Howdy, Partners! Did you know last Black Friday, American consumers spent $9 billion online shopping, with a 21.6% increase from the year before?! Sure, we were in the middle of a pandemic, so of course, most shopping was done online.
Since COVID, online shopping has been at an all-time high, and it keeps going up. (Just ask Jeff Bezos. )
The good news for business owners is that there’s never been a better time to offer online sales. Consumers are shopping online more so than locally, which allows you to reach far and wide. Even internationally!
Thanks to the internet, your reach can extend as far as you allow it. And the cheapest way to grow and market your business is through social media marketing.
Why Social Media Marketing is Important for Black Friday Deals
And these exciting stats aren’t only benefiting the Amazon empire, but all businesses! Now is the perfect time to capitalize on the sharp increase and begin planning your Black Friday marking strategy.
You’ll be more than ready for the biggest shopping day of the year, during a peak period in time of online purchases!
So yes, Black Friday is a big deal for any business. But are social media campaigns and marketing worth it? Can social media make a difference in your sales? Well, let’s take a look-see at the benefits of social media marketing for any business:
1. Social media brings more inbound traffic to your website by allowing you to reach nearly 4 billion people on social media.
Without social media bringing people to your business, your inbound traffic significantly limits your reach – as most people search social media for the authority of a company before they even visit the website!
You can reach a wide variety of people and grow so much faster with good social media marketing. Overall, social media helps put you out into the world to find your niche, community, and customer base much more efficiently.
2. The more places online where people can find your business, the better your search engine rankings will be.
58% of marketers who have been using social media consistently for a year see a significant improvement in their search engine rankings!
Most people don’t look past the first page of a Google search, so the more traffic to your website and the higher your SEO ranking, the higher you’ll show up on searches driving even more traffic and sales. See, it’s a win-win!
3. A social media presence improves brand loyalty.
There’s a reason why millennials are 62% more loyal to brands that directly engage with them on social media!
By showing up on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Youtube, and Twitter you allow your consumers to communicate with you directly and establish a deeper relationship than going to a website, purchasing a few things, and then going their own way.
(Alexa, play Go Your Own Way, by Fleetwood Mac. )
4. Social media helps give you authority.
When customers see you post original content and reply to customers in a way that humanizes you, it establishes trust. By engaging with your consumers, you show that you care and believe in your brand enough to show up continually.
Having an active social media presence also allows other users to share your content and reach an even wider audience!
5. Social media marketing is a cost-effective way to get your business out in front of the masses.
Social media marketing is the most cost-efficient advertising strategy, with paid ads available for every budget! Instagram ads start as little as $0.50 USD!
Pinterest’s Ads starting at $2.00 USD, and the option to continually boost a promotion for as little as $0.50! Since there’s very little to lose, you might as well test the waters and see if there’s any return.
The more you engage on social media, the more people are directed to your website for sales, making social media marketing crucial for successful Black Friday Advertising, especially for small businesses.
Social media is not only the optimal place to announce your sales, promotions, and new inventory for existing customers, it’s also the prime place to find and reach new consumers.
And social media gives you the chance to stay top of mind so they keep coming back for more!
Posting consistently on social media allows you to make sure your customers remember you’re there and that they keep checking for new product launches.
Many businesses are taking Black Friday to the next level by running Black Friday sales, promotions, and teasers for the entire month of November and stretching the excitement and anticipation!
Regardless of how long your campaign will be, we’ll go over how you can start prepping NOW in this article. And how to pull off the best Black Friday social media campaign like a total boss this holiday season.
How to Prep for Black Friday (Months in Advance!)
Black Friday may be months away, but you can (and should!) begin planning and strategizing so you can pull off your best campaign yet!
By planning your Black Friday marketing campaign early, you can take the stress out of an already busy time of year by getting all the ducks in a row for your business. If you begin now, you can plan posts and angles for all of your social media platforms, ensuring this is your greatest and most successful sale yet!
You can even begin strategizing what inventory you’d like to include, which hashtags, and how many posts you’d like to include. Start small, and then see how big and broad you can take it. You got this, partner!
