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Jul 18, 2024

It's never too soon to make strategies in advance of Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) that is the most popular shopping season of the year. Both shopping seasons are experiencing an increase in sales over the last few years, so you'll have be prepared for increased web traffic, and even more ad rivalry compared to prior seasons.

The point is that it doesn't matter whether you're the first to attempt organizing Black Friday Cyber Monday sales or if you've already been there so you'll need to begin creating your plans for this year now before the deadline You can follow this Black Friday checklist to get started.

In order to help you prepare for the season to come We've broken down the electronic commerce Black Friday checklist into two sections: the checklist for customer engagement along with the management checklist for the back-end systems.

Black Friday shopping list Engagement with customers

We'll start with the client engagement checklist.

Black Friday sales tag on clothing

Begin earlier

Really?

Begin planning your marketing early so that you can begin the implementation of your strategies for marketing earlier to increase your revenue.

Develop a Black Friday counter-narrative

Black Friday sales are scheduled to begin when you'd like to see them. The public is beginning to be aware of this. So, it is important to create an anti-Black Friday campaign in the days leading up to the event.

"Why wait? It's time to buy now Profit from these fantastic offers and get your purchase completed early."

The marketing strategy not averse to Black Friday could promote advantages like getting an earlier start with your shopping for the holidays by completing your checklist of things prior to the crowds and enjoying your smug contentment through December, despite the crowds and shoppers, as you've got all accomplished.

This is in addition to an assortment of constantly changing specials as well deals throughout the month, leading into Black Friday.

customer paying with a credit card

Be sure to reach out to your customers

This can be done with diverse product lines or run multiple advertisements. This includes the search engine Google along with other social platforms.

Imagine having an online store which sells health-related products.

One specific type of product includes protein-rich breakfast bars. There are other categories that include dairy-free products and gluten-free snacks products. A different category is all-natural, nutritionally rich products. They can be promoted with the language of your brand's main product. Naturally.

glass container of overnight oats

What is the target audience for these products want? What are their priorities? Incorporate that information into the content you create for the Black Friday marketing content and your customers will be more engaged and increase sales.

Select the items you would like to highlight this year

If you're selling a variety of items, you shouldn't run general Black Friday sales that will lower your sales. Instead, highlight specific merchandise and offer discounts that will increase profits by taking advantage of the chance to attract customers to your shop.

If you're able to encourage further purchases over and above Black Friday discounts, you'll raise the price of your purchases, and generate net profits.

If you're searching for products that are overstocked, discontinued or even products that could be time-bound, they're excellent choices to get discounts at a high level since you'll be required to get these items sold eventually. Use items that you are skilled at producing in huge quantity to benefit from a reduced agreement with the supplier and products that are highly sought-after or that earn higher profit.

Also, think about creating specific Black Friday sale landing pages that showcase your best items, rather than your typical product page.

What products can feature that offer the most amazing Black Friday deals this year?

Develop marketing strategies that can be applied to various channels

Multichannel marketing may yield greater outcomes than just focusing on one channel. Select at minimum three of the selling channels that you plan to use this year as part of your Black Friday marketing strategy.

email from myLabBox

Channels are able to include other sources, but do not have to be the primary source.

  • SMS
  • Social media: All platforms. This includes Facebook, X, TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest
  • Direct Post
  • TV and radio
  • YouTube, streaming online video and YouTube
Google Listings and Ads extension page

Do not forget to create optimized landing pages and track the amount of traffic that you receive from your selected channels.

Create follow-up marketing strategies to the implementation

A different aspect that can help you earn profit during Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the rest of the Christmas shopping season is to communicate with potential clients who are visiting your site in the festive period.

Sure, a lot of Black Friday shoppers will come, buy, go, and then never be seen for the next time. However, you could win a few of these. These can be converted to loyal customers.

Make a welcome series of emails. Start sending consistent email marketing. It's important to categorize your new customers according to the products they've bought previously and the other data you've gathered concerning them based upon their initial buying experience. Engage them in new relevant and interesting content over the duration of the year.

email from the city of Jacksonville

Are you prepared with a strategy of action for marketing in place to Black Friday?

Make use of emails to get your message out early and frequently

To prepare for Black Friday this year, make emails that promote your business to target your different customer segments prior to the rush of Christmas shopping. You want them thinking about your company before many competitors on the internet start to compete for attention. They should buy from your company. others with small companies are awake and realizing they didn't plan ahead to be prepared in advance for Black Friday.

