Surviving (And Thriving!) on Black Friday
DIY Sprocket Solutions
This article has been updated on 4/12/2022 with the article entitled “It's Not Too Early to Start Your Black Friday Sales Push.”
Next week is Black Friday and while everyone is scrambling to decide where they're going to spend their money, on what, and how long ahead of time they have to get in line to get it -you should be checking off the boxes to make sure you're up and running for those customers to burst in. Or click in, if they're just visiting your site...
Some people think it's enough to throw a promotion/giveaway out there for the holidays or maybe even start a marketing campaign, but usually the little things are overlooked. You've got one week. So I say, take a look back over the "little things" and make sure you've got your ducks in a row.
You want people to check out your business, do a double take (because the user experience with your brand is so amazing), and then grab their wallets as quickly as possible to clutch bills and start throwing them at you. Or something as equally dramatic.
You can start by making sure your website is up to date and has a clear focus. If you have pictures on your site, make sure they are current and sized right. Be sure to check any coupons or promotions you have up to make sure they aren't expired. Keep some fresh content on your site so that when your (hopefully huge influx of) customer comes poking around looking for a great deal next week, your site doesn't look like a ghost town.
Keep active on social media. Be available to your customers. People might have a question about a promotion you're running or need clarification on the guidelines of a coupon, promo code, product, etc. Be available. If you're getting a lot of repeat questions you can always type up a quick FAQ to guide people to or have a few stock answers ready to copy and paste. You want to make sure everyone is heard and helped, but you also want to make sure your fingers don't fall off.
Get in the holiday swing. Whether that means updating your cover photo, writing a blog post centered around the holidays or sending out some funny holiday photos, get in the spirit. People like to interact with the businesses they do business with and, if they're in the holiday spirit, they probably don't want to do business with a Scrooge.
Make sure your people know the specifics of any sales or promotions you have going on. It's pretty simple if you have a small business with less than 5 employees. Normally, those 3 or 4 people are going to know the details of your contest, coupons, or giveaways. Now, if you have more employees you should really make sure that everyone knows the specifics. You don't want a customer to email or tweet a question that someone answers incorrectly. It makes your business look bad. It comes across unprofessional. It has other people crying foul if they don't get something someone else may have been promised on accident.
Stick to the cue cards.
Bottom line, it is great to market your business and product for the holidays. Just make sure that you've tied up all your little loose ends so that when the hoards of Black Friday shoppers come scoping you out -you check out as a place they'd like to shop.
Is there any other clean up you do before a big promotion or holiday? Share below!
Breanne Bannon
Breanne is a Content Writer, Social Media Marketeer, and Sales Associate for Sprocket Websites.
Other posts by Breanne Bannon