5 ways to manage events during the holidays without destroying your bottom line
Yes, small businesses can take part in Black Friday and Cyber Monday without losing any money. Learn how to run promotional events during the holidays without affecting your profits.
What is the first image that comes to your thoughts when you think of the phrase "Black Friday"?
If you're like me, there are long lines starting on the day of Thanksgiving, large crowds fighting over heavily discounted televisions, and exhausted employees of retail trying to keep pace (and keep the peace).
But Black Friday -- and its counterpart on the internet, Cyber Monday -- has evolved over the past couple of years. A growing number of people are hunting for great discounts at the convenience of their couch, and "doorbusters" have become more symbolic than literal.
For small business owners and entrepreneurs, however, offering the typical Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts may seem absurd. Slash your prices way too low and you risk just barely making a profit.
It doesn't mean that shopping holidays are off-limits to small businesses. Just a of more imagination than relying on the steepest of discounts to increase sales.
In this piece we'll provide five suggestions for making the most out of Black Friday and Cyber Monday festive sales while not damaging your margins of profit.
Should creators participate on Black Friday and Cyber Monday?
Short answer: Yes.
The year 2020 was the most successful for Black Friday sales. Black Friday sales totaled $9 billion . Cyber Monday sales were even higher at $10.8 billion, which makes it the largest on-line shopping day in U.S. history.
That's a lot of money spent over two days.
Holiday e-commerce sales are projected to surpass a record amount of $207 billion in U.S. between November and 2021. This is a 10% increase over 2020 sales. Additionally, Cyber Weekend which runs from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday is the most important event.
The online shopping experience has been more and more a part of the Cyber Weekend pie in recent times. In 2019, 93.2 million buyers made purchases online on Black Friday, and 83.3 million followed suit for Cyber Monday.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, shoppers are more online than ever before. In 2020, the amount spent on online shopping was $791.70 billion, an increase of 32.4% from 2019.
People are on the lookout for deals online.
How to make the most of Black Friday 2021 Get the most out of Black Friday with these dedicated guide, advice, and tricks to making the most successful year for sales to date.
And creators selling digital products such as online courses, digital products and memberships also have an edge over those who sell physical products.
This is because you're selling an intangible product, which means you don't have to be concerned about maintaining sufficient inventory, or avoiding supply chain issues.
Additionally, you can give your customers instant access to their order without having to stand in lines for long periods or have to wait for their orders to arrive.
It's possible that you won't be able to provide discounts of 75% off or buy-one-get-one free promotions offered by big-box retailers, but there are ways for creators as well as small-sized businesses to take part in Cyber Weekend without breaking the bank. Keep reading for five tips to help you do that.
Five tips for promotions during the holidays that will not harm your profits
#1: Offer discounts sparingly
Deep discounts are the main draw of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. After all, who doesn't love a great deal?
Coupons are research-based and have been proven to keep people content. An study led by Dr. Paul J. Zak Professor of Neuroeconomics, found that shoppers who received a $10 voucher received a boost of 38% in oxytocin levels and were one-fifth happier than people who did not get a coupon.
Small businesses can offer coupons and promotional codes in sale times during the holidays. But to keep from hurting your profits, you must to do it but do it strategically and sparingly.
Another way is to only offer coupons for special events or to a limited amount of individuals.
Discounts on your merchandise constantly could damage your reputation and its value . If you have discounts all year round customers won't be able to buy at the full priceThey'll simply wait until your next sales.
If you offer promotions a few times per year, like Reuven customers, they will be more likely to take advantage of those deals.
And if you make those promotional offers available only to a certain segment of your customers or subscribers You can take advantage of the scarcity principle by leveraging FOMO (the worry of being left out).
FOMO is a effective tool:
60% of people make purchases because of FOMO.
89 94% of Americans believe they would prefer an exclusive deal to encourage them to spend with a brand.
48% believe the exclusive deal will encourage them to buy earlier.
In the case above by Reuven the entrepreneur warns his customers that "Hurry to get this deal, and it only lasts through 'Cyber' Monday." The customers only have a few days to avail the 40% off discount code and are more likely to do so.
You don't have to provide 40% off, though.
If profit margins are limited, you can opt for less expensive discounts. explain Mike Moloney , founder of FilterGrade :
"If you have limited margins I highly suggest using less discounts. They should be between 10% - 20 percent. However, these are very efficient in converting customers to new ones."
The Rule of 100 says that for items less than $100, people typically prefer to view the discount as a percentage. When it comes to items that exceed $100, consumers prefer seeing the amount actually saved.
All in all, discounts and coupons can serve as a fantastic way to boost sales during large holiday sales -however, they're not your only choice. This tip is focused on increasing value without lowering costs.
#2: Create product bundles
Whoever said "less is more" was not talking about the worth of you Cyber Weekend deals.
If you can't -- or don't want to -- offer discounts, bundles of products offer a wonderful way to add perceived value and boost your average order value (AOV) without offering a discount.
Patrick Campbell, Founder and the CEO ProfitWell, explains: ProfitWell , explains:
"Price bundling " is that allows businesses to combine multiple items or services into a package at a single price. They are generally priced lower than if they were sold separately.
Although each item inside the bundle can be technically sold at a discount the strategy could boost the average revenues for each user (ARPU) and user engagement."
When it comes to digital goods, it doesn't make sense to run the traditional Buy-One-Get-One-Sale because you're usually selling access to somethingfor example, an ebook or membershipwhich your customers only need to purchase once.
