We’ve created a list of the top five mistakes you could be making in your Black Friday campaigns that could be costing you sales. Keep reading to find out what they are.

1. Lack of Preparation

No one likes feeling under pressure or underprepared. Getting organised for your sale well in advance can save you from missed opportunities, as well as avoiding a mad rush the night before your sale goes live. Decide on the type of Black Friday campaign you’ll be running within plenty of time to prepare your website, products and marketing campaigns. 

It’s important here to make sure that your sale is signposted as clearly as possible, especially on your website. Set up a Black Friday theme for your store behind the scenes during the run up to sale. Don’t leave your customers to fend for themselves: utilise your banners, announcement bars and even additional landing pages (for Shopify 2.0 themes) to clearly shout about your sale and make it easy for shoppers to navigate. All you’ll need to do when Black Friday comes around? Set your theme to live, sit back and watch those sales roll in.

2. Launching Too Late

Your customers will be bombarded by deals and discounts when Black Friday arrives. If you wait until the last week of November to start talking about yours, it could be too late, and your customers might have already found similar deals that they’re set on enjoying. Consider avoiding an overcrowded inbox and start your sale early. Think about launching your discounts a week before, or even for the duration of November. Setting off early could mean more sales, and will give you scope to grow your sale as it happens.

Don’t fancy extending your sale longer than the Black Friday weekend? Create pre-campaign momentum with emails, ads and communication that gives your audience a taste of what’s to come. Previews of hard-to-resist deals and countdown timers on your site will create a sense of urgency, keeping your name in the forefront of their minds, hopefully drawing them back in once your sale has started.

3. Overcomplicating Your Sale

Yep, we’re gonna say it: less is more, even over Black Friday. Of course we’re not talking about less money off, or just including one item in your campaign. We’re referring to your overall discounts. Avoid confusing your customers with tiered discounts that will take a mathematician to decipher. “15% off over £20, 20% off over £40, and 40% off over £60!” - these kinds of staged discounts can be tedious, messy, and might send potential buyers looking elsewhere for a quick and easy win. Having one easy to digest discount that spans your whole product range, or even just applies to a collection, will make things simple for your customers.

Consider also offering incentives other than a discount. Your customers might benefit from BOGOF offers, a free gift with certain purchases or even special offers for your most loyal members. Adding surprise and delight to our Black Friday campaign might bring in more sales, as well as benefiting the customer journey.

4. Not Considering Your Shipping Rates 

Are your delivery options competitive? Online shoppers are always on the lookout for the fastest, cheapest and simplest delivery options - so if you’re not up there with the most competitive, you’re going to get left behind. Our advice? Take a look at what others in your industry are offering and make sure that your own rates lineup (or even beat them entirely). We would always recommend offering free shipping where possible, even if it means adding that price onto your products - don’t underestimate the power of “free delivery”!

5. Not Making The Most Of Your Emails

From “coming soon” to “what did you think?”, your email strategy is a vital part of your Black Friday marketing campaign. For starters, don’t miss your chance to build presale buzz with sneak peaks of the discounts to come. It’s all too easy for customers to abandon their carts when they’re shopping during a sales period, so remind busy shoppers to return to your store with Black Friday specific abandoned cart emails. Consider adding more than one into your flow to ensure you’re securing every sale. 

A little bit of social proof can go a long way - if Black Friday brings you more customers than usual, don’t miss your opportunity to capitalise on user generated content when your sale is over. Send out review requests and encourage buyers to tag your products on their social media.

Time To Get Prepping

With Black Friday getting closer, now is the perfect time to start planning for maximum Q4 success. Whether it’s email marketing, website banners or your shipping rates, consider your website set-up before you start planning. Need help getting your store Black Friday ready? Get in touch with our team today.

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