Black Friday – some brands prosper, for others it’s nothing more than your typical 5th day of the week, and for a select few it’s an embarrassing disappointment. How do some get it so right, and some so wrong?
Black Friday 2015 saw an overwhelming £1.6bn worth of sales in the UK alone. But with £1.1bn of that coming from online sales, brands simply cannot afford to spend too much time or money on creating the perfect in-store holiday campaign. The digital shift isn’t shifting back anytime soon. With the stress of lengthy queues and even shop floor fighting, can you really blame these inter-web loving consumers? Better get optimising that e-store if you want to see the big bucks.
Black Friday isn’t your usual sales day. You’re going to be shouting in a room full of a million other voices, no matter where you turn to promote your bargains. The only way you’ll cut through is with a different kind of noise. Don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone. After all, if you’re gaining a nice amount of brand awareness, you don’t necessarily need to worry about going in for hard-sell right from the word go. Sometimes you don’t even need to sell anything at all, as Cards Against Humanity proved last year.
Yes – you read that correctly. There’s no better way to maximise your profits on Black Friday than to simply allow your customers to donate their cash to you. Think they’re crazy? So did we, until they reported making a profit of $71,145, with 1199 people donating more than $5 and one peculiar individual using the form 20 times, donating $100. Sometimes all you need to do is get people talking.
REI even go as far as to close on Black Friday. They claim they refuse to follow the crowd and bow down to the pressure placed on brands to participate in flash-sales during the holiday. Instead, last year they opted to close shop, and this year they’ll be doing the same. As an outdoor retail brand it should come as no surprise that they’re also encouraging customers to head outside on an adventure whilst everyone else is running around like a headless chicken desperately trying to get a half price toaster.
Micro-influencers seem to be all the rage at the moment, and for good reason too. Whilst a million followers may look way more attractive than 50,000, recent studies have shown that influencers with follower counts in the thousands will typically boast engagement rates of around 8%, however many over the million mark are closer to 2%. So whilst you won’t be getting the crazy interaction level you’d receive from an A-list social media star, you’ll be paying a lot less and actually seeing a lot more for your money.
Furthermore, can you guarantee that the majority of an influencer’s 1 million followers are interested in what you’re selling? A micro-influencer with a smaller and more niche audience are far more likely to be promoting you to people who are actually going to care. Just some food for thought, that you should definitely eat.
So there you have it. Stick to the online world, take a risk and don’t concentrate solely on the big boys and you should be well on your way to winning Black Friday 2016. Good luck.
