Black Friday and Cyber Monday may have originated from America, but now they are a worldwide phenomenon where savvy shoppers can snag brilliant bargains. You may feel like November is a long way off, but we have collected some top reasons why you should start preparing for these high demand days now!

Proven demand

While it is tempting to focus all your efforts on the festive season, statistics from previous years prove that this is not necessarily the best strategy. While Boxing Day has, historically, been the biggest shopping day of the year, in Australia, Black Friday has given it hot competition. So, spending extra time and financing on ensuring that you have a great Black Friday/Cyber Monday campaign is essential.

The start of the season

Black Friday and Cyber Monday herald the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, so getting your marketing campaigns to begin at this point means that people are more likely to keep spending with you. Starting your marketing campaigns early is a great way to do this, with many retailers starting to roll out advertising for these events in September, and some others starting as early as June.

Changing your approach

If you have brick and mortar stores as well as an online presence, this year may prove to be a difficult transition for you. Last year, Christmas was the biggest on record, with a spend of over $55 billion from Black Friday to Boxing Day. However, with lockdowns across the country and uncertainty as to how this will impact the festive season, it is important to begin looking at ways in which you can appeal to those who may usually shop in person but will be transitioning to a primarily online focus this year. No one knows how the lockdowns will impact the overall spend this year, so creating strong campaigns is a must.

Think about the early birds

If you usually leave your Black Friday and Cyber Monday planning until October or even early November, bear in mind that many customers don’t! The customers who are most invested in getting the best deals start looking around their favourite sites as early as October, so adapting your site to show some evidence of the deals to come is a great way of keeping the excitement up and ensuring you don’t lose out on customers who may go elsewhere if they don’t expect good deals. You can also be an early bird by deciding how much you are going to spend on special marketing and advertising for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns.

How site functionality helps

Another important thing to look at is site functionality. When you are running time-sensitive deals, there is a level of excitement and sometimes a frantic sense of getting the best savings. Now is the time to see if your site can deal with an uptick in traffic, and to see whether there is any slowness or difficulties during the checkout process. This can save you time later and preparing your site to provide the optimum experience early gives you the best chance of making more sales.

The benefits of consistent engagement

Aussie businesses who want to be on the ball will be consistently engaging with customers on social media and through emails. If you usually aren’t quite so engaged on social media platforms, it is important to begin increasing this at least a couple of months before Black Friday. This keeps customers interested in your brand and improves the chances of them checking out your deals. Not preparing in advance and then suddenly dropping a lot of content is unlikely to garner the same level of interest; you won’t have a loyal customer base to fall back on in the same way.

The importance of email campaigns

Most Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are advertised mainly through email campaigns, but just sending out emails about the deals themselves is not the best way to go. Start thinking now about a strategic series of emails, beginning a month before the events themselves. This keeps people thinking about the deals to come; planning for this now will mean there is less of a rush to produce emails and content in November.

The perfect products

Even if your site speed is optimal, now is the perfect time to look at your inventory and decide if your product descriptions are attention-grabbing and appealing enough. You should also use this time to decide on the discounts you will apply to each product, as this can be a time-consuming process. You want to remain competitive and get a great return on investment on your marketing. Customers will be expecting at least around a 20% discount on products, and perhaps even more. Providing the best discount possible will drive traffic, but remember your bottom line! These are complicated processes that take time, so you should definitely have all this ironed out by November. It will also allow you to more successfully tailor your marketing and ad campaigns.

As you can see, there is a lot to think about when it comes to the beginning of the festive shopping season! With so much to consider, now is the perfect time for Aussie businesses to begin preparing.

Are you looking for advice and support on how to successfully create great marketing strategies for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, and beyond? Whatever the time of year, PupDigital can help. We are committed to supporting you with a bespoke, holistic strategy to suit your business and needs. Check out our full range of services and get in touch to see how we can best help you.