Nailing The Best Black Friday & Cyber Monday Marketing Strategy

With shoppers spending more time online than ever before, it's crucial to reach them where they’re spending their disposable time and income. It’s essential to market your brand via social media, email marketing, and other digital channels to ensure your business is top of mind this Black Friday & Cyber Monday season. But everyone is following these standard marketing efforts, what can you do to stand out from your competitors? We’ve got some innovative and impactful suggestions for how and when you should advertise to get the best ROI this Friday, 25 November, 2022 and Monday, 28 November, 2022.

The Black Friday journey

According to Google, consumers go through three major stages during Black Friday.

Source: The three phases of Black Friday

The build-up phase starts in early October, and at this point, consumers may have an idea of some products they’re interested in but in general, their minds are very open and receptive to new brands and products. It’s an active research phase with generic queries, and a strong focus on higher-priced items such as electronics.  

In phase two - the craze - consumers are looking for specific brands, products, great bargains, cheapest prices, and crucially, making the purchases. At this stage, it’s even more important for advertisers to get their name and products in front of the eyes of consumers and build brand loyalty, as this stage is more concentrated on trust and desire over research.

Phase three, the so-called last call, happens two weeks after Black Friday & Cyber Monday. During that time, consumers look for even better deals and want still to capitalise on great bargains, so this is an excellent opportunity for advertisers to captivate consumers still looking to spend in this heightened sense of urgency before it all ends.

What and when marketing do you need to do?

Time to pull out the calendar, let’s take a look at what you need to do by when, and what are the best marketing strategies you should do to get the highest revenue.

Phase 1: The build-up

30 September - 16 October:
Landing pages & SEO & email marketing
To take full advantage of this shopping holiday, it’s crucial to promote your deals and discounts ahead of time. A great way to do this is to create a landing page on your website that highlights your Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals and directs visitors to the appropriate pages on your site.

Using Google Ads can be a good way of improving the visibility of your landing page as it can be hard to get landing pages to rank highly. However, there are things you can do to improve ranking organically like including relevant keywords and phrases, and clear calls-to-action that encourage visitors to click through to your site. Also, exciting emails with your promotions are a great way of connecting with consumers and don’t forget to include a call-to-action with a link to your landing page.

“On Black Friday, email open rates increase by 60% as everyone is looking for offers from different brands.” - Ari Zoldan CEO, Quantum Media Group

Phase 2: The craze

17 October - 29 November:
Social media campaigns
Nearly every brand will be usingsocial media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram & TikTok to promote their Black Friday & Cyber Monday offers which is a powerful advertising and awareness approach. We recommend using Black Friday & Cyber Monday inspired hashtags so new and potential customers can find you. One major insider tip is to go live during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Retail and fashion brands can do a live shopping event or use influencers to promote their deals directly, which is an excellent and effective way of grabbing viewers’ attention.

Digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising
Social media is a great option but it has its limitations, this is where DOOH advertising comes into play. Black Friday & Cyber Monday are some of the busiest shopping days of the year, and businesses need to take advantage of every opportunity to promote their deals - DOOH provides a gateway to advertising your brand whilst consumers are on the move. When your target audience is out and about in their daily lives, not scrolling through social media but commuting, working out or filling up the car, digital screens provide an opportunity to still connect with consumers at different touchpoints.

Your brand needs to stay on top of its game so you’re not left behind and surpassed by your competitors who have already caught up with programmatic technology advances like DOOH. With DOOH advertising, businesses can target specific locations and demographics with their Black Friday & Cyber Monday ads. One of the most unique and powerful DOOH advertising tools is the FRAMEN Ads Manager. On this platform, you have the flexibility to easily change your ads in response to changing consumer patterns. This gives you more opportunities to target potential customers near your competitor stores or areas where your ideal target audience is most likely to be. By using digital out-of-home advertising, you’ll be more nimble and responsive to consumer needs, which gives you a competitive edge on Black Friday & Cyber Monday.

Email marketing
By sending out emails with special Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals, you can reach numerous potential customers at once. Additionally, email marketing allows you to target specific groups of customers, like those that have previously shown an interest in your products. As a result, email marketing can be an effective way for you to promote Black Friday deals and boost sales.

Phase 2: The sweet spot

24 - 29 November:
These few days are the prime time for generating revenue, and therefore we suggest using different marketing channels to showcase different offers or your most popular deals/ products.

We strongly recommend intensifying your social media postings with relevant offers and high-performing campaigns that will result in the highest conversions. Though it’s important to note, with traditional forms of advertising like print, postal marketing or television, once an ad has been placed it can’t be changed or removed until the end of the campaign which can lead to high scatter loss and missed opportunities. One of the most beneficial USPs of the FRAMEN Ads Manager is the ability to change your creatives at any time during a campaign. This flexibility gives you the ability to quickly respond to changes in the market or customer behaviour, ensuring that your message is always relevant.

Many advertisers love using the FRAMEN Ads Manager because of the one-of-a-kind advanced timing and scheduling feature, which allows you to run one of your brand’s creatives at 11am and a different one at 2pm, and something completely different at 9.30pm. This is just an example, but the power to choose which days, times and creatives you want is completely in your hands. It’s no wonder why so many brands are seeing the brand awareness and revenue potential of DOOH advertising over traditional advertising tools, especially for major sales-generating events like Black Friday & Cyber Monday.

Phase 3: Last call

30 November - 15 December

The last call happens for about two weeks after Black Friday & Cyber Monday, and leads into the Christmas and New Year festivities. Consumers continue to search for last-minute deals, so this is a good opportunity to use social media, email marketing and DOOH ads to promote the remaining stock that you want to shift or showcase your last-minute bargains.

“If you acquire customers around Black Friday, and keep them happy, then you have a chance to drive repeat sales in the Christmas period and beyond.” SaleCycle

Act before it’s too late

Black Friday & Cyber Monday are among the busiest shopping days of the year, and they can be great opportunities to promote your business, improve brand awareness and increase sales. Ensuring your brand advertises across different platforms, at different times, will help you to nail the perfect Black Friday & Cyber Monday marketing strategy. If in doubt what to do when, just refer back to our helpful timeline and save this blog as a good reference tool.

By following these tips and action steps we’ve outlined, you can maximise your sales and take your business to the next level. Black Friday & Cyber Monday are key dates for retailers, but shoppers are bombarded with ads and promotions starting in early November. By getting your message out early, you can cut through the noise and reach your target audience.

‍