IRP's Black Friday Ultimate Guide

Contents
Introduction
Plan for Black Friday Week
Pre & During Black Friday – Fundamentals for Website
Pre & During Black Friday Week — Marketing
Post Black Friday
Summary
Future Dates

Introduction

Black Friday is an annual shopping event that online merchants use to sell overstock and increase sales and cashflow. It marks the start of the most critical sales period in retail, which stretches from Black Friday through the January Sales. To capitalize on this prime sales opportunity, merchants must be prepared.

Originally, Black Friday was a one-day event, but it has now evolved into an extended shopping period way beyond Black Friday and Cyber Monday. What began in the USA has spread globally. For Merchants, this is a high-stakes period where they must contend with intense competition to maximize success.

Don’t forget to keep in close contact with your Account Manager and PPC Service Providers to plan your Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Holiday season strategies.

Plan for Black Friday Week

A solid Black Friday plan should focus on two main areas:

• Website Fundamentals
• Black Friday Marketing

Additionally, your Black Friday strategy should be organised to cover:

• WHO IS ACCOUNTABLE: who owns P&L
• PRE & DURING: Preparation and Actions from now until Black Friday.
• POST: Actions to take after Black Friday.

Pre & During Black Friday — Fundamentals for Web Strategies

1. Data is king

Make sure you review your data before making any key decisions.

Increase your customer base in the run up to Cyber Week by incentivising your mailing list signup and running social media giveaways to increase Facebook & other Social Media Channel signups.

What is your data telling you? Ask yourself these questions:

• Can you identify any yearly trends?
• How was your performance last year across all your channels — Email Marketing, Google Analytics, PPC, Bing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media? How can you better last year’s performance?
• Which were your best countries?
• What did people search for?
• What were your best-selling brands / products?
• What was the best time in terms of engagement and sales — days / hourly?
• What were your best promotions?
• How did you compare to your competitors?
• Were there more post-sale returns / cancellations than normal?
• Try and understand your customers’ returning behaviour. Are there specific products that repeatedly are being returned? Were your customers buying multiple sizes?

Don’t forget to monitor your Google Analytics closely during the week of Black Friday so that you can be reactive and make the most of your opportunities in other countries. For example, if you’re receiving a lot of traffic from one country and have no conversions, test this country website out so you can rectify any issues.

2. Competitors

Subscribe to your competitors’ email lists and keep an eye on their social media. This will give you an idea of how your campaign / messaging / offers are comparing to theirs.

3. Plan your sales

Look at all of your products and plan your sales ahead of time. You should create this in Excel as shown in Fig. 3. or create it directly in an IRP Stock template file, to be uploaded and update your prices.

4. Offers & Discounts

Your customers are constantly shopping around and are more price-savvy than ever, always looking for the best deals. You can create endless types of promotions on the IRP but keep in mind the time needed to set these up — do what is realistic for you and your team.

Encourage Immediate Action – these sales don't last long so take full advantage of your increased traffic by stressing urgency, limited quantity and exclusivity. E.g. 10% of BrandY, only at YourCompany. Note, however that messaging should be more personal e.g. 'Get Ready' or 'Prepare Yourself' as messaging like 'Hurry' and 'This deal won't last' were not as popular with consumers.

Offer Exclusive Experiences – higher-end brands should exploit the emotional relationship they have with their customer base and use language such as 'Exclusive' and 'A Special Gift' or 'From Us To You' to grab customer attention and make the event feel high-end and super-personalised. We have seen great success on a number of clients with 'Exclusive VIP Access' and 'Email Exclusive' offers which tout early access to special offers and exclusive rewards for being a loyal customer. The same concept could be copied across social media platforms for followers.

5. Assign related products to featured, popular, and sale items

Ensure all linked products are up to date, especially on popular models which are low in stock. Have ‘Best Selling’ and ‘Also Bought’ alternatives that can be easily found. Also don’t forget your ‘Add to basket’ promotions and enable 'Show Basket Recommendations'.

