From the Experts: 10 Strategies for a Successful BFCM (and Beyond)

Getting a head start on communicating discounts, promotions, and events to your audiences is key to building anticipation and maximizing engagement throughout your Black Friday marketing strategy. This build-up gives you multiple opportunities to interact with your customers in the lead-up to BFCM, setting the stage for long-term retention.

So, when exactly should brands start announcing their sales? We’re seeing October for bigger retailers, and smaller brands start rolling out their promotions in early November. But, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Make sure you assess the holiday with your business’ financial and inventory management capabilities in mind, cautions Kelsey Moreira, Founder and CEO at edible cookie dough brand Doughp.

In addition, there’s also no one-size-fits-all when it comes to the right channels for these urgent campaigns. According to Salesforce, over 76% of consumers prefer different channels depending on context, whether they’re browsing, seeking advice, or making purchases. Do your homework and ensure you’ve segmented your audiences based on their channel preferences prior to sending out your BFCM comms.

When your brand does decide to start sending out time-sensitive campaigns, it’s essential to do so on the channels shoppers prefer. “Even though BFCM promotions are inherently time-sensitive, it’s crucial for brands to incorporate urgency into their on-site messaging,” says Michael Wadsworth, Partner Marketing Associate, Justuno. “With more choices than ever to choose from, consumers are more likely to window shop and leave your site without converting.”

The best channel for creating that sense of urgency? SMS. In a recent Yotpo survey, the majority of shoppers (34%) are most likely to sign up to receive texts from your brand before their first purchase. Why? Consumers are motivated by a sense of urgency, like time-sensitive offers and perks. Over 57% reported the top incentive to sign up for SMS being a one-time discount code, 53% said the prospect of getting early access to sales or new releases, and 45% said regular, text-only offers are their top incentive. That means a discount-heavy holiday, like BFCM, is the ideal time to engage shoppers via SMS (and keep them engaged post-holiday as well). This is especially true for Gen Z shoppers, according to Chip Maloney, CMO at The Maze Group.

During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, “drops” and limited-time offers are proven marketing strategies, and they’re proven successful for SMS as well. The immediacy of a text message encourages shoppers to act right away, especially during the holiday season when they’re already primed to purchase.

SMS makes it easy for shoppers to engage and purchase directly from the messages they receive. Click-to-Buy allows brands to create curated carts and send shoppers directly to them from a text to complete their purchase. And Text-to-Buy gives shoppers the opportunity to purchase through a series of texts, without ever having to visit your site. Getting started with SMS now gives you a direct line of communication with customers, both throughout the holiday shopping season and long afterward.

It’s hard to avoid the fact that a lot of holiday acquisition will be from one-time shoppers. You can’t just bring people in to purchase and cross your fingers they’ll come back. You have to go into the holiday with a built-in retention strategy — and at the core of that strategy is a loyalty program. 

A loyalty program is the engine that drives retention. According to Salesforce, 78% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand with a loyalty program, and according to a Yotpo survey, 83% of global respondents say belonging to a loyalty program influences their decision to buy again from a brand. A loyalty program provides the experiences that will keep customers coming back, even after their holiday purchase. 

To get the most out of your Black Friday marketing strategy, focus on continuing to build loyalty across digital channels after a shoppers’ initial spend. Encourage shoppers to join your loyalty program for an additional, holiday-inspired incentive, then use the program to continue to communicate with the new members and maximize engagement between purchases. 

“Learn customer shopping preferences to cater holiday sales, and then leverage the additional behavioral data you collect during BFCM to cater your post-holiday communications as well,” says Joshua Aven, CEO & Founder, CURIO. “Incorporate your loyalty program by rewarding for purchases or engaging with your brand in other ways to keep your brand top-of-mind throughout the entire year.”

To make your loyalty program stand out, think beyond points, advises Natalia Howard, Head of eCommerce Strategy at UWP. What experiences or exclusive perks can you provide for your customers, so they really feel like they’re getting value from the program?

