Eight-Step Black Friday Sales Strategy Guide For Creators

The time for sales is now! As a creator, the autumn and winter months are prime shopping time so you stand a great chance to increase your income in these seasons. Black Friday is one of the most important days for businesses to earn huge profits. Indeed, that's the reason the name was coined for the holiday as many companies wouldn't be financially successful (or "in in the black" in the accounting language) until Black Friday promotions became a successful.

In order to maximize your time when shoppers are on the go You'll require a well-thought out plan of sales that can get current and new customers excited about your digital product. Check out this article for a comprehensive Black Friday sales strategy guide that will help you build an impressive, income-generating campaign in the fall.

Know exactly what you're looking for? Navigate to any of the sections below:

•         The value of the Black Friday sales strategy
•         What is the best time in advance to prepare in advance for Black Friday sales
•         8 Steps to creating the most successful Black Friday sales strategy      
•             Do research & set your budget
•             Promote on channels where your audience lives.
•             Map how transformations will take place
•             Create an irresistible bargain
•             Craft message which converts
•             Tease & promote it
•             Optimize and track
•             Engage post-campaign marketing
•         Examples of great Black Friday promotions for digital merchandise
•         Final

What is the reason I should have a seasonal campaign for Black Friday?

Campaigns for the season are those that happen at a specific season, which is based on an event or holiday that is relevant to that period of time. As an instance, Black Friday promotions always take place in November, since they are right in the middle of the major holiday gift giving season and is the best time of year for people to stock up on presents.

Because most businesses are taking advantage of the upcoming gift-giving holidays to encourage sales, now it's a sought-after time for consumers to explore new brands that they may have otherwise not be able to afford.

The same goes for encouraging upsells with current customers!

How far in advance should I prepare the Black Friday sales strategy?

Planning for seasonal campaigns starts at least a couple of months ahead of each season. It can take time to think about, plan, craft and create all the parts that comprise the campaign. Large companies may even prepare a year in advance. Usually marketing, sales, and product creation teams are involved in the development of campaigns. But, if you're a solopreneur, you can do it too!

With this in mind, aim to start with your Black Friday sales strategy planning by August or September. The possibility of last minute sales is there also, particularly if you have a smaller and fast team. However, certain channels for paid advertising may become crowded. The best way to plan your campaign is to build your campaign template as soon as possible and complete the smaller details including messaging and calls to action prior to the go-live date.

8 steps to create an extremely effective Black Friday sales strategy

Whatever size your team of content creators is, Black Friday sales strategies can be done in just 8 simple steps. The breakdown into these steps will help you plan in advance and assures you've hit your goals prior to the celebration.

Pro tip: If you're running out of time, do just one step each week until the date you'll go live! If you're planning to launch the teaser to build up your followers prior to the launch of your official campaign then use the date of teaser announcement to determine your live date.

Do research & set your budget

Effective research is mandatory for making the Black Friday campaign a success. Things to look into are:

• What problems are most relevant to your intended audience today?
• What solutions are working or what solutions aren't? Why?
• What makes your approach different from other options?
• What is the best place for your audience to look to find information on options?
• What does your target audience want from a Black Friday sale? Perhaps, they are interested in discounts, multi-item packages or exclusive access to your learning community?

Although this may seem to be a lot of questions, it will give you a good idea of where your target audience is likely to be in your Black Friday rush. This will allow you to discern what message and product to present in front of them.

Also, it's crucial to consider the existing and new customers. If these two groups need a very different approach to messaging, channels or offers, it's best to split these campaigns into two distinct ones at this stage.

Another preparation you need to make is the budget. What is the amount you are prepared to put into advertising? How much are you forecasting to make as a return in your investment (ROI)? As a guideline, aim for a minimum of 300% ROI on any campaign (but higher is better).

Promote the channels on which your target audience is

Marketing channels are any digital or physical location in which you'll promote your offer. Digital channels are much easier to monitor, particularly when you're selling a digital product online too.

Below is a table that offers channel choices to take into consideration. You can choose between organic, or "free," channels which do not require an extra expense, but take longer to establish engagement and conversions on. Paid channels, on the contrary, are available at various levels of cost but earn higher results faster. Naturally, the more you pay, the higher outcomes you will get.

It is possible to mix a mix of strategies and channels, but it's not recommended to only utilize just one marketing method for sales.

Some things to bear in mind for any media that is posted on your channels. It should:

• have fast loading speeds to make sure that customers aren't bouncing around or forgetting to buy
• Make sure to clearly state the offer along with the purchase instructions right at the top so it's quick to get conversions
• Do not focus too much on products that are outside of Black Friday promotion, as you want to prioritize getting maximum results with a few core products

Map of how conversions are expected to occur

• Forms and lead collection areas. What will customers do to get the details of their contacts with you?

This is also a good opportunity to understand the distinction between the top funnel versus the bottom funnel. The top of the funnel is an early awareness stage and the bottom funnel is the one that happens before the lead is converted. If you're leveraging blogs or other channels that are organic, make sure you map the path that leads take from top funnel pages to content in the bottom of the funnel.

Commerce includes a wide range of features for selling and payment designed to assist our designers increase conversion rates and the average value of orders:

• Buy Now and Pay Later: Providing the option of paying over time has helped users boost the size of their orders by three times.
• Order Bumps: Providing complimentary products at checkout help users increase their order size to 98%.
• Abandoned Cart: just started Abandoned Cart emails in time to prepare for Black Friday. This feature helps you recapture potentially lost sales and increase revenue.

