The most exciting part of ‘Black Friday’ is that it kick-starts the festive season’s shopping activity. The busiest shopping days of the year are around the corner. This is the time to make the most of your marketing campaigns for Black Friday and the rest of the festive season.

Clever creative execution of direct marketing campaigns through channels such as SMS, WhatsApp and MMS notifications, as well as e-mail marketing, can set you apart from your competitors.

In this blog we are sharing five powerful marketing strategies to make the most of your Black Friday direct marketing activities to increase your sales by getting your customers buying.

1. Black Friday: e-mails that evoke curiosity

E-mail marketing remains a tremendously effective marketing tool, if used correctly.  It not only enhances your ability to sell, but also helps you to track and understand your customers’ engagement and experiences at each touchpoint. This feedback is valuable information to assist you to continuously improve on your communication, marketing and sales efforts.

One way of generating curiosity and goodwill is to e-mail random gift codes to entice buyers to your shop. Your audience will be excited at receiving a discount. Follow up your emails with a SMS or WhatsApp and remind potential customers with an MMS voucher. 

Remember that although numbers typically perform well in e-mail subject lines, avoiding them is a smart strategy for evoking curiosity around Black Friday. Don’t be tempted to add your discount to the subject line. 

While every other store is killing the element of surprise by doing this, there are a handful of successful e-tailers who know how the magic of surprises works. 

2. Keep your audience guessing

Be the early bird and start your sales before Black Friday, announcing “surprise sales” with creative, enticing messages and supporting visuals. Incorporate a combination of direct marketing channels such as email, WhatsApp, MMS and SMS. 

Recommend products that are on sale before Black Friday so that your subscribers know where and when to start shopping – especially those who do not know what they want to buy. This will trigger their impatience, so they don’t have to wait and be part of the mad rush they’re expecting on Black Friday itself.

 Offer interesting and attractive deals and offers every hour, encouraging customers to visit your store frequently. 

Make your sale memorable

Remember, Black Friday is a cluttered space. Make sure your direct marketing stands out. Creative MMS GIFS and or WhatsApp images or bar-coded email and SMS messages linked to a short pop-up video of product(s) on sale can work wonders. You can also add schedule event buttons to remind clients when sales will be in effect or add call-to-action buttons with direct links to your webpage.

 Encourage your customers to become your brand custodians who share their memorable sales and experiences on social media. 

Make your subject line stand out from the rest

Black Friday is not a battle of discounting, it is a battle for attention. Win this battle by getting noticed in your subscribers’ inboxes, especially when you don’t usually do direct marketing. 

Your subject lines need to be catchy and a bit dramatic – even slightly humorous. Your Black Friday direct marketing success, especially via email, starts in the subject line, so you need to stand out from the clutter in the space for just a few days. 

They must get more! 

Black Friday is not just about discounts. Although customers expect compelling discounts, they must get more!  

Offer some value-added benefits such as a free gift, free delivery, bonus points, cashbacks, gift cards, rewards, etc. Shoppers want more and this will give them that much-needed push to buy, excited by all the great deals and added benefits you offer. Promote these offers across all your communication channels, especially via your direct marketing channels such as e-mail, SMS, WhatsApp and MMS. 

Encourage your audience to re-share promotions with a value-add incentive for spreading the message, such as “This could be your chance to win a price/receive a free gift/receive a voucher,” etc. 

By the way .... (bonus tip) 

Don't let your November invoicing be just another regular invoice – optimise your transactional print and/or e-mail white space to send customers your discount vouchers and share your promotions as an additional part of your direct marketing mix. 

It’s worth it 

Your sales can increase significantly if you apply some or all these tips to your direct marketing activities. The best part is that you can do all this at a fraction of the cost when you make use of the InsideData Sweet Summer bulk direct marketing and print discounts. 

Don’t miss out on this ‘sweet’ deal of up to 50% discount to increase your summer sales with effective bulk e-mail, SMS and MMS marketing and up to 25% on bulk print and mailing services.  

Contact InsideData today +27 (0)11 611