Black Friday Marketing Strategies: Building Strong Customer Experiences and Driving Sales

The holiday season is just around the corner, and with it comes the highly anticipated Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And while the focus of BFCM in ecommerce is often on deal-craving consumers, the truth is that this time of the year can also be incredibly lucrative for brands. In fact, some studies have found that website traffic for brands can surge up to 80% more on Black Friday alone. 

The holiday shopping season has always been a critical time for merchants to capitalize on this surge in demand. However, against a backdrop of inflation and economic uncertainty, the need for brands to maximize their marketing spend and make sure they are building great customer experiences to prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday is more important than ever. 

With this in mind, let’s explore some effective marketing strategies to help you make the most of Black Friday and ensure a successful holiday season.

Black Friday Marketing Strategies to Drive Sales

Implement a Reviews Strategy

When it comes to influencing purchasing decisions, customer reviews have an undeniable impact. Our own research on loyalty and retention has revealed that 48% of consumers consider visible social proof, including customer reviews and user-generated content, as crucial factors in meeting and exceeding their expectations. 

To leverage the power of customer reviews, it’s essential for brands to implement a robust review generation strategy. One key aspect is showcasing social proof on your product pages. By prominently displaying customer reviews, potential buyers gain valuable insights into the quality, performance, and satisfaction levels associated with your products. This transparency builds trust and confidence, making customers more likely to make a purchase.

To generate a steady stream of customer reviews, automate review requests. Implementing an automated system ensures that every customer receives a prompt to share their experience and feedback. This not only encourages more customers to leave reviews but also saves you time and effort in manual follow-ups. 

You can also consider implementing a lookback strategy. Lookback strategies can be particularly helpful if you’re newer to capturing reviews from customers and want to quickly increase review and user generated content (UGC) submissions. When you run a lookback, a platform like Okendo can retroactively request reviews for orders that were already fulfilled.

At the end of the day, the most successful review strategies showcase social proof across multiple channels. This is something that popular health and beauty brand, Arrae, does a great job at. By featuring reviews and social proof in a dynamic and visually appealing format on their website, as well as on social media channels like Instagram, the brand provides potential customers with an engaging overview of the positive experiences others have had with their brand. 

The post-purchase experience doesn’t stop with asking customers for reviews. Marika Tselonis, Director of Email & SMS, Kulin, says, “Don’t overlook the power of optimizing your post-purchase flow! Educate, nurture, and transform first-time buyers into passionate advocates who love coming back and don’t mind buying your product at full price. You’ll maximize customer lifetime value (LTV) while optimizing customer acquisition cost (CAC).” 

Build a Referral Program

Speaking of customer lifetime value and acquisition costs, in today’s highly competitive ecommerce landscape, customer acquisition costs continue to rise. In this environment, referral programs have become a powerful and cost-effective strategy for acquiring new customers.

As you prepare for Black Friday, it’s crucial to harness the power of a well-designed referral program. By leveraging the increased purchases and customer acquisition that typically occur before the holiday season, you can create a compounding effect that boosts your customer base and simplifies your marketing efforts.

The concept is simple yet highly effective. As customers make purchases and have positive experiences with your brand leading up to Black Friday, seize the opportunity to ask them to refer your brand to their friends and family. Satisfied customers are more likely to recommend your products or services.

Let’s consider an example of an online fashion retailer. As customers shop for holiday outfits in the weeks leading up to Black Friday, encourage them to refer their friends and family by offering exclusive discounts on future purchases. This creates a win-win situation where customers feel appreciated for their loyalty and their referred connections get the opportunity to discover and engage with your brand. As a result, you acquire new customers at a reduced cost while building a sense of community and loyalty around your brand. 

Hear what Gab San Nicola, Strategic Partnerships Manager at Okendo, says about referrals.

Improve Customer Experiences Now

Improving customer experiences (CX) is crucial, particularly when aiming to maximize the opportunities of the holiday shopping season. To achieve this, ecommerce brands should implement a continuous customer feedback loop by collecting data through reviews, surveys, and quizzes.

