The Ultimate Guide to Preparing Your Business for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2023

As the holiday season rapidly approaches, the excitement for Black Friday and Cyber Monday is building to a fever pitch. These two shopping extravaganzas have become a global sensation, driving revenue for retailers around the world. Globally, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are adopted for their substantia revenue opportunities, transcending traditional Thanksgiving celebrations. Get ready for the biggest shopping events of the year.

In 2022, online sales hit unprecedented highs, with Black Friday surpassing a staggering $9.12 billion and Cyber Monday gaining $11.3 billion in sales. Looking ahead to 2023, Deloitte anticipates remarkable growth in holiday retail sales, with projections ranging between $278 billion and $284 billion.

While online sales are set to continue their promising streak this year, we must not underestimate the appeal of in-store shopping. A recent survey by PwC revealed that a remarkable 73% of Canadian consumers visit brick-and-mortar retail stores at least once a month. Additionally, the NRF's 2023 forecast the importance of in-person shopping, accounting for approximately 70% of total retail sales.

With promising forecasts, retailers are ramping up for the year's grandest shopping spree, keen to capitalize on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday frenzy. However, those who wait may find themselves ill-prepared to seize the full advantage of these sales events.

Is your business ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Ensure success with these 4 essential preparation tasks for the sales bonanza.

4 Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing strategies

1) Start setting up your email marketing campaign

Kick off your Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions by broadcasting exclusive deals to your extensive email list, loyalty program members, newsletter subscribers, and e-receipt recipients. Your email campaigns are a powerful tool for ensuring your target audience is well-informed about your incredible offers.

Generic emails are tempting but less effective. Each customer is unique, so consider using segmentations and sending your emails in waves. Initiate with teaser emails that preview your Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals to captivate your audience's interest. The second wave of emails should contain exclusive deals tailored to different customer segments.

2) Social media is your friend

Maintaining an active social media presence is another way to ensure a successful Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaign. Engage across Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, with a mix of paid advertisements and organic content to boost your brand's visibility in the weeks before these key shopping dates.

According to reports 58% of consumers, make their holiday shopping decisions based on social media influences. For example, Gen Z is heavily influenced by YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok's dynamic content, while older demographics tend to favor Facebook and YouTube.

Using social media paid ads

As mentioned earlier, blending organic and paid ads is a smart approach. To maximize its effectiveness, you can also use geotargeting techniques. By doing so, you can:

• Target the right audience by tailoring your ads to local customers, ensuring they align with regional preferences and cultural nuances for maximum resonance.
• Safeguard your strategies by hiding ads from competitors while maintaining your competitive edge.
• Prevent wasteful ad spend and enhance ROI by optimizing your reach.

3) Elevate your SEO for Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Keywords and SEO are crucial, especially as Black Friday and Cyber Monday approach. Think of it this way: if you were a shopper, wouldn't you type "Black Friday deal" into Google? Your customers are likely doing the same, so it's important to include these crucial keywords within your website's content.

While optimizing your website's SEO, updating landing and product pages can also help enhance search engine visibility. There's no need for a full website overhaul; focus on refining your page content. Review previous Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales data to identify successful products and effective keywords, or even use Google Trends to discover trending search terms..

Once you have those keywords, incorporate them into your meta titles, meta descriptions, URLs, alt-tags, images, or any other area that seems fitting to align with what your customers might expect from you. Also, consider including words of urgency, such as "limited offer," "only one left," or "limited stock," in your product descriptions to encourage users to add items to their cart before the deals expire.

4) Have a plan in place for order management

As the traffic during your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales is likely to surge beyond your regular volumes, it's crucial to have a backup plan tailored for this season. Stock ample inventory and enhance your order processing and shipping capabilities to efficiently handle the spike in sales.

Online Merchandise

When it comes to your online merchandise, update your website's security to handle the additional traffic during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and take steps to optimize for speed to reduce load times. Shoppers are not patient when it comes to online shopping. In fact,  40% of people will leave a website that takes longer than three seconds to load.

Also, strategic placement of items is vital—ensure your promotions are highly visible, aiding prospective customers in navigating your inventory and reducing cart abandonment.

Improve the shopping experience for Black Friday and Cyber Monday by incorporating high-resolution product images, customizing the shopping interface based on browsing history, and employing smart upselling and cross-selling tactics to recommend products that align with customers' preferences.

In-store merchandise

Similar to online spaces, physical retail spaces also require careful design of displays and store layouts to ensure an optimal shopping experience. Understanding your average customer goes beyond demographics; delve into their personality, values, and lifestyle. This insight can help understand how you should place items.

Another thing is in-store marketing promotion techniques. Use eye-catching signs and displays to direct customers to promotions and discounts. For a successful shopping experience, engage multiple senses – incorporate elements that cater to sound, touch, taste, smell, and sight, creating a immersive and cohesive shopping environment.

Wrapping up your plan

In addition to the strategies mentioned above, here's a quick checklist of additional actions to take when gearing up for Black Friday and Cyber Monday to boost sales and enhance customer engagement:

• Pick the best items for discounts.
• Space out your sales and promotional discounts to maintain momentum.
• Boost your customer support capabilities to ensure satisfaction.
• Consider offering Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services to increase conversions.
• Send exclusive offers to reward loyalty among your customer base.
• Keep an eye on how your products are performing.
• Plan for a longer sales cycle.
• If needed, recruit seasonal employees to handle increased demands during peak shopping periods.

No matter which path you choose, one thing you have to make sure is that your visuals align with your brand's style and aesthetics. It's undeniable that attractive visuals can significantly draw more people to your business. Therefore, consider adding visual elements like sales-related or Black Friday and Cyber Monday icons, illustrations, 3D illustrations, and Lottie animations to create a cohesive and captivating user experience.

We've curated Black Friday and Cyber Monday design assets to help you on your journey to visual victory. We hope these tips will get you well-prepared for the upcoming sales season.