Golden quarter has arrived!

Here’s how to capitalise on the Black Friday boom.

Let’s take a look at this time last year in the UK, according to the UK Black Friday Market Report…

In 2022, Black Friday promotions saw an 8.3% increase in year-on-year spending, with £12.3 billion spent in the UK alone (Mintel). Although 51% of Black Friday shoppers made impulse purchases, 56% of UK adults agreed that they were disappointed with the 2022 promotions. While it remains to be seen whether this disappointment will deter impulse purchases this year, it does reveal a need for stronger messaging about the value that your promotions will bring to customers.

The digital landscape is gearing up for another year of record volumes, with Black Friday seeing three times the traffic of an average October day (Queue-it), and email sends reaching heights of 8.8 billion on Black Friday and 8.9 billion on Cyber Monday (Twilio SendGrid).

 

With such a saturated inbox, how can I make my emails stand out?

It might be easier than you think. According to Retainful, subject lines featuring ‘Black Friday’ or ‘Cyber Monday’ have been proven to have a 64% higher Click-Through Rate (CTR), so there’s no need to overthink the messaging! And once a contact clicks, you’ll be rewarded financially, with consumers spending 138% more when coming through email compared to those who don’t receive email offers (Wordstream).

You should also adapt your emails to suit the devices your audience uses. Given that 73% of online Black Friday purchases were made on a mobile device, it’s critical that your campaigns are tested to ensure emails render well for mobile users (if you’re a Force24 user, you can do this within the preview section of our email builder). Incorporating other channels such as SMS and social media will also better align with mobile purchases, with brands seeing a 287% higher conversion rate when using three or more marketing channels (Adroll).

It’s true that relying on email alone won’t do you any favours. We encourage the use of cross-channel marketing to maximise engagement this Black Friday season, paying particular attention to the 9.18% higher Click-Through Rate (CTR) for SMS in comparison to other channels (CM.com). It’s worth noting that in 2022, brands sent 68% more SMS messages on Black Friday and saw a 57% increase in orders as a result.

But what if I work for a B2B business?

Well, businesses are still consumers, only with bigger budgets. Just as financially savvy Black Friday consumers do their research in advance of the promotions, this is not dissimilar to business procurement processes, with decision-makers doing their due diligence to secure the best deal for their business.

While it’s true that businesses are less likely to be impulsive, the key difference is the length of their buying process. When it comes to B2B, the budgets and stakes are higher. It’s down to us as marketers to educate, nurture, and instil that sense of urgency that B2C campaigns so often excel in. Regardless of your industry or product, the obligation to clearly convey the benefits of your promotion should be taken seriously.

So, how can you capitalise on the Black Friday boom?

Retarget engaged prospects.

While Black Friday is an opportunity to secure new business opportunities, it’s also the perfect time to retarget those who have previously engaged with your product or service. Retailers see real success in retargeting based on browsing activity, and this tactic is equally applicable to the B2B space. Marketing automation is a reliable way of gathering more data on your audience, allowing you to segment and hyper-personalise based on live engagement, even after the Black Friday season is over.

Reward your existing customers with exclusive offers.

Black Friday thrives on a mutual dependency between consumer and supplier, with consumers wanting to secure the best deal possible, and suppliers wanting to win more business. This is something B2B businesses can play on by providing current customers with exclusive offers that add value to their existing product or service. For existing customers, Black Friday is less of a sales quip and more an opportunity to reward loyalty and increase retention. See this as a chance to upsell and build awareness around your wider offering to add value to the overall customer experience.

Instil urgency with a countdown.

Whether you’re promoting a monetary offer or a value-led proposition, your audience can’t benefit from your Black Friday campaign if they don’t know about it. With recipients only opening 1 in 6 emails, it’s vital that you distil your message down into a sequence of emails, which should grow in urgency as time passes. This also gives your audience time to research your product or service so they can make an informed and confident buying decision, without feeling disappointed once the exchange has occurred.

Create regular touchpoints with a clear overarching message.

Considering that same 1 in 6 statistic, it’s vital that your campaign conveys a clear, consistent message regardless of which email the recipient opens. In B2C campaigns, this might be a percentage discount or promotional offer. In B2B campaigns, this might be your unique proposition, a problem you solve, or a benefit you bring. Either way, identifying this early on will ensure that your CTAs have a clear purpose and that you’re targeting the right people and organisations.

Personalise to capitalise.

Whether you’re a B2B or B2C brand, your campaigns need to be tailored to each recipient to make the most of the Black Friday hype. And the data confirms this! 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that offers a personalised experience (Bloomreach), while 73% of B2B buyers want a personalised, B2C-like experience (Accenture). Personalisation goes far beyond inserting [FirstName] into an email. It’s about using real-time data to tailor your campaigns with precision. Even if you don’t have the data to do this now, Black Friday couldn’t be a more perfect time to collect it, helping you to diversify future email campaigns appropriately.

If you’re yet to put together a Black Friday campaign, or aren’t quite sure where to begin, our plain text nurture sequence guide provides 9 email templates you can use to help move your contacts through the marketing funnel. Download it here to get started!