The Black Friday and Cyber Monday are already important dates in our calendar of promotional sales, so if you have not already done so, is the perfect time to sit down and design your digital marketing strategy.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become an essential date throughout the Western world, which many brands use as a sales lever before entering the Christmas campaign. On the one hand, this is great news, because it indicates that the consumer is familiar and will actively seek discounts on these dates. But on the other hand, it also means that the market is increasingly saturated and it is difficult to make our brand stand out.
So that you can make the most of Black Friday 2020, in this article we are going to share with you a guide to digital marketing actions and best practices.
This year, due to the pandemic and lockdowns, Black Friday and Cyber Monday will be more digital than ever. A Privalia study points out that the pandemic will make 89% of purchases be made through the internet.
First of all, sign up the dates for this year: Black Friday will be Friday, November 27, 2019, and Cyber Monday on Monday, November 30, 2020.
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What Are Black Friday And Cyber Monday?
In 2019, the average spending of users who bought on Black Friday was a total of 262 euros, according to Cetelem. As for the most consumed products, they were: fashion and accessories (41.7% of Spaniards purchased this type of product) and telephony and electronics (28.7% of consumers opted for this purchase).
On the one hand, this is great news because it tells us that the consumer is familiar and will actively seek discounts on these dates. But on the other hand, it also means that the market is increasingly saturated and it is difficult to make our brand differentiate itself from the competition. Therefore, our objective below is to show you some strategic actions that will help you sell more on Black Friday 2020, despite the difficult situation we are going through.
First, to understand that concept, we must go back to its origins. It was born in the United States back in the 50s and it is always celebrated on the Friday after Thanksgiving Day. The reason is that this day is a holiday in the United States; that is, people do not work but stores take the opportunity to open and offer discounts to kick off the Christmas shopping season. Its success was so great that the stores managed to go from “red numbers” to “black numbers”, hence the name of the date.
In Spain, they wanted to implement it to encourage consumption before the holidays, in the midst of the economic crisis. But now it has become a day with its own entity and that serves to anticipate Christmas shopping.
On the other hand, Cyber Monday is much more recent, since it was celebrated for the first time in 2005. It is celebrated on a Monday because at that time many users did not have high-speed Internet at home and therefore took the opportunity to make their purchases online at the office.
Therefore, we see that at first, the idea was to make physical purchases on Black Friday and digital on Cyber Monday. But today this distinction is not so clear and offers can last a week or more.
But what will happen this atypical year? The habits and routines of users have changed dramatically. But this should not be seen as a negative. If you want to boost your sales on these important dates, all you have to do is adapt to these new consumer habits and implement online marketing strategies to these behaviours, to achieve good results.
Trends That Will Mark Consumer Behaviour This Year
These are 3 trends that companies should consider to adapt to the new habits and routines of consumers, marked by the coronavirus.
1. Increase In Online Sales
The physical stores should limit their traffic counts and if we add mobility restrictions imposed by the Government, this will push consumers to make their purchases online as companies begin scanning.
Therefore, eCommerce or online stores that are already fully experiencing a digital transformation in their companies will succeed this Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In this sense, some factors that you should take care of our web loading speed, user experience and browsing. A page that takes more than 3 seconds will be a lost customer.
In addition, you must verify that the payment through the mobile works correctly and that the purchase process is intuitive for the user.
On the other hand, another upward trend linked to online sales that many consumers have used during confinement has been click-and-collect (click and collect). There are many purchases that are expected on these dates and that is why the consumer prefers to make sure that they receive their order. That’s why, according to Salesforce data, 56% prefer the click-and-collect option.
2. Users Show More Interest In Discounts Weeks Before
Now companies are going to offer big discounts a little earlier than in previous years. They aim to extend their offers overtime to motivate people to buy earlier and prevent them from leaving their purchases until the last minute.
If we think back years, most purchases were made the last week of November or the first of December. But now since October we already see how many business are offering irresistible discounts.
Prepare your bid strategy in advance and check logistics to communicate shipping deadlines. Likewise, flash offers are an effective strategy to attract customers, thus avoiding saturations on more specific dates.
3. More And More Users Spend More Time On Social Networks
As a result of the confinement, it has been detected that a high percentage of users are present on digital channels. Generations that previously did not pay attention to buy now are doing it. They enter social networks through their smartphones; so the scope is remarkable. These users belong to Generation X and Boomers.
This means that planning a social media strategy to promote sales on Black Friday is something you should take into account if you want to get more sales. And you should diversify audiences more than last year.
On the other hand, since the confinement, if there is something we can highlight, it has been the increase in users on TikTok, who have seen in this social network a way to entertain themselves with funny videos. On the other hand, video marketing is the format that is hitting hard on any social network.
How To Improve Your Black Friday And Cyber Monday Actions In 2020
Here are some tips we give you to organize Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2020 in advance:
1. Google Ads
Google Search, Display and Shopping ads can bring you a lot of qualified traffic and conversions. So write down these tips:
- Create specific ads for Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Create new Black Friday ads within the structures you already have and pause the daily ads.
- Raise the budget: By raising your budget and bids, you will appear higher in searches and increase clicks and conversion.
- Try adding the keyword “Black Friday” to the ad groups that generate the most sales. Our recommendation is that you use “Black Friday + keyword” with modified broad match.
- Add promo extensions to your ads; This gives you an extra line to add a description of the offer and its validity.
- Add site link extensions: You can use them to include specific products and special offers.
- Make reference to Black Friday in the copy of the ads. This term is a purchase trigger.
- It uses accelerators to create a feeling of urgency and encourage the consumer to buy.
- Please refer to the number of products in stock. An alternative idea to awaken the feeling of urgency and sell faster.
- Create a new remarketing audience with users who visit your website during the weekend and use it to launch campaigns with higher bids.
2. Social Ads
To get the most out of this Black Friday, extend the campaign to ads on social networks. Here are some tips:
- Launch attractive offers to combat saturation: To ensure conversions you must have a competitive offer and include accelerators to motivate the user to click.
- Create campaigns focused on sales: On these dates, consumers are predisposed to buy, so take advantage of the momentum with conversion-to-sale campaigns (web or app) and pause interaction or lead generation campaigns.
- Use remarketing with discounts: Go to the users who have visited your website and offer them a discount on the products they have been looking at or that they have left abandoned in the cart.
