Whiteboard Wednesday #8: Great ideas for a successful Black Friday | Clearhaus Learning

Are your online shop prepared for Black Friday? There’s a lot of different things you can do - both in regards to optimising your shop but also in terms of luring people into your store.

In this video, Micky Weis shares a few tips on both topics with you - so that you can secure a satisfying amount of sales on Black Friday.

Watch it here.

Download the e-book here.

Hello guys, welcome to Whiteboard Wednesday. My name is Mickey and I run my own consulting agency. Today, I’m going to speak a little bit about Black Friday.

I work primarily with e-Commerce and with Facebook advertising, Amazon, content marketing, and digital strategies, so today I have picked three things I want to talk with you about.

So, we’re going to look at Black Friday. Like, I have been working with the e-Commerce universe for like six-seven years now. High scale e-Commerce. So, I have learned a lot about that. I’ve made my mistakes, and so one of the first things I’m going to talk about today is like what I’ve seen in the last few years here in Denmark, for like five or four years ago, it was like when people are searching for Black Friday it’s only on the day, like the exact date of Black Friday.

What have changed in that period of time is that up till Black Friday, we have seen like people are actually searching for Black Friday a lot of like weeks before that and days before that. So, let’s say that Black Friday this year is the 23rd of November. Like here. And then people are actually already starting searching for it here, and the Christmas sale is actually also starting here, so people are buying gifts at this time. So, what I want you to do is like think about your landing pages and think about how to optimise your store before Black Friday, because what I have seen is like the sales is actually decreasing here until Black Friday.

So, you have a little bit of downfall in your sales here, so what you want to do is like use this period of time to make sure that you’re ready for the time here and also try to sell something here, because the competition on this date is really, really high. So, what I want you to do is like build some landing pages for Black Friday, because if people are searching for your brand or your products here and with the term Black Friday, then you have to build some kind of like awareness already on this particular situation here, where people come into this side.

So, what you want to do is like you want to have a pop-up and you want to catch people before Black Friday, so maybe you can make a competition in your pop-up, maybe you can say like “get the discount before everyone else”, so you get some people in here, so you maximise your return on investment already on this time. And also what I want you to think about is like, before Black Friday you have to consider which products you want to sell and how you want to like structure the day and the products that you know that you want to push to people. Because normally, here in Denmark, there are a lot of like complaints about Black Friday because companies already try to sell products that they want to get rid of.

What I suggest is like, look at last year because 20% of your sales often generates 80% of your revenue. So, what you want to do is like, you want to take these products people actually want and turn them into bundles, so you actually can increase the average order value, but also give a higher percentage, because you have some more money to give away, because the price is higher for the product bundle.

So, already here start looking at the products from last year. Go into your Google Analytics account or to your other analytics accounts and try to look at which pages converted best last year, what do you want to do this year, do you have a new version of those products or can we sell the same products again, or are they out of like season? Of course, you can also put some of the products that you want to get rid of into this category, but the most important thing is like you have to really consider that people are looking for some specific products and that’s often not the products that you want to get rid of, so give people something they actually want. And also again, when we look at like the products are really much connected to doing a lot of good work in the pre Black Friday, because you have to structure your website, so people actually see it.

So, when you have your category pages, let’s say you have a landing page for Black Friday. Ok, then people come in to the site and then you have products products products products etc., like all the way here. Then when Black Friday comes, then this gets sold out, this gets sold out, this gets sold out. Then people have to scroll down all the way to find new products, then they bounce off the site and go to one of your competitors.

So, make sure you can do it like automatically. If you have a good development department in your company then you can develop so when this gets sold out another product will jump into this place, or you have to do it manually, so the sorting is something that you have to continue to work on, so you take a new product and put into this place, so people always get what they’re looking for.

And that’s a really really good way to make sure that people don’t get a bad first impression of you. And also this date people, when the date’s happening, like the pre is here and then you have the post here. When the date is happening, you have a lot of traffic on the website.

Normally in Denmark, you can say maybe two to five percent convert to actually buy something from your site, but in terms of these people, they might be interested in buying something from you in the future.

