The Ultimate BFCM Marketing Guide for Shopify Stores to Get More Sales
Learn about all the organic and paid BFCM marketing strategies to get more Shopify sales.
BFCM or Black Friday, Cyber Monday, one of the biggest sales windows in the year, is the perfect period for businesses to hit their desired income goals. According to a report on Linkedin, in 2021, about 75% of eCommerce brands grew sales on Black Friday, and around 54% of brands increased sales on Cyber Monday compared to last year.
Black Friday marketing campaigns are a great marketing opportunity for both large enterprises and small businesses alike. However, you must implement a good plan and bring your A-game to make the most of it. So, if you’re skeptical about the first steps, this blog is the place to get insights on Black Friday marketing strategies.
Without further ado, we present the ultimate BFCM marketing strategies guide, divided into 3 phases — before, during, and after. The best e-commerce marketing strategies for BFCM that utilize a combination of some unique methods to generate the most groundbreaking sales records ever.
BFCM Marketing Strategies for Shopify Stores
As you go through the sections below, remember that you can reach out to our Shopify experts for a campaign set up at any time. With a Shopify marketing consultation, we can help you uncover which of the following BFCM marketing strategies are the best suited to help you achieve your business goals and objectives.
BFCM marketing strategies before it all begins
Here's how to gear up for the Shopify BFCM sale:
1. Start a build-up across all your social media channels
Put all your social media handles to their best use and start a build-up across them all. Cater to your followers by making posts, giving sneak peeks into discounts on your best-selling products, announcing the arrival of your brand-new awaited products, etc.
The primary intention here is to implant the idea that some great deals and discounts are coming up, so they should watch out. For example, you could tell them the expected discount range to pump up shopping fever.
2. Send out emails to your subscribers and customers
Many companies fail to acknowledge the influence of email marketing in today's time. It may seem redundant on the outside, but it can do wonders if used strategically. Hence, about 37% of brands are increasing their email budget, considering its effectiveness.
You can send out emails to your existing and new moly acquired customer base and leverage them to build up that hype for the most awaited sale season. Keep your subscribers engaged and updated as part of your BFCM marketing strategies — using a combination of informative (e.g., a newsletter) and marketing emails.
Pro Tip: Use your customer's name in the email subject. Also, have a different email strategy for customers at different funnel stages.
3. Set up a pre-launch BFCM page on your online store
A great Black Friday strategy to stand out in the noisy sale season is to start early and offer the right incentives. And a pre-launch page is just the way to do it.
The ‘pre-launch' or the ‘coming soon' page can direct shoppers towards what's lined up for them before the sale season hits off. This will create a segment of shoppers already interested in buying your products. Use this page to hook your audience correctly by adding a timer to the page, displaying a few exclusive products, giving early bird offers, etc.
Plainly put, keep them on their toes! You can learn about how a BFCM pre-launch page can boost your sales here.
You can leverage this strategy to get early feedback on how the traffic responds to the impending sale. Most shoppers would start adding items to their carts or wishlists. Offering a special discount or giveaway in exchange for their email address might be an additional incentive.
4. Take pre-orders from loyal customers
Customer loyalty is an essential factor for e-commerce businesses. Hence, using these best e-commerce marketing strategies for bfcm, you can call upon your loyal customers and give them that ‘loyalty' advantage. You can use this opportunity to strengthen the connection and reward customer loyalty.
Offer some additional discount to them or open the sale a little early for this targeted group in your customer base and clearly explain the benefits of pre-ordering — not worrying about out-of-stock products, exclusive access, competitive price, etc.
5. Start social media ads early
From organic posts to targeted ads, don't miss out on the superpower of social media. The most successful Black Friday marketing campaigns run on a carefully-curated ad strategy.
Run Facebook ads to acquire new customers who match your target audience. You can also use Instagram to create a more visual appeal for your brand, offers, and products — retargeting old website visitors or creating new ones.
Remember to repurpose content and strategies that have worked well for you but also put out some fresh bread. Keep your ads crisp and visually inviting so your audience cannot resist and hit the ‘buy' button.
