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With Black Friday / Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend approaching from 24-27 November 2023, we at R17 Ventures AG - the no.1 digital performance marketing agency - are sharing insights and strategies to assist e-commerce retailers to excel during this major sales holiday season.
During a webinar hosted on 02 August, R17 Ventures CEO, Raphael Rohner, and Venture Strategist and Performance Lead, Kyra Engelbrecht, discussed the importance of pre-planning for the season and shared five strategies for success.
Black Friday / Cyber Monday Preparations
There are three core preparations: website, preseason and postseason.
1. Website:
- Site speed: if your e-commerce website is not built with a reputable cloud-based solution like Shopify, ensure your servers are upgraded to account for the higher volumes of traffic
- Conversion Optimization: ensure your product pages and collection pages are fully optimized for conversions
- Customer journey: Review the customer journey, ensuring that the checkout process, abandoned cart email flows, and payment gateways are all work seamlessly
2. Pre-Season:
- Plan your budget: increase your ad spend for BFCM by 200-300% as a means to take advantage of consumer behaviour, but also counter higher than usual advertising costs (CPMs / ATCs / etc)
- Messaging: tailor your messaging around your festive season specials and deals
- Timelines: Establish all offerings and marketing efforts and timelines well in advance... planning is key to success
- Testing: Black Friday / Cyber Monday is not the time to be testing new channels, creatives, messaging, etc. Ensure all tests are complete by end-September / early-October.
3. Post-Season:
- Email Flows: maximise your efforts made during the season by creating post-holiday email flows
- Upsells: use upsells to keep customers engaged
Points to consider before planning:
- What is your budget / how can you best use it?
- Keep your core KPIs at the forefront of your strategy (i.e more volume to the site / how can you achieve this)
- Inventory Management: stock up on popular items and ensure your supply chain can handle the surge in orders
- Less is more - don't try and do everything
- Always asses effort vs outcome
- Does the campaign fit your customer? If a giveaway campaign has never worked - it's not going to work on BFCM!
- Don’t sacrifice margin for BFCM hype, rather think of other ways to capture your customer.
- TEST TEST TEST (last two weeks of October)
5 BFCM Strategies
Discussing strategies for success for Black Friday / Cyber Monday, Raphael and Kyra offered five prospective digital strategies for e-commerce stores to be successful this year.
1. Early Bird Access
Concept:
Using email marketing to offer loyal customers or subscribers early bird access to BFCM deals - which both rewards loyalty and also assists in distributing demand, preventing website crashes due to a sudden influx of users.
Execution:
Segmenting your customer base, setting up the logistics for early access, and communicating this exclusivity through targeted emails, notifications, or personalized messages.
Conversion Focus:
Encouraging early sales and driving conversion by creating a sense of exclusivity and rewarding customer loyalty.
2. Gamification
Concept:
Making the shopping experience more engaging and fun by adding game-like elements.
Execution:
Implementing interactive games on the website or app, such as a digital treasure hunt for discounts or a spin-the-wheel game. Promoting these games through various channels to drive participation.
Tools to try on Shopify:
- Scratch & Win: Apps Mav: Scratch and WIN!
- Spin-the-Wheel: Spin Wheel • CrazyRocket
- Treasure Hunt: Discount Hunt
Conversion Focus:
Increasing time spent on the site and user engagement, leading to higher chances of purchase and improved conversion rates.
3. Interactive Live Streams
Concept:
This strategy can involve live product demonstrations, Q&A sessions, exclusive reveals, or other engaging content - leveraging the immediacy and interactivity of live video to create a sense of connection and excitement.
Execution:
Schedule and promote live streams in advance via various channels. Ensure a smooth technical execution and drive viewer interaction with responses to comments, viewer inputs, and possible live contests. Guest speakers or influencers can add value to your stream.
Instagram / Shopify live streams not available in your region? Try a third-party tool like Restream that connects your social channels and your e-commerce store catalog for seamless streams.
Conversion Focus:
Live streams can boost brand awareness and product interest, leading to increased website traffic and sales. Use a clear call-to-action and time-limited deals to create a sense of urgency, promoting conversions during or post-stream.
4. Unlockable Engagement Discounts
Concept:
This approach rewards customer engagement (likes, shares, reviews, watching your live stream, etc) with exclusive discounts. The goal is to boost engagement and create a sense of community and participation.
Execution:
Develop a clear system where certain actions correspond to certain discounts. For example, a share on social media could equal a 5% discount, while writing a review could earn a 10% discount. Promote this program through your various marketing channels, ensuring customers understand how they can earn and redeem these discounts.
Conversion Focus:
Increased engagement not only expands your brand's reach but can also lead directly to sales as customers earn and use their discounts. The interactive nature of the program can increase customer loyalty and repeat purchases, leading to higher overall conversion rates.
5. Green-Friendly Pricing
Concept:
Green-Friendly Pricing: offering dynamic pricing that adjusts based on eco-friendly choices, where lower prices or discounts are offered for options like sustainable packaging or shipping methods.
Execution:
Define sustainable aspects in your products or services and adjust pricing to incentivise these choices. Communicate these options to your customers across all marketing platforms.
Conversion Focus:
This strategy can attract and convert environmentally-conscious customers by rewarding sustainable choices. It also enhances your brand image and appeals to customers who value eco-responsible businesses.
By following these insights and strategies, e-commerce retailers can better prepare for BFCM and make the most out of this crucial sales holiday season.
Ready to make 2023 the year of your best Black Friday / Cyber Monday?
Book an obligation-free call with our team and let's explore your BFCM strategy and discuss how R17 Ventures can help you level up your performance marketing to really achieve your growth goals and targets.
As an award-winning performance marketing agency, we've helped e-commerce businesses from all sectors and verticals to make the most of this major retail holiday - and we're ready to help you too, in a fully aligned manner, where our remuneration is linked directly to our performance.
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