With all that’s been happening in 2020, it’s going to greatly change how Black Friday and Cyber Monday will play out this year. Now that the economy is starting to bounce back and social distancing becoming the new norm, the likelihood of another record-breaking year for Black Friday and Cyber Monday online sales is very high.
For any online merchant, this particular time of the year is, without a doubt, crucial to boost sales numbers. That’s why it’s all the more important to prepare your online business for these upcoming dates with the following tips.
Prepare Your Website
It is no surprise that there’s already been a significant drop in in-store visits due to the pandemic. The infamous crazy Black Friday lineups and over-crowded stores will not happen this year as a result, so businesses need to be ready for this year’s influx of online traffic and transactions on their online store.
A website crash is the last thing you want to happen at this time. So the first thing you want to do is ensure your website is fast and secure by making sure your server has the capacity to handle the increased traffic.
Keep in mind that the slower a page loads, you increase the chances of the user leaving without making a purchase. As a matter of fact, Google reported that the probability of a user bouncing off increases 32% as a page load time increased from 1 second to 3 seconds.
And let’s not forget the importance of optimizing your website for mobile devices. In 2018, 67% of all Black Friday traffic was via mobile devices.
The website will be the foundation of your pivotal success because time is of the essence when trying to snipe a good deal. A simple and easy navigation with good website responsiveness can create an overall better user experience to convert a website visitor into an actual customer.
Build Anticipation Leading Up To The Big Weekend
Long before the big weekend, you should coordinate all your online and offline promotional channels to help build up hype around the upcoming major retail event. This will ensure your business stays top of mind, and your customers will be prepped and ready to buy when the clock strikes.
It’s all about building awareness, developing interest and driving up engagement. This may include teasing with an email marketing blast or social media posts that feature a sneak-peek of what special deals will be available or a countdown to remind them that your sales aren’t going to last. Some retailers also engage in early bird specials or flash sales for subscribers and existing clients to trigger the shopper’s impatience.
Holding a pre-Black Friday sale is a great way to stand out and get a headstart before consumers start racking up purchases, do any comparison shopping and begin to hesitate over how much they’ve already spent.
Refresh Your Ad Copy and Creatives
The competition is fierce during the biggest shopping season of the year, so it’s crucial to make sure you grab the attention of the consumers. Separate yourself from the crowd by clearly outlining your promotions in your ad copy with your differentiating deals and any special discount codes in addition to creating the urgency and scarcity to seize the amazing deals you are offering.
A clear Call To Action should be established so that the consumer knows how to take advantage of the offer. Remember that “Cyber Weekend” is also a great time to offer more than just discounts. Additional benefits like free shipping/curbside pickup and returns or loyalty rewards can also help you stand out. Just be sure to craft your powerful messaging and bold creative images to be simple and consistent with your brand.
Make Use of Remarketing
Next, you need to work on building high-quality traffic leading up to the big shopping event with the goal of engaging with a wider audience.
Advertising platforms like Google and Facebook will be able to collect data on the user’s journey and retarget the audience to increase the likelihood of your visitors converting into paying customers.
Retargeting can also be done through Marketing Automation tools to recover abandoned carts and trigger tailored messaging to the users based on their onsite behaviour. These potential customers have already shown their intent to make a purchase by loading up their cart, so they are considered quality leads with a very high potential to convert.
On top of that, you can leverage the list of already-interested audiences that you’ve built from all the data to retarget the users for future events such as Christmas and Boxing Week sales.
Conclusion
Just because we are currently facing a pandemic-induced recession with economic uncertainty doesn’t mean that people won’t participate in scanning the web to find deals during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
As a matter of fact, many shoppers may even be more eager to look for more affordable bargains during these tough times. So it’s important to start planning out your Black Friday and Cyber Monday strategy sooner than later, to be certain that you have everything taken into consideration. This would include building buzz-worthy campaigns leading up to the big weekend, making sure your website provides the best user experience, optimizing your campaign assets and figuring out how you want to engage in remarketing.
Cyber Weekend is just right around the corner and there’s no reason you shouldn’t have the right strategies set in place to guarantee the best possible return on the biggest shopping season of the year.
on
This is a great comparison!
Thanks for taking time and sharing it.