For more information, refer to the Product Settings help topic in the IRP Knowledge Base.

6. Free shipping

The majority of companies offered their customers FREE Shipping — it is one of the “most popular offers for converting customers”. So this is a MUST.

Questions to ask yourself:

• Offer FREE SHIPPING on all orders over £x?
• Will you vary your FREE Shipping offer country to country?

Once you have decided this, you need to set up your Shipping Methods. Remember there is also a Default Shipping Method on the IRP which works if you don’t meet a specific criteria, but you’ll get charged a set rate.

7. Extras

Discounts and FREE Shipping are great but the majority of your competitors will be offering something similar. Can you give your consumers something extra?

• A FREE gift
• Offer gift-wrapping
• Extra-Fast Delivery

8. Live Support

If you have resources that can be dedicated to manage Live Support it is recommended that you enable this feature on the IRP. It is a great way for customers to contact you easily and for you to respond to their queries quickly. To aid an even quicker response, perhaps you could have preset answers ready. Remember to set Activation Rules to allow the Live Support to be enabled / disabled on certain days / time periods and set Country Restrictions where necessary.

9. Creative required for the website

Prepare in advance and design the creative elements for your desktop and mobile websites:

• Home Page Banners: Pre-Black Friday week
  • Email Sign-Up: boost your mailing list and encourage your customers to sign-up to receive your Black Friday deals (recommended to do ASAP).
  • Teaser / countdown home page banners.
• Home Page Banners: Black Friday week
  • Update banners across brand, category and the top section.
  • Create alternatives for sold-out items for showcasing what has sold-out and showing what else is available.
  • Banners for the day for Black Friday and Cyber Monday or simply use one that can be used for the duration of your sale period.
  • Custom Product List Templates are available for Custom Content Pages and static home pages.
    • Be sure to use the IRP Design Repository to discover pre-made templates, including a product scroller option.
  • Remember that you have the Banner Deactivation Scheduling feature to enable you to plan your campaign well in advance.
• HTML Banners
  • Create HTML Banners to more efficiently update your country-specific sales messaging and USPs.
• Translation of Banners
  • All your banners should be country-specific and translated where relevant. For more information, refer to the Banners help topic in the IRP Knowledge Base.
• Make sure your Products reflect the offer
  • Make sure you have the ‘sale’ icon updated on all models as well as the updated RRP and web price.

    Key point: Create a Black Friday gif beside the model using the customised offer icon.

• Black Friday Pages

  Key point: Create a 301 Redirect to a Black Friday landing page.

  • Create Black Friday landing pages. These pages should be country-specific and translated where necessary.
  • Deal of the moment / hourly deal
    • Create a widget / countdown clock to hover on both your landing page and basket page to try to increase your AOV.
  • Pay attention to your SEO and include search terms so that you will show up in organic search. i.e. your searches should return results for ‘Black Friday’.
  • Landing Page SEO – If you annually create a new dedicated BF / Cyber Monday landing page, your SEO will start on a clean slate each time. Maximise the chance you will rank high by keeping the same landing page year round. It's ok to have a 'keep tuned' type message throughout the rest of the year. So long as it's a relevant landing page experience, it will have much better organic page ranking than something you start fresh each year.
• Update your Contact Us / Store pages
  • If necessary, update your store opening hours for Black Friday. Be a step ahead and add your Christmas Opening Hours too.
  • For more information, refer to the Custom Content Pages help topic in the IRP Knowledge Base.
• Interventions
  • If you have the Interventions module, we would recommend for you to discuss a strategy with your Account Manager on the types that you could implement and customize for this holiday period, i.e. device specific, country-specific, dependent on customer action, FREE Shipping.
  • For more information, refer to the Interventions help topic in the IRP Knowledge Base.
• Build suspense & buzz
  • Ensure Black Friday has good visibility in your posts, emails and website well ahead of the event itself. Use countdown timers not just to add urgency to the closure of a sale, but also to the beginning of a sale. Ensure the event starts with a bang.
    
