Black Friday is like the Super Bowl for retail, with Americans predicted to spend over $70 billion this year, in just one day! With so much potential for sales, it’s important to have a strong social media strategy to promote and share your awesome Black Friday deals with all your customers. Here are 8 ways you can triple your Black Friday sales using social media:
1. Focus on the Most Profitable Channels
If you’re already using social media to market your business, you know that different social media platforms perform differently. How a platform performs for your business depends on your industry, your target customer demographic, and more. For instance, according to survey data from Pew Research Center, Instagram tends to be a much better choice than Facebook for businesses hoping to attract younger audiences.
If you want your Black Friday sales to hit astronomical levels this year, you need to focus your efforts on the platforms that work best for your business. This is especially important if you’re short for time and you have to choose between multiple social networks. The simplest way to do this is to research your target audience and find out which platforms they’re most active on. If your Instagram is doing well for your business, then go all in with an Instagram marketing campaign instead of trying to spread a campaign across every social network you’re on.
2. Invest in Social Media Advertising
Ad blocking on desktop and mobile devices is become more and more common. In fact, according to a recent report, ad blocking in the United States grew by 48% last year.
The good news for your business is that social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are largely immune from ad blocking software. At the same time, mobile consumption is moving away from browser-based content and towards content accessed through apps. So if you’re looking for a great place to invest in advertising, mobile social media apps are a great bet!
3. Offer Free or Discounted Shipping
According to a recent study, one of the biggest reasons people avoid shopping online is because of high shipping costs. If you’re hoping to boost your ecommerce sales this year, you need to remove this barrier for your customers. One way to do this is to offer your customers free shipping for a limited time, or when they spend over a certain amount. Not only will this encourage your customers to make a purchase as soon as possible, but it will incentivize them to spend a minimum amount.
If free shipping isn’t possible, you can always offer your customers a shipping discount code or coupon on social media. Take a look at your cart abandonment rate — the ratio of abandoned shopping carts to completed transactions — and calculate the average amount at which people decide not to make a purchase. From this you can determine how much of a discount to offer your customers during Black Friday. Just make sure you promote your shipping discount across all of your social media channels.
4. Create a Facebook Event
Whether it’s for an in-store or online sale, creating a Facebook event and inviting your customers to participate is super important for spreading the word about your Black Friday or Cyber Monday sale. You can post regular updates on your Facebook event page to remind your customers about the sale and build excitement around the event. You can also use your Facebook event to provide important details about your Black Friday sale, and don’t forget to encourage your invitees to invite their own friends! This will help you promote your Black Friday sale to a larger audience.
5. Welcome Mobile Shoppers with a Responsive Landing Page
As mobile shopping becomes more and more popular, it’s super important that your business optimizes its mobile marketing efforts. This especially true for Black Friday. According to a recent report, 37% of all online purchases made during Black Friday last year were made on mobile devices, and that number will only increase for 2016. So you need to be prepared! We recommend building a responsive or mobile-friendly landing page for your Black Friday promotions, and linking to it heavily on social media.
Your customers shouldn’t have to pinch-to-zoom to read the copy on your landing page. And they shouldn’t have to scroll frantically to find your CTA. When creating a social media ad or promoting a link to your product page through social media, make sure that the landing is mobile-friendly. Not only will this create a more pleasant shopping experience for your mobile customers, but it will also help drive sales.
6. Promote your Black Friday Sale with Video Content
Whether it’s on Facebook or Instagram, creating and publishing video content is a great way to support your social media marketing efforts. Not only does video boast higher engagement rates than static images, it’s also one of the best tools out there to increase conversions and generate leads. In fact, according to a report by AMA, video content accounts for 65% of all ad impressions on Instagram. What this suggests is that incorporating video into your social media marketing mix is an effective way to get more eyes on your Black Friday promotion. People are viewing more videos on their phones than ever before, and it’s predicted that 74% of all internet traffic next year will be video!
7. Simplify the Buying Process
If you have too many steps in your purchase process, a lot of potential customers and transactions will slip through the cracks. Just imagine for a minute that you’re an online shopper browsing the website of a cool ecommerce store. You find a product you love and when you’re finally ready to click buy, you’re forced to go through 5 or 6 steps to complete your purchase. What are the chances you’re going to change your mind? Probably pretty high considering that most online shoppers don’t make it past the first step of checkout.
When running your Black Friday promotion on social media, try to make the purchase process as simple and possible. Some ways to do this include using Instagram Carousel ads to display deals on different products and ensure that people land on the respective landing pages for each deal. You can also introduce a “Buy” button that takes users to the specific product pages.
You can also use Linkin.bio to make it easier for your customers to shop your Instagram feed. Linkin.bio is a landing page that resembles your Instagram feed and displays your posts as clickable images. When your followers visit your Linkin.bio page, they can click on any of your Instagram posts to visit the product page that your photo is about.
8. Promote your Black Friday Sale with Creative Social Media Posts
One of the best ways to engage your customers about your Black Friday sales is by inserting some creativity into your social media posts! You could add a touch of humor in your captions, or post some eye-catching illustrations related to the sale. The idea is to build excitement in the days leading up to your Black Friday sale, and keep people informed about all of your awesome deals.
Try posting sneak peek videos on Instagram Stories or Snapchat to raise awareness about your Black Friday sale. Make sure you’re posting on a regular basis leading up to Black Friday so that your customers’ excitement doesn’t die out by the time Black Friday rolls around. One way to stay on top of your social media posts is by scheduling them ahead of time using . Also, don’t forget to create a branded hashtag for your Black Friday sale and post it regularly so that your customers can find your content easily.
Keep in mind that not every social media post has to be about your sale. Your Instagram feed should feature a healthy mix of promotional product shots and lifestyle content. The more variety, the better. Just make sure that all of your photos link back to your brand’s core identity!
Black Friday is an incredible money-making opportunity for businesses of all sizes. With these 8 tips inside your toolkit, you should be ready to totally kill it with your social media marketing this holiday season!
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