So, why is maximizing BFCM important for D2C brands. In 2022, Black Friday saw the highest shopping volume moment during the weekend, with peak sales of more than $3.5 million per minute at 12:01 PM EST on November 25.
Shopify’s last survey in 2022 of more than 24,000 consumers and 9,000 small and medium businesses around the world revealed that three in four (76%) were seeking higher-quality products that will last. 84% of consumers planned to compare prices for the best discounts before making a purchase during BFCM i.e. Black Friday Cyber Monday.
Businesses and shoppers plan to be considered, conscious and connected during BFCM.
i) 73% of businesses worldwide are planning for a big Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend this year, despite economic uncertainty
ii) 76% of shoppers globally are looking to spend on quality items that last
iii) 40% of consumers will pay more for climate-conscious products
It is for this reason that messaging around quality, durability, long lasting endurance and price comparison are super important including going deep on merchandising strategies. Omnichannel marketing unifies your customer-facing content across multiple channels. This involves integrating key brand assets: your website, brick-and-mortar store, owned marketing channels via Klaviyo (email, SMS, push), and any additional tools you use (mobile apps, social media, etc.).
During BFCM, your goal is to maximize revenue. This can be achieved by increasing number of customers, increasing AOV or increasing purchase frequency. Omnichannel marketing helps you do just that, as well as:
a) Improve efficiency
b) Reach subscribers on their preferred channels
c) Unify your messaging strategy, so no content feels disjointed
d) Drive a unified experience to your customers across channels, touch points to provide a frictionless experience to every visitor, first time and repeat purchaser
Omnichannel marketing is the way of the future: it supports customer behaviors and interests and helps consolidate messaging for your brand. This BFCM, align your channels around a clear goal and consolidated strategy.
Pre-BFCM:
a) Go Early: focus on going early. In the month of October focus on list building, intelligent segmentation, and simple merchandising strategies. Test offers, bundles and warm up audiences.
i) Grow your list with proven strategies
ii) Leverage social proof
iii) Use a strong lead magnet
iv) Mobile app download
v) Lean into content marketing on social media
vi) Create a referral program for current customers
vii) Leverage tap to text SMS forms
viii) Target existing email subscribers
ix) Leverage Double opt-in on sign-up forms
x) Pair email signups with rewards increases conversions
b) Focus on BFCM winning segmentation strategies:
i) Highlight your lowest prices and best deals to deal hunters.
ii) Focus on flexible returns and in stock items for last min shoppers.
iii) Give exclusive perks to lock VIP spend
c) Test offers and discounts early – testing discounts is a great way to understand how your customers behave across various segments.
d) Storewide discount – (this type of offer works well for everyone)
e) Large discount on one item – (this type of offer works best on “regular” products that appeal to everyone on your list)
f) Tiered discount (this type of offer is more complicated for your customers to follow but has something for every budget)
g) Free gift with purchase (this offer works great for VIPs and high spenders – it makes them feel loved and appreciated, and who doesn’t like getting something for free? Bonus: Make it a limited quantity and then brag about it when the free gifts are gone so everyone else knows what they missed out on)
h) Cashback with order (this offer also works well for VIPs and frequent spenders – and it encourages them to come back to your store after the holiday)
i) Free upgrades (this type of offer works well to push people over the fence and into making a purchase. Anyone who may have been undecided may be swayed by the offer of a free upgrade).
j) Invest in CX enhancing tech critical for BFCM – identify gaps in your existing tech stack before BFCM, to ensure a seamless path to purchase, reducing friction and increasing both first time and repeat purchases.
k) Double down on reviews – By automating requests for reviews, build trust, engagement, showcasing UGC to highlight product features your customers love. Reviews help customers move through the purchase journey seamlessly and grow conversions. Leverage and know more about Okendo and Yotpo capabilities and feature benefits.
l) Automate customer support – a vital part of managing the large demand volume in preparation of Black Friday and Cyber Monday is the automation of customer support and management of large volume of returns. Learn more about how to deflect customer support tickets and raise customer satisfaction here.
m) Invest in zero party data and first party data collection – both zero-party and first party data power personalization like rocket fuel. Once you understand customer behavior, purchase intent, likes and dislikes more deeply – it allows you to be very specific to meet their personal needs resulting in conversions. Collect profile data sync directly to Klaviyo user profiles, collect buyer data with a conversational pop-up, launch shoppable quizzes.
n) Focus on deliverability – when launching pre – BFCM campaigns get your audience to engage with your content instead of launching a slew of discounts. Working on deliverability is critical prior to launching BFCM. Learn more about best practices around deliverability here.
o) Warm Up Audiences – focus on warming up audiences and launching a sharp merchandising strategy. Email, SMS and paid ads must be a focus area.
p) Amplify Audiences – Spend on paid acquisition and double down on Amazon, facebook shops, Instagram shops, SEO, CRO optimisation and Google Shopping. Grow organic traffic. Your DTC store needs visibility on all social platforms with consistent messaging.