• Give sneak peaks and early access to your existing customers
  • Customers who trust you and have shopped before are the most likely to engage with your Black Friday activities. Make them feel special and at the centre of your event. Offer exclusive deals and unique discount codes that are exclusive to your existing / best customers.
• Christmas
  • Create your Christmas content (home page banners, custom content pages, gift guides, etc.) and upload them prior to Black Friday. From NOW is when your consumers will be making purchases for Christmas.
  • It is also recommended that you update your Returns Information Page (if you are extending your Returns Policy) and Delivery Page (to detail Last Chance Shipping Date before Christmas and Delivery Times over the Holiday period).

10. Mobile – Think Mobile First

Be sure to refer to the IRP Mobile Website Overview in the Knowledge Base to make sure that your website has the following key features enabled and customised appropriately:

• Custom Mobile Menu Links
  You can add a custom mobile link for 'Black Friday' to display in your mobile menu and prioritize it to the top of the menu.
• Mobile Product Listings Page
  Define the style of mobile product listings pages: Single / Two Across / Three Across.
• Filter button
  Customers can also use the 'Sort By' dropdown from within this filter section. We recommend this option is activated to allow customers this option either from this area or directly from the sticky filter bar.
• Add to basket directly from listings
  Customers can add an item to their baskets directly from a listing page (instead of having to go to the model page) if the Application Setting 'Enable Add To Basket Direct From Mobile Listings' is enabled.
• Enable the Application Setting 'Enable Ajax Add To Basket'
  When the customer successfully clicks the Buy Now button, the 'Added To Basket' the confirmation popup window will be shown (displaying the item added and basket total), allowing the customer to either view their basket or to continue shopping.

You may use many different marketing channels but the key is to make sure that all your messaging is aligned.

1. Email Marketing

Email is a key channel to drive traffic to your website. It is the perfect way to engage with existing customers, re-engage with inactive customers as well as to acquire new customers. Your emails need to be designed, tested and scheduled ready to go.

Your consumers’ inboxes are going to be inundated with Black Friday emails, so here are some key tips to consider for your email marketing.

• Timing is key
  • When to send? When are your audience most engaged? This will vary country to country so pay attention to time-zones.
  • Leave yourself enough time and schedule your emails across the week of Black Friday.
• Prioritise, segment & target
  • You need to send relevant emails to targeted audiences:

    Key point: Remember Pareto’s rule: 80% of profits come from 20% of your customers [Smart Insights, 2016].

    • Existing Customers: Target your top customers and reward them with exclusive sneak previews / exclusive VIP Sale.
    • Inactive Customers: This is a good opportunity to re-engage with your inactive customers. Invest time, and try and turn them into ‘repeat’ customers.
    • New Customers: Consider offering them a special ‘welcome’ deal.
  For more information, refer to the Mailing List Segments help topic in the IRP Knowledge Base.
• Types of Emails
  • Create Awareness: Teaser / countdown emails prior to the week of Black Friday
  • Exclusive: Sneak previews for your VIP customers
  • Upselling / Increase AOV: Include Product recommendations in your emails
  • New Product / Brand promotions
  • Emotional / Connect: Black Friday Gift Guides
  • Urgency: Last reminder before sale ends / limited time / limited quantity
  • Product Recommendations in Re-engagement Email Campaigns – incorporate Custom Product List Templates

For more information, refer to the Email Campaigns help topic in the IRP Knowledge Base.

A note on email subject lines

Your consumers will receive numerous emails all containing a similar ‘Black Friday’ subject line. You need to stand out from the crowd and increase the chances of your consumers opening your emails — be ORIGINAL and CREATIVE.

Some important things to consider: style of copy, number of characters, capitalisation and emojis.