Send loyalty members post-holiday follow-up messages via SMS or email (or both!), depending on which channel they prefer, and encourage them to engage across your social channels or in-store to continue to rack up points. And, as a bonus: when shoppers are more engaged with your loyalty program, your brand can collect more first-party data, which is a must in the age of consumer-first, privacy-first regulations.

The definition of going shopping has changed. Online shopping shifted the meaning of the word from a deliberate act — going to the mall or spending the day hopping from store to store — to the serendipitous moments that happen in between consuming other forms of content, like scrolling through Instagram or catching up on Youtube videos.

Social media is massively important all year, but especially so during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Shoppers are used to being shown ads while browsing platforms — 30% of internet users discover new brands or products via social media ads, and 51% of consumers surveyed in NPD’s fashion apparel report said the content they saw on their Facebook and Instagram feed resulted in a purchase.

Your social strategy should also include showcasing user-generated content. Repost customers interacting with your brand and products, and incorporate your product reviews into your posts. You can even use pull your customer photos into a shoppable Instagram gallery on your site to display your social proof in an authentic way.

This authenticity is essential to success. Your look, feel, tone, and voice should all authentically represent you and your customer community, telling a unique story that shoppers recognize right away. This helps build emotional loyalty, and research shows that emotionally engaged customers are 3x more likely to recommend your brand and 3x more likely to re-purchase.

If you’re doing something special for your team around Black Friday, social is a great avenue for communicating that, advises Michele Peters, Global eCommerce Marketing Senior Manager at UPS.

Additionally, if you haven’t already, now is also the time to try new things on social media in order to stand out from the crowd in a creative way. For example, don’t sleep on TikTok. D2C brands are finding huge success on the platform, and now, before the holiday, is the time to start gaining traction so you’re primed for BFCM promotion.

BFCM is a time to think beyond product discovery and lean in to your brand values, according to Caroline Dau, Director of Product at Verbal+Visual. Is there a specific cause your brand is aligned with? Are you committed to sustainability? Tell that story through your social presence.

One viral video can lead to a cult following around a product, or your brand as a whole, so it’s worth it to start now. Think carefully about your brand identity and your customers’ experience, and find humor in it. You won’t always strike gold, but you’ll start gaining traction and your Black Friday marketing strategy will begin to stand out. Plus, ephemeral content, like Instagram Stories or snaps on Snapchat, is a great way to leverage limited-time sales or promo codes.

Discovery Commerce is the back-end automation that helps products find people, rather than leaving people to find products that suit them all on their own. So, it’s an engine that makes your team’s life — and acquisition strategy — easier, and it’s especially useful during the weeks leading up to (and during) BFCM.

Holiday shoppers are increasingly open to purchasing from new brands — over 63% of global shoppers in a recent survey conducted by Facebook said they enjoyed discovering items they weren’t actively looking for. But, holiday shoppers are also busy. They can’t actually spend two entire days browsing online and in-store (even though they’d like to!). This year, discovery commerce can do that work for them. By reaching shoppers where they’re already spending their time, your brand can enable easier discovery at early touchpoints by connecting the right products to the right people.

Discovery commerce is powered by artificial intelligence; the AI engine recognizes shopper preferences and buying behaviors, and delivers the best product sets accordingly. It works, too — shoppers who click on a personalized product recommendation have a 26% higher average order value (AOV).

Meta is the largest player in Discovery Commerce right now. That doesn’t mean you need to double or triple your ad spend on Facebook and Instagram — it just means spending your budget more wisely on smarter ads.

Showing up in search results is one of the best ways for eCommerce brands to increase discovery during the BFCM holiday season. Over 34% of consumers browsed for ideas or inspiration for the holidays on search engines in 2020, compared to 24% in 2019. What does that mean for your eCommerce brand?

The early touchpoints are increasingly important.

