Cyber Week, consisting of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday, is a crucial week in the marketing calendar for brands that do business online.

While Black Friday is well-established in consumers’ habits, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday are less known. Cyber Monday is held on the Monday following Black Friday and was originally its eCommerce equivalent. However, Black Friday now takes place both online and in-store, and there is frequently a period of discounting over the long four-day weekend, rather than a single day of promotions.

The more recent Giving Tuesday is celebrated on the Tuesday following Cyber Monday and Black Friday. It’s a day where merchants take advantage of one of the busiest times of the year to give back in their own way by donating a certain amount on the purchase of selected items or a percentage of the day’s sales. With the holiday season upon us, the generosity of consumers is high and so is the need for non-profit organizations.

Be sure to communicate to your clients the angle and strategy you wish to use for your Cyber Week to ensure its success. Here are a few tips on how to properly orchestrate your Black Friday communications.

What are the important dates to remember for Q4 in eCommerce?

• Black Friday: November 25, 2022
• Cyber Monday : November 28, 2022
• Giving Tuesday: November 29, 2022
• Cyber Week: November 21 to 29, 2022
• Free shipping day: December 14, 2022
• Boxing Day: December 26, 2022

What to do for Black Friday?

It’s up to you to determine the essence of your BFCM (Black Friday and Cyber Monday), or not to do it at all. In recent years, we’ve seen several major brands distance themselves in their own way from traditional Black Friday and Cyber Monday events. Whatever stance you choose, make sure you take it from start to finish and inform your customers in a transparent manner.

Black Friday and Cyber Week discounts

The most common option is to apply a discount on certain products or on the entire assortment. You could also offer your visitors a discount on the second or third product to encourage them to buy more. In fact, if you need some help or inspiration, don’t hesitate to consult our tips for setting up your Black Friday promotion.

While it’s not a huge standout, this strategy is made up of simple actions that work wonders for many businesses, especially those that don’t often run promotions and those that have loyal customers who look forward to it.

Depending on your chosen promotion, look at what is more enticing between showing the percentage off or the new reduced price of the items, and focus on that for your advertising and communications.

Initiatives that Give Back

Another solution is to solicit your visitors through altruistic initiatives. This is obviously the concept of Giving Tuesday, but it is also honorable to extend this strategy throughout Cyber Week. You could offer your visitors products to purchase that will automatically donate a certain amount to a predetermined cause. You could donate a portion of the week’s or day’s profits to an organization. You could invite your customers to make a donation when they check out, then commit to doubling that amount at the end of the day.

The opportunities to give back are endless and could bring you a lot of goodwill. Be sure to communicate your strategy very clearly to your customers: explain how they are involved and what you plan to do with the money raised. Charity is a very sensitive topic that a web user does not want to be lured into.

Distancing Yourself from Black Friday and Cyber Week

Finally, you could choose to completely distance yourself from BFCM. Generally, this strategy is chosen by brands that care about the environment and whose eco-responsible practices and values are known by their customers.

Take the time to explain to your customers the reasons behind your decision. Take the time to tell them that holiday gifts deserve to be thoughtful and not simply bought because of a discount, or that you don’t encourage impulse buying and over-consumption. There is nothing to stop you from talking about your prices, which are honest all year round, from recommending products for yourself or to give as gifts, from offering impeccable advice and customer service, even online. Reassure your customers that not doing Black Friday does not mean letting them down.

What Newsletter Strategy Should I Use for Black Friday?

Once you’ve determined your BFCM angle, plan your content accordingly. Unusual or less common strategies deserve to be communicated in advance and adequately explained, while discounts and ephemeral offers deserve to be offered at the right time and place to create a sense of urgency among consumers. In preparation for Cyber Week, it may be a good idea to migrate to a suitable, high-performance eCommerce technology solution like Klaviyo.

Email Objects and Previews

Your customers’ inboxes will be filled with newsletters in the week leading up to Black Friday. Watch your competition and differentiate yourself. If they make the mistake of going overboard with the use of capital letters and emojis in the subject lines and previews of their emails, stand out by going straight to the point in a simple way. Your email will stand out visually in your customer’s email box and will catch their attention more.

Don’t lose the personality and essence of your brand. If your objects and previews usually have that little je-ne-sais-quoi that we recognize, that color that is unique to you, continue to use it even during this hectic period.

Redirections

It is also more crucial than ever that your redirections are relevant and effective. Your customers may be planning to shop around and compare offers and products, so their experience must be flawless if you want to keep their attention and win their purchase.

If you’re sending them an email with multiple discounted products, be sure to create a destination that will bring them all together. Whether your customers are interested in just one of the products sent or several, they should have direct access to them by clicking on your newsletter. Don’t direct them to your home page or to a direction that is too broad, you will lose their attention.

The flows

The goal is not to bombard all your subscribers with generic messages. Keep your sending habits and inform your customers about the specifics of your event, but follow up with more personalized messages afterwards. If your first BFCM email went well and your users visited your site, use their browsing data to hang up and complete the transaction.

If you haven’t already done so, make sure you have strong flows of abandoned carts, abandoned navigation, complementary products that might interest them, etc. Consumers will likely shop around for their favorite brands before finalizing their purchases. Enhance your emails with information and incentives such as discount percentages, new reduced prices, a countdown to the end of the promotion, etc.

What Is a Static Event Page?

If you are used to creating a BFCM destination on your website (collection, gallery, landing page, etc.), we recommend that you use the same one every year. Without deleting the page, simply hide it from your navigation and add it again the following year. This way, search engines will recognize the page as an “old” page with updated content, not as a new page with unestablished authority.

We also recommend that you write a strategic description of your page so that it will rank well. Use searchable keywords or use a copywriting tool like Semji so that your content will appeal to Google year after year, even after algorithm updates.

For more tips on Cyber Week marketing, check out our article on strategies to focus on before, during and after Black Friday. 

Happy Cyber Week and good business!

Do You Have Other Questions ?

For concrete help with your holiday marketing campaigns, contact our team of eCommerce specialists.

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