 2022.

1. Black Friday Email Marketing Campaigns

An Example of a successful Black Friday email campaign from Jack Black.

Black Friday marketing emails

(Source: Jack Black)The classics never go out of style. Despite being the oldest form of digital marketing, email marketing strategies remain one of the most effective with a $36 return on investment (ROI) for every $1 spent (via Hubspot). Email marketing is particularly effective when you take into account the 4 billion daily users who check their inboxes consistently (via Statista). Email helps you reach out to existing as well as potential customers. Taking that into account, emails should definitely be a part of your Black Friday marketing strategy.

  • Consider sending out discount codes to new and loyal customers prior to the busiest shopping day of the year.
  • Use compelling 40-character email subject lines to create a sense of urgency and get shoppers to buy from your site. Highlight your best deals and personalize emails to potential targets to see higher conversion rates. You should also re-target people who have added things to their shopping cart in the past in anticipation of a sale or discount. You can even create gift guides you send out to your targets, promoting specific items you wish to sell them.
  • You want to show value to potential customers while maintaining your brand identity. The last thing you want to do is get passed over in their inbox. You want to use Black Friday as an opportunity to speak to your loyal customers and create new ones. Speak clearly while maintaining your brand identity and make the value you are offering them clear. Make real, tailored offers to your segmented audiences. If you have a list of big spenders, prioritize creating offers just for them.
  • Be mindful of your email frequency, especially around Black Friday. The fact is that your target audience will likely receive dozens of Black Friday Marketing emails. You want to maintain some email frequency so you’re not lost in the sauce, but you don’t want to spam their inboxes either. That’s the fastest way to make sure your emails are never seen again. For example, Target has an email frequency of about 3 per week (VIA Mailcharts). This is enough to ensure you’re seen around Black Friday, but not enough to raise any red flags for spam filters.
  • Set up special Black Friday cart emails for abandoned orders during your sale. You can add a countdown timer or any other urgency element to it in order to get the customer to finish their checkout; you can also include an item suggestion section based on the product pages they’ve visited. If the cart is of high value (i.e, $500), you can even generate unique discount codes to further incentivize them to complete their purchase.

These are just some promotional email campaign ideas. The fact is that you've spent time cultivating your email list, and Black Friday is definitely the time to use it.

2. Black Friday Marketing on Social Media Channels: Getting Social for the Holiday Season

Set Up Paid Facebook Ads

Social media marketing is an absolute must for the 2022 shopping season and beyond. With an average conversion rate of just under 10%, these days, the shopping experience begins on Instagram or Facebook more often than not (via Wordstream). Use Custom Audiences focused on users that have engaged with your website or social media platforms because these audiences are warmer. They already know your brand and they'll be easier to convert. Examples of custom audiences to use:

  • People that have engaged with your Instagram and Facebook accounts
  • People that have visited your website in the last x days
  • Your social media followers
  • Custom audience with your email subscribers

Then, create another campaign focused on lookalike audiences such as a lookalike audience based on your customer list.

Facebook ads for black friday

(Source: Facebook)Your paid social media campaigns will target both Instagram and Facebook. It's important to choose compelling visual content that fits both apps.You can also sell directly through Social Media Ads. To set up a shop, you need to create a Commerce Manager account at facebook.com/commerce_manager. Follow the prompts to set up the type of shop that will work for your online business. You can set up special offers through these ads to get sales directly on social media platforms for the holiday season. Once you've done this, set up a dynamic ad and create conversion campaigns specifically for each product. One pro tip is to use video ads for these campaigns as they drive the highest ROI. You can also utilize carousel ads to link a myriad of products. Your Black Friday Facebook Ad should look something like this.

Black Friday Facebook ad

(Source: Nike)

Organic Social Media Campaigns Are Still Important

With all the algorithm changes to Instagram and Facebook over the past few years, it may seem like organic reach is contracting, but 40% of active users are deciding what to buy based on what they have seen on social media platforms, including reviews and recommendations (via SmartInsights). Build your organic social media posts ahead of Black Friday with conversions in mind. Highlight some of your most attractive products in your organic posts to reach loyal customers who follow your social media accounts.As always, you should use hashtags to further reach. Finding niche-specific hashtags is important, but you should also be using #blackfriday & #blackfridaysale in your organic campaigns to further promote your sales. An Example of Organic Social Media Promoting Black Friday from GoPro.

