With two of the biggest shopping days of the year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday coming up, businesses are preparing for the start of the upcoming sales seasons and looking for ways to expand their customer bases past the most anticipated weekend of the year. During Black Friday, brick and mortar retailers typically roll out unique promotions, discounts, and sales. Immediately after the Thanksgiving weekend, Cyber Monday is typically the busiest online shopping day in the calendar. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), 87.2 million people shopped online on Black Friday 2022, while 72.9 million bought in stores – both record figures.
Build trust with customers before the big weekend
While there are always going to be large upticks of customers coming in on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, one of the best ways to get ahead of the curve is to use prior data to determine the appropriate product, optimal sales strategy and digital channels that are most convenient for a particular customer.
If a customer is looking to buy a product and has been hesitant in the past, Black Friday or Cyber Monday provides a significantly higher possibility of closing a sale. If a customer already has the trust in the business/product ahead of the weekend, then that chance of purchasing goes up even higher, but if there has not been any trust built by the business, then finalizing a sale could become much harder. Trust can be built through many communication channels, but teams have to be sure to be relevant and not intrusive.
Build Anticipation Before the Big Days
Using multiple marketing tactics like affiliate marketing, blog posts, and even countdown timers will help build suspense and pique the interest of consumers ahead of the big sales days.
Promoting your Black Friday offers ensures customers know to check your website or store for deals. Despite the benefits, not all businesses take part, so this is an important thing to do.
You can get the word out through various channels, including:
- Website content. Add banners to your site’s homepage to signal participation.
- Email marketing. Unveil your Black Friday plans to people on your email list throughout November.
- Online advertising. Pay to promote your sale on search engines and social media channels (Google Ads is a great place to start, given the platform’s reach).
- Social media marketing. Preview exclusive deals on the platforms your ideal customers use most (e.g., Instagram, LinkedIn or TikTok).
How to keep up with an uptick in sales (Tech, data, etc)
Everyone knows that Black Friday and Cyber Monday increase the volume of sales, so teams need to be prepared for the swift change ahead of the weekend. The more data is known about customers and behaviors, the better teams can plan the most appropriate sales tools to support each phase of the process.
This can be done by setting up key performance indicators and establishing benchmarks from existing data pools. Also advisable, collecting qualitative data to help understand customers’ motivations, pain points, and much more. This will not only help teams stay prepared and ready for the sales weekend, but will allow them to provide the best possible experience for customers moving forward.
Another important piece of the puzzle is keeping up with all of the tasks that come with a larger number of customers in a short period. Pipedrive’s State of Sales and Marketing report has shown that individuals who automate tasks are 16% more likely to reach their targets and the State of Sales and Marketing: The Economy Review 2022/23 underlied a company’s investment in technology and innovation being crucial factors in a business’s sustained growth and competitiveness.
Since there are a lot more customers during the big weekend, sales teams that do not already work with a CRM platform will have to deal with more admin tasks that take up their precious time to sell and build relationships with customers. Using the right CRM platform and automation features allows salespeople to focus on the most important part of Black Friday and Cyber Monday; the sales. By automating admin tasks and the tedious tasks involved, more meaningful relationships can be made with customers and the workflow will become much more streamlined and efficient.
How to keep customers past the shopping weekend
While Black Friday and Cyber Monday are yearly events that sales teams and businesses try to plan for, they should not be seen as one-time events. They should be used as a kick-off for the upcoming shopping seasons to allow businesses to build on their customer bases and ensure they have a loyal community that will continuously return to make new purchases in the future. This is not something that can happen in a single day or single weekend, but with enough planning and help from CRM platforms and tech automation, teams can focus on the sales and relationship building.
Extending the value of your Black Friday sale beyond the day itself can lead to lasting customer loyalty. You don’t have to run your Black Friday sale for longer than 24 hours, you can simply discount products that deliver monthly or yearly benefits – like a software subscription. If your discount brings enough new customers on board, some will likely renew their deals at full price when the year ends. As a result, you’ll increase your average customer lifetime value (CLV).
