Three key ways to get the most out of Black Friday

In the past it’s been confined to the US, but Black Friday has been growing in popularity in Australia over the last few years. 

It takes place on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and has come to represent the official start of the Christmas shopping period. And now, with the rise of e-comm, we’ve got Cyber Monday too, which happens the Monday after, and is more focused on driving online purchases. 

Loads of brands have jumped onboard both of these days, offering limited time discounts on their products and services.

But they don’t have to be confined to the big guys. There’s loads of potential opportunities for entrepreneurs and small business owners to increase their sales around this time of the year, too. 

Firstly, develop your offer

A strategy is super important here. If you’re a product-based business, take a look at your stock levels to see which items aren’t selling so well, or which winter focused products you’ve still got and need to move, and then consider offering a discount or offer on them – such as a buy one get one free.

Given we’re heading into Christmas, selling seasonal products ahead of time will have you sleeping easy knowing you’re on track with sales too – this could be a save and spend incentive, for example. 

The festive season can be a quieter time for many service-based businesses as companies take holidays or shut down, so now could be a great time to provide package discounts. If you have them sign up for a particular time frame to take advantage of the offer, this means you’ll have work coming in to keep you going.

When considering the discount or offer, it’s important to make sure you’re still making a profit above all else, so assess your budget and forecast, check what your original margin was, what the new one will be, and how this will impact your bottom line.

Get your operations in order ahead of time

To ensure a smooth customer experience, consider bringing on extra staff for this busy period. If you’re a physical business this might mean having extra people on the floor to answer customers’ questions and process sales.

While for e-commerce you’ll likely have all your sales automated, it will be important to ensure a swift send out of products. Otherwise, you’ll probably receive an influx of queries from people wondering where their orders are!

It might sound obvious, but make sure your website is able to host the increased traffic you might receive, too. This will help to avoid a crash, and the potential for missed sales.

Don’t forget to market what you’re doing

It’s important to get the word out about your special Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday discount or offer, otherwise, how will anyone know about it?!

Days like these are a great way to nurture existing customers and generate new ones, so consider where your target audience is, and then focus on those channels. 

You don’t need to invest a tonne of money into this activity, either – but if you do choose to put some cash towards this, make sure you’ve got the budget for it first. 

Some cost-effective ways include:

• • Social media. These platforms are completely free when you publish organic posts, and allow you to share your activity with your existing network. There’s the option to incentivise them here too, by offering a further discount to those who refer a friend, or share your post. This ensures you’re reaching a new, wider audience, hurrah!

• • Collaborations. Identifying a like minded business or brand with a different product or service offering, yet similar audience to yours, is a great way to reach new customers. This could be a social media giveaway, or special product or service bundles around these days, which you run in the lead up to them.

• • Email marketing. Most of the key platforms out there have a free option, and if you’ve got an existing database, great! If not, consider developing an early access offer or other incentive to customers who sign up now, so that as Black Friday and Cyber Monday approach, you’ve got a list of people to share your news with.
    

• • Business Profiles. If you’ve got listings on particular sites that relate to your industry, why not post an update there if it’s free to do so? Google Business is great for SEO, so make the most of the updates section of your profile (or create a profile for your biz if you don’t have one yet – there’s no cost involved) to share what you’re doing around these days.

Embracing Black Friday and Cyber Monday can be super beneficial to entrepreneurs and small business owners, but it’s always important to have a strategy in place first, and ensure you’ve got the cash flow to offer special discounts and offers.

If you’re interested in embracing these days but aren’t sure where to start, we can help! Book a complimentary consultation in with our MicroChilli team here.