And the more you build your audience and engage with it now, the greater your success will be during Black Friday. And with the worldwide known most significant sale of the year, the time to begin preparing and get your ducks in a row is sure as heck right meow.
Want to know how you can prepare for something months in advance? Well, read on, Partner! I’ll go over 6 ways you can begin building your audience, engagement, and direction, allowing you to maximize your revenue!
1. Set Your Goals Beforehand
When deciding on any marketing plan, especially one that involves the most popular shopping day (ahem, month ) of the year, having a set goal and strategy will hugely impact how successful it can be.
The first thing to ask yourself is, what are you marketing? Are you launching new products? Or are you discounting older items to make room for new inventory?
Do you want more engagement and followers? If so, giveaways and following incentives like discounts for subscribing to your emails (we’ll get into email campaigns below ) would be great additions to jazz up your marketing plan.
The more you narrow down what you’d like to achieve, the easier it’ll be to plan the perfect Black Friday promotions for your business
2. Build that Email List!
I want to start this section by stating that marketers who use email campaigns note a 750% increase in revenue!!!
Over the past year, 78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement. And 73% of millennials prefer communication from a business through email, so they’re actually opening them!
If you’re not already adding email campaigns into your marketing strategy, then let these statistics convince you otherwise! Email campaigns are one of the most successful methods of achieving and maintaining sales.
Just imagine how effective combining an email campaign (or more than one!) with the worldwide biggest shopping day could be!
Not only that, 59% of respondents say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions. So, are you sold on email campaigns yet?
Including email campaigns for your Black Friday marketing plan can take your sales up a notch, or 750% of the notches.
3. Prepare Your Social Media Profiles
Having a consistent name and logo or photo throughout your accounts helps people identify and continue following all the platforms. If you’re feeling stuck on how to make an eye-catching bio, we’ve got an article on 150 Instagram Bio Ideas + How to Write the Perfect Bio!
It’s also just as important to have your website URL on each platform, allowing all that hard work to bring you more sales. Our link in bio tool, Smart.bio allows you to add multiple URLs and track the analytics for you.
This feature gives your consumers and audience easy-to-use accessibility when purchasing your products. And the more accessible your links and websites are, the more likely you are to get more sales from new and existing customers.
Then, if you’re working with various brands or want to feature specific items from your business, you can add and remove links within Smart.bio, but the main link on your social media profile stays the same.
A pro tip for your social media accounts is to stick to a consistent color scheme, voice, and messaging. Let people know what your company is and what they’ll get from following you.
People like predictability, personality, and creativity. Try new creative post ideas centered around your niche that allow you to keep your voice and personality.
The most successful creators and businesses on social media keep trending because they cover various topics within their niche, are consistent, and produce new creative content.
Do you post humorous unboxing videos every Friday? Do you reshare cute animal photos in your Instagram Stories? What can humanize your business? The more consistent you are, the more engagement you’ll receive and have people coming back for more!
Leading up to Black Friday, you can tweak the links within your Smart.bio, or even update your website URL with a call-to-action button that takes customers to a landing page that includes which items will be featured for the shopping holiday.
4. Create Gift Guides For Your Sale Items
Make it as easy as possible for consumers to pick which amazing items to purchase from your business by making gift guides. Gift guides allow them to see multiple items in your shop, along with accompanying gift ideas for a whole theme.
For example, if you sell macrame products, you can use Tailwind Create to make a gift guide of “What to buy your fellow plant lovers this Holiday season.” You can design an Instagram Carousel, Pinterest Pins, or even Facebook posts featuring new items or your best sellers and plant-themed gifts from other small businesses.
You could include your macrame plant hangers, a coffee mug covered in Monstera leaves, a plush green robe etc!
Including other businesses and tagging them can potentially get your gift guide reshared and available to even more eyes! You can publish these on your website, social media platforms, or even make some guest posts.
5. Connect With Your Audience
This is where using emotions and personality can help you stand out. By sharing your brand values and showing you’re more than a business, you can connect with even more people.
You’re a human who’s following their dreams, who has morals, beliefs, humor, and intelligence.