Shoppers that haven’t yet chosen the brand they’d like to purchase a product from will likely type the product name into search, and it’s up to your brand to ensure you’re coming up first in results. Even if a shopper discovers a product on social media, they’ll still do their due diligence. They’ll “window search” online and comparison shop prior to committing to a purchase.

Make sure you’ve optimized your site for search results leading up to the holiday to maximize your chance of showing up. Get your brand in front of audiences early to start generating anticipation, and to encourage shoppers to do their preliminary research on your site before the holiday.

While many people think subscription services are only useful for items that are regularly consumed, the reality has changed drastically. In fact, according to Gartner, by 2023 75% of D2C brands will offer a subscription.

Subscriptions help brands boost retention and loyalty, and provide ongoing opportunities to keep customers engaged and your brand top of mind. Brands that offer subscriptions also see higher CLTV and have more reliable sales metrics.

Some businesses automatically lend themselves to the subscription model, like skincare or supplements. But if your customers don’t buy a product of yours on a regular basis, it doesn’t mean you can’t leverage subscriptions. Lifestyle brand Jill & Ally, for example, offers a candle subscription, and fitness apparel brand Til You Collapse offers customers subscriptions on leggings and workout shorts. If you’re not sure the replenish model won’t work for your brand, consider curation or access models.

If your brand already has a large collection of subscription customers that will complete their typical purchase or receive their standard package during the holiday season, you can engage them with special limited-time perks and add-ons during the holidays to build emotional loyalty.

In addition, try incentivizing referrals. If subscribers refer a friend during the holiday season, tack on an extra sample or a bonus box. With this strategy, your brand not only increases awareness with word-of-mouth marketing beyond the holiday, but you also encourage shoppers to expand their preferences beyond the hero products.

“By adding value in an authentic way to your brand, your community, customers, or other stakeholders will be happy to help you build your business,” says Daniel Kouchnir, VP Commercial Strategy at VaynerCommerce.

Subscription customers are typically loyal to a brand or select product they love, but you can also use your Black Friday marketing strategy as an opportunity to introduce these brand advocates to additional products they may also like. For even deeper personalization, give them a few options to choose from so you can learn what other products they’re most interested in, and you can tailor cross-sell communications accordingly.

During the holidays, the most impactful messages a brand can send are messages personalized based on an actual action recently taken by a shopper. Consumers may have multiple tabs open at once, and they may be shifting between them to compare products prior to committing. Ensure your email and SMS marketing strategies are set to send timely messages if a shopper has taken a revenue-lost action, like abandoning their cart or bouncing after clicking a promo.

Prepare your email list in advance by collecting as much data as possible. “Work with your email partner to understand the zero and first-party data being captured and how to use that information to target and personalize your messages,” says Cory Whitefield, GM Strategic Solutions, Listrak. “Identity resolution allows marketers to recognize the traffic they should know and get opt-ins from the traffic they don’t. Identifying more users scales the send pool for behavioral triggered campaigns like browse and cart abandonment.”

Try developing a lead generation landing page and promoting it before and during BFCM to make it easy for shoppers to join your email and SMS lists. With a page dedicated to collection, your brand can acquire key zero-party data that shoppers willingly submit, like their name, address, email, phone number, and even preferences or product interests.

All of this data you’re collecting, and the subscribers you’re growing, will pay dividends long after the holiday is over.

Personalization is table stakes when it comes to what we’re used to: your name in an email, mentions of your preferences, comms via your preferred channel. It’s up to eCommerce brands to take personalized experiences to the next level.

It’s not just nice for the consumer though; it’s essential for driving those repeat purchases too. Personalization creates better customer experiences, and better customer experiences drive retention. When you give customers what they want, when they want it, and where they want it, the odds of them coming back dramatically increase.

So this BFCM, consider taking your personalization efforts a step further and personalizing the deals themselves. Show shoppers that you recognize them and their preferences by offering a one-time promo code (maybe it’s their name, like JOHN20) for them to use during the holiday only, or for them to use on a product they’ve clicked multiple times. This is exciting for shoppers, and it also helps your brand with inventory management.