Make an irresistible deal

What's the real Black Friday deal that you're selling?

It's okay to include different offers as part of a sales plan. However, if you're trying to promote multiple offers to various audiences, think about splitting your marketing by dividing it into smaller initiatives. It will enable you to focus your efforts more precisely and earn a higher result.

A few examples of offers are:

• 50 percent off any of the courses you choose for new customers
• 25 percent off any course of choice for customers who are already members.
• 2-for-1 offers or product bundles for a discounted price
• Exclusive access for those who are the 100 first customers to become part of your on-line learning community
• Exclusive access for only the 50 first sign-ups to take advantage of your new course absolutely no cost.
• One-on-one coaching sessions with a VIP coach

Some sales strategy tips when deciding the best offer for you:

• Do not have more than three offers running at the same time as you don't want to distract potential customers.
• Every offer must be simple enough that it's straightforward to explain and build excitement around
• This should be an offer impossible to get any other period of the year.

Craft messaging that converts

Messaging (also referred to as marketing copy) is the way you communicate your message to the customer. Messaging should be specific to your audience, your brand, and the channel you're promoting through to promote the Black Friday campaign. Remember that many channels offer a specific messaging format. As an example, although Instagram captions permit users to publish as long as 2,200 characters, the majority of posts must include captions that are less than 500 characters to make it simpler for customers to understand.

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Tease and promote it

It's time to execute!

If you're a busy solopreneur or you're ready to begin in your next holiday campaign, a pro tip is to plan your content ahead of time. Software like Hootsuite, Meta's Business Center as well as Letterdrop are great platforms to develop and schedule your content ahead of the launch date.

There are many Black Friday campaigns are starting to go out earlier and earlier each year. Depending on your sales strategy, you may choose to offer a one-day only offer. Or, you can make the Black Friday deal a week or two in advance of the date of the celebration. Given the short amount of time to run to launch the deal, think about including an earlier "light" launch that offers teasers about the upcoming deals.

Optimize and track

Make sure you remember about your campaign when it is live. Monitor it as soon as it's live. In the beginning, check in multiple times throughout the day to make sure there weren't any technical issues. Then, daily monitoring is recommended. Again, Black Friday campaigns have such an incredibly short time frame, so it is important to pay on the campaign. A single day that is not executed correctly can result in an enormous loss of opportunities.

Regular optimization is essential for a successful Black Friday sales strategy. If your advertisements or content doesn't perform optimally, try changing them! Experimentation is the fastest way to discover what's most successful for your customers.

Remember that making the changes you make to your campaign's content requires some time to be absorbed before they show results. it won't be evident within a few minutes. Organic content takes longer, possibly even more time than the campaign's window. Pay-per-click content usually shows improvements in results within just a couple of hours to one entire day.

Engage post-campaign marketing

Offer your brand new and loyal customers with more special offers. Consider offering your customers an additional, however less expensive discount should they want to buy even more of your courses!

Examples of great Black Friday promotions for digital merchandise

Ready to start working in your Black Friday sales strategy but seeking some inspiration? Look over these highly successful campaigns here.

Audible's Subscription Offer for New Members

Audible is owned by Amazon that allows subscribers to listen to audiobooks and podcasts. Subscribers pay on a monthly basis, and are able to subscribe annually or on a monthly basis for access to the library of digital audiobooks and other content.

For Black Friday in 2023, they ran a wonderful promotion to encourage new customers and build loyalty among customers. What they offered that was great:

• Offered a cheap introductory cost of four months this is sufficient for new users to explore fully the features of the system.
• Also included Audible credit in the deal, which allowed users to get access to additional material "for free" in the event that they weren't satisfied with the included content.
• Purchasing the deal was easy since users could make use of their current Amazon account as well as payment details to make the conversion. The removal of this obstacle in the conversion process allowed for greater revenues.

Classy Yet Trendy's eBook Sale

Classy Yet Trendy is an online resource for those who is looking to design minimalist wardrobes. It offers a variety of eBooks and digital downloads that help users visualize their own style and plan a simplified wardrobe to match.

In 2020, they launched a Black Friday sale on all of their Capsule Wardrobe eBooks. What's to love about their sales strategy?

• They positioned their timings according to what their customers would like to see. In a period when many the majority of people were at home often and cleaning out their closets, they promoted ebooks on how to achieve this.
• The promotion coupon code, discount offer, and landing page for redeeming the offer simple to locate.
• They included teasers about what the ebooks would look like in order to stimulate purchases by more skeptical buyers.

Ran the Webflow course of Segall

Ran Segall started as a web designer, and afterward, he began teaching his course on design for websites skills through YouTube and now has over 400k viewers. So far, he's earned around $3 million selling his digital items.

Just a few months ago it was announced that he would be launching the first edition of his new Webflow Course. Though this wasn't necessarily an actual Black Friday promotion, it does have a lot of admirable elements that are similar. What made this promotion amazing:

• He promoted the offer on LinkedIn which is where he currently has a fan base with 9,000+ followers.
• The feeling of urgency to buy is created. In the post, he states, "And to make this launch more delicious by offering you a special 30% discount off of the course. However, don't hesitate until the Friday before midnight."
• The 30% discount is right across the picture, making it impossible to ignore it.

Conclusion

The following Black Friday sales strategy guide can assist you in deciding which, when you'll be able to reach your current and potential customers during the holiday season. Make sure to conduct your homework ahead of time and begin planning early. There is a lot of competition and noise during the time of year, so getting thoughtful and loud in your promotions can help your brand stand out in the rest of the pack.

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