Recommended reads:
- Shopify Facebook ad examples and what you can learn from them
- Instagram ad examples and what you can learn from them
6. Get started with search ads sooner
Investing in search ads is a great way to find new interested customers — who are already searching for something you offer. Search advertisements are a far more efficient Black Friday strategy for reaching people interested in your goods and services than people with no interest. The conversion rate for such ads is also understandably far higher than other platforms.
You can connect to a new base of potential customers and acquaint them with your brand and the upcoming BFCM sale using search ads.
Recommend read:
- Complete guide to running search and shopping ads for Shopify stores
7. Get started with influencer collaborations
It is a clever move to create pre-sale buzz around the product by collaborating with influencers or celebrities. Brands often have to gain customer trust and to do this, sometimes, quality products might not be enough. This is where influencers and celebrity endorsements can help.
You can make video content or images with influencers promoting the sale, or have yourself featured on the influencer’s social media to create buzz and anticipation regarding the sale.
8. Incorporate countdown timers
Understanding customer psychology and leveraging it cleverly is key to the success of any marketing or sales strategy. Before the BFCM sales roll in, you can leverage the customers’ tendency to anticipate exciting deals, by having a countdown timer on your website. This builds suspense, generates buzz and creates a sense of urgency regarding the sales event.
To further build anticipation, you can also roll out clever social media posts and stories promoting the sale.
BFCM marketing strategies during the sale
Here's what you should be doing when the sale begins:
1. Keep social media ads running
When the sale begins, more customers with the intent of buying will turn to online shops. Hence, you must keep running those social media ads and direct more customers toward your website to check out all the great products and offers.
You can, however, alter your ads a little to suggest a situation of urgency that demands immediate action. Make sure your ads are creative and set you apart from the others. You can rely on these ads to bring substantial website traffic while the sale is going on — making your Black Friday marketing campaigns successful.
2. Keep search ads running too
It's all the same story as that of the social media ads. The only difference is in the quality of the traffic that would be directed to your online store. People who have searched for a relevant product in the past are far more likely to make an actual purchase from your store than someone who is just checking it out.
Make your discounts strategic and compelling, create complimentary combo offers and present your audience with an opportunity they wouldn't want to miss. Remember that most shoppers are surfing online shops with the intent of buying, but they're looking for the best deals they can get – which can prove to be one of the game-changing e-commerce marketing strategies for bfcm.
3. Leverage retargeting and remarketing ads
Running ads can be costly; however, with this BFCM marketing strategy, you can remarket/retarget your ads to pre-sale interested buyers at a much lower cost.
Retarget those who looked through your website, showed interest in products, or engaged with your website but did not complete the conversion. Reminding them of what they're missing out on and what they've added to their cart will ignite and motivate them to hit ‘buy.'
This can also help you bring down your customer acquisition costs through the advertising campaigns dramatically.
4. Engage your existing customers across all channels
Every communication channel has a different audience, and you can use it to your advantage. The same message copy-pasted on all channels loses that edge of personalization and overwhelms your customer. Hence, use these platforms mindfully to create the right compulsions that would push them to act on them.
Connect with them on all platforms possible — including email, SMS, Whatsapp, Facebook, Google, Display, and anywhere else. Introduce them to ongoing offers, send reminders of the limited time and stock, and push them to revisit their cart as a part of your e-commerce marketing strategies for BFCM.
Do not market with the same strategies across all platforms; instead, diversify to fulfill a specific objective. Establish an objective and bring your customers down the funnel — raising awareness, creating desire, and turning that consideration into conversion — by using distinguishing communication and Black Friday strategy for different channels.
5. Conduct live social media events
Once the BFCM time is here, your social media efforts can still be effectively used to drive traffic to your website. You can set up live events on social media platforms such as Instagram or Facebook, where you can showcase some of the best products in sale at the moment, highlight gift bundles, offer coupons, run contests etc.
This way customers are alerted about the exciting deals that they might potentially miss out on, and they are urged to make the most out of the BFCM sale.
6. Run flash sales and limited-time offers
Customers respond well to limited-time offers and flash sales at a psychological level. You can create FOMO by running sales events or special offers that are valid only for a certain period of time. Customers will more often than not, try to grab the opportunity and purchase rather than let a good deal slip by.
