With rapid steps, we are approaching the fourth quarter: the time of year with the highest revenues for online stores, as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and pre-holiday shopping await us.
This means it’s time to plan your Black Friday campaigns 🚀
Although now is the perfect opportunity to generate more sales, there are certain mistakes that can sabotage your results and goals.
That’s why, in today’s article, we will talk about 7 common mistakes in Black Friday campaigns and what you can do to avoid them.
But before we discuss what these mistakes are and what solutions you have, let’s see why Black Friday is one of the most anticipated times of the year for businesses.
Black Friday Opportunities for Online Stores
To give you an idea of the potential offered by Black Friday in Romania, below are some statistics on sales recorded on eMAG:
- On Black Friday, eMAG received 8,260 orders in the first minute. (eMAG)
- In 2022, customers ordered products worth over 644 million lei on Black Friday from eMAG, which was 35 million lei more than the previous edition. Although the products were more expensive compared to the previous year, people bought more. (GPeC)
- Over 560,000 customers decided to take advantage of eMAG’s Black Friday offers in 2022. (GPeC)
These figures are only for eMAG. However, according to Limitless Agency, which analyzed data from 568 online stores on the busiest days of Black Friday 2022, online stores reported overall sales increases ranging from 5% to 10%.
As a result, revenues were higher by 1.5% (almost 21 million euros), the number of orders increased by 3% (150,499 orders), the average revenue per user increased by 6.2% (2 euros), and the conversion rate was higher by 1% (at 2.4%).
Although Black Friday is a good opportunity for businesses, there are also pitfalls in promotional campaigns.
From our experience and working with multiple clients, we have observed that there are
7 main mistakes you can make without realizing it
And these can sabotage your potential sales if you don’t prevent them in time.
Mistake #1: The website has technical issues
1 in 2 visitors will abandon a website if it takes more than 6 seconds to load. Moreover, 88% of visitors are less likely to return to a website after an unpleasant experience.
Therefore, before you start your Black Friday campaigns, it’s important to check for technical issues. And if there are any, make sure to address them before starting your promotion to provide a pleasant experience for visitors.
How to prevent technical issues on your website:
- Optimize and test the loading speed of your website.
- Ensure that your hosting can handle a higher volume of traffic.
- Check the website buttons to ensure they redirect to the correct pages.
- Make sure the checkout process is easy to complete and doesn’t encounter any issues.
Mistake #2: Unattractive offers or insufficient stock
When planning your Black Friday offers, you need to consider two important things:
- Do you have enough stock of those products? If not, there’s a risk that people will want that product, and you’ll run out of stock very quickly.
- Is the offer attractive? If not, you risk not attracting as many sales because people are looking for better Black Friday deals than at other
To prevent this mistake, here’s what you should do:
- Ensure that you have enough stock of products, especially for the best-selling items.
- Communicate the fact that you have limited stock of products to inform your audience and persuade them to take action if they want a particular product.
- Offer discounts or bonuses that help people see how valuable your promotions are.
- Ensure that the discounts are more attractive than any discounts you’ve had before.
Mistake #3: Not communicating enough with your audience through email marketing
When you have discount campaigns like Black Friday, you want to make sure your audience knows about it.
Therefore, if you don’t communicate frequently enough through email or send clear messages about what you have prepared for your audience, you risk losing potential sales. Potential sales that can make a huge difference when analyzing the results of your campaign.
How to attract more Black Friday sales through email marketing:
- Make sure you start communicating at least 2-3 weeks before Black Friday that you will have offers during that period.
- Send personalized messages and communicate the offers you have prepared based on your subscribers’ interests.
- Use scarcity messages: mention if you have limited stock of certain products, specify how many hours the offers expire, highlight if a particular product is selling quickly, etc.
- Include customer testimonials in emails to gain people’s trust
Mistake #4: Neglecting social media channels
Did you know that people use an average of 6-7 social media platforms? In 2023, it’s not enough to focus on just one online channel because you limit your audience.
At the same time, a person needs at least 7 interactions with a brand before becoming a customer.
That’s why if you concentrate on just one social media channel, you risk losing potential sales because you don’t reach your potential customers, or you haven’t had enough contact with them.
How to ensure you are present on multiple social media channels:
- Analyze your customer avatar and become present on the social media channels they use most frequently.
- Use both organic posts on your page and paid ads to reach a wider audience.
- Ensure you use various types of content, such as video, carousels, infographics, static images, stories, etc.
- Every message you use should clearly communicate that you have Black Friday offers.
Mistake #5: Ignoring returns and customer feedback
The more you ignore feedback from dissatisfied customers, the higher the return rate will be. These two aspects hide details that you probably didn’t notice before.
And if you don’t listen to their feedback, you risk losing both potential customers and the chance to have repeat customers.
How to prevent this Black Friday mistake:
- Create a clear and easy-to-follow return policy.
- Talk to customers who were not satisfied to understand the issues they encountered, so you know what you can improve in the future.
- Make sure to maintain communication with your customers both during and after the Black Friday period.
- Ask for feedback from customers and assure them that you will take their feedback into account.
Mistake #6: Customer support services need improvement
Most of the time, when you have bigger offers like those during Black Friday, you will receive more customer support requests. Whether they have encountered a problem or have a question, it is essential to help them find a solution to their situation.
Otherwise, you risk losing some of your sales because people are still unsure if your offers are right for them.
How to ensure you have exemplary customer support during the Black Friday period:
- Create a page with the most frequently asked questions from your customers so that people can find the answers they need on their own.
- Offer a Live Chat option directly on your website.
- Use an automated chatbot for hours outside of regular working hours, so visitors to the site can get the answers they seek even outside business hours.
- Maintain high-quality customer service. Request feedback from people after each interaction they have with customer support services.
Mistake #7: Starting marketing campaigns too late
Marketing campaigns for Black Friday don’t start on the day of the promotion. Not even a week before. They should be planned no later than the beginning of October to ensure that everything is prepared and ready during the campaign.
How to ensure you start your Black Friday campaigns on time:
- Make sure you have well-defined objectives. Based on these, you will decide what marketing actions need to be taken to achieve them.
- Set the budget you want to invest in marketing during that period.
- Start communicating that you will have Black Friday offers 2-3 weeks before the promotion, so interested people can be informed.
- Create an omnichannel marketing strategy to reach your potential customers on all the online channels they spend their time on.
How do you ensure that you have a profitable Black Friday?
Black Friday is and will continue to be a great opportunity for online stores to increase their revenue and customer base. And if you make sure to plan everything so that costly mistakes are avoided, your chances of having a profitable quarter will increase.
If you were to take 7 essential ideas from this article to apply in your campaigns, they would be:
- Check the technical aspects of your website before starting promotions.
- Ensure you have enough stock, and the offers you create are attractive to your target audience.
- Leverage email marketing and communicate the details about Black Friday to your audience.
- Focus on the social media channels where your customer avatar spends the most time.
- Pay attention to the feedback received from your customers and implement clear return policies.
- Provide exemplary customer support services to help your potential customers get the necessary answers.
- Plan your Black Friday strategy well in advance.
And if you need help with your strategy or are curious if your Black Friday strategy is on the right track, now is your chance to get a free audit of your campaign from our experts!
