How to prepare your socials for Black Friday

Campaigns

16 Oct

Black Friday is an American phenomenon that has made its way across the Atlantic. It happens the day after Thanksgiving, much like the Boxing Day Sales here in the UK. It has only been adopted by retailers in the UK during the last decade, and now thousands of businesses of all sizes engage in some kind of Black Friday offer.

It’s a controversial topic that attracts a lot of critics who suggest that it encourages mass consumerism and it’s not good for small businesses I have to say I agree to some extent, however in the context that I am going to talk to you about today, harnessing spending habits over Black Friday weekend can help you make some more sales before Christmas ethically and sustainably.

Black Friday is now less than six weeks away, so it’s time to decide as to whether you’re in or out! In this blog post, I am going to outline some tips on how to prep your socials for Black Friday to make the most of the increase in spending. This applies to product AND service-based businesses!

Some stats…

Consumers tend to spend more over Black Friday Weekend than any other weekend - even with businesses whose offers might not have changed all year! The reality is that customers don’t want to be seen to be missing out. Sales create an element of scarcity and FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), two psychological triggers that prompt people to impulse buy.

Over half of UK adults (51%) plan to spend on Black Friday weekend, Furthermore, 8 in 10 (71%) Gen Z-ers plan to spend as well, so that is a huge percentage of the population that is ready to spend money.

The prediction is that shoppers will spend an average of £133 on Black Friday weekend.

How to make the most of Black Friday

Plan your offer

If you haven’t started planning your Black Friday offer, now is a good time to give it some thought. When it comes to any kind of offer, it doesn’t always have to be monetary. Slashing prices is an unsustainable way to do business, especially for small brands because your customers will come to expect it all the time and never buy anything at full price. The same applies for service-based businesses too.

So if you aren’t taking money off, what could you offer?

A gift when you purchase
Free delivery (over a certain purchase amount)
A money-can’t-buy thing like a short coaching call, an audit or some kind of consultancy
Discount or free gift for the first 10 orders
Refund a random order

Grow your mailing list

I am a huge advocate for social media but I understand that it is only part of the puzzle. You don’t own your social media platforms and you do have to compete with other content and algorithms, but emails or SMS go straight to your customers. Social media is going to be saturated with Black Friday offers and it could be really difficult to be seen. Start building your email list now so that come Black Friday, you will have more eyes on your offers.

A really easy way to do this is to create a lead magnet for your mailing list. This could be a digital freebie or a small discount. What matters is you incentivise it! Create a dedicated social media campaign about your new lead magnet to start growing your list. My lead magnet is a free social media content planning template.

I use Flodesk for my email marketing. It is intuitive, you can segment your lists and easily create forms. If you use my referral link, you will get 50% off for your first year, which makes it around $19/£16 a month. After that, it’s full price, but it’s certainly one of the most cost-effective email marketing options out there.

Build some hype

Black Friday is on Friday 24th November and Cyber Monday follows on Monday 27th. If you are planning to create an offer, start building hype around 2-3 weeks before. This will keep you front of mind and get your audience primed well in advance so they are more likely to buy when your deal finally does land.

Here are some ideas to start building hype:

Start teasing offers in your Instagram Story
Post a countdown on your Instagram Story
Add teasers to your social media posts in the lead-up to Black Friday (e.g. Black Friday offers coming soon 👀 Make sure you turn on notifications or sign up to our mailing list to be in the know!)
Create a Reel announcing your offers and post a few days before Black Friday so people can get ready to shop.

Jump on #SmallBusinessSaturday

#SmallBusinessSaturday falls on the Saturday of Black Friday Weekend and is an amazing opportunity to raise awareness of your small business. It was set up as a bit of an anti-black Friday day but many small businesses use this day to publicise their offers instead. If you aren’t doing Black Friday, why not engage with #SmallBusinessSaturday?

Here are some ideas to get you started for Small Business Saturday:

In-store only offers or deals to encourage people to visit their local high street
Collaborate with fellow small businesses on a giveaway or promote each other’s offers (Instagram’s Collaborate feature would be PERFECT for this!)
Reward your most loyal customers with a gift or a discount
Use the hashtag #SmallBusinessSaturday on all your posts and introduce your business

Show up

When preparing for a launch or offer, make sure that you stay consistent with showing up and posting on social media. Don’t abandon your socials in the lead-up to Black Friday! You want to maintain momentum and stay front of your audience’s mind. Black Friday week is around 5 weeks away, so commit to showing up as much as you can.

Here are some tips on how you can show up with minimal extra work:

Repurpose your most popular posts and schedule them. Look for posts that have high engagement rates and high reach as you know this will help you reach more people.
Share value-led (Problem solving) content and use Instagram Reels to attract new followers.
Use my FREE social media content planning template to help you plan. Check out this blog post for more tips!

Need support with your Black Friday campaigns?

Book a Pick My Brains session with me for just £175+VAT! We’ll spend 60 minutes planning your campaigns on social media so that you can make an impact AND make sales. Book a session here.