Black Friday marks the start of the biggest shopping season of the year. For digital marketers, it's an opportunity to drive sales, acquire new customers, and increase brand awareness through creative campaigns and promotions. In this post, we'll look at some of the key digital marketing strategies brands utilize on Black Friday and provide real-world examples of companies excelling during this retail holiday. With ample planning and preparation, digital marketers can make this Black Friday the biggest ever.
Push Email Marketing Campaigns
Email marketing remains one of the highest-converting digital channels. Brands often nurture subscribers leading up to Black Friday with a series of promotional emails. Then on Black Friday, they send special one-day only deals and flash sales. For example, Amazon sends dedicated Black Friday emails with curated products and irresistible offers tailored to shoppers' interests and browsing history. This personalized approach converts significantly higher than generic emails. Well-designed emails that speak directly to customers' needs and interests are key for email success on Black Friday.
Targeted Social Media Ads
Black Friday ads on social platforms allow granular targeting based on interests, behaviors, and demographics. Brands can promote specific products through carousel ads and optimize for conversions. Walmart drives massive Black Friday traffic through social media by running video ads highlighting its best discounts across Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. The retail giant cleverly adjusts its creatives and messaging for different audiences. Social media presents excellent opportunities for brands to get their Black Friday deals in front of highly targeted groups with creative and engaging ads.
Engaging Social Content
Black Friday is not just about discounts - it's also about entertainment. Savvy brands create engaging social content around Black Friday "doorbuster" shopping experiences. For example, Best Buy hosts 24-hour live streams on various social platforms showing footage of customers lined up outside stores on Black Friday. This fun content attracts lots of views and shares. Entertaining social content that plays up the excitement of Black Friday shopping helps brands connect with audiences in new ways.
Black Friday Landing Pages
Dedicated Black Friday landing pages allow brands to deeply link promotions across channels and create urgency with countdown timers and progress bars. Home Depot's annual Black Friday page features exclusive daily deals along with practical tips for shopping the sales. This content-rich page converts 3x higher than regular category pages. Optimized Black Friday landing pages focused on promotions and discounts can significantly boost conversions over normal product pages.
Retargeting Ads
Retargeting helps brands re-engage shoppers who previously visited but haven't purchased yet. Behavioral data allows marketers to serve up highly relevant Black Friday promotions. Leading up to Black Friday, retailers like Kohl's and Macy's run retargeting ads with personalized product recommendations and offers based on items users previously browsed. Retargeting is an excellent tactic for bringing valuable potential customers back on Black Friday and turning their initial research into actual sales.
SEO-Optimized Deal Pages
Capitalizing on high Black Friday search volumes requires proper on-page SEO and technical optimizations. From descriptive URLs to meta descriptions highlighting savings and discounts, SEO can drive qualified traffic. Every year Camera House creates unique product pages for each Black Friday deal. These pages target dozens of high-volume keywords around savings on camera gear. Traffic from Google Shopping ads points to these SEO-optimized pages. SEO deal pages tailored to popular Black Friday search queries can connect brands with deal-seeking shoppers right on Google.
Promoted Product Listings
Google Shopping and other retail media networks allow brands to promote specific products and offers at the top of search results and on partner sites. Appliance and electronics retailer AO.com heavily utilizes product listing ads on Google Shopping to promote its Black Friday deals on large home appliances with discounts prominently highlighted. Sponsored product listings give brands premium visibility for their Black Friday deals in places where users have high intent to purchase.
Influencers & Affiliates
Influencer marketing and affiliate partnerships are great for amplifying Black Friday promotions. Unique promo codes track sales while content expands reach. During Black Friday, Pepperfry, an online furniture retailer in India, works with micro-influencers and content creators to push deals to highly engaged niche audiences via branded posts. These perform 5x better than generic influencer content. Partnering with relevant influencers and affiliates on Black Friday expands a brand's reach and provides better ROI through trackable promo codes.
Remarketing with Video
Short video ads can remind users about abandoned carts or products they previously viewed. Their attention-grabbing nature makes them perfect for re-engaging dropped-off users. UK fashion e-tailer ASOS displays dynamic video ads to users who exit its site without making a Black Friday purchase. The videos showcase relevant products and discounts. This tactic has reduced cart abandonment by 8%. Retargeting shoppers with eye-catching video ads is an impactful way to recapture Black Friday sales from high-intent site visitors.
Gamification & Quizzes
Gamification techniques add fun and prizes to Black Friday shopping. Quizzes, contest entries and other interactive content can capture emails and increase brand engagement. Canadian e-commerce platform Shopify ran an Instagram contest leading up to Black Friday urging users to correctly guess the discount percentage. Hundreds of participants shared the post and tagged friends to win prizes. Making shopping fun with gamification and quizzes helps brands stand out and create lasting connections on Black Friday.
Conclusion
As we've seen, Black Friday allows digital marketers to flex their creative muscles and drive measurable results through data-driven campaigns across channels. Retailers both big and small have an opportunity to acquire new customers, increase brand loyalty and set their e-commerce business up for a successful holiday season. With thoughtful preparation and strategy, your brand can thrive this Black Friday. When executed well, Black Friday digital marketing delivers outstanding ROI and sets the tone for holiday sales success.
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