9 Easy Online Marketing Ideas for Black Friday 2020
Who doesn’t buy holiday gifts online?
Everyone does.
From echo dots and rapid egg cookers to edible spray paint, selfie toasters, and rubber chicken purses (all real gifts by the way)—everyone buys all kinds of fun, useful, and even weird holiday gifts.
And as a business owner, Black Friday is your best opportunity to sell whatever it is you’re selling—your info products, coaching services, physical products, online courses, high-ticket products—literally anything.
And because online shopping is becoming even more profitable year after year (and yes, even in the middle of the Corona Age), businesses like yours have to recognize the importance of online shopping.
And you also need to adjust your sales and marketing strategies to it too.
That’s why today, I’ll help you get started on this year’s best Black Friday marketing ideas.
So if you want to make the most out of the year’s biggest retail day, then this article will help you:
- Get started with easy marketing ideas for Black Friday 2020.
- Understand through statistics how this day is essential to increasing your sales and making more money online despite the coronavirus, lockdowns, quarantine, etc.
- Take advantage of the biggest shopping day of the year and learn how it keeps taking the lead for online growth.
You can start implementing these marketing ideas now so that your business is ready to reap the benefits of impulse shoppers on Black Friday. But let’s start by stating this important fact...
Black Friday Keeps Taking the Lead for Online Shopping Growth
The best indicators of year-over-year business revenue are between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday.
This 5-day period is what we know as the Cyber 5.
Businesses that don’t take advantage of Black Friday are simply missing out.
Literally everyone shops around these days. You, me, your friends, your colleagues—everyone!
And who would keep doing that if businesses didn’t put out some irresistible deals that shoppers can hardly say no to?
No one, that’s who.
The truth is, Black Friday keeps taking the lead for online shopping growth. And it is still the biggest day of every year for retailers in the U.S.
Just take a look at the Black Friday Google search trends below...
The search for “Black Friday” on Google and consumers’ interests have been simply on the rise.
As you can see, in November 2018 alone, there was a spike in Google searches for Black Friday. In fact, twice as many as there were in November 2014.
But what do I really mean when I say that Black Friday keeps taking the lead for online shopping?
Well, according to Statista, last year’s Back Friday most searched product group was laptops with 95,900 monthly searches.
And the second highest searched product group was furniture with 35,700 monthly searches.
I mean that shoppers prefer buying online.
Don’t believe me?
No hard feelings but….on Black Friday 2019, more people shopped online than in stores and here’s the data that proves it...
142.2 million people shopped online versus 124 million who shopped in-stores according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).
Black Friday simply surpassed Cyber Monday as the busiest day for online shopping at 93.2 million shoppers compared to 83.3 million in-store shoppers.
And consider this: 28% of shoppers surveyed by Statista say they’ll have the same budget than last year. And 20% say it will be more than last year’s. It seems clear that shoppers will definitely be taking advantage of whatever deals your eCommerce business puts out for them.
But Why Should I Take Advantage of This Atypical Black Friday If There’s an Economic Recession Anyway?
I’ll keep this answer short and sweet.
You should market your products and services this Black Friday because people are still looking to buy even more than before the Corona Age. And in fact, shoppers are preferring to buy online rather than in-store because of the COVID spread concerns.
According to a survey by Statista, the #1 concern for people surveyed is having to deal with other in-store shoppers who don’t take the virus seriously. For example, those who don’t wear a facemask.
And on top of that, they don’t want to be too close to other people in the stores because of their health and safety.
According to Statista, nearly 1 in 4 shoppers in the U.S. intend to look for sales even more than in previous years.
And in fact, based on a survey by Statista, 37% of people surveyed already started their holiday shopping this year despite the pandemic—compared to 26% who did it last year. And it’s estimated that 33% will start their holiday shopping this November.
The bottom line is, despite the coronavirus, the quarantine, the lockdowns, and the economic turmoil, data shows that people still prefer to do online shopping.
According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), in 2019, there were 189.6 million U.S. shoppers around Cyber 5. That was up 14% from 165.8 million shoppers in 2018.
And in 2019, Black Friday beat Cyber Monday as the busiest online shopping day with 93.2 million shoppers online on Black Friday versus 83.3 million on Cyber Monday.
