Are you scrambling for a last-minute Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotion?
You’re not alone. This has been the topic of discussion all week long from many of my clients and followers.
Here’s 4 steps to create a Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotion in less than an hour.
Step 1: Choose Your Black Friday/Cyber Monday Promotion
Before you do anything, decide what you’re going to offer. It’s much easier if you have this decision in place FIRST since everything you’ll create will focus on this one decision.
If you’re struggling for ideas, consider things like:
- Free shipping
- Buy one, get one
- Buy X, get Y
- Bonus gift if you order $X amount of dollars
- Extra XX minute session
- Host a giveaway
Also decide WHEN you’re running your promo. Is it just a Black Friday deal? Small business Saturday? Cyber Monday? All weekend long? From now until the end of November?
Step 2: Prepare Your Website For Black Friday/Cyber Monday
This is the most technical of the steps, so if you’re not confident in this, call your web person and ask them to do this step.
The next step is to prepare your website for the upcoming promotion. If you use something like WooCommerce, you can set up your promo ahead of time so it goes live as soon as you’re ready. Run a test and make sure you’ve set everything up correctly.
I’ve been helping 6th graders with a coding competition and I regularly remind them that their robot does not have a mind of its own. They have to tell the robot every.single.thing. they want it to do. If they tell it to turn, but don’t tell it anything after that, it will just keep spinning in circles.
Your website is the same way, especially for promotions. Make sure you walk through every.single.step. Write it out on paper before you implement it on the site if that’s helpful to you. Make sure you have everything from a coupon code if necessary to shipping at the end to a thank you email for your customers. Take your time on this step to ensure you’ve set it up correctly.
Step 3: Create Marketing Material For Your Black Friday/Cyber Monday Promotion
You’ve decided on your promo, so now it’s time to prep your creative. Head over to Canva.com and choose a template, or create one of your own. Keep it simple. Your Black Friday/Cyber Monday creative should include the following:
- Your business name
- The promotion
- A beautiful image
- Your website
Here’s an example:
Step 4: Tell Your Customers About Your Black Friday/Cyber Monday Promotion
Prime your email list today. Let them know a promotion is coming. Tell them what it is! Let them know how much you appreciate them and that you can’t wait to give them a great deal over the sale weekend (or whenever you decided to run your promo.)
Social Media
Schedule social media posts for now through the end of your promotion. Make sure you’ve got consistently branded and styled posts for:
- Instagram Stories
And don’t be afraid to go live on any social media platform where your customers follow you. Live videos are fantastic.
Also be sure you’ve got posts for a few days before, the day before, and a few for the day of your promotion.
Keep It Simple
There is no need to over-complicate your Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotion. Make it really easy for your customers to understand
- What the promotion is
- What they need to do
If they have to think about it, you’ve lost them. So keep it really, really simple.
Great examples include:
- 50% off everything in the shop November 29 – December 2
- Buy 2 get 1 free on Friday only
- Free shipping when you use coupon CYBER19 from now until the end of November.
Now Go Create Your Black Friday/Cyber Monday Promotion!
You’ve got the plan laid out for you. Now go execute!