Black Friday Success Blueprint: How to Plan Your Next Holiday Promotion

PodcastMarketing

Oct 16

Episode 892: Show Notes

Holiday season is fast approaching and if you aren’t ready to take advantage of the holiday push or Black Friday, you’re leaving money on the table! Stores are starting their holiday pushes sooner than ever before and sales that used to last a couple of days are now lasting weeks or even months. This can be incredibly overwhelming for small business owners because it makes you worry about how much you have to do holiday promotion-wise. I have seen what happens when you ignore the holiday sales and it’s not good. I truly think it’s possible to strike a balance between family time and taking advantage of a time when people are spending more money. There are so many things that you could do and I would like to give you actionable tips today to help you during this time!

If you want more of a step-by-step solution, I’ve created an entire Black Friday Holiday Prep Mini-Course so be sure to check it out as part of the Co-op!

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Why is Leveraging Holiday Promotions Important?

The majority of you are aware that Q4 is the biggest sales portion of the year for most small businesses and that can feel like a lot of pressure. So instead of adding to that pressure by creating sales, I want you to see it as more of an opportunity. This year alone, online sales are projected to soar by an additional 9.5%, specifically around Black Friday weekend. This is a huge opportunity for small businesses and you can use this as a way to set yourself apart from the competition, to connect with your audience, to reward your most loyal customers, and so much more! I know what’s possible when you put the time and attention here. Now, if you do not yet have an offer, I recommend going through creating and crafting your offer. But I usually like to start with a promotion or how you’re selling your offer. During the holiday season, the promotion is usually what you’re marketing and there is less time for product education so knowing the type of promotion you’re doing is imperative to help you know how to market it.

The Offer Versus the Promotion

I encourage you to think simply. Some of the most effective promotions are the simplest and easiest to understand. A lot of people also think that they have to do a discount but that’s not necessarily true. There are so many types of promotions so picking the right one can feel overwhelming. If you want my help figuring this out, inside my Black Friday Holiday Prep Mini-Course in the Co-op, I’m going to break down the strategies step-by-step and help you implement them. But I do think it’s important to spend some time focusing on the offer itself. As I mentioned, I don’t like creating new offers around the holidays because there isn’t enough time to give people insight into why they need it. Instead, I think you can really turn up the notch and make an existing offer sell better if you spend some time on the messaging. When promoting your offer, instead of focusing on what it will give your audience, focus on why they need it! When you target a specific audience, make them feel like you are speaking directly to them, and show them how you can solve a tangible problem for them, buying your offer will be easy. I recommend deciding on the top one to three solutions that can impact your clients and make them the primary reason someone buys.

How to Structure Your Marketing Schedule

All of that being said, there are really only three components here: the type of promotion, the offer itself, and your marketing schedule. You may want to run your promotion over the Black Friday weekend, and that’s fine! But because big business during this time of year is so ‘loud’ and it’s easy for your offer to get lost in the noise, I do find that longer, more open-cart style sales periods allow more people to be aware that your sale is happening. It doesn’t mean that you have to bombard people with emails, etc, but it does give your audience more time to make considerations. I’m actually going to do something a little differently than I have in the past and in the next episode of the Strategy Hour Podcast, I am going to share my exact promotion with you before the cart is open. I think this is going to make a huge difference. Keep in mind that you don’t want to tell people about the offer too soon because it may reduce sales until then. If you don’t want to share the exact offer, you can have a pre-sale hype period that includes everything that is related to the topic you are solving later. There are a lot of different ways that this can go and I am going to help you figure all of that out inside the Black Friday Holiday Prep Mini-Course.

The One Tip You Need to Maximize Your Visibility

To make this process easy and doable during a very busy part of your year, I highly recommend that you only focus on one visibility channel for this offer. If you’re going to try to get new people in the door, (at one of the most difficult times of year to do so) focusing on one channel is going to make that easiest. If you try to cross-post on all sorts of channels, it’s just going to dilute your messaging and make things less intentional and more like you checking boxes. I like having one place to show up that you can feel really good about. Just a couple of weeks ago, I dropped my Instagram Reels Vault into the Co-op. It’s gold! So be sure to check that out. I’m genuinely so excited for what’s in store for you to figure out what offer you’re going to tailor the messaging of it to reach your ideal clients, decide how you’re going to promote that offer, and optimize your visibility by showing up in a limited number of places. I want you to feel good about your sales going into this season and remember that you have such a great opportunity to have a successful holiday season and all of it starts with a plan. Let me help you get there!