Black Friday and Cyber Monday are a real shopping highlight for bargain hunters and price-conscious customers. But companies also benefit from these promotions. The figures prove this: In 2022, sales in Germany on these campaign days totalled around 5.7 billion euros. This is an increase in turnover of around one billion euros compared to 2021. Compared to 2016, it was even around four billion euros. This impressively underlines the importance of these two shopping days for companies.
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Do not rely exclusively on traditional advertising and classic marketing
The advertising campaigns on these two special days require a lot: targeted preparation, conceptual planning and specifically targeted marketing. Because the competition is incredibly huge. After all, every company wants to get a bigger slice of the cake if possible, regardless of sector and size.
Traditional advertising and classic marketing are usually no longer sufficient in view of the large number of competing offers. Potential customers need to be addressed in a targeted manner and the company’s own offerings need to be anchored in the awareness of the respective target groups.
Targeted strategy and comprehensive preparation as a success booster
What is needed are innovative marketing strategies in combination with high-reach collaborations. Particularly promising is the measure of having bloggers and influencers address target group-specific bargain hunters. This should always be done as part of a targeted strategy and comprehensive planning. A multi-stage plan that covers all relevant aspects is recommended.
The preparation phase: This is where you define all the relevant basics
The Chinese philosopher Confucius (probably 551 to 479 BC) preached around two and a half millennia ago that success in all things depends on preparation. This statement has not only lasted for around 2,500 years, but it is more relevant than ever in today’s digital-global age.
Especially with regard to major shopping events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which are organised once a year. Proper preparation and comprehensive planning are essential for business success. This applies not only to the conceptualisation of target group-specific marketing strategies, but also to the targeted preparation for the expected rush for the placed offers.
The important thing here is that the earlier planning begins, the more carefully and specifically all the crucial things can be prepared. This applies to technical and organisational preparations as well as to the development and implementation of suitable marketing measures.
Overview – the most important technical and organisational preparations
- Clearly define sales targets and company-specific secondary targets
- Develop and create a precise content plan
- Clarify smooth shipping and determine how to deal with returns
- Involve project participants and other people or organisations involved and clarify the respective expectations (stakeholder management)
- Contact bloggers and influencers for cooperation
- Sensitise employees to the expected higher requirements
- Optimise stock management and ensure the availability of goods
- Check and prepare the website or online shop for increased traffic via a stress test, capacity utilisation test and spike test (simulation of peak loads)
- Update product pages and specify if necessary
- Gradually increase the daily spend in advance
- Check the website speed and improve it if necessary
- Black Friday marketing: define advertising strategy and target groups
On these special shopping days, advertising strategies and target groups should be considered separately from everyday business. This is because customer behaviour is subject to special specifications. Experience shows that Cyber Monday shoppers tend to be occasional buyers. Instead, potential customers on Black Friday are waiting for offers from their favourite brands and regular shops. In this case, the shops’ advertising strategy should be geared towards existing customers. They can be addressed directly in the best possible way via email and informed about the promotion in advance.
Attractive advertising with landing pages, newsletters and ads
An individual landing page for the advertising campaign also works well. Potential customers then reach this page via adverts, links or QR codes, for example. In this respect, it may well be worth creating different landing pages for different offer categories. In addition to emails and landing pages, ads or topic-specific newsletters should always be integrated into your own advertising strategy.
As a rule, it makes sense to go online with the respective target pages and the intended advertising media before the actual sale. Shop operators can also create additional excitement with an integrated countdown. It is also an advantage to acquire trust seals and certifications. This creates transparency and security in data matters. According to surveys, users of Black Friday offers are on average older than customers on Cyber Monday. Security concerns are therefore typical for this clientele.
Black Friday influencer marketing from marketing expert SeedingUp
Whether Facebook, Instagram, X or TikTok – the proportion of sales on the Friday after Thanksgiving or on Cyber Monday is increasing every year via social media platforms. No wonder, as this online segment provides a more direct connection between sellers and potential buyers.
However, simply posting flat advertising messages is usually not well received. If you want to take a more subtle and effective approach, cooperate with influencers and bloggers. Relevant bloggers and influencers should always offer relevance, reach and resonance as cooperation partners. Thematic overlaps with the respective sales market of the advertising company are also important for successful marketing via Black Friday influencers.
With professional partners such as the international online marketing service provider SeedingUp at their side, companies can ensure efficient brand and product marketing for greater awareness across all industries through customised influencer campaigns. Companies and shops benefit from this in the long term.
Influencer partnerships can be perfectly utilised for BFCM campaigns:
- advertise relevant offers through social media posts and increase brand awareness at the same time
- Reach new audiences through new campaigns and channels
- Evaluate products (social proof)
- Generate more involvement through micro-influencers
- Unboxing campaigns create additional excitement and arouse curiosity
- Post content with a lot of information content for potential customers
- Start TikTok challenges with brand and offer references
- Distribute or play out discount codes or giveaways
- Reuse influencer content in other areas (maximising reach)
- Post-BF follow-up – also generating a boost for daily business
How successful Black Friday marketing via influencers ultimately turns out can be measured using various key figures. However, vanity metrics such as comments and likes are not very meaningful. It is better to measure the results using UTM parameters or UTM codes, for example. Alternatively, companies can also provide their influencer partners with their own discount codes. This enables clear allocation.
Shop operators can also score points with various follow-ups after the campaign days. These include, for example, following up by email in the event of shopping basket cancellations, analyzing sales and campaign data or segmenting customers at these two shopping events. The shops then also benefit from this in their normal daily business.
