The Black Friday Checklist – 10 quick fix tips to help you make the most of the BF season

November 15, 2022 Nick Rawlings

Black Friday is just over a week away and no doubt (if you’re taking part) you have all your promotional calendars, offers and product in place. Nick Rawlings has compiled a list of 10 tactical ideas for you to review this week. They are all relatively quick fixes or checks and all help to maximise your online revenue.

Maximise Email frequency and urgency

  • Email in-boxes will be packed with offers, you need to fight for attention, more frequency increases your chance of being seen
  • It’s a time when customers understand the extra emails, it’s unlikely to lead to a major lift in unsubs
  • For example, could you send both morning and evening emails over the 4 day weekend? Can subject lines be changed and emails sent to non-openers?
  • Urgency is also a huge part of the revenue peak - countdown timers will keep the urgency front of mind

Don’t forget your trigger emails

  • Pause lifecycle flows – the priority needs to will be the promotional campaigns
  • Audit your abandon cart and page emails as these are particular crucial during highly competitive periods
  • Do they feature your Black Friday offers? Are they timed to send within an hour of the visit and then to be followed up the next day?

Push Value and easy payment options

  • Rising living costs are making all consumers pause before buying
  • Protect your revenue by highlighting the value your offers represent
  • Highlight payment options and BNPL terms, making the purchase easier to manage

Fill your emails with bestsellers

  • Maximise click throughs and conversion by featuring your winners (assuming they are featured in the promotion) – they will generate the best response
  • Also take time to make sure that your ‘may also likes’ in the basket are relevant and seasonal, helping build your average order values

Make sure your homepage is Black Friday focussed

  • Make your deals very easy to find – customers will automatically check the homepage
  • Prioritise how the mobile site displays as this most will be clicking through from their phone
  • Add Black Friday landing pages too with all your deals in one place

Check your site speed

  • If your website isn’t loading within 2 seconds then your conversion isn’t as good as it should be, beyond 4 seconds and conversion will fall off quickly
  • Use a tool like Google Page Speed  Insights and check your page loading time for desktop and mobile, a slow site will push browsers onto a competitor site

Update and check your data collection techniques

  • Your website visitors will have varying levels of purchase intent
  • Maximise your chances of conversion by capturing their email address and ensuring they receive follow ups very soon after they’ve visited
  • Ensure that pop-ups and sign up pages are easily triggered and found – and that your sign up offer is consistent with BF offers

Personalise your emails

  • Personalisation makes a huge difference to email revenues - even just adding forenames to the subject line will help your open rate significantly
  • If you can add dynamic content based on previous purchases that’s even better – standing out from the crowd is the key here

Double check your product pages 

  • The product page is where the customer decides to buy (or not)
  • Ensure that these pages are optimised for your key Black Friday product lines
  • Is the copy compelling? Are reviews  in place? Does the imagery showcase product in the best light possible?

Work out your Plan B, now

  • If demand isn’t meeting expectations, or your competitors go early, you may need a Plan B
  • Think through now what that would be, how can you make your offers more compelling?
  • Have plan B ready to go in advance so you minimise the revenue lost to the competition

By checking or updating these key things, you are better positioned to maximise your online revenue. We wish you all the best for the Black Friday season!

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