Now more than ever, we need to keep the 3C’s of marketing in the digital age in mind – content, community, and commerce need to be engaging to stand out through the multitude of clutter in the market especially during Black Friday. However, there’s a 4th “C” which encompasses these areas – convenience.
Prepare to provide for a personalized, seamless, engaging (shall I dare say even entertaining) end-to-end experience throughout the customer journey across channels and devices. –it’s not only what customers expect, but it’s also what they call for.
Have your product data feed in tow so people can find you during their search and consideration. High resolution and quality images from multiple angles, product descriptions, inventory data, logistical information need to be detailed, accurate and integrated within and across channels to meet the customer where they are at. Have the product easily available to customers from whatever channel they use. If they’re shopping online, personalize their experience and have an option to pick up items in store. Train and empower brick -and- mortar personnel to access systems accordingly. If people go to the store to physically view an item when they are initially considering it, allow for easy point of sale, online/mobile ordering, and ship-to-home options.
An integrated and complete yet secure view of data (within and across channels) will make life much easier and convenient from both the customer and business perspective. It is the engine and backbone that allows for providing a seamless, fun, engaging and personalized experience. These are the hallmarks for convenience in an ever-connected world.
Cindi Rosner – Principal – Digital Marketing, Ecommerce and Marketing Strategy Consultant
CR Consulting
The key to surviving the Black Friday madness and generating great results for your clients is to prepare at least 3 months in advance and use all the data and learnings available from previous years to support your strategy.
At We Influence, we start Black Friday preparations in August. August is usually a quieter period due to the holiday season, giving us an ideal opportunity to start planning for Q4.
We begin by analysing the tactics used in previous years and the results they yielded. This helps us identify the best times to run the promotions and the offers users respond to best. Importantly, it is also an opportunity to reflect on what did not work and make sure we don’t repeat it.
The next step in the preparation process is to put the findings together and create a new strategy for the coming season. Speaking to clients early and taking the time to do the research and analysis in advance has helped us achieve great results for our clients every single year!
Agnes Gizynska – Paid Media Director
We Influence Ltd
Every year, the digital marketing space brings new platforms and features to try! Nevertheless, my five tips for the Black Five-day weekend remain the same:
- Tag everything: Every single campaign should be properly tagged for maximum leverage and follow up. This includes tagging every single button on your site and create remarketing campaigns to move them to the next step of the purchase journey.
- Segment your audiences: During Black Friday weekend it is very tempting to bundle your audiences together into fewer campaigns but the more segmented they are, the more effective you will be in providing better-tailored ads, as well as assigning budgets, bids, and follow-ups.
- Check all touchpoints: People have learned the necessity of research to get the best deals, so make sure you are identifying which channels are starting the research process, driving users back and are helping closing deals. This is key to better distributing your budget and efforts across your buyers’ journey.
- Start early: Research suggests that retailers are promoting their Black Friday deals earlier and earlier which gives shoppers the ability to expand their consideration stage. If you are not equipped to lower prices for a long timeframe, you can always inform via email or add a few banners across your site some of the deals users can expect in the future.
- Sense of urgency: This is actually a Google best practice for eCommerce, every single page must have at least 1 item that creates a sense of urgency, such as, “free shipping ends on X hours,” “buy 3 for the price of 2” and so on.
Andrea Cruz – Digital Marketing Manager
KoMarketing
Brian Roizen is the Cofounder and Chief Architect of Feedonomics, a full-service feed optimization platform that optimizes product data for hundreds of channels. He has been featured on numerous podcasts and eCommerce webinars, and regularly contributes to Search Engine Land and other industry-leading blogs. Brian graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering.