So, you have to catch them in your wheel. I always talk about wheels, because you have to catch them in a wheel, so in another situation or in another life cycle they can actually come back to your website. So here, you can catch them onto the pop-up again, make a competition of your products, so they are like in your audience. It could be like one of your favourite products they can win, a limited edition, something like that. Get a lot of email signups here.

You can get them onto a chatbot and that’s actually my third point for today. It’s like, do something new. Like, I have worked with a company this year. We are trying to send out personal letters here. So, they get actually a personal letter - not in their email inbox, because we know that on this date there are so high competition on emails, so what we’re doing is like we’re sending a personal letter to people two weeks before, with the same discount as you can get on Black Friday but they can actually get it with a discount code, so we can track it.

They get the personal letter with the personal regards from us, you know “Welcome to Black Friday. You are one of our favourite customers blah blah blah,” and then we can see how many of those people are buying. So, we’re testing new stuff each year, and this year it’s a personal letter, because in Denmark you don’t get a lot of personal letters, so when you get one you actually open it, compared to email. We get so many emails you don’t open a lot of them.

And also what we’re trying to do is like, we’re trying to build chatbots as well. You know, you can subscribe to a chatbot, then when Black Friday comes then you get a personal message on Facebook Messenger and then the open rate is still so high, because you don’t get a lot of chatbot messages on Facebook. You get them from personal friends, so you tend to open whatever you get in there.

So, that’s also something we’re trying to build, and again if only 2 to 5% convert on your website, but you have a lot more traffic it’s a really good way to get people into your wheel and then catch them, maybe on Facebook Dynamic Remarketing, you can catch them on some win-back on email, you can catch them on Google Adwords, and there are so many ways to catch them afterwards, just make sure that you’re aware of that you have a lot of traffic. So, from my perspective, it’s not only the people who buy something who are valuable to you, it’s also the people who are not buying something from you, because maybe those people will buy something from you in the future.

And also, if we have the post Black Friday here like Black Friday happens, but then it’s actually shown that people are still searching for Black Friday and for Black Weekend a period after Black Friday, so you actually want to sell something to those people right after Black Friday, so just make sure that you send out emails, you get the chatbot going the days afterwards, and make sure that your product categories are up to date, so when people wake up on Saturday morning or Sunday morning and go onto your website, they still have to find products in those categories, because otherwise they will just bounce off your website and have a bad experience, because they still have some money left here, and maybe they bought something here, but they already know “I am going to return that, so I want to spend my money somewhere else,” so they are actually buying something here.

So, this period of time after Black Friday is really crucial to get the best out of the money spent on advertising. And also make sure that you are really prepared on Google Ads, Facebook ads, and stuff like that in the week ahead of Black Friday, because on this date the competition will be so high, so you have to like really know what you’re trying to do.

I also recommend you can use Facebook Lead Ads. Try already here, maybe in the beginning of November. Start building your leads so you have a lot of leads, because if you have, I’m just going to write leads here, if you have more Leads, the chances are you will convert better.

The chatbot, which I mentioned, is also we’re going to start here. So, I’m going to say chatbot here. So yeah, these ones should already start, let’s say lead ads here, or lead generation. If it’s on LinkedIn, if it’s on Facebook, you choose, but these ones are already starting here, so you have a lot of leads leading up to Black Friday. And also make sure that your logistics are ready for Black Friday, so you don’t give people a bad shipping experience, because most of the people who are in e-Commerce know that it’s a hell on Monday, because you have a lot of customer support, you have a lot of logistics, so make sure that you’re ready on Monday, which comes here, Monday.

So, you give people the best experience possible, because word of mouth is still the best marketing you can get. So, if you get people here, let’s say you have a lot of customers who’s never bought from you before, it’s a really good way to give them the best possible experience, and it could also be like, last year we tested putting in some some candy in packages, like saying “thank you for ordering at us on Black Friday, hope to see you again next year,” just to really like try to get some really personal experience into the box.

So yeah, that was my tips and if you want more tips I suggest you download the PDF, the Black Friday e-book, below this video and if you have any questions to me you can just put in a comment down below or you can ask me on social medias. So, thank you for your time guys.