Personalization will also help when a customer is deciding whether or not to come back without the lure of a deep discount, according to Louis Thompson, Chief Marketing Officer at Eastside Co.

Or, try something completely new, like augmented reality. According to Forbes, the market value of AR and VR systems is set to reach a staggering $97 billion by 2025, meaning now is the perfect time to get started.

There’s nothing more personalized for a consumer than seeing their actual face, self, or home in or around a product they’re considering purchasing. And, AR is a great way to show shoppers that you care about their comfort levels during a time when in-store shopping and trying on products is more difficult. Virtual dressing rooms or AR-based displays help holiday shoppers visualize a product in their own space — the ultimate form of personalization.

Building a unique, recognizable brand identity is essential for eCommerce brands. But, it’s more than just storytelling that creates a personality for the brand — it’s the visuals, too, that bring that brand identity to life. To increase awareness prior to the holiday, your business needs to promote visual content that keeps your brand top-of-mind. Invest in influencers — 17% of consumers browsed for ideas or inspiration for holiday shopping from influencers in 2020, compared to 8% in 2019 — but invest in your customers for user-generated content, too.

“Especially given the lingering death of third-party cookies and the impact of iOS updates, now is the time to begin experimenting with different channels that you haven’t considered before in order to meet your buyers where they are,” says Tom Logan, Co-founder, Cohley. “And the key to success there? Channel-specific content.”

Optimizing the right content for the right channel is especially important when it comes to building up your brand authenticity.  eCommerce businesses as a whole are shifting away from the same generic, stock images on every channel, and instead they’re moving toward imagery that’s authentic, real, and varies based on channel to provide a better experience, no matter where a shopper discovers your brand.

Leverage your real community of customers as the consistent focal point of your brand’s visual identity and marketing strategy, like using real customer-generated photos and videos in your marketing content. When shoppers see themselves reflected in content, your brand becomes more authentic, relatable, familiar, and trustworthy — qualities that incentivize shoppers to make quick decisions, especially during the holidays.

“Shoppers are inundated with offers and deals, so creating urgency and giving shoppers all of the information they need to make the purchase right then and there is vital to your success,” says Jake Chatt, Head of Brand Marketing, Nosto.

“We’ve seen brands showcase FOMO language, such as a timer or stock countdown, and user-generated content in their product recommendations, to create trust, on product detail pages,” recommends Chatt. “Personalized social proof does wonders for conversion rates during the peak sales season.”

As the pandemic has waned, shoppers have returned to physical stores. In 2021, brick and mortar sales grew 18.5% faster than eCommerce (14.2%) for the first time ever.

In-store shoppers are far more likely to walk around and browse than shoppers who happen upon your website. While they may have an idea of what they’re looking for, they’ll be presented with more options in person, making it extremely important that your brand cultivates IRL customer experiences to allow shoppers to experience your products physically.

Does that mean your eCommerce brand needs to open a brick-and-mortar store? Not at all. There are ways to build anticipation around new product releases or limited-time offers, though, with in-person events. Give shoppers the opportunity to experience a “pop-up” or other IRL experience to drive them to engage, advises Joe Tatarski, Co-Founder of Tomorrow Digital.

At your in-person events, make sure your POS systems are up-to-date with the latest payment options, including Apple Pay, tap cards, wearables, and more. Ensure your loyalty program is integrated into your POS system as well, so loyalty members can sign in via a QR code to be recognized as a VIP member, and shoppers can continue to earn points for their purchases while they purchase. According to Bond, over 66% of consumers will modify their brand spend to maximize loyalty benefits.

Conclusion

As shopping behavior continues to shift in the wake of economic uncertainty and changes across the industry, one thing is certain: Black Friday and Cyber Monday might be prime time for getting new customers through the digital doors, but if you want to get your money’s worth in acquisition, it’s important to focus on retention before, during, and after BFCM.

To learn more about how to turn each first-time shopper into a customer for life this holiday season, visit the BFCM 2022 Hub.