A note on emojis

Emojis are colourful and a nice touch to help catch your consumers’ eyes, plus they are still not widely used. However it is worth noting that some browsers may not be compatible, therefore it is important to check how the icons will display across mobile, desktop and tablet.

Here are some useful links relating to emojis:

• Emoji Meanings
• Black Friday-related emojis
• Which browsers support Emoji

2. Remarketing Emails

Remarketing is key. Your consumers will be deliberating and browsing across many websites, hence why there may be a rise in dropped baskets. Don’t miss out on the opportunity of trying to convert more sales.

Make sure you have 'Black Friday' themed dropped basket emails and remember targeting and tailoring is key. Add targeting criteria for your Dropped Basket Emails based on the configuration of a customer's basket. i.e only send if basket value greater than £X, only send if basket value contains brand 'A' or category 'B'.

For more information, refer to the Email Campaigns and the Dropped Baskets help topics in the IRP Knowledge Base.

3. Social Media

Make sure and have a Social Media Plan in place to organise, prioritise and schedule your posts. Engage and keep up with the social media conversation leading up to Black Friday. Make sure you have all the relevant #s: #BlackFriday, #BlackFiveDay, #BlackFriday[Year], #CyberMonday, #CyberMonday[Year], etc.

• Update your Profile Images & Cover Photos
• Promote email sign-up — could this be aligned with a competition?
• Share sneak preview of Black Friday deals
• You should consider using Facebook symbols

During the week of Black Friday, monitor your posts:

• Which posts are doing well and build on them
• Share product offers / Black Friday Gift-Guides (use a mix of images and video)
• Encourage user-generated content

4. PPC

Discuss bids / budgets and communicate your offers / promotions / discount codes / any required updates to ad copy to your PPC provider so as your ads will be approved prior to the day they are required to go live.

Give important considerations to these areas:

• What are the offers you will run?
• Do you have enough stock?
• How much are you prepared to spend over the period?
• Custom Landing Pages

The weekend prior to Black Friday is an ideal time for:

• Search Remarketing campaigns targeting your mailing list / past website visitors.
• Display Remarketing campaigns. If this is something you would like to do, you will need to provide creative. Please refer to the Google creative spec.
• Gmail-sponsored promotions.
• It is also worth communicating your Christmas plans in advance.

5. Facebook Paid Advertising

Make sure to have your Facebook advertising aligned with the rest of your marketing schedule. Use these top tips to get the most out of your campaigns:

• Analyse last year's ads: what type of ads worked best in terms of engagement and conversions, country-specific campaigns and, just as importantly, which did not work as well – how can these be improved for this year? We would recommend utilizing carousel ads to show more products.
• Create buzz and awareness prior to your Black Friday Sale launching.
• Be willing to spend – everyone will be fighting for the top spot of advertising but make sure you are smart about who you are targeting.
• Use the same graphics and messaging to reiterate your offering and complement your website.
• Use lookalike audiences, custom audiences and upload your mailing list to retarget your existing customers.
• Retargeting via Dynamic Product Ads – make sure to update ad copy.
• Have all creative and copy for ads created well in advance of your sale to allow enough time for Facebook approval. This normally can take up to 48 hours but due to the busy time it could take longer than usual.
• Remember to schedule your ads to end when the promotion / sale is over and double check all ad copy.

What does this mean for you at Black Friday and Q4?

• Design for the thumb, the smartphone is in charge
  Our smartphones are with us at all times – during our commutes, in the check-out aisle, on the couch during commercial breaks – and, increasingly we are turning to them to research products and services, compare prices, check availability and get information while in-store. It's where we discover new things, follow brands and are exposed to ads. When designing for the thumb, build content that is not only engaging but also addresses peoples need for speed and convenience.
• Mobile conversions grow when people are off the clock
  Facebook data shows that mobile conversions rise and desktop conversions fall when people are on the go. At a time when many people are commuting (between the hours of 4–6pm), mobile conversions begin growing and peak around 8–9pm, perhaps when people are watching TV. By contrast, desktop conversions peak around 10–11am, when people are likely to be in front of their computers.
• Go bigger and go earlier!
  Marketing is starting earlier and bigger, so you should too.

