From single-day doorbusters to multiple weeks of online promotions, Black Friday has flourished into an online shopping phenomenon.
In 2021, consumers spent $10.7 billion on Cyber Monday, making it the biggest online shopping day of the year. Although this was 1.4% less than 2020, ecommerce sales rose an estimated 45% compared to 2019.
For every day of Cyber 5, people shopped more online compared to in-store. Brands should prepare to match or increase expectations this year with consumers being more accustomed to shopping online more than ever before.
Take a look at our top Black Friday Cyber Monday strategies so you can boost conversions and reach your goals this season.
Why is a BFCM Strategy Essential?
Not having a strategy in place for Black Friday and Cyber Monday can cost retailers thousands of dollars in missed revenue. Having an organized, data-backed plan will increase sales and alleviate potential stress during such a busy time.
Let’s take a look at how to kick off the BFCM season on the right foot.
Start Planning Early
Although Black Friday falls on November 25th, deals are projected to start in October.
Last year, 63% of consumers reported to shop before Thanksgiving and 54% were almost entirely done by Cyber Monday. Consumers jumped at the chance to grab their favorite products early due to common supply chain issues and shipping concerns.
So take a look at your analytics from previous years. What worked well? What showed potential for improvement?
Review your audience trends and data before developing your strategies so you can maximize your profit potential. Next, outline your calendar with important dates so you can roadmap the release of promotional emails, special marketing material, and social media announcements.
Build Your BFCM Email List
Build your email list by offering early insider promotions and sneak peeks to what’s ahead. Segment new customers onsite and invite them to sign up for early access to Black Friday offers. Get shoppers excited for when the time arrives.
Utilize email marketing, social media, and ad campaigns to make your brand presence known. Ad campaigns cost more the closer you are to Black Friday. Promote early before the internet gets saturated with deals to stay top of mind.
Once BFCM is over, you’ve built up a strong sense of brand loyalty. Cycle customers into your lifecycle emails to maintain a good relationship after the events are over.
5 On-Site Strategies for Black Friday Cyber Monday
During last year’s BFCM, as much as 46% of shoppers purchased more with UpSellit’s product recommendation engine. By leveraging free shipping, our clients saw conversion rates as high as 74%. Urgency messaging inspired conversion rates as high as 49%.
With over 15 years of experience, we’ve fine tuned our BFCM strategies to help brands succeed across every vertical. Take a look at our data-driven Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing strategies for your brand to implement this season.
Leverage Urgency to Promote Your Sale
Time sensitivity is a huge factor in successful Black Friday marketing campaigns. Although deals can run for over a month, urgency is a key strategy to move potential customers to checkout. Utilize countdown timers to remind shoppers they don’t have time to waste.
Social proofing also creates a sense of urgency as shoppers know the competition is fierce. Use low stock alerts on your product pages or on abandonment to show products are popular. Showing ‘recent views’ or ‘recent purchases’ sends the same message to promote items with fewer stock concerns.
Put Your Discounts and Offers Front and Center
Place your deals front and center to avoid a high bounce rate on your website. Display your promotion for the day above the fold, in a banner, or on abandonment to make your special offers crystal clear.
If you don’t have a large discount to display, leverage existing on-site offers. 79% of consumers are more likely to shop when given free shipping, proving you don’t need large discounts to increase conversions.
Free gifts are another common BFCM strategy to make your company stand out from the competition. You can also leverage your rewards program or highlight additional value propositions like free returns to add extra value beyond discounts.
Whatever your offer is, make sure shoppers know.
Use AI-Driven Recommendations to Drive Product Discovery
Cyber 5 can sometimes feel overwhelming for consumers. They’re trying to snag as many deals as possible, and they don’t have time to scroll through your entire online store.
Presenting dynamic, AI-driven product recommendations can help shoppers quickly find similar items or allow them to discover new products they may not have been looking for.
Dynamic recommendations provide a seamless user experience for shoppers while also increasing order values for brands. In fact, AI-driven recommendations can generate $762,000 in 30 days. Imagine how much revenue they could generate during BFCM.
Save Shoppers Carts for Later
Especially during Q4, carts are often used as a wishlist to bookmark favorite items. You can use this as an opportunity to capture leads by offering to save shopper’s carts.
Save your cart strategies can generate 23% more leads and provide even more conversions. By delivering the shopper’s cart contents to their email, they can complete their purchase easily from any device.
