Best Black Friday marketing tips: Maximise sales and engagement

It is without a doubt that Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping events of the year, and for a lot of Australian businesses, it’s finally their chance to boost sales, get new customers, and strengthen the loyalty of their customers. Adam Stewart shares how you can get your fair share of the action.

For most businesses, both local and international, it’s incredibly difficult to stand out amongst the discounts and deals despite previous efforts in planning and execution.

But don’t worry. I’m sharing a couple of the best Black Friday marketing tips that I have used for brands over the years, which will help ensure your business thrives during this sales period.

Start early with teaser campaigns

Creating buzz well before Black Friday sets the stage for success.

Build anticipation by running teaser campaigns that hint at upcoming deals and exclusive offers.

If you already have an existing email list, that’s super great as you can use this email list together with social to share fun hints, sneak peeks, or countdowns.

For example:

Share a “Black Friday is Coming” post with a silhouette of a mystery product.
Send out emails promising early access to deals for subscribers.

Starting early keeps your brand top-of-mind for customers as they plan their Black Friday shopping.

Offer exclusive pre-sale deals

Reward your loyal customers with early access to Black Friday deals. This not only makes them feel valued but also helps you spread out the influx of orders over several days, reducing logistical strain.

Here are two ideas that I’ve done before that was helpful:

Allow email subscribers or members of your loyalty program to shop Black Friday deals 24-48 hours early.
Host short, pre-Black Friday sales to test which products are most in demand.

What I love about these strategies is that they help you gauge inventory needs ahead of the big day.

Optimise your website for high traffic

A poorly performing site can cost you thousands in missed sales. Below are a few key things I recommend:

Simulate high-traffic scenarios to ensure your site can handle the influx.
With mobile shopping on the rise, ensure your site is responsive and easy to navigate on smaller screens.
To reduce cart abandonment, if possible, offer guest checkout, multiple payment options, and clear shipping information.

Although the goal is to have more sales, a seamless online shopping experience will keep customers coming back.

Leverage social media

Social media is your powerhouse for driving traffic and engagement during Black Friday. It’s the perfect place for your brand to: share deals, create urgency, and connect in the comments and DMs.

You can create daily countdown posts to build excitement or perhaps do live streams showcasing products and answering questions about any deals offered.

Craft offers that your customers want

To compete with countless other brands, your Black Friday deals need to stand out. Focus on sharing offers that feel exclusive and valuable to your customers. Some of the offers I’ve done for my clients include:

Pairing complementary products for a discounted price.
Doing Buy One Get One Deals.
Giving bigger discounts the more customers spend.

Create a sense of urgency

As Black Friday will always have an urgency factor, I recommend using hourly or daily deals to keep customers checking.

Apart from this, setting up some low stock alerts further highlights products that are running out just make sure to create messages like “Only 5 Left!”. And of course, displaying a live countdown on your website taps into the fear of missing out, which is a powerful motivator.

Invest in email marketing

For email marketing, plan a series of targeted emails that guide customers through their Black Friday journey with you which looks something like this:

Reveal your Black Friday sale dates and top deals.
Send countdown emails as the day approaches.
Create urgency during the final hours of the sale.

Leverage paid advertising

Invest in paid advertisements to broaden your Black Friday reach. Platforms like Google Ads, Facebook, and Instagram offer robust targeting options to maximise your ROI. If this is the first time you’re using paid advertising platforms, or you’ve used them in the past but did not get much traction, here are three things I recommend:

Focus on users who have shown interest in your products.
Promote your most popular items to drive traffic.
Remind customers who have visited your site but haven’t made a purchase.

Analyse and adjust in real-time

The ability to adapt on the fly is critical during Black Friday. You have to use (and I cannot stress this enough!) analytics tools to monitor traffic, sales, and customer behaviour in real-time. Watch for high-performing products that need restocking as well as ads or campaigns that aren’t delivering expected results. Make sure to stay on top of website issues like abandoned carts or error rates.

Being agile during Black Friday helps the team make data-driven decisions to optimise results as the sale unfolds.

Extend the sale with cyber week

Similar to the strategies mentioned above, you’ll want to highlight products that are only available online during Cyber Week. You can share new discounts each day to keep customers hooked and you can even use the week to sell the remaining inventory at reduced prices.

Black Friday is more than just a sales event; it’s a chance to showcase your brand, engage with customers, and set the tone for the holiday shopping season.

With preparation and strategic execution, your business can thrive amongst the competition.

Success this Black Friday could be the start of your best holiday season yet!

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