For example, REI created a campaign called #OptOutside, and closed on Black Friday.
Before this raises your eyebrows, it’s important to understand that this was a move to showcase brand values and the values of their customers – and they reopened for Cyber Monday to great sales!
Remember when we went over why social media marketing is so important at the beginning of this article?
Making a connection with your audience keeps them coming back repeatedly instead of buying something and then disappearing.
6. Establish Good Customer Service
Begin now to show you’re reliant and care about your customers. Respond quickly to customer emails, direct messages, and post comments.
Use a friendly and consistent tone when engaging with your audience. The more you show up quickly and efficiently, the more your audience will see you not only care about them, but you stand by your products and believe in them. That trust can take you a long way!
7. Keep an Eye on Your Analytics
If you start experimenting and watching your engagement now, you can, through trial and error, narrow down what works best for you regarding social media marketing BEFORE you decide on your Black Friday promotions.
Try some Instagram Reels! Have diverse types of posts by trying carousel posts, images, and videos. Another great idea is to experiment with great Story Pins on Pinterest!
By exploring and creatively trying new things, you’ll be able to see what your audience resonates with and prefers.
Create Buzz with Black Friday Content Ideas
Alright, now let’s get to some content creation planning for this Black Friday! Once you’ve done some experimenting and watched your analytics, it’ll make the planning process much more predictable and easier.
Before you begin, do some SEO and hashtag research for both #BlackFriday2021 and your specific niche. #BlackFridayCatDeals
This will help you gain even more traction and momentum, setting you up to reach the maximum amount of people. Okay, onward to the ideas!
- Create sneak peeks of new products, emphasizing what exciting things will be available on Black Friday. ✨
- Shoot some behind-the-scenes photos and videos of inventory. If you’re selling custom-made graphic shirts, you could do an Instagram Story try-on of new colors and prints while showing different ways of styling the piece.
- Post a countdown to the sale with typography that stands out and your company’s color palette! Learn more about the top social media design trends of 2021 while you’re at it!
- Offer a discount code or perks for loyal customers who subscribe and follow, giving a feeling of exclusivity and urge to hit that follow button.
You could announce that email subscribers will get an email with early access to the sales an hour or two before everyone else, prompting people not to walk but run to your site and subscribe.
Who knows, maybe they’ll also browse for a while and purchase a few things in advance.
You can also establish a sense of urgency by using phrases like “while supplies last;” “for a limited time;” “while supplies last;” “hurry;” and “shop now!” (Just to name a few!)
- Research a group or cause to donate a certain percentage of either total sales or one particular item to go towards. This would be a great way to show your values and make you stand out in a caring and humanistic way. For example, maybe you have a pink item that also happens to be a best-seller, you could announce that 10% of that item’s purchases will go towards breast cancer research.
There are so many ways to get that buzz going and to create excitement around your products!
Just plan ahead by paying attention to what works so you can get the maximum benefits of a successful Black Friday promotion!
Tailwind Can Help You Build Consistency and Authority on Social Media
Consistency is vital in social media marketing, especially when you’re preparing for a big crowd-pleasing event like Black Friday.
And now, creating, planning and optimizing your social media content has never been easier thanks to Tailwind’s social media management tool!
With the help of our advanced scheduler, your posts are automatically published during peak engagement times, and we even give you suggested hashtags with our Hashtag Finder to reach the most people! We also have hundreds of free designer quality ready-to-use templates on Tailwind Create, uniquely personalized to your brand.
Stand out, build an audience, increase engagement, and look as if you have an entire marketing team behind you by using Tailwind today!
The Best Time to Start is Today!
Black Friday promotions and sales can be your most lucrative time of the year; it just requires some planning and consistency to help make this day reach the next level for your business. Capitalize on the biggest known sale of the year and use social media marketing to your advantage!
Show consumers your worth, and don’t be afraid to experiment with different types of posts, so you have all the analytics you need to help you narrow down the best kind of posts for your Black Friday marketing strategy!
And remember, the best time to start is now.
I’ll see you next time, partner!
