Social Media Tips to Crush Black Friday eCommerce & Cyber Monday

Prepare your eCommerce site for Cyber Monday and Black Friday Sales. Read tips to optimize your social media marketing strategy and customer experience.

Thanksgiving Day is right around the corner, meaning Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM), the shopping event of the year, is nearly upon us to kick off the holiday shopping season. Eager shoppers are already gearing up for the best Black Friday deals and larger-than-life Cyber Monday sales.

Of course, the digital landscape has changed due to the pandemic. With the drastic uptick in online shopping, most brands and retailers will likely showcase their Black Friday promotions online to provide customers with the shopping experience they’ve grown accustomed to.

And now that this American tradition has become a worldwide phenomenon, customers overseas are looking to get in on the shopping action and will be paying close attention to any online stores that offer international shipping.

As a result, eCommerce brands will need to consider how to best advertise their sales online, and the technical difficulty of reaching a wider audience when simply relying on search engine results and SEO are not enough.

This guide will share some tips for planning your BFCM social media marketing campaigns.

Let’s go!

Get Your Social Media Profiles Ready

Prepare your social media pages before the big shopping days. Prioritize platforms that make the most impact on your business. eMarketer reports say Facebook drives the highest referrals to eCommerce sites, but Pinterest and Instagram also provide high conversion rates because buyers are easily influenced on these platforms. For eCommerce shops that want to reach younger audiences, consider experimenting with short TikTok videos.

If you’re new to these channels, work on your social media posting strategy to increase your followers. Then as BFCM approaches, get ready to post some teasers of in-demand products. Next, update your profile branding, such as your profile picture and cover photo, to create even more awareness and excitement. Finally, create interactive content like polls to engage with your audience directly.

Optimize Instagram and other eCommerce Stores

Instagram users discover new products on the Search & Explore section or influencer pages. Therefore, it’s a great idea to tap into the power and functionality of Instagram Shops. At the height of the pandemic, Instagram released this feature to allow companies to continue their businesses online without added costs.

The shopping feature now makes the customer experience of purchasing products online easier since users no longer must leave the platform for the checkout process. Instead, they can browse product catalogs or check curated items in your collection. Sellers can even post and link the relevant product through a tag!

Creating a shop is simple, but it can take a few days for review and approval – so don’t wait until the last minute to get your shop going.

Utilize #Hashtags

This may be a tip you’ve heard many times, but it can’t be overlooked. Hashtags are simple yet effective at drawing impressions, especially on a day like Black Friday when people actively search for deals on social media.

This sale season, you should include #BlackFriday, #CyberMonday, and #CyberWeekend hashtags in your posts and stories. Then, add these to your branded hashtags and offers like #FreeShipping or #BOGODeals.

Extend Your Promos To Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is a recent tradition that sees significant online sales the Monday after Black Friday. So it’s worth extending your sales until Monday or adding new offers, as people will still be looking for deals online.

Since the event is online only, you can pump up your weekend social media posts with reminders of the fantastic discounts they can still get on Monday.

Get FOMO Activated

Use Instagram and Facebook Stories to create a sense of urgency. Stories effectively build a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) because they expire, so people are quick to check stories before they’re gone forever.

While running your regular social media posts, insert ‘product sneak peeks’ and ‘sale countdown timers’ on your social media. These will keep your customers on their toes. You want to get them to add the items to their cart and check out once the sale is on. This tactic also helps to reduce cart abandonment but be sure to set up automated messages for abandoned cart recovery. You may also want to optimize your sale web page speed if you are using live countdowns.

Let your customers know that the offers are available for a limited time or while the supplies last. Then, build up the excitement and slowly reveal the deals as Black Friday nears its start. Support these FOMO campaigns with email marketing campaigns sent to your VIP email list of loyal customers or SMS/text messages directly to their mobile devices. Then, you’re sure to have customers ready to check out.

Got Freebies? Let Your Followers Know!

Everyone loves free stuff, so make it part of your social media strategy! Let your followers know you’re giving gifts as part of your holiday sales event. It might be that one push they needed to become new customers from mere followers.

You can also reverse this strategy by asking people to follow you so they can receive their free gift. By the end of the sale, you have reached your target sales quota and increased your followers!

Put Free Shipping On The Table

Discounts are a standard on Black Friday. Offering an extra deal will make it more exciting. Plus, customers are expecting free shipping offers at this time since they’re shopping for more items than usual.

In many cases, a free shipping offer may also be a key factor for potential customers deciding between two similar offers. Just be sure your logistics and supply chain are ready for this. You wouldn’t want to ruin a great marketing promo with failed deliveries.

Add Upselling and Cross-Selling to Your eCommerce Strategy

Upselling and cross-selling should be part of any online retailer’s Black Friday marketing strategy. When a customer does their shopping in-store, this process is taken care of by the store layout and the sales staff. Unfortunately, neither of those is available for online retailers. You’ve seen how sites like Amazon and Shopify handle this issue with their “suggested items” section, showing products related to the user’s current search.

This strategy requires setting up your eCommerce business’s landing page and product pages to enhance the user experience with related items. This can even include pop-ups when users put things into their shopping cart, making them aware of additional features or upgrades for that particular product, increasing the average order value.

Leave A Holiday Treat

Black Friday only marks the beginning of the holiday season, so give your customers a reason to shop again. With more returning and new customers, you can nurture loyalty by offering a promo exclusive to Black Holiday shoppers (or even new social media followers).

How? It’s simple. You can launch the campaign at least a week after the Black Friday sale. Then, in your social media post, let them know you’re offering more discounts or adding more gifts to people interested or maybe for people who missed out on the previous sale. All they need is to know the promo code.

This is where it gets interesting. If they are curious, they would have to leave a comment with a keyword, such as “PROMO” or “HOLIDAY,” and get an automated private message.

With the modern technology available, setting up these automatic replies is easy. At the same time, you’ll enjoy stellar results, including better engagement rates and increased ROI.

Crush Your Black Friday Sale Marketing Strategy!

Need an extra boost or more Black Friday marketing ideas to ace your social media campaigns and eCommerce Sales? First Media may be precisely what you need. We’ve helped brands receive the exposure they needed through compelling social content and wide audience distribution. Explore what our expansive network of engaged audiences can do for you.