So tell me something, are you still skeptical about marketing your products this Black Friday?
Ok good.
Now that you’re very clear on why you should still take advantage of this Black Friday 2019 despite the pandemic, let’s start with the easy marketing ideas you can get some inspiration from.
#1 Marketing Idea for Black Friday 2020: Unleash the Power of Email Marketing
The power of email marketing leads to promotional offers that are so appealing they can’t be turned down.
Email marketing can simply increase your conversion rate and make it more attractive for consumers to buy from you.
Don’t believe me?
Take a look to at these stats from Campaign Monitor:
- 116.5 million emails were sent on Black Friday.
- 106 million emails were sent on Cyber Monday.
- 95 million emails were sent on Thanksgiving.
- Black Friday emails saw the highest number of opens and links clicked.
- Thanksgiving saw the second highest number of emails opened and clicked.
#2 Marketing Idea for Black Friday 2020: Offer Limited-Time Deals for Deal Hunters
Prepare some irresistible limited-time offers to appeal to deal hunters’ FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).
Create scarcity and a sense of urgency through offers available only on this Black Friday.
No matter what it is you’re selling, adding a timer on your landing page will make prospective buyers literally jump.
For example, according to BlackFriday.com, for Black Friday 2019, consumers said they were looking for deals on the following categories:
- 41% clothing
- 38% home goods/small appliances
- 32% tablets/laptops/PCs/TVs
- 30% smart home gadgets and tech
- 25% toys
- 12% travel or experiences
So remember, deal hunters from any industry are always keeping an eye on this type of limited-time deals. It’s part of what keeps customers coming back.
In fact, according to Deloitte, 74% of people find price discounts most appealing.
#3 Marketing Idea for Black Friday 2020: Focus on Your Mobile Shoppers
Desktops and laptops remain the most utilized holiday shopping devices.
But despite this, mobiles are gradually catching up.
According to NRF, 75% of people researched products on mobile devices last Black Friday.
And according to Mobile Payments Today, Black Friday 2019 was the biggest day for mobile shopping with $2.9 billion in mobile transactions. And today, 61% of all online retail comes from smartphone transactions, representing a 15.8% increase from a year ago.
Not having a mobile responsive site is one of the zero multipliers that kills conversions in your sales funnel.
So if you need some practical tips to design a Black Friday landing page that converts, we can actually help you with that.
At AutoGrow, we can take all of your digital marketing tasks off your plate (including copy, design, web development, mobile optimization, and more) so you can focus on marketing your products.
So if optimizing your landing pages for your mobile shoppers isn’t something you have the time to do, then reach out to us.
Because if your landing pages or sales funnel aren’t mobile optimized, then you’re ignoring a huge chunk of consumers’ preferences.
#4 Marketing Idea for Black Friday 2020: Sell to Early Shoppers First, And to Late Shoppers Second
Did you know that there’s actually a correlation between when shoppers begin to buy and how much they spend?
Well, there is. And it’s the following: early shoppers outspend late shoppers.
Using last year’s Black Friday as a guide—23% of people began shopping for Christmas gifts before Thanksgiving according to Deloitte.
And here’s a breakdown of their average spending:
- Those who begin shopping before November spend an average of $1,680.
- Those who begin shopping on or after Thanksgiving spend an average of $1,343.
- Those who begin shopping in the days leading up to Christmas spend an average of $1,202
- Those who begin shopping after the holidays spend an average of $246.
#5 Marketing Idea for Black Friday 2020: Offer Free Gifts—Everyone Loves Freeish Stuff!
Anything that’s for free, shoppers will love it.
Free shipping, one free month of service, free samples, free products—free anything.
A free gift is an irresistible Black Friday deal that shoppers can’t resist.
So when you decide on what to offer for free, make sure to clearly advertise it on your landing pages. This could be in a banner to ensure visibility, footer, pop-up form, hero section—anywhere as long as it’s visible.
You can also set up a minimum requirement that shoppers should spend in order to get a free gift.
For example, “with every $50 spent, get a free X.” Or “with every $75 spent, get free shipping.”
You get it, right?
#6 Marketing Idea for Black Friday 2020: Extend Your Sale Until...
Another effective Black Friday marketing idea is to actually extend your deal for a couple of more days.
You can extend your deal until Cyber Monday.