For example, consider automating follow-ups on surveys to promptly address any negative experiences customers may have encountered. This proactive approach demonstrates your commitment to customer satisfaction and allows you to rectify issues swiftly, fostering a positive brand perception.

Additionally, leverage the holiday season as an opportunity to engage customers through holiday-specific quizzes. By asking specific questions, such as “What’s your skin tone?” and providing tailored recommendations based on their responses, you can create a personalized experience that resonates with each individual shopper. This data-driven approach enables the brand to deliver personalized messages and product suggestions, creating a more engaging and relevant shopping experience for customers.

Double Down on Your Best Acquisition Channel

In today’s landscape of unpredictability, maximizing your marketing spend is more important than ever. To do so, it’s imperative that you identify your most successful acquisition channel and invest in its growth.

One way to do this is by utilizing How Did You Hear About Us (HDYHAU) surveys to determine where your new customers are coming from. By focusing your efforts and resources on the channels that yield the highest returns, you can maximize your marketing budget and drive targeted traffic to your website. 

Create a Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs have emerged as a powerful tool for businesses to cultivate customer loyalty and drive sales, and they have proven to be particularly beneficial during the holiday season. As the demand for products and services skyrockets during this period, having a loyal customer base can be a game-changer. 

Ecommerce brands that invest in a well-designed loyalty program can reap significant benefits during the holidays. With the loyalty program in place, businesses can tap into their loyal customer base and leverage their buying power during this crucial time of year. These programs not only encourage repeat purchases but also provide opportunities for upselling and cross-selling. 

By offering exclusive deals, early access to promotions, and personalized recommendations to loyal customers, brands can boost their sales and maximize their revenue potential during the holiday season. Moreover, loyal customers who are part of the program tend to spread positive word-of-mouth, attracting new customers and expanding the brand’s reach.

Optimize for SEO

Integrating your reviews program with Google allows search engines to crawl and index your customer reviews, ratings, and other UGC. Positive reviews and ratings indicate to search engines and potential customers that your brand is trustworthy and reputable. This not only enhances your organic search visibility but also improves your brand’s online presence and credibility.

In addition to reviews integration, prioritizing site speed optimization is crucial for both technical SEO and the overall user experience. A fast-loading website is favored by search engines, as it improves user satisfaction and reduces bounce rates. When your website loads quickly, visitors are more likely to engage with your content, explore your products, and ultimately make purchases. This positively impacts your search rankings and can lead to higher conversion rates.

To optimize site speed, consider implementing strategies such as compressing images, minifying CSS and JavaScript files, and leveraging browser caching. Conduct regular performance audits to identify and address any speed-related issues that may be affecting your website’s loading times. You don’t want your website to load slowly and not be able to handle the traffic increase.

It’s also crucial for brands to ensure that they aren’t sacrificing speed for social proof. The good news is that you don’t have to choose between site speed and an effective reviews widget. By selecting a reviews platform like Okendo that understands the critical role speed plays in driving customer engagement, you can avoid slow site speeds without losing your program’s functionality and flexibility. 

Save Time with an All-in-One Marketing Platform

When it comes to preparing for Black Friday and maximizing your marketing efforts, it’s crucial to save time, streamline processes, and ensure the security of your campaigns. This is where an all-in-one customer marketing platform, like Okendo, can play a significant role in supporting your success.

By connecting all elements of your Black Friday marketing strategy within a single platform, you can streamline operations and save valuable time. From customer reviews to surveys, quizzes, referrals and loyalty programs, having everything in one place simplifies your workflow and eliminates the need for multiple tools or platforms. Additionally, an all-in-one marketing platform simplifies data management and reporting, allowing you to easily access the data and insights you need to measure the success of your Black Friday campaigns and make data-driven decisions.

As Black Friday approaches, ecommerce brands must prepare and implement effective marketing strategies to drive sales and delight customers. By leveraging the power of customer reviews, referral programs, personalized experiences, and SEO optimization, you can create a Black Friday marketing strategy that ensures the holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year for your business.