It’s nearing Black Friday time and whether you’re planning on doing a sale for YOUR business, or are planning to just simply promote other people’s products as an affiliate this year, this episode is for YOU. I've been doing Black Friday promotions since 2019 (since right after I launched my template shop!). What I did then, was much simpler than what I do today. Back then it was $75 off my templates and some fun bonuses!
Even though my sales have evolved over the years, it's always been a big week in my business! To give you some perspective, I’ve had Black Fridays that have:
- Made over $200,000 (over the 5 years within that one week period)
- Ran Black Friday WITHOUT ads, so that’s mostly profit
- Been done without a huge team
- PLUS, I have also enjoyed Thanksgiving every year
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays so I don’t like to be working a lot. Last year, I didn't even bring my laptop with me on our trip to visit extended family. I do all the work ahead of time and then execute it! So I think these tips are really going to help you whether you’re a first-time Black Friday sales person or you’ve done this many times before like me and you want some fresh thoughts/tips to make things better!
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1. Be careful that you don't have too much to talk about in your messaging.
It can be easy with Black Friday to layer on… and on… and on. You can keep adding bonuses and freebies, and even just changing what’s on sale. You don’t want it to be like, “this day this thing is 30% off, but then the next day it’s 20% off but you get a free gift with purchase, and this day you’re entered to win this prize. OH and, this company I’m an affiliate for is having a sale too, did ya know?”
You don’t want your message to sound like that! It is messy and confusing. Make what you have on sale CLEAR.
I’m also a huge fan of doing the same deal the whole time versus changing deals throughout the launch. That’s just me though! I think changing deals when you’re not solid e-commerce with tons and tons of products just confuses people. I did that one year and really did not like it.
But overall, I’ve also learned over the years that that simple messaging goes a lot farther than having too many things you’re promoting.
So I’d encourage you to make a list of exactly what your sale is and if it feels like more than you could comfortably mention over two emails to your audience (or if it feels like the BIG THING isn’t big enough), then cut some things.
Read more: Behind the Scenes of My Multi-Five Figure Beta Course Launch (that Sold Out in Less Than An Hour!)
2. Start Early If You’re B2B!
I know the joke is that “Black Friday gets earlier and earlier every year”, and I think there’s some truth to that. Although personally, I noticed last year that a lot of bigger retailers did NOT start early. Or if they did it was a worse deal (like the “pre-black friday sale” was 20% off, and then it was 30% off later, which I didn’t like as a shopper).
What once was a thing where some people woke up early on Friday after Thanksgiving to camp OUTSIDE Walmart for and fight over TVs has now become a mainly virtual thing. There’s not a huge difference between Black Friday and Cyber Monday like there once was.
Personally, for me, I’ve found starting sooner is nice because it allows fellow business owners to start sooner and then unplug (or run their own Black Friday sale during Black Friday) but they can shop with me EARLY and then be done!
Read more: Strategies and Trends for Creating (and Selling) Successful Online Courses in 2024 with Mara Kucirek
3. Make The Sale Work For Your Life
This is the most important tip I could honestly give you about Black Friday. Black Friday falls at a very inconvenient time for business owners and a really nice time for consumers. For example, I travel for thanksgiving and it is a special time with my extended family that I cherish so much. I don't want to be working while I'm there so I automate as much as possible.
This is why I’m so big on making business work for YOUR LIFE. Perhaps for you doing a huge Black Friday sale this year would actually just mean that you’re not present with your family for the thanksgiving holiday and you’re stressed out and filming Instagram stories when you’d rather be eating pie and chatting with your grandmother.
Instead, think about what you want your holiday to look like this year, and it may be different from past years, and plan with that. Know that each year of your life is different and you’re allowed to change up Black Friday things to suit that. Then, start to schedule things out.
Lastly, I would just try to know yourself when it comes to “in the moment” content. Do you think that realistically when you are driving, say the day before Thanksgiving and your Black Friday sale is happening, are you going to want to post a bunch of Instagram stories on the car ride there about your sale? Or are you going to feel like I don't want to do any of that? Are you going to feel like making a reel at the moment? Are you going to feel like releasing that bonus podcast episode? Or being really in tune with your customer support inbox? Think about all those things and plan accordingly, knowing your own personality and your own working style.
4. Use The Same Coupon Code Every Year!
This one is short, but important! Using the same coupon code every year allows you to reuse some things like graphics that maybe worked well or even facebook ads if you do ads. This helps make sure that you do not have to reinvent everything every time, even if the deal itself is changing, the code does not have to.
I’ve learned this the hard way when I randomly changed my usual code one year, and I was like… why did I do that?! I created more work for myself.
5. Do a Solid Debrief For Yourself.
I have debriefed every Black Friday in my business except my first one. And I have all of those docs privately for myself in one place on my Drive.