BFCM marketing strategies for the post-sale period
Here's what you need to do to not let the sales momentum drop:
1. Reach out to those who bought from you
Extend your gratitude to all those who made a purchase — send a nice thank you message. Nurture the relationship with new customers you earned during the sale.
With that, also show them what lies ahead and why they should keep an eye on it. Present them with what they can expect soon in your store. Making a sale is essential, but retaining that customer is far more critical in the longer run.
2. Send personalized product recommendations
Next up in marketing ideas for BFCM, we suggest you keep recommending items to your customers based on what they bought or what piqued their interest for a few days. This would primarily cater to their unique sense of taste and requirements, increasing the likelihood of a revisit by the customer.
Personalized product recommendations can be shared on email, SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger and even displayed to buyers when they visit your site again. Amazon is said to generate upto 35% of their revenue through product recommendations.
3. Keep your retargeting and remarketing ads running
Even after the sale ends, keep those ads running — with different communication, strategy and audience. They are much more cost-effective with a higher conversion rate, targeting only those who interacted, engaged, or bought from you.
At this point, you can turn off your social media and search ads targeting new audiences, to keep your advertising spend optimized.
These ads are your best chance of juicing out actual customers from the potential customer base, as most of these people are already interested in your products or services — they just need a nudge.
4. Set up a ‘last chance' BFCM landing page
The sale is over, but you have some sale inventory that you want to clear. A ‘last chance' page is just the thing for it and one of the last steps in your BFCM marketing strategies.
Similar to your pre-launch page, the ‘last chance' bfcm landing page would showcase the last of your discounted stock. Present this to your audience as the last hour – to strike before all the exceptional offers expire.
Throw in extra incentives, group the functional items, and create compelling combo offers. Remember that the motive here is to sell those final products by advertising the ‘last chance to buy' maxim.
5. Run post-sale surveys
For long-term relationships with customers, it is important to make them feel valued after the sale. Run post-sale surveys are crucial to achieving this. Request customers to talk more about their experience with your brand or the BFCM purchases they made.
By doing so you are building towards a longer customer relationship, with potential repeat purchases being possible down the line.
6. Create and share content
To maintain and improve engagement, you can repurpose sales-related content to be published as blog posts or as social media content. During the post-BFCM sales period, you can leverage this content to keep the interaction going between you and the customer while showcasing what more your brand has to offer through the content.
Best discounting apps to use for BFCM marketing
These are some of the best Shopify discounting apps that you can consider for BFCM:
Discounty
Discounty is a great discount manager that you can use for BFCM, due to the varied types of advanced discounts it allows you to set up. Discounty is quick, and easy to use and offers some essential features such as a customizable discount widget, bulk, quantity and volume discounts, percentage and fixed amount discounts etc. Discounty comes with a free starter plan and has paid plans starting at $4.90 per month.
Unlimited Bundles & Discounts
Revy’s Bundles and Discounts app is also a great choice for BFCM discounts as it comes with a lot of great, flexible options and features. The app can be set up in minutes without requiring any coding knowledge. It provides you with different bundles such as Buy X Get Y, BYOB, mix and match, collection-based bundles, free shipping and more. The app has a free plan as well as paid plans starting from $13.99 per month.
Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B
The Wholesale Pricing Discount app can let you easily set up flexible wholesale discounts, custom pricing, tiered pricing, etc. You can offer discounts of different types including percentage-based, coupon codes and volume discounts. The app also comes with multi-currency support as well as Shopify Markets integration, making it a dynamic and competent Shopify discount app choice for BFCM. The app’s basic plan is priced at $19.99 per month.
To sum it all up
Running a business in today's world is already an incredibly hectic job. Hence, we've tried laying the groundwork to help you get started. However, a lot of behind-the-curtain work goes into crafting the best Black Friday marketing strategies that would help you stand out amongst all your competition. This is where the experts step in to rescue you.
At XgenTech, we're a team of Shopify experts working to create compelling and interactive websites for clients worldwide. We also help businesses and brands kick-start their marketing strategies with the proper assistance.
So, if you're ready to hit crazy sales records with these excellent e-commerce marketing strategies for bfcm, the XgenTech team is prepared to lead the way and guide you at every step — from setup to execution!
Let's connect and skyrocket your Black Friday Cyber Monday sales.
