Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) is almost here. For online stores, that can be a double-edged sword.
On one hand, you have mobs of people with extremely high buying intent dusting off their credit cards.
And on the other?
You’ve got a hundred tasks to manage during the busiest — and for many online stores, the most important — time of year.
We want to help make this the absolute best BFCM your store has ever had. So we joined some of the leading minds in ecommerce to provide you with a webinar full of proven Black Friday/Cyber Monday strategies you can use right now.
This on-demand webinar is packed with a ton of tips, tactics, and examples into one on-demand webinar that will help you:
- Quickly develop an audience that’s more likely to buy from you during BFCM.
- Eliminate common friction on the path to conversion.
- Increase long-term value by turning holiday shoppers into repeat customers.
We’ve pulled out six of our favorite tips for you here. You can get even more useful BFCM ecommerce strategies by watching the on-demand webinar.
Strategy #1: Make all aspects of shipping super-transparent
If you’re offering free or discounted shipping to your customers during the holidays, don’t wait until the checkout process to tell them.
Make that message visible on your landing and product description pages.
Check out this example from Calm Blanket.
Transparency doesn’t end when the product ships, either.
People want to keep a pulse on where their product is. Err on the side of transparency to reduce customer inquiries, systematically build better rapport, and avoid getting hit with returns in January.
– Casey Armstrong, CMO, ShipBob
Strategy #2. Use a loyalty program and FOMO to increase customer lifetime value
If you’re not investing in retaining holiday shoppers, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.
According to Shopify, for 64% of retailers, shoppers acquired during BFCM have a lower lifetime value.
The first step is encouraging gift buyers to create an account by offering loyalty points. And don’t make them wait for their reward.
Customers are more likely to check out as guests on BFCM. Give them a reason to create an account. Make sure it’s obvious that the reward will be immediate.
– Fiona Stevens, Head of Marketing, Loyalty Lion
If they don’t sign up right away, send an email that generates the fear of missing out (FOMO) on their reward.
Once they’re in the club, you can offer them more points in exchange for reviews and referrals.
Strategy #3: Make audiences crave with targeted teaser campaigns
According to Klaviyo, 48% of BFCM sales in 2018 came from people who first engaged a brand before Black Friday. Meaning, don’t wait until the big day to find your audience.
Unlike brick and mortar, people have access to over one million online stores. You need relationships before BFCM to get the sale.
– Florent Schmahl, Head of Growth, Shoelace
Creating teaser campaigns to attract an audience pre-BFCM is key. To make them relevant, you can use different campaigns for different audiences.
For audiences that haven’t taken an action that shows buying intent, like browsing your product pages, share educational content that builds brand interest.
For those with high buying intent, use product-focused, sponsored message ads.
And for past purchasers, offer unique promo codes to make them feel like part of an exclusive club.
You can then retarget those audiences efficiently throughout the holidays.
Strategy #4: Update your email sequences for BFCM
If you’re using email marketing (and you should be), you likely have standard email sequences for new subscribers, first-time buyers, cart abandonment, and so on. In all the excitement of new campaigns, these flows can be overlooked as a powerful BFCM conversion opportunity.
Luckily, this fix is easy. Just make sure each of your standard email sequences includes your unique holiday promotions, coupon codes, gift guides, and other seasonal offers.
Tactic #5: Use gift guides to help people who don’t know what to buy
Promo codes, discounts, and free shipping are great incentives to convert people who are actively shopping for a particular product.
But what about the people who have no idea what to buy?
Online stores create product promotions and ads to capture people who know they want their products. What’s never talked about, though, are the people who don’t yet know what to buy.
– Thomas Shields, Head of Marketing, Matcha
To help these shoppers, create and promote segmented gift guides for different niches.
Remember, holiday shoppers are trying to answer the question “What should I buy for a 40-year-old baker/a seven-year-old science buff/a new mom?” So make sure your product descriptions spell out who the product is for and why they’ll love it. Like this example from National Geographic.
Tactic #6: Don’t spam customers who have hit their spending limit
According to Churn Buster, nearly 40% of customer churn is due to failed credit card payments.
That problem becomes worse during the holidays when customers hit credit card limits and credit card fraud is at its peak.
Your largest cohort of new customers of the entire year is your most vulnerable to passive churn in the new year.
– Kristen LaFrance, Head of Growth and Community, Churn Buster
Most credit card failures, like spending limits, don’t require a customer to take action. So tap the breaks on those customer recovery emails.
“Unnecessary billing issues cause confusion, increase support issues, frustrate customers, and spike cancellations,” Kristen explains.
Instead, position payment retries before emails. Churn Buster customers recover a whopping 63.4% of payments without requiring customer action.
Then, if retries aren’t working, create a customer recovery flow that includes multiple channels like email, SMS, and even phone calls.
Black Friday/Cyber Monday is almost here, and it’s going to be a great one for your store. I can feel it.
But everyone can use a few reminders and tips from experts who have been there, too.
Stream the BFCM webinar on-demand for even more tactics you can use right now to capture — and keep — more customers this holiday season.
Watch now: The Black Friday + Cyber Monday Sales Growth Battleground
