The Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack, Part 3: Black Friday and Holiday Edition
Entries #051 through #075 of The Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack. These entries focus primarily on Black Friday and Holiday tactics.
What follows below is a running list of tips, tricks, and thoughts from my time (so far) building ANCORE’s business, brand and marketing from the ground up. This is the third installment and covers Black Friday and holiday promotional tactics. Each new installment will be published periodically. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #051
Begin planning for Black Friday in August. It will feel early, but that’s okay. Preparing to win starts with planning and putting in the work.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #052
Don’t make your Black Friday deals crafty or complicated. Make it insanely easy for the customer to understand. They are seeing hundreds upon hundreds of deals. You know you’ve hit on it correctly when every single relative at Thanksgiving can understand it.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #053
Expect to work three times as hard to get your message across during Black Friday. Inboxes are packed to the brim with deals. Social media feeds are clogged up with ads. And homes are typically flooded with relatives. The noise is turned up to 11 and cutting through it is going to take a lot of effort.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #054
Make a setup and takedown checklist for your Black Friday promotion. This will help you streamline your thinking and focus on what matters during the week: selling a crazy amount of product.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #055
Keep your website pop-up up during Black Friday. Obviously, you’ll want to change the offer (or not depending on your deal), but keeping a pop-up active will allow you to collect emails and phone numbers for your list. A ton of people are heading to your site and you need to capture as much of that value as possible.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #056
Educate your customers about your deals beforehand. We usually block 7-10 days to tell prospective customers what the deals are, when they are available, and how to know first. Plus, we make our customer service team members (who are wonderful) available as personal shoppers to help pick out the best setup.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #057
Use your network to promote your deals. It could be influencers, brand ambassadors, or friends of the company, but use the channels you already have built out to spread the word. It’s cheaper and the leads are typically warmer.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #058
Make a dedicated webpage for your Black Friday promotion. Put all the info here and share it out to everyone. This gives you a central hub for any updates or adjustments, plus it’s a wickedly effective communication tool.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #059
Embrace your routine. Black Friday is crazy, and the best way to fight the chaos is by following your everyday routine. It will put you in the driver’s seat each day.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #060
Don’t forget about the holidays. It can feel like the year is over once Cyber Monday ends, but it’s only getting started. There’s the Christmas shipping cutoff, then the post-Christmas push when people are loaded up with cash or gift cards. If you’re a health and wellness product, prepare for the New Year too, which means having everything ready to go through at least mid-January.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #061
Know your Christmas shipping cut-off time and yell it from the mountaintops to everyone — including those in your organization. Don’t be the reason someone has a crappy Christmas morning.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #062
Where possible, make some Christmas magic. If someone needs a rushed order to get it there in time or a gift message for a loved one, don’t think twice. Do it. You will generate enough goodwill to make the nice list ten times over.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #063
Give your customers the tools to share out your deals or drop a hint if it’s on their list. All you need to do is make it easy for them to text a link to someone or forward on an email to a colleague.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #064
Offer to help your customers Christmas shop. We all need a helping hand finding the right gift. If your company is lucky enough to be on someone’s list, do everything you can to help that person find the perfect gift.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #065
Your Christmas and holiday marketing should be fun. This time only comes around once each year (and for only a few days) so embrace the season and lean in. You don’t even need to do a hard sell either. Just have fun!
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #066
Tell your customers how much they are saving during your promotions and make it easy for them to see at every stage of the journey. It’s a little thing, but it helps prevent buyer’s remorse.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #067
Wherever possible, show red slashes through your non-promotional prices. There’s something satisfying about seeing a big slash when hunting for a bargain.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #068
Take advantage of Small Business Saturday. Typically, if you have less than 500 employees and make under $40 million in annual, you qualify as a small business. So, tell everyone. We all love to support small businesses and hear their story. This is an advantage over the bigger brands.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #069
Emphasize the scarcity of your deals. Other than price, this is your biggest lever to generate demand. Display countdowns, send last-minute messages just before the deals end, repeat the end date until you’re blue in the face or you can type the date with your eyes closed. Scarcity turns window shoppers into customers.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #070
Don’t think about holiday shopping in terms of share of the market. Think about it in terms of share of the wallet. Everyone has a list and a budget for their holiday shopping. Your goal is to make it on that list over everything else, not just your competitors.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #071
Don’t “surprise extend” your deals. This is usually a sign of not hitting your goal and it comes off as disingenuous and corny, which hurts your brand. Channel your inner viking and meet your fate with honor.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #072
Provide a 4-5 day grace period for people who missed the deals, but reach out asking for them. This doesn’t mean to keep it on the site. Only honor it if a customer asks. We all get busy during the holidays and you just might make someone’s day.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #073
Selling product is only half the battle. You must fulfill it as well. Do whatever it takes to fulfill every order as quickly as possible. Pack orders. Buy lunch for your fulfillment workers. Drive to UPS to drop off packages. Nothing matters if you can’t get product out the door and on front porches.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #074
Check. Check. And recheck everything. Click links in emails, tap buttons on landing pages, add items to your cart. This is not the time to trust the system (even if you know it’s bulletproof). Take a fine-toothed comb to everything and then do it all over again.
Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #075
Get a little better every year. Add new bundles. Test new deals. Hone your messaging. Try new ad creative styles. Think of yourself as a pitcher. Having a blow away fastball is awesome. But, you need other pitches to go from good to great.