5 Tips to help you stand out this Black Friday Weekend

Jessica Stephens - May 27, 2021

With Black Friday upon us and the plethora of Christmas / Holiday campaigns about to fill our inboxes, how do you make sure that your brand stands out from everyone else vying for your customers' attention? We have a few ideas to share.

Create uniqueness

Rather than going head-to-head on factors like price or shipping (Amazon can usually beat you on both!) provide your customers with an offer that's unique to your brand. What is it they can get from you that they can't get anywhere else? This doesn’t just relate to your products or services, it's all those little touches that make your brand uniquely yours and create that loyalty.

Refresh your offers

Because Black Friday is no longer confined to a single day, or even the Cyber weekend, there are upsides and downsides. The possible downside is people's attention span is limited, if you use the same campaign or offer for the entire period you're likely to create fatigue. It will require some effort and thought on your part to come up with new hooks. The upside is you have a much larger window to catch your audience and generate revenue meaning you can get creative!

Despite the odds, customers are still expecting to hear from you and look forward to your best deals being released on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Even if protracted over a few days (even weeks) you can still create a sense of urgency by:

  • Offering variety: Give people who check your website day after day during this period new content to engage with and a reason to keep coming back.
  • Rewarding: Customers are intending to buy things for their family and friends, but it's hard to resist a little something for yourself along the way. Give them a reason to convert and also make themselves feel good.
  • Giving Inspiration: Help customers out who can't decide what they're looking for. Create easy gift ideas, segmenting by price, interest or demographic. Give them a little inspiration, it's sometimes the thing they're not looking for that helps gives the final push.
  • Making it fun: why not stand out by creating limited time games that your customer can play to redeem a unique offer code or gift - it's not all about price, it's about the feelgood factor and sense of reward.

Be interesting

Following the theme of making it fun, a successful Black Friday lies in the ability to stand out above the price war. People want to purchase gifts, and get themselves organised ahead of the upcoming holidays. Help them do it by connecting to the reason behind their purchase and who it might be for. The "why" is as important as the "what".

Tell your story! Make good use of social media, create personalised journeys and if you can get some user-generated content, reviews and 3rd party endorsements all the better. People are heavily influenced by others and their experiences, it is infinitely more interesting (and less pushy) than you trying to convince them.

Make the Most of Mobile

Mobile engagement continues to increase rapidly, and so too mobile purchasing. Customers are much more comfortable these days making purchases on their phone. Make sure your campaigns are mobile-friendly, and that the buying process through your mobile site (or app... even better) is super easy. Push campaigns for app users are much more likely to convert your customers. Immediacy is a drug worth capitalising on!

Harness the power of social channels which people can't stop browsing on mobile devices. Keep ads simple and make sure your offers are consistent across all channels and devices so that conversion is easy.

Check Your Automated Programmes

If you haven't already got your abandoned cart and abandoned browse triggers set up - make sure you activate and test them. Update your content to mention your Black Friday deals as an extra motivator to complete purchases, perhaps add a little something extra. You're likely to get increased subscriptions over this period too, so make sure any welcome programmes you have running don't clash with or detract from your Black Friday efforts. Do use as much dynamic and personalised content as you can. It's so much more effective if you take the hassle and confusion away from customers who are bewildered by endless choices and options.

Whilst this is a very competitive period, if you manage to stand out then you'll have done a great job. However, your work doesn't stop there. The weeks leading up to Christmas will also be intense and provide new opportunities to engage with your audiences. Don't forget to follow up with all your new customers!

The D-engage team are experts in digital marketing strategy and execution. We love to share our expertise in creating personalised journeys that drive conversion. The key is in your data and how best to use it. Want to know how we've helped our clients prepare for this holiday period? Get in touch.