During BFCM, highlight your special offers and communicate the amount of time left to claim your promotions. Creating a sense of urgency will help increase purchase intent and drive shoppers to your website.
Identify Anonymous Shoppers
Although conversion rates are growing overall, the shopping cart abandonment rate for fashion retailers is still at 87%. Travel companies average an 82% abandonment rate, and cosmetics companies average a 70% abandonment rate. It’s crucial to get as much information as possible from your website visitors while you have them on-site before you lose them forever.
UpSellit’s technology identifies unknown users on your website to turn anonymous traffic into new-to-file leads. Creating a personalized experience using historic browsing behavior allows for remarketing opportunities that align with the interests of shoppers.
After capturing new leads, follow up with one-to-one remarketing emails to get shoppers back into the funnel to complete a purchase.
4 BFCM Email Marketing Strategies
Email campaigns are crucial to create a relationship with your customers. Implement these Black Friday Cyber Monday marketing strategies to recover lost sales and make the most out of Q4.
Notify Shoppers of Your Sales
When your Black Friday sales window begins, send emails with eye-catching subject lines that create urgency and intrigue to increase open rates. Try to keep your subjects below 40 characters.
Here are some examples:
The wait is up! Black Friday starts now.
TODAY ONLY: 30% Off!
Hurry! It’s our biggest sale ever.
BFCM Sale: 40% Off + FREE Shipping
In the body copy, emphasize that your sales are only running for a limited time. Add personal touches, large design elements, and clear CTAs to inspire shoppers to head to your website.
Recover Shoppers who Abandoned Checkout
Lead Capture strategies also recover abandoning shoppers by offering to save active carts. Promoting a new or existing discount is a great addition to this strategy when bookmarking a shopper’s progress.
Abandoned cart emails add value to the user experience by helping shoppers pick up where they left off. If you don’t have a user’s information, PreCapture technology can grab an email the moment it’s typed before they abandon checkout.
Next, send a 3 email drip to reignite their interest. Send the first email immediately. Then, follow up at 48 hours and one week from abandonment. Include dynamic messaging with their saved cart, product recommendations, or reiterations of existing offers to inspire otherwise lost purchases.
Notify Shoppers of Price Drops
Although you’re offering discounts and promotions during BFCM, there might be an item or two excluded from the sales. This is a great opportunity to leverage price drop alerts to help shoppers keeping an eye on specific price points.
Offering these alerts is a win-win. You get their contact information, and they save money down the road. Plus, they’ll be motivated to stay on your list since they’re looking out for updates.
In the emails, dynamically insert product details and the new savings with a clear call to action so shoppers easily move from email to on-site.
Follow Up with LifeCycle Emails
Don’t stop communicating once a purchase has been made. Keep shoppers updated with information on their purchase, including shipping delays and delivery notifications.
You can also enroll shoppers into lifecycle remarketing campaigns. Lifecycle campaigns are the very definition of playing the long game. Instead of focusing on a single conversion, they set the stage for numerous future conversions.
Let shoppers know about new product releases, exclusive offers and discounts, or even provide product recommendations based on previous purchases.
A/B Test to Maximize Conversions
Multivariate testing goes a long way when maximizing your profit potential. UpSellit’s auto-optimized multivariate testing takes the guesswork out of conversion optimization so you can feel confident about your campaigns. Testing your top performing strategies increases conversion rates, reduces abandonment, and improves your user experience.
Singling out individual elements is the only true way to make data-backed decisions for your business. Test multiple offers, designs, or copy in advance to pinpoint what works best for your brand when Cyber 5 arrives.
When analyzing copy, test the length and tone of your writing to discover what speaks to your audience the most. For design, rotate varying layouts, colors and images. Even when it comes to your CTAs, the language and design can have a major impact on your conversions.
Preparing for BFCM 2022
From email marketing to on-site strategies, you now have all the tools you need to maximize your revenue and build customer relationships for the upcoming months. Plan early, analyze, and test your strategies to take on Black Friday with confidence.
Exceed Your Q4 Goals with UpSellit
Q4 is an incredibly busy time of year. Let us help you get your BFCM marketing campaigns in place so you can increase conversions for the best Black Friday Cyber Monday season yet.
Discover the lasting impacts of our solutions with our Liftime Value Report. This report specifically examines new customer acquisition campaigns from 50 different accounts across four different industries. The result? Recovered shoppers prove +20.5% boost to revenue. Download the report to learn more.