Organic social media black friday

(Source: Instagram)Another great idea for organic social media campaigns is holding a Black Friday contest. Social media contests have a conversion rate of 34%, higher than any other type of organic media (via Smallbiztrends). Users interact, trying to win the contest, and as a result, you get more exposure. The prize could be anything from a free item to an exclusive discount. Consider using your social media to announce exclusive product drops and deals leading up to Black Friday. This will pump up that loyal following for the special deals and products that will be offered to them over the course of the sale. Another great options is early bird sale content the week of Black Friday. Announce sales on a smaller scale leading up to the big day!Game Stop offers an early bird signup for their Rewards Program ahead of Black Friday.

Black Friday Social Media Promotions

(Source: Game Stop)Influencer Marketing is A Major AssetInfluencers are social media content creators that have developed a large following over time. For many in eCommerce, they are an untapped resource that can draw millions of users to your online store. A great idea would be to partner with major content creators and send them some of your popular products that will be featured during your Black Friday sale. Finding different influencers across various social platforms like Instagram and TikTok to promote your business ahead of Black Friday and build anticipation with a whole new audience that you wouldn't have reached prior. You can even set up a special coupon code to track the success of your influencer campaigns. By giving them a special coupon code to enter at checkout, you'll know exactly who was pushed to your site and by what content creators. Fitness Influencer Esme Diaz collaborating with Dragon Pharma.

Black Friday influencers

(Source: Instagram)

3. Create Dedicated Black Friday Pay-Per-Click Campaigns

You will see the biggest revenue boost if you create a Black Friday PPC campaign. Consider creating a Black Friday dedicated page for your site. This is a page that focuses on getting users to commit to a certain action, in this case, making a sale. Build out a dedicated page with your best Black Friday deals and direct Google ads to it.

  • When selecting your Google Ads keywords, look for queries that get volume but are not difficult to rank for. Consider targeting terms like "Black Friday Sales" which sees 10K – 100K in search volume and has a low competitive rating and a top-end bid of $2.55 per click.
  • Another PPC strategy you should include in your holiday marketing activities is targeting competitor brands. For example, should Target be a major competitor to your business, "target black Friday" has a search volume ranging from 100K – 1M with a low competitive rating and only $.83 cost-per-click. That's a lot of potential online traffic coming to your site.

Check out Sephora’s dedicated Black Friday page!

(Source: Sephora)It's important that your marketing efforts for Black Friday stand alone and don't intersect with your usual PPC efforts. You'll want to keep your campaigns separate so you can measure the success of both more accurately.

Black Friday Google Ads

(Source Google) [Alt text: Black Friday Google Ads)

4. General Black Friday Marketing Tips For Your eCommerce Business

Now that we've gotten into the specifics, let's look at some good marketing ideas you should be implementing for your Black Friday sale that won't require any third-party advertising.

  • Exclusive Discounts for VIP Customers
    • Consider giving your loyal customers some meat for this Black Friday. If there is one time you want to reward brand loyalty, it's the biggest shopping day of the year.
  • Free Shipping on Black Friday orders
    • You want to provide added value to your customers, and offering free shipping on all orders does just that, incentivizing them to order by saving even more money.
  • Hourly Deals
    • There's no better way to keep shoppers engaged, as we've learned from the Amazon model than providing hourly deals in your sales. This incentivizes multiple purchases and will keep users refreshing your site.
  • Bundle Complementary Items
    • A good idea would be to bundle items that fit together to create gift sets. If you're selling a piece of technology like televisions, consider including cables and complementary items of that nature.
Black Friday marketing strategies

Pacific54: Black Friday Marketing Done Right

If you truly want to stand out from all the online noise on Black Friday, it's best to work with the pros. Pacific54 is an aggressive digital marketing agency with all the skills and experience necessary to make sure your Black Friday marketing campaigns are a success. Let's talk, contact us today and we can help get you ready to make this Black Friday a success.

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