Black Friday is the shopping holiday that many retailers spend all year thinking about and planning for. It takes a lot of preparation for marketers, so it can be extremely satisfying when you see your hard work pay off! Hopefully, most of your planning is nearly over, and you can start to focus on its execution. In order to keep you motivated and in the holiday spirit during this busy time, it helps to review a few companies that have done Black Friday right in the past.
The three companies listed below are very big businesses, but they can still teach small businesses a thing or two about how to run a Black Friday campaign. Whether you have a physical location, online location, or both, these companies should inspire you to push the boundaries of your own campaigns. Evaluating what makes them so successful might get you thinking about what you can do to amp up your own company’s Black Friday campaign.
Amazon
Online shopping is huge because many consumers don’t feel like fighting the crowds on Black Friday. Amazon is perfectly designed for Cyber Monday, but the company also brings in a lot of sales on Black Friday. Since Amazon sells a large variety of retail items that Black Friday shoppers are looking for, from televisions to winter jackets, it’s extremely convenient. Amazon is a great company when it comes to holiday shopping because they give their customers incentives for choosing their site over other retail sites. This year, they’ve even started Sunday delivery through the US Postal Service.
The Take-Away: Think about giving your customers incentives for shopping on your website. Offering free shipping or free gift wrapping services might get people to your site and ordering your products.
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Target
A famous Target holiday commercial, where an insanely organized middle-aged woman prepared for Black Friday, were memorable and fun. Most of us remember the “Target Lady”, Maria Bamford, but it also made most consumers view Target in a favorable light. They were able to make fun of the intensity of the holiday shopping season while also keeping their brand in the front of their customers’ minds.
The Take-Away: Consider creating a memorable “mascot” for your holiday campaigns. Even small businesses can design something appealing and fun, even if they don’t have television ads. Use your social media sites or run an email marketing campaign to spread the word about your deals and utilize your Black Friday mascot.
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Best Buy
Best Buy is one of the most well-known places to purchase electronics on Black Friday. Their sales are usually good and they always have doorbuster deals that bring people to their physical locations in droves. Many consumers keep Best Buy in mind for their Black Friday shopping and they usually end up with something worth fighting the crowds for. They also get a good flow of traffic to their website, but they give extra incentives for heading out on Black Friday. This year, Best Buy will have a secret doorbuster item available at different times during Black Friday. Customers will have to check out an in-store location in order to find out what they are.
The Take-Away: If you offer amazing door-buster deals and deals that can only be found in your stores, you’ll drive in more customers to your physical location. Getting customers into your physical location might cause them to purchase more items than if they were shopping online because there’s a strong sense of competition between shoppers, and the excitement of the event might get them energized to spend.
However you feel about Black Friday, there’s no denying that it brings in a lot of business to companies that do it right. In order to stand out from the crowd, you need to create a campaign that will convince shoppers to buy from you instead of your competitors. Learn from what these big companies are doing right and try to implement them in your own campaigns.