Proven Black Friday Strategies to Maximize Profitability

Advertising spends during the holiday season add up to a billion dollars, but that’s only counting the budgets of the top 10 retailers in the US.

With every brand competing for holiday shoppers, it’s your unenviable job to break through the noise and keep customer acquisition costs (CAC) low and return on ad spend (ROAS) high. Keep reading to learn how you can do this.

Extend your advertising budget

Pay to reach only holiday shoppers who are most likely to buy.

What if we told you there was a way to pay to remarket only to those who were most likely to buy? If you could, you’d never waste a single acquisition dollar on reaching the wrong target audience again, wouldn’t you?

With Insider’s predictive segments, an AI-backed technology that can help online retailers identify those with a high likelihood to purchase—you can enable your eCommerce store to keep CAC low while increasing ROAS.

So how does it work, exactly?

Predictive segments use machine learning to analyze historical behavioral trends and likely future behavior. 

Marketers can use these segments to target the right audience—those that are most likely to buy. They can make a bigger splash wherever they plan to run their Black Friday marketing strategies.

Attract new potential customers without breaking the bank

In addition to using highly-targeted ads, marketers can also attract new customers on the big day and throughout the holiday shopping season through organic social media posts. You can look at how the organic posts perform and then spend on advertising accordingly. 

For example, if you’re selling a sweater that’s getting a lot of organic social media engagement, then you can invest more of your advertising budget to boost it. 

It’s also super important to test your copy and visuals to make sure you know what’s resonating most with your target audience.

Show the best deals to the right people

Gift-givers and holiday shoppers have more choices than ever to consider.

Where to start shopping? In store? Online? Social media?

Most customers visit both digital and physical retailers throughout the holiday shopping season. Then there’s also the decision of what to buy.

Let’s say you have a customer who’s only into sales. Showing them full-price items isn’t going to appeal to them. If you want to boost your conversion rate and online sales, then you’ll want to show each user relevant, personalized recommendations.

Recommend the right products and prices with the help of AI

One of the most critical Black Friday marketing strategies is recommendations. People are in the mood to buy and hunt for the best Black Friday deals.

Insider’s Smart Recommendation technology lets marketers show each customer personalized recommendations across channels and devices.

These recommendations can be based on:

• Trending products
• Complimentary products
• Substitute products
• Manual merchandising
• Highest discounted products
• User-based recommendations
• Location-based top sellers 

and more!

In addition, marketers can share these types of product recommendations in any email marketing campaign, especially if a shopper leaves without making a purchase, to nudge them back to the website before they go to a competitor or change their mind.

Offer discounts strategically on Black Friday

For instance, an online store can send Black Friday discounts to loyal customers or send targeted offers to their segmented email list. By segmenting your target audience and identifying the ones who need extra incentives to buy, you can protect your margins by offering discounts to the people who really need them to go through with a purchase.

Personalize landing page content for each user

Create dynamic landing pages that reflect each visitor’s interests, real-time and past behaviors, social profiles, CRM data, and much more with Customer Data Platform.

Insider connects data across channels and enables online stores to create personalized landing pages based on their interests, including dynamic recommendations based on their browsing behavior, past purchases, trending categories, and more.

This year, personalizing online shopping experiences is critical for keeping your potential customers and loyal customers on your site, increasing your average order value, and matching the right Black Friday deals with the right people.

ECommerce businesses can start with website personalization and use web push notifications, email marketing campaigns, and use emerging channels like WhatsApp Business to drive conversions and revenue.

Figure out the best time for your email marketing communications

If you’re a global online store, you have shoppers across different time zones. So you’ll need to get your timing right. For instance, if you send a 24-hour sale alert email to shoppers in Australia and the US, chances are one group of those shoppers is fast asleep.

Segment your email list by time zone, so you can reach customers in different locations at a time most ideal for them.

Hyper-personalize these emails to get consumers to convert and buy (and buy more) from you.

Deliver consistent cross-channel messages, including in your social media posts

Companies with an effective omnichannel strategy can see a 9.5% year-on-year increase in their annual revenue. 

This year, to enhance your Black Friday marketing strategies, you may want to consider a customer experience platform like Insider. It can help you deeply understand your customers and deliver consistent, personalized messages across all your channels.

A/B test to maximize your conversion rate

A/B testing your landing pages, message, copy, and other elements is critical for optimizing your conversion goals. This year, to drive more conversion and sales, you’ll want to run data-based A/B tests to understand your audience.

Running A/B tests on Black Friday and throughout the rest of the year can help you:

• Reduce bounce rates
• Improve customer engagement
• Boost conversion rates
• Improve ROI

Insider’s A/B testing tools make it easy to create and run experiments at scale across your marketing channels.

Conclusion

Black Friday is a huge opportunity for marketers to drive conversions, sales, and loyalty with personalized customer journeys. Insider helps you orchestrate seamless cross-channel journeys individualized to your customers’ behaviors and preferences.

Get in touch with us for a demo to understand how Insider can help you this holiday season.