The initial marketing email is likely to be sent to subscribers by the end of October. The inboxes are likely to become full by closing of November. So, if you can utilize email to begin with seeds and then offer attractive deals before the peak, you'll increase the sales of your business and also improve the reputation of your company and develop loyal customers.

Create eye-catching visuals

In your product and landing pages you'll be using to attract customers or the landing page that you'll design specifically for the product you've decided to show off it is crucial to make use of images with high-resolution in order to grab your customers' attention and allow them to feel the item with their fingers.

Use the abandoned cart email addresses

AutomateWoo extension page

Making these available prior from Black Friday will give you the chance to try out your tactics and figure out the strategies for marketing and promotions that work best for your store's online.

Your advertising campaign could be divided into three parts

There's a number of items that must be crossed off the Black Friday checklist, and it's easy to get overwhelmed. In order to help you plan your tasks and figure out what items you should prioritize it is possible to break the whole event into three basic elements.

This is the very initial stage prior to Black Friday. The stage begins whenever you would like it to begin, and ends on Black Friday.

After that, the real day. It could be a lengthy weekend, or later in the week, if it's the whole Cyber Week. The definition of "day'.

All that happens after what occurs after Black Friday period is the subsequent stage of your marketing strategy.

Black Friday is a single day. Strategies for marketing must take over the whole time.

Have you broken your Black Friday promotions campaign into three parts?

Create or update your return policy

If you've been managing your online company for some time then you've probably got this. If not, it's the ideal time to sign up for an account. If you already have one, perhaps you've realized that the account that you have isn't up to date.

  • Return of goods which have been shipped. Do you require the original packaging with the item in perfect condition, or. ?
  • The policy of refund. Is the customer able to receive their refund either through store credit or something else?
  • Clear deadlines. When can they be returned in order to get full refunds or credits?
  • The address for shipping. What address will they utilize to return the item?
  • Contact information. What can I do to allow customers to contact you regarding additional issues?

The return policy needs to be publicized as frequently as is appropriate. The policy should be included in the confirmation email of orders that are sent out when the purchase has been made. It must be printed and placed in the product to be delivered. It must be displayed on your website, and be easy to access like at the bottom of your website, FAQ pages or the product pages.

Have you reviewed your Return Policy?

Offer faster shipping alternatives

The time for shipping can be extended during the season of shopping because consumers typically expect rapid delivery.

Based on an study from 2021 Baymard study that was conducted in 2021 19 percent of carts lost are because delays in the delivery. The availability of faster shipping options can reduce the number of transactions. This is an especially effective method to offer faster shipping options during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The speedy delivery method is a way to reward buyers and assure them that they receive their products in time, even during peak times when delivery dates could be delayed because of the volume of orders that carriers have to process.

Think about offering the possibility of paying for the purchase now or in the future

example of buy now, pay later on a checkout page

The option is available in the checkout section. However, you may also include this feature on the product page, on the home page, your landing page or wherever else you believe it will aid customers to overcome all objections regarding prices and help them continue to buy.

Use the chatbot

Chatbots help with customer support and boost sales. There are many times when customers are faced with questions that chatbots can solve. If they can get a few problems resolved and they'll then be able to complete the purchase.

example of a chat bot in action

If they have to look up the email address of a person, look through forums for assistance or just wait for live chat agents to contact them, they're most likely to abandon the whole procedure and go to other sites.

If you're able to do it the chatbot can help facilitate the purchase process with any additional staff members for customer support.

Take a look at the information from the calendar year before. Black Friday sales data

It's typical to view each year as a new project. It's a fresh start and it is a fresh starting without benefiting from the hindsight.

If you've run an online enterprise for a long time and you've run Black Friday marketing campaigns before then you've probably gathered some data. There's some data you've gathered previously. A few of the methods you've tried before could have been successful.

 analytics showing sales and orders

Before you make too much progress in the plans you have for the year ahead review to the results of last year. Did it turn out to be a successful year? What did you not like?

Do you have the capacity to repeat your success from this past year? Are you able to improve on areas where you failed?

Black Friday checklist Black Friday checklist systems backend

Now, let's move on to what we'll call Black Friday checklist items that people don't often see but are a guarantee that customers will make purchases as well as enjoy a pleasurable Black Friday shopping experience.

Increase the speed of your site

95% of users tend to abandon the site when it's loading fast. Site speed should be the main priority all year round however it is especially crucial when you anticipate the growth of traffic. There are a couple of easy actions to follow if your are experiencing slow loading on your website.