BFCM:
a) Go heavy on Paid Traffic – focus on templatizing landing page offers and diverting this traffic to both Shopify stores and social platforms such as facebook shops, Instagram shops and Amazon. These platforms help enhance self-discovery and a great channel to gain new visitors. Launch lead generation campaigns, email, and SMS audience, to raise hand and sign up. Focus on multi-channel remarketing. Retarget viewers and visitors using both images and video. Create separate ad sets for each audience type.
b) Build a solid omnisocial presence – amplify organic posts, invest in page post engagement content, and invest at least 1-2% of your budget to promote these on facebook and Instagram. Launch rich content around merchandising for social amplification of how to’s testimonials and offers.
c) Launch UGC Ads – in the voice of customer. Create video views campaigns targeting both cold and warm audiences
d) Invest heavily on Email and SMS – spend time heavily promoting via email and SMS, create anticipation for your product portfolio and launch the best of BFCM offers. Going heavy on both email and SMS for stores help nearly double their revenue through multiple mailings per day.
e) Launch bundling and a smart discounting strategy – ensure you are thoughtful about the types of discounts you would like to offer to your audiences while still remaining profitable. Ensuring you are profitable will result in your store being able to deploy cash into product innovation, to make better products and invest in your community.
f) Focus on Cross-Sells & Upsells – launch product bundles that enhance AOV growth and push complementary products together. Cross-Sells and Up-Sells both on the home page, product page, checkout page and thankyou page as well as order summary page are critical to drive repeat purchases. Transfer underutilized moments into revenue generating experiences by making post purchase profitable here
g) Focus on Campaign Scheduling – identify the peaks and troughs, decide your merchandising strategy and dates when you are going to go really hard.
h) Optimize Offer Pages: ensure you have an optimized offer page. Bundles should be placed top of fold to ensure optimal conversions, ensure you have product highlights, a countdown timer, social proof to drive trust. Optimize for both mobile and desktop devices (2 column and 3 column devices), discount and call to action
i) Leverage Order Bumps – on page upsell or cross sell used to maximize average order value is key to be embedded into all offer pages.
j) Plan peak day promos – for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Green Monday and add an extended free shipping week.
k) Add Sticky Add to Cart buttons – this ensures watertight conversions and no leaks.
l) Leverage Direct Mail Marketing – Direct mail is significantly more attractive vs digital channels. Most people ignore direct mail and think its slow, clunky and requires a learning curve. The truth is that Direct mail marketing is often cheaper than a facebook ad. Why? Because the price of the postage is capped. Direct mail also allows you to target customers who aren’t on your email list and are not on facebook. Push your winback campaigns with facebook, email and direct mail. Learn more about PostPilot, the direct mail marketing leader for Shopify stores and how you could drive more ROI here.
Master Black Friday and Cyber Monday execution for 2023 by accessing insights here.
Post BFCM:
Once you have officially made it past the stressful sales period – its important to capitalize on your newly acquired customers. Your goal over the holiday season and in Q1 is to nurture all your newly acquired leads. Its time to make a solid connection with your new customers. Here are some quick wins for you to focus on the post BFCM season, in order to remain profitable, and grow your customer lifetime value and AOV.
a) Invest in requesting for product reviews
b) Launch surveys and build live feedback loop
c) Focus on really solid emails and SMS flows and campaigns!
d) Continue to build both your email and SMS lists
e) Invest in both store and tech stack optimisation!
To build a solid holiday retention strategy and launch Q5 successfully, its important to understand hits and misses from BFCM besides doubling down on email and SMS marketing.
Are you ready to look beyond BFCM and build for solid Q5? Start your new year strong with a robust, proven retention roadmap ahead. As they say, the prep for BFCM 2024 begins while BFCM 2023 ends.
We are sure you can yourself, but in case you need a helping hand – we are here to be your extended team. Our Irresistible Q5 offer is one you cant resist!
To know more book a free 30 min introductory call with us here at http://smartedigital.com/contact-us and you might feel lucky soon!
