With Black Friday and Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday around the corner, it’s high time we start making plans for our sales and promotions, right? I’ve run a wide variety of sales over the last 5 years during the Thanksgiving week, and I’ve complied a list of my 5 best tips for ensuring your sales week is not only successful, but runs as smooth as a dollop of turkey gravy all week long.
1 — Keep it simple.
Simple always wins in my book. While it’s okay to have different sales on different products / services, don’t try to get too clever or complicated, that will only make it harder for you on the backend. I always run strategies through a filter that I heard Pat Flynn share during his keynote session at Convertkit's Craft & Commerce conference a couple years: What would it look like if it were simple? It’s so easy to over-complicate things, it’s even harder to simplify them. Once you have some sale ideas semi-decided, see if you can simplify them even more.
2 — Start early.
The great thing about Black Friday / Small Business Saturday / Cyber Monday weekend, is that consumers are ready and waiting, with wallets open, to spend money. Think about your own buying tendencies – anytime I’ve had my eye on a larger purchase, I think about the next upcoming holiday and what sales might be running. I wait to stock up on my skincare products until they go on sale. Remember these purchasing patterns when you set the dates for your sales. Last year, I was chomping at the bit for a couple weeks before the actual Thanksgiving week wanting to go ahead and get my shopping out of the way so I could focus on the holiday and family events. I remember one shop I had my eye on started their sales the week before, and I was so grateful to get those items checked off my list early. Of course, run your sales on the actual Friday of Black Friday, the Saturday of Small Business Saturday, the Monday of Cyber Monday. But consider moving your start date up a bit for those customers who are ready and waiting for sales to start.
3 — Stand out.
A great marketing campaign is always going to hinge on standing out in the sea of other marketing campaigns. Especially during this holiday sale week, our social media feeds and email inboxes and even physical mail boxes are going to be flooded with sales and promotions fighting for our attention. While we don’t want to overcomplicate our sales, it is important to find ways to stand out from the rest and be different. One year, I used a tool called BumpSale to sell an about-to-be-retired online course. It was like a last hurrah, and BumpSale was a fun way to go out. BumpSale lets you set a starting price (for example $20) and an increasing price (for example $1), and after each customer makes a purchase, the price increases, incentivizing the early shoppers. So the first customer gets the product for $20, the next person gets it for $21, the next for $22, etc. They even have a calculator at the bottom of this page to help you decide your pricing and increasing amount based on how many sales you project. It’s a really simple tool to use, and a fun one if you want to try something more creative than a standard sale. If nothing else, make sure your sale graphics are well-designed, aren’t too overwhelming, and that your sales copy and design has a clear call to action. People are making their buying decisions quickly that week, so make your offer crystal clear for them to do so.
4 — Set up a designated Black Friday landing page.
If you’re one of those who plans to have a few different sale amounts for various products / services, or your offer just requires a bit more explaining, consider creating a consolidated landing page for all things Black Friday. It could be a simple URL that you can share as your clear call to action (like yourwebsite.com/blackfriday or yourwebsite.com/sales) rather than pointing people to several different URLs for all your different offers. This also works great if you’re offering any kind of bundle or package deal that you’ve never offered before that needs a bit extra explaining. I had multiple offers last year, and was kicking myself for not having one centralized landing page where I could point people too. My whole sale week felt scattered, and I made a note to do things differently this year. So I’ll be setting up a /blackfriday landing page to share my own sales, as well as any of my affiliate partnerships who are having sales (another chance to earn some passive income through those affiliate relationships!).
5 — Schedule it all out.
Lastly, we all know Thanksgiving week isn’t just about the sales – it’s also a time to spend with those you love. So you can enjoy your own holiday and not feel tied to your computer all week, schedule E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G ahead of time. Schedule your emails, your social media posts, even timers for your offers or landing page to expire. Automate as much of this sale week as you can so you can actually be present with your family and friends.
Whatever your plans are for this Thanksgiving week – sales or not – remember to be grateful for the business you’ve been able to build and the direction it’s taking you. It’s a dream that few people stick with, even through the hard parts, and look at you – you’re doing it! Cheers to that. 🥂
Calling all introverts who cringe at sales + marketing!
If you need more help putting yourself out there and being confident in your marketing, check out my mini-class Launching for Introverts. It not only focuses on launching a successful marketing campaign (even when you’re not the loudest person in the room), but it gives introverts plenty of tips and strategies for other areas of running your business like content marketing, copywriting, productivity, time management, and more.