  • Test your website performance. Determine the areas that require improvement by running tests of speed. Applications such as Pingdom and Page Speed Insights will display the speed at which it loads as well as the speed it offers in particular areas.
  • Implement a content delivery network (CDN). A CDN serves your site's files from high-speed, dedicated, and geographically-distributed data centers. Content will be cached from the CDN servers closest to them which reduces load times and lowers capacity and burden on servers. Jetpack provides the option of using a no-cost CDN as well as, in contrast to other providers, users have the ability to set-up and install your Jetpack CDN using one click.
  • Enhance your images. Even if you're making use of the CDN which optimizes your images in accordance with your needs is a great idea to upload just the amount of images that you want with a quality resolution that is high. exporting to the web using Photoshop and using the free tools for resizing images and optimization software such as ImageOptim are easy ways to make your pictures ready for make use of on the internet.
  • Switch to the host that you are using. If you're on shared servers, your site could be slower to load. This is especially true when other websites which are hosting on the same server are receiving large amounts of traffic. You should consider using an online service (VPS) or a dedicated server.
Jetpack speed landing page

There are a variety of other methods to increase the efficiency of your business.

Are your eCommerce websites operating in the way they should be?

Create synchronized pages and inventory to show products.

example sync log
example log

Simplify and speed up the checkout process

Checkout may work however, is it effective and user-friendly? It is your goal to make your checkout procedure as easy as possible and without any distractions to encourage customers to finish their purchase. A few things that you can do for making your check-out process process more efficient are:

  • Get rid of visually distracting. Eliminate header and menus for footers and widgets on the sidebar and other distractions that appear on the checkout page, so that customers remain focused on completing the purchase.
 Payments information

You must be prepared to finish your orders and get things shipped before the time of delivery.

Are your dropshippers and suppliers have the capacity to meet increase in demand? Do you have the capacity to boost production when the demand exceeds your expectations?

While this is an issue you need to confront, you should not miss chances to improve your profits and attract new clients since the supply chain becomes filled with people.

If you're planning to increase production in advance of the holiday season, make sure you place your orders with the suppliers you use for the materials you need ahead of time. This is particularly important if the products you manufacture are made by a different company -particularly, where they're made overseas. Some companies are taking orders from retailers to prepare to Black Friday sales as well It is important to take care to secure your purchase before the time of delivery. If you fail to do so it, you might be hit with higher prices or be out of stocks items.

man

If you're using a third-party logistics provider (3PL) to deliver your goods, review historic sales and shipping trends of your products and request for them to move your stock into warehouses near the places where you tend to do the most commercial business. This will speed shipping to customers. If fast delivery is important to your company, request your 3PL to provide frequent deliveries and choose companies that provide the fastest delivery times.

In addition, you could have to hire additional employees or make additional hours to meet the expected growth of production during the holiday period. This is particularly important when it comes to the production of handmade products in your own factory. Even if manufacturing is outsourcing and you are able to require a greater level of services for customer service as well as the processing of orders. This includes marketing Customer Service, Marketing and more.

Collect customer data to ensure that they are followed-up by marketing

We've previously talked about preparing to follow the results of your efforts to attract new clients in the coming year who've never visited your e-commerce store previously.

It's not possible to do this without gathering the data of your clients.

If you're shipping products, chances are they'll send you their mailing address. Direct mail marketing, and follow-up, cost significantly more than follow-up and digital marketing which is why you must be able follow-up by email or perhaps an SMS message as well.

MailPoet opt-in settings

To do this customers should have the opportunity to decide whether they wish to. One of the best places to make this happen is on the checkout page. At the checkout there is the option to ask for their email address along with their phone number. It is important to have the permission of the client by email or SMS. The phone number should be non-negotiable so that customers who haven't signed up for text messages will not be misled.

There are a few who might not be inclined to believe that it's fine however, as a few might. If they do, then immediately start your next marketing campaign.

Are you able to collect emails and numbers?

Convert tracking is a possibility to install

It's important to track customer behavior and how well your marketing strategy performs over Black Friday and the rest of the Christmas period to be capable of making changes for next year.

Conversion Tracking Pro extension page

Be sure that the website you are using is safe

One of the most efficient and simple ways to improve the security of your website is to implement a security plug-in. Jetpack offers free security from attacks with brute force that will stop an attack. It is one of the most well-known types of hacking techniques as well as 2-factor authentication for security of the method of login. Additionally, Jetpack's WordPress security plug-in includes regular backups, regular security scans for malware, and tracking of downtime for spam detection, among various other options.