So, what’s a debrief? A Debrief is just an analysis of how something went in your business. Just for you or you and your team! With the goal of improving it next time.
Perhaps next time you’re trying to improve the way you felt during the sale, how organized it was, maybe you had an idea during the sale that you wish you had done but it’s too late so you’re saving it for the next year… whatever it is, you put it in your debrief!
I don't read over every single one before doing the next sale, but I do always go through my last one and reference highlighted content in past years. I’ll also look over revenue and conversion numbers year over year to see how I’m doing.
Grab My Launch Debrief Template To Make It Easier
On episode 254, I talk about how I do a debrief every single launch. If you haven’t listened yet, that episode is soooo solid, and I share about my launch and debrief template there, which I’ll talk about in a minute! It’s delivered as a Google doc, but you can copy and paste it to other formats. It really is perfect for debriefing new digital product launches, e-commerce sales/promos, new service offering launches, membership or mastermind launches, and more!
6. It's a Crowded Time So Know That This May Not Be Your "End All Be All" Sale.
While we talk about Black Friday, know that Black Friday is a very crowded time, both in competitors of yours but also just in the world as a whole. I mean, people are shopping for their personal life, they are shopping for their business, they're shopping for Christmas gifts. So many things.
So know that Black Friday may not be your end all be all sale or your best sale of the year, and another time of the year when the environment's less crowded could actually be better than Black Friday for you.
So I personally did a sale in the summer last year that did better than my Black Friday sale last year. It was a higher revenue time and I did it at a non crowded time for that reason. So maybe you do decide this year that like, “Hey, I'm going to go more chill for Black Friday.” You're just going to put up a coupon code or message your current service-based clients about a deal you're going to do, and that's it. And then you're doing a sale at another time of year that you're putting more effort and energy into when it's not as crowded and when things are different in your personal life. That’s OK!
Read more: The Major Mindset Tips I’ve Learned from Launching Products and Services
7. Think Beyond Just Discounts
Okay, last tip for you that I think is really important. Think beyond just discounts when you think about your offer. Think beyond discounts, think creatively.
I truly do just love Black Friday so much. I can even sense that just now watching that video of myself from last year as I was debriefing that sale. I love Black Friday, and I always have. I ran my first Black Friday sale, like I said, with $75 off and some bonuses, and that was just a few month after I'd launched my template shop for the first time.
Personally, I find Black Friday to be an opportunity to challenge myself creatively as a marketer and to just have fun and come up with something cool that will get your current audience excited and then bring in new customers as well. You can do that by thinking beyond discounts.
So maybe it's that nothing's discounted, but things are bundled. Maybe there's bonuses if people shop with you during Black Friday. Maybe you're just promoting other people's sales as an affiliate and you're not doing anything on your own, but you're just saying, “okay, there's all these companies that I'm an affiliate for.” Maybe for your service business, it's that you create a special offer that you don't normally offer.
The point is, there's so many different things you can do beyond just saying, “I'm putting everything 50% off and that's it.” So just allow yourself to think creatively. And I would also say, in addition to debriefing, that as you shop Black Friday this year, just observe other people's sales in the world and what's happening, I would challenge you to also look at other people's stuff. Competitors and people in completely other industries. Some of my best Black Friday sales have come from random stuff like J Crew that I've shopped during Black Friday in my personal life, and then I apply those strategies to my own business. Look for things you like and make note of them!
Bonus: Have Fun With It!
Like I just said, Black Friday is an opportunity to challenge yourself creatively and just to have fun as a marketer. I would say try to, if you can, show up with the energy of “this is fun, and it’s not stressful because I'm not trying to make the most money ever.” Instead, focus on trying to show up and serve your audience well with a really good offer and do better than you did last year in some capacity.
I know for me, even when I look at my debriefs over years, there are so many other measurements of success besides just every year getting bigger, which by the way, that's not been the case for me. For example, my 2020 Black Friday was huge, and the one after was less than that. So it's not always like every Black Friday just gets better and better financially. But then I've had things like last year, where I had more customers shop with me than the year before.
On top of that, there’s other wins too. Maybe your email list grows more, or maybe your social following grows more. Maybe you had one offer that just really sold super well, and that's something that you can learn from and pay attention to.
My Black Friday Sale is Coming Up!
As we talk about Black Friday, I want to let you know that my sale is coming up and I wanted to give you a special offer as a podcast listener around my Black Friday sale. Head here to get on the Black Friday Shop Early Waitlist! If you get on that wait list, you'll get the information when the secret sale starts, and you'll have an opportunity to shop my sale a day early and get a special offer that is only for YOU as a podcast listener. Sign up here!
Links Mentioned:
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