For those of you who are PUMPED for the upcoming shopping frenzy that is Black Friday and Cyber Monday, this may be the last chance that you have to make tweaks to your golden funnel to ensure you get maximum returns and customer data that you can use all year round! 

 So, I’m going to assume you’ve set the scene – you’re already teasing your upcoming sale offers and talking about the sale with your VIP’s and brand ambassadors. You have your ads ready and already counting down, gathering emails in the wake of the sale weekend. 

 If you’re still with me nodding along agreeing to the above then you’re ahead of the game already, which is great – but competition is fierce in this frenzy and you’re not going to ride the wave to its peak unless you are on top AND in front of your audience. One little hiccup in that customer journey could mean your customer shops elsewhere. 

 Ready for the tweaks that will help you stay ahead? 

Check these ones off your list: 

1. Black Friday Early VIP Access 

You want your affiliates and brand ambassadors to let their audiences feel the love BEFORE the brand even goes on sale to the public. Give them (and their audiences) 24-hours to access the sale before the general public can get to it. Create the hype and they will come in troves! 

    2. Mystery shop yourself 

Take a couple of hours to take the journey yourself with fresh eyes. Triple check your customer journey from ad click through’s to landing pages – are the landing pages speaking to what’s in the ad, does it show the collection and in the order you expected? Does it all make sense?  

– Does your cart offer up-sells and cross-sells as well as when & what the last person bought?

– Are you offering Shop Pay/Afterpay and other payment options?

– Are your abandoned carts triggering and making sense with the Black Friday / Cyber Monday time and urgency?

    3. Organise your collections based on why your customers are purchasing 

The intentions of Black Friday shopping for most people are vastly different to that of the rest of the year. People are buying for themselves as well as buying for OTHER PEOPLE . This throws a whole other angle into the mix and your collections should be tailored to cater for this. Thank goodness we have platforms such as Woo commerce and Shopify to make this super easy!  

Filters can also help customers navigate your product lines easily at this time of year with gifts for him and gifts for her. Let’s not reinvent or make massive changes to your site – it’s too late for that now. But do what you can to really tailor the offer to the appropriate collection, and you’ll have more success keeping customers on your site and clicking through to purchase.
 

     4. Collect SMS and use it for the sale drop 

SMS is often overlooked, but at this time of year shoppers are more inclined to offer up their details so they can be the first to know when the sale drops. Add a phone number and SMS authorisation to your privacy terms so that people can agree to be notified by SMS when the sale drops.  

    5. Collect customer UGC with black friday offers  

This strategy is for all year round really, but always an important one to automate. Make sure you ask for user generated content – there’s no shame in asking for a review or offering a next purchase discount if they can take a photo or video of their purchase. It’s great to have in place a competition so they can win something before Christmas – it might just be the incentive that gets them over the line! 

It’s not too late to tweak, revise and ensure that your customers have the best experience possible. Your data collection throughout this time can be so valuable in the long term so making sure the net is tight can ensure you’re growing not just now but into 2023.