Jetpack Security information page

Check that your website works across all devices and browsers.

Your store's website must appear correctly on desktop devices including mobile phones, tablets as well as the top browsers. You can check this with the devices you have, however you'll also need to check the appearance of your website by using a browser or device emulator, such as LambdaTest.

Lambda test page explaining features

However, you won't be able to guarantee that your site looks and functions flawlessly on every device and platform, you can make use of tools like Google Analytics to determine which the devices and browsers your customers utilize. Then, you can make a point of testing and alter your site to make sure it functions for the platform you have selected.

Are you able to make your site mobile-friendly? accessible to as many devices as is

Find out the main goals for your website

 system report

Schedule your sale and coupons

It's possible to lessen the stress and anxiety that comes with the biggest holiday shopping time of the year by doing everything you can during the weeks leading up to.

It's simple to set up your coupons and sales ahead of time. When you've established which products will have sales and when you'll have the ability to provide special flash sales or offers as well as what your prices will be with time it will be easier to put yourself in situation to design coupons, as well as back-end support mechanisms that make sure that your sales run smoothly. If you're providing a free item in exchange for a purchase, you must make certain the products are available.

Smart Coupons extension

It is important that you include Black Friday bargains in your online store

It's impossible for your customers to profit from sales without being aware of it. If visitors visit your website naturally or get them on your site via email or ads that you pay for, it is crucial to be aware how much revenue you've generated.

adding a sale notice to the bottom of the site

There are many ways for achieving this:

  • Create pop-ups that announce the sale, as well as invite people to take action as well as a button which directs you to the sale.
  • Include a banner on your site to promote your sales.
  • Incorporate Your "Black Friday Sales" menu item into the navigation on your website.
  • Add sale items to the sidebar of the shop.
  • The symbol to show sales can be found located on your thumbnails for your merchandise.

Develop your Customer Service Software

Although you'll need increase the number of employees you hire to assist your sales team and your customer service department during the days leading to Black Friday, onboarding and the education of employees with temporary contracts may be time-consuming and difficult. Another option is to improve customer service in addition to the hiring of temporary employees.

Here are three ways to improve customer service that you can try this year.

Offer a variety of options for customers

Apart from direct line assistance - which you're required to offer if you have the ability to do so There are various other options for clients to get answers to their inquiries.

  • FAQs or knowledge bases. Help customers help themselves by offering a quick user-friendly and accessible FAQ pages or an information base
  • Use a customer service Contact form. Let people get in touch with the customer support team via email using an email form. Make use of conditional logic dependent on the nature of the inquiry, in order to send questions from the customer to an email address that is correct.
  • It is possible to set up AI chatbots to work.Filter out some of the most commonly asked questions like "How much does shipping cost?" or "Do you deliver to my country?" by using or "Do you deliver into my nation?" using by utilizing an AI chatbot. It will spare the time of your staff members as well as provide your customers with quick solutions to even simple questions.

Use a CRM software (CRM)

CRM software can assist you in tracking your customers' interactions with you and help deal with customer support issues, check leads and increase the sales you make to customers.

Jetpack CRM dashboard

Jetpack CRM is a light and easy-to-use tool designed to be integrated to your existing dashboard. There is no limit on contacts and it's one of the most cost-effective CRM options for store owners.

Check that your customers service procedures and FAQs are up-to-date.

Examine the guidelines for customer service, and make sure that they're current. If you've got any specific practices or promotions that employees should be aware of in the period between Black Friday and Cyber Monday Note them down and certain that your employees have access. In a casual gathering for an overview of your procedures about a week prior to the announcement on the Black Friday deals may help to keep these procedures in mind for your staff.

Once you've streamlined the experience you provide to your customers guests as well as for the staff members, it's possible that you'll need additional assistance from you during the holiday season. In fact, increasing your staff's effectiveness can help reduce the amount of seasonal employees you'll need.

shopper browsing products on a phone

Are you prepared to shop for the Christmas season?

The Black Friday checklist may seem as a way to plan for a sale which only lasts for a couple of days. The guidelines weren't intended to only be used for a single weekend.

Once you've placed these things in the right spot, many of these systems and techniques can help ensure that your business's presence on the internet is maintained all the time. If you are on top of all these tasks on your agenda all through the year, it won't mean you have to be a slave as the Christmas season approaches this year.

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