Small Business Black Friday Marketing Guide

Every year, people all over America rush out of their homes to take part in the Black Friday deals. For many, this is when they begin their holiday shopping. In this post, we’ll talk about how you can capitalize on the craze through deals, promotions, and tactics.

Offer Gift Cards

The significance of gift cards cannot be stressed enough. Customers love to buy gift cards as gifts. Why? Well for one, it’s easy, convenient, and they don’t have to choose a gift. Instead, the recipient gets to choose what they want, which many gift givers find far more preferable than trying to find a gift their friend or family member really wants.

In addition, the National Retail Federation found in a survey they conducted in 2015 that 73.4% of adults purchased at least one prepaid gift card for the holiday shopping season. They also found that 65% of gift card recipients spent 38% more than the value of their gift card at the store and 58.8% of shoppers said that they would like to receive gift cards as gifts.

All of these metrics indicate the importance and the benefits of offering gift cards, especially that half of gift card recipients end up spending more than the gift card’s value! Gift cards are a holiday powerhouse and they have massive potential to drive both customers to your stores and profits. So don’t let the opportunity slip through your hands this Black Friday and, more importantly, this holiday season.

Offer Extended Deals

There are many people who will rush to the Best Buy to try to get that 86” OLED 4K TV for 50 percent off, however, this does not represent the majority of customers and most small businesses neither have the types of products nor the financial ability to facilitate those kinds of deals.

Better deals offer 20 percent off or less and last much longer, such as starting on Friday and ending after the doors shut on Sunday or at midnight for online companies. This way, they can draw more customers and are still profitable for the business.

Bundle Products

Bundling products is a great method for a number of reasons. First, the discount on the bundle draws customers into your store to buy. Second, and more importantly, bundling products results in customers buying products they wouldn’t have otherwise bought. This is good because it will introduce them to a new product that they may really like, which can result in them buying more of that product from you. Maybe you have a product that you don’t have a lot of customers for yet. By getting that product to customers you already have through bundles, you’re raising awareness of the product and building a following for it.

Incentivize Spending

A great way to get customers to spend more is to offer deals like “Spend $50 and get a $10 gift card”. This will increase purchases as customers try to reach the $50 mark. Other ways to incentivize spending include offering a discount when customers “buy three” of a product or offer a free product if they spend a certain amount.

Stay Open Later

Staying open a little later than usual for the Black Friday weekend can enable you to take advantage of more of the crazy. You give customers more time to get to your store and you won’t force them to choose between your store and another store if they are running out of time. If you do stay open later, make sure to raise awareness of the fact that you are. This can include mentioning it in ads for your promotions and updating your Black Friday and holiday store hours on Google.

Make Your Customers’ Experiences Worthwhile

This may be the first time many potential customers are visiting your online shop or store. You’ll want to do everything you possibly can to turn them into repeat customers and ensure future purchases. To do this, you might want to add something special for the Black Friday weekend. Maybe you’re offering free gift wrapping with a purchase. For physical stores, you can give out hot cocoa in the store. Any attempt you make to improve shoppers’ experiences will go a long way in turning them into future customers.

Host a Special Event

Special events can include a raffle for a free item or a gift card, or a contest, like choosing the number of marbles in a jar. All of these are fun ways to engage customers and, by requiring an e-mail address and other information to enter, you can help build your client collection for current or future customer outreach initiatives.

Advertise

Advertisement is key; however, you shouldn’t go crazy and should only spend what you can afford to. There are a number of different methods for advertising. Some cost-effective advertising methods to consider include sending out emails to your customers detailing the different offerings, the lengthened store hours, and the special events that may be going on. After that, consider printing some flyers to post in community commons and hand out. Finally, one of the best ways to advertise, and one that is free, is posting on social media. If you have built a strong social media following, this will be very impactful.

Summing it All Up

The possibilities for Black Friday are endless and it is definitely a time of the year in which businesses can benefit from the rush to buy and the start of the holiday season. The above ideas only scratch the surface of the unique and innovative marketing possibilities, any combination of which can help drive customers to your online shop or store, make key lead-to-customer conversions, and help grow the sustainable customer base that is crucial for any and all small businesses.

As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out and be sure to check back for more posts on how you can take your business to the next level.