Beyond Black Friday: Foolproof digital marketing tactics to keep sales soaring

With this year’s Black Friday sales reaching a record-breaking estimated $6.7 billion over four days, it’s no surprise 26% more retailers jumped on the band wagon this year. However, in the rush to capitalise on the trend, both newcomers and those experimenting with new strategies may find themselves disappointed by the results.

Drawing from nearly two decades of experience working with major e-commerce brands like Adairs, Forever New, and Converse, I have identified five tactics that are key to maximising conversions during popular shopping periods and propelling sales all year round.

Create specific coupon pages

Online shoppers will often search for coupons once they reach the checkout page to find further discounts and make sure they’re getting the best deal.

Consumers will typically click through to an array of different coupon websites before trying a bunch of potential codes and having varying levels of success. Aside from the negative user experience, potential customers aren’t landing on your brand’s website, limiting your ability to capture new audiences from these terms.

An easy solution is to build a coupon page such as “website.com.au/coupons”, where all your active coupons are displayed. Once set up, these pages will typically outrank the coupon websites, ultimately increasing conversions.

Credit: Campaign Creators on Unsplash

Keep promotional pages static

Retailers often have a dedicated sale-specific PLP (product landing page), which is an easy place for customers to see at scale what products are on discount. These URLs typically look like “website.com.au/black-friday-2024” – but whilst they serve a purpose for the customer, they aren’t helpful for search engine optimisation (SEO).

News sources and other web assets tend to link to these deal pages, and then the following year, the pages are no longer in place, so all of that link equity and value is lost.

To solve this, it’s best if pages are created to be more generic, such as “website.com.au/black-friday”, with the page remaining in existence permanently. I also recommend creating a signup or countdown timer to sit on the page, which will gather interest and acquisition leading up to the date. Not only is any link obtained from an SEO perspective retained, but new addresses can be acquired and emailed ahead of the promotional period to acquire new customers.

It’s important to note that if the URLs with years included in them have previously been used, these should be redirected to the new generic page.

Email capturing

While email direct marketing (EDM) is a strategy I recommend being in every digital marketing toolkit, some organisations aren’t capturing email data as effectively as they could be.

Customers won’t necessarily be willing to give up their personal details without getting something in return. As opposed to a general newsletter signup, businesses can offer potential customers the opportunity to get on the list for early access, and gain access to subscriber-only sales. This is something that I’ve seen the most success with when done year-round and not just in the lead up to a sales period.

To further build customer loyalty, there’s also merit in brands showcasing their best sales offer either before or after the Black Friday/Boxing Day sales period and only to email subscribers. By making this offer really epic and irresistible, it can encourage people to sign up and get rewarded while allowing you to gather valuable customer data.

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Shopping cart abandonment reminders

When shopping the sales, customers may abandon their cart to compare prices elsewhere. High shipping costs that come as a surprise when checking out can also prevent sales from converting. Because of this, automated cart abandonment reminders serve multiple purposes.

These cart abandonment reminders can help you capture important data and learn why sales are dropping off at the checkout stage. Again, it’s important to offer some kind of incentive such as free shipping or a further trackable discount code that needs to be claimed within the next 10 minutes or so.

You’ll quickly learn whether shipping costs are the issue, or if your customers are just searching for the biggest bargain.

Make your shopping transparent

Needing customers to enter their details at checkout to see shipping times or costs may seem like an easy way to gather customer data, but this can unintentionally turn people away.

Capturing data is incredibly important, but this shouldn’t be to the detriment of acquiring a new customer. You can easily display shipping times and costs on the product landing page or product detail page to make the shopping experience simpler. And if you offer free express shipping over a certain amount, make sure this is bold and clear – because everyone loves a free shipping deal!

As competition continues to intensify and brands ramp up their marketing efforts, implementing a comprehensive and thoughtful digital strategy is crucial for achieving long-term success – especially during saturated sales periods like Black Friday and beyond. By adopting these proven tactics, businesses can not only maximise conversions but also build stronger, lasting relationships with their customers.

*https://ecommerce-report.auspost.com.au/

Matthew Forzan is the managing director and founder of Yoghurt Digital.