Justin utilized's Bundling of products feature to sell all of his best content and courses for digital marketers at less than what it would be to purchase each product separately.
This method not only increased the sales of customers, it also it also helped Justin to attract new customers. :
Take a look at's bundling options and a of other. Register here . (No credit card required!)
In the end, bundles can be the best pricing strategies for holiday promotions However, what happens if just sell one or two items? We've got you -- as well as your customers' lists of holiday purchasesto cover this advice.
#3: Help shoppers with shopping for gifts
Cyber Weekend kicks off the most popular time of the year for buying holiday gifts. The year 2000 saw shoppers spend an average of $311.75 on holiday purchases.
Luckily for creators (and your clients) Online courses are excellent gift ideas. This is why the technology and retail experts from Mashable ranked an annual membership to MasterClass as one of this year's top gifts for digital devices:
Gift guides can be another method to help people check everyone off of their holiday lists. If you have a blog you can create a specific niche gift guide, like this Entrepreneur gift guide by the business coach on Wandering Aimfully.
If you are listing your own items in the gift guide, make sure you include additional recommendations. If not, it's merely a promotional post for you.
Also you can always use the traditional option for gift giving -- gift cards. If you're selling through , you can create gift certificate products for sale on your site. Examples include these examples from Soul Food Talks :
However, the giving of gifts doesn't need to stop here -- Cyber Weekend is a great chance to offer the gift of your choice to your customers too.
#4: Sweeten the deal with a complimentary gift
The effects of promotions are expected to affect the majority of holiday shoppers as well as price reductions as well as free shipping and gift cards are considered to be one of the best promotional opportunities.
Worksheets, checklists, and worksheets provide great content for bonus items as they can help customers gain more value from their purchases.
Marketing Showrunners achieved precisely that, offering an unrestricted gift to those who had enrolled in their Showrunners Sessions class :
With the offer of a PDF eBook from the co-founder Jay Acunzo, Marketing Showrunners provided value in exchange for early registration.
Join NOW!
Get your free account
Join the 150,000+ creators that use their talents to design web pages, offer digital products as well as build online communities. Start free Start your journey today!
If the Black Friday promotion is a offer for a free item, discount or product bundle No one is going to know about it unless you share the news with your customers. We'll get to our last tipspread the word regarding your sales for the holidays.
#5: Spread the word about your promotion
The most successful holiday sales on the planet won't bring much good if the people don't know about the offer. When planning for your Christmas sales, make sure that you promote the sale and let your clients be aware of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers.
A drip campaign - an email seriesin the lead up the Cyber Weekend can help build anticipation. Avoid sending too many emails and spamming your subscribers, though.
Like you've experienced in the past you receive tons of emails from brands prior to Black Friday. The marketers of e-commerce have sent out more emails on Black Friday than any other day of the year in 2018.
Constant Contact suggests sending out three emails at least one week prior to the day your sales begin: "One that teases your sales, one that outlines the offer, and a third that closes with a reminder to make it last minute."
For what information to include in your email messages, these are two easy suggestions:
Incorporate your promo in your Subject line. Emails with percent-off discounts included in subject lines were able to achieve an mean conversion of 18.1 percent in comparison to 3.8 percent for subject lines that didn't include specific offers.
Give users a sense the urgency. An experiment by ConversionXL discovered that the addition of a countdown timer -- similar to that from DataCamp below -- led to a 147% increase in conversions.
Apart from email, social media is an excellent method to get information out about special events for the holiday season -- especially if your target audience is younger. 59 percent of Gen Z and 55% of the millennials find products through social media.
Like the email drip campaign above, use an array of posts on social media to build excitement for your Black Friday deals. For example, travel blogger Nele from The Navigatio built excitement for a new product and Black Friday sale with this tweet :
Then, a few days later Nele declared that the highly-anticipated eBook was available:
One benefit of social media is user-generated content (UGC). Across industries, potential customers who look at UGC convert at 161%. greater rate of 161% . Send testimonials of members, students, and happy customers to help market the Cyber Weekend deals.
If everything other options fail, you could make use of Black Friday as an excuse to share a very adorable photo .
The bottom line is that if there is a Black Friday sale happens and nobody is aware of the sale, it's not actually occur. Don't just focus on offering the right kind of deal -- make sure that the right people see it, too.
Profit from Black Friday and Cyber Monday
More than ever, Black Friday and Cyber Monday provide a great opportunity to entrepreneurs, solopreneurs and smaller businesses who sell their products online. With even slim profit margins You can participate in this year's shopping holidays.
Here's how:
Give discounts in a controlled manner and with a strategic approach. More customers anticipate discounts and discounts, the less likely they will pay full price.
Create product bundles by listing similar products together for example, a collection of books as well as an online class with similar guidebooks.
Let customers help with their holiday shopping by promoting your merchandise as gifts or gift certificates or putting together the gifts guide.
Entice shoppers with free gifts including templates, printables and ebooks to make them more of the purchase.
Promote your holiday deals. Email and social media are the two most tried and tested methods for spreading awareness regarding sales and promotions.
I hope this article has filled your toolbox with the strategies that you can use to provide fantastic deals for the holiday season without hurting your profits. It doesn't matter if this is your first year as creator, or the fifteenth, I'm wishing you all the best of luck for Cyber Weekend and beyond.