Black Friday’s online sales broke records last year, with mobile traffic beating desktop traffic for the first time in the lead up to Cyber Monday.
The festive period has always been big for retailers, but the increase in online shopping in recent years has set a whole new precedent and presented marketers with fresh challenges and opportunities – the biggest of which is taking full advantage of Cyber Monday.
With so much competition in every industry, it’s important for online retailers to put their best foot forward and get ahead of the pack. Here are the key factors to consider when formulating your ecommerce marketing plan for Cyber Monday.
Go back in time
What better way to form a strong foundation for your Cyber Monday plan than revisiting what happened on your site last year? Review your analytics and compare these with any marketing strategies you did or didn’t implement. Did you convert a large percentage of traffic from a social media push? Did an ad you ran in 2014 fall flat on its face? Take note of everything and create a winning strategy by utilising your strengthens and cutting the things that held you back.
Offer discounts
The reason Cyber Monday and Black Friday are so popular is the array of bargains on offer, so don’t be afraid to shout yours from the rooftop. Implementing some kind of discount or special offer is a no-brainer at this time of year and you will absolutely not get people to your site if you don’t do it. Offer a discount code for a percentage off the bill once a customer spends over a certain amount or slash the prices on specific products. Whatever you choose, be sure to promote it.
Use landing pages
And speaking of promotion, we recommend creating a landing page in advance that advertises your Cyber Monday offers. Promote this regularly during the month and send social media traffic to that url. It doesn’t matter if the discounts aren’t available yet – it puts you in customers’ minds and gets your keywords registered with search engines so your page ranks highly once the day arrives.
Another benefit is that you can include a call to action for visitors to sign up to your mailing list for Cyber Monday sale notifications once your discounts go live. You can even include an added discount if they do.
Use social media
Don’t wait until the day before to begin promoting. Publish tweets and Facebook posts throughout November and even consider running a competition to promote your sale. A shareable picture containing your discount code on Instagram or Twitter can do wonders – simply offer a €100 voucher as the prize and allow people enter by sharing or retweeting.
And don’t forget to remind people about your sales the night before and during Cyber Monday.
Run an email campaign
Custora reports showed that email marketing generated 27.3% of online orders for Black Friday and 23.9% on Cyber Monday. You spent a lot of time putting your mailing list together, so put it to good use. Send an email to customers the week before or on Sunday night offering a discount code or highlighting which items will be on sale. Consider using this email to announce an extra discount to the first 500 people to make a purchase on your site. Not only are you rewarding loyalty, you’re also encouraging shoppers to pay attention to future emails you send.
Build your list
And speaking of your mailing list, use the boost in traffic to encourage people to sign up. Offer an extra 5% discount or 10% off a future purchase if they sign up. It’s a strategy that may not increase your revenue on Cyber Monday, but it will reward you down the line.