6. Affiliate Marketing

Insure your Marketing Plan is aligned with your planned Affiliate Marketing Promotions:

• Ask your Service Provider to accept relevant Publishers – voucher/ loyalty/ discount/ price comparison to your Affiliate Programme to support your Black Friday promotions.
• Analyse your previous Black Friday Affiliate Marketing Campaigns and contact your Top 10 Publishers to inquire about events that they have planned for their audience.
• Your Service Provider should communicate your planned sales, voucher codes and daily deals to your Publishers and network a couple of weeks ahead to create a buzz and to allow enough time for tracking implementation and content creation.
• If you feel that discounts do not fit your brand image, ask your Service Provider to set up a code for free shipping without minimum spend, a voucher code limited to new customers, or a combination of both.
• Black Friday is a global event – so utilize Black Friday to your advantage in terms of international reach and your growth strategy.
• If you have set up a Custom Content Page, communicate the link to your Publishers and set up the tracking in your network.
• Update your graphics and messaging in the network to promote your Black Friday deals.
• Review your commission structure and increase or decrease commissions accordingly.
• Use Black Friday as an opportunity to build quality backlinks on your Publisher sites.
• Review your product listings and checkout to insure that the customer journey runs smoothly, that the call to action is clear and that the customer has a good shopping experience with you on Black Friday.

Post Black Friday

1. Reflect & Feedback

Internal

It is worth reflecting and catching up with your IRP Account Manager to discuss what worked well, what didn’t and what you would do differently.

Customer feedback

Customer feedback is also extremely important. Consider sending out a survey and ask your customers to rate different aspects of your Black Friday campaign. This will be invaluable and may identify things you may not have picked up on. Adding an incentive might be a nice touch. Aspects to enquire about include the following:

• How did our Black Friday offers / promotions compare with other companies?
• Social Media communication
• Email marketing
• Navigation of website
• Customer Service
• In-store offers
• Other — comment box

2. Re-Engage

Re-engage with your customers (new, existing, inactive) and send them product recommendation emails to complement their purchase(s) during Black Friday. This is a good way to maintain customer engagement and encourage repeat custom.

3. Facebook & PPC

It is also worth reflecting and catching up with both your Facebook and PPC providers to discuss bids / budgets and which campaigns worked well, which didn't and what you would do differently (again this may provide good insight for your Christmas campaigns).

After Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it is also an opportune time to focus heavily on remarketing campaigns to make use of the new customers gained and really target your existing customers in the build up to Christmas.

4. Affiliate Marketing

Make sure you review your Affiliate Marketing, as follows:

• Review your Black Friday commission structure and adjust your commission accordingly, back to your default.
• Analyse the performance of your Publishers and identify new top performers.
• Re-evaluate your Affiliate Marketing campaigns and apply your knowledge to your Christmas campaigns.

Summary

The Black Friday period represents both an enormous opportunity and an enormous challenge. The sales potential is massive, but for it to be fully maximised, a comprehensive website and marketing strategy needs to be implemented. This needs to start today.

Aside from all of the steps above there are many more elements of the IRP which can be utilised to fully take advantage of this key upcoming retail period. Please review further articles in the IRP Strategy Centre for strategies on traffic, improving your average order value and for conversion strategies.

Please note: your IRP Account Manager will not have the capacity to accept any requests for assistance in the week running up to Black Friday so please ensure that if you require any assistance to set up your campaign, you do this well in advance of the Friday of the week before.

Keep Trading!

After all the work and energy needed on Black Friday - make sure to keep Trading!. The Q4 Golden Quarter is key to surviving the Lean Q1 Quarter Ahead.  The work and the market never stops!