It’s arguably the most important time of year for your store - Black Friday ecommerce sales are projected to increase by 15.31% year-over-year in the U.S. to $5.8 billion this year (with mobile sales projected to grow to $2.4 billion). If you don’t already have your strategy in place, there’s still time to whip together a plan before one of the biggest days of the year.
To get the most out of this crazy season and persuade customers to choose your brand when buying, there are a few key tactics you can start implementing today. This post goes through each tactic, why it’s important, and gives tips for implementation.
Let’s start preparing!
1. Focus on growing your email list
Before the big day, you’ll want to do a triple check to make sure all of the CTAs on your website to subscribe are in check.
Leading up to Black Friday, you can even tweak signup form copy to promote upcoming Black Friday discounts. Also consider creating a specific landing page to promote your sale and incentivize signups. Now is the time to give potential customers every reason to subscribe to your list!
2. Start promotions ASAP
Give your subscribers a heads-up that your Black Friday sales are coming to create buzz now. The earlier they’re aware of what’s in store, the more likely they’ll be to share the sale with friends and shop when it’s live.
This graph from CMO by Adobe shows how website visits pick up at the beginning of November.
To capitalize on this uptick, try adding a blurb to your welcome series that teases your upcoming sale and sending a campaign to existing subscribers to let them know what’s coming.
3. Perfect your subject lines
We see it every year around this time - the volume of email you get as an online shopper starts rapidly increasing at the onset of the holidays. One of the best ways to stand out in the inbox is with a clever subject line.
Make your promotion as clear as possible, using immediately recognizable terms like ‘Sale’ and ‘Black Friday’. Don’t forget to include specific percentages off or details on dollar discounts too! Not sure where to start? We’ve put together a list of favorites to get you going: 15 Black Friday Email Subject Lines for Ecommerce.
4. Create urgency with timelines
It should be clear to your site visitors, subscribers, and customers when your sale starts and ends. Give them all the details up front so they can prep a wish list and get ready to shop. A great way to create urgency on your site or in emails is a countdown timer.
Zagg does an excellent job of including all sale details in their email along with a countdown - bonus, they throw in an early bird sale to get subscribers extra excited.
5. Set up basic automations
Automations will become your best friend this holiday season - with an increased number of eyes on your site and abandoned carts at a potential all-time high, you need to set some basic reminders in place! Implement an abandoned cart and browse abandonment email journey to see real ROI on all your efforts to promote your browse abandonment sale.
For abandoned cart template inspiration, take a look at this post: Need Abandoned Cart Email Inspiration? Here Are 7 Templates You Can Steal. For help with your browse abandonment journey, this post offers guidance: 5 Great Browse Abandonment Email Examples.
Wrap Up
Black Friday will be here before you know it, so use the next week to put some of these strategies in place. By setting the groundwork, your customers will be prepared and ready to shop when your sale goes live!