And that gives you 4 full days to extend your sale and keep offering your deals.
This is a great way to market any leftover stock products and reach shoppers who missed your initial offers during Black Friday.
#7 Marketing Idea for Black Friday 2020: Tap Into the Power of Hashtags on Instagram
There are many Instagram campaign examples you can take some inspiration from and creative social media campaign examples you can copy.
But when you run Black Friday social media campaigns, you should take advantage of the power of Black Friday Instagram hashtags.
Why?
Because these hashtags will allow you to reach potential customers who are specifically looking for Black Friday deals.
Here are some ideas of hashtags you can use:
- #BlackFriday
- #BlackFridaySales
- #BlackFridayOffers
- #BlackFridayDeals
- #BlackFridayWeekend
- #BlackFriday2020
- #BlackFridayUSA
- #BlackFridayShopping
- #BlackFridaySpecials
It’s important to note that these hashtags are more likely to not work for more niched products.
Why?
Because people are less likely to search for these types of products under Black Friday-related hashtags.
#8 Marketing Idea for Black Friday 2020: Partner With Influencers for More Social Media Exposure
Influencers and bloggers can make your products’ promotions more appealing and less spammy.
They can take your products to different audiences (their followers) through Instagram stories or Facebook live sessions.
And if you take into consideration the following social media’s stats, you’ll get why tapping into social media around Black Friday is a superb effective marketing idea:
- Facebook, the largest social media platform in the world, has 2.4 billion users. (Our World in Data)
- YouTube has more than one billion users. (Our World in Data)
- More than 1 billion Instagram accounts worldwide are active every single month.
- Whatsapp has more than 1.6 billion users. (Statista)
- There’s a total of 275 million accounts on Twitter. (Statista)
- Over 200 million Instagrammers visit at least one business profile daily. (Instagram)
- ⅓ of the most viewed stories are from businesses. (Instagram)
So when partnering with influencers, do it with one who knows how to entice their audience. In other words, partner with someone who knows how to leverage the power of social media!
#9 Marketing Idea for Black Friday 2020: Use Direct Mail to Market & Sell Your Online Products Offline—Who Said That Was Not Possible?
Marketing and selling your online products offline is possible.
And in fact, it’s a great marketing idea to implement.
Because as the holiday season goes by, retailers go kind of crazy skyrocketing ad budgets and advertising gets more expensive.
And because there are plenty of inexpensive ways to market your business, there are also inexpensive ideas for marketing and selling your products on Black Friday.
You see, there are important sales rapport building tactics to turn leads into buyers.
Rapport building is critical when looking to gain more customers and to satisfy existing ones. Especially when you’re getting close to the holidays.
So to sell more of your products this Black Friday 2020, you can, for example, send them a physical product or send a holiday card or note to existing customers or clients.
Thank them for their purchase and also add an irresistible discount for another product they won’t be able to say no to.
The note will help build rapport. But the discount will entice existing customers to buy a new product because “they have to use the discount.”
These marketing ideas are rarely done by marketers. But the truth is, it can work to help leave a great impression on your customers.
Conclusion
You should be marketing your products during Black Friday 2020.
Forget about the lockdowns and the quarantines—people are still buying and even more than before the pandemic.
Black Friday—the busiest day for online shopping, simply keeps taking the lead for online shopping.
More people this year are actually preferring to do their holiday shopping online compared to previous years.
So if you’re looking to market your products, don’t forget to:
- Focus on selling to early shoppers first, and to late shoppers second.
- Extend your sales—this is a great way to market any leftover stock products and reach shoppers who missed your initial offers during Black Friday.
- Focus on your mobile shoppers—the majority of people buy from their phones.
- Offer limited-time deals to make deal hunters act fast.
- Partner with influencers who know how to leverage the power of social media and Black Friday.
- Tap into the power of email marketing—people are eager to open an email with a discount inside!
Black Friday is still the biggest day of the year for retailers in the U.S. and you should be ready to reap the benefits from impulse shoppers.
Now tell me something, what are your plans for marketing and selling your products or services during this Black Friday? Do you see huge opportunities for growing sales despite the pandemic and lockdowns?
I would love to know your thoughts. So let me know in the comments below what you think.
Keep AutoGrowin’, stay focused.
