Prepare Your Business for Black Friday

Prepare Your Business for Black Friday

In Blog by Jerad HillLeave a Comment

In the years past we have known the day after Thanksgiving as Black Friday. This is the day where shoppers leave the comfort of their own home before the sun rises to wait in lines with the hopes to get a discount. Over the last two years, businesses have seen less of a turn out on Black Friday due to online businesses starting discounts earlier. Black Friday has became Grey Friday, due to the diluted sales businesses are experiencing at their brick-and-mortar locations.. Through email marketing, customers are being enticed to spend their money online and avoid the craziness that is Black Friday. Some shoppers will start shopping for the holidays as early as mid October. As a business, if you plan your marketing right, you can capture some of that Pre-Black Friday money.

Prepare Your Business for Grey Friday Sales
Source: Google Trends

Here are four tips to help prepare your business for the Black Friday Shopping Season.

1. Announce your deals early

The big box stores announce their deals early to drum up excitement. People camp out overnight just to save a few hundred dollars on a tv. If you are a local small business who wants some of that Black Friday foot traffic, you can announce your deals early to customers past customers. There are many ways that you can build your email list leading up to Black Friday if you do not already have a list of customer emails. If you are an online business, announcing your deals early will allow customers to budget for your deal. Though online sales are typically done on “Cyber Monday,” you can let your customers know of your specials early so they don’t spend all of their money on Black Friday.

2. Help with the research

We all know that shopping in the big box stores results in lackluster customer service. As a small businesses, we pride ourselves on having knowledge of the products and services we sell. Most, if not all shoppers, have a smartphone and will be doing research on the products or services they are looking to buy. This is where you will be able to provide timely information and value. Take advantage of your website and social media platform to inform customers with information that they need to make the right purchasing decisions this holiday season. If you are directly competing with a big box store, this is extremely important. For example: If you have a business that builds home computer desktops, you will need to step up your game in order to provide more value than Best Buy. You can do this by sharing information and keeping your past customers up to date. People still want to buy from people who know what they are talking about.

3. For online orders, offer Free Shipping

Free shipping will be the number two factor in deciding where to purchase an item online. If you are a local business, you could offer free in store pickup or free delivery for smaller items. If you are an online business, know that customers may choose a retailer that offers free shipping over a better price on the product itself.

4. Don’t Ignore Mobile

Mobile plays an important role in the customer journey. Everybody with a smartphone is doing research on products they are interested in and are actively checking prices. Mobile research also leads to in store sales. If you have products that can be bought elsewhere, your pricing and available product information needs to be on par with what would be seen online. Those who are researching in-store on their mobile devices are motivated to buy. They are simply looking for confirmation that their decision to purchase with you is a good choice. As long as they are getting a reasonable price, they are likely to buy right away.

The landscape keeps changing. As the services we use continue to change, the way people make decisions will continue to change as well. Keeping up to speed with what consumers are using to research and make purchases is half the battle. What is left is to find a way to integrate that into the way you market. We live in a time where there are many marketing technology tools available to help you get the insight you need to effectively market your business.

If you need help with identifying where and what your target market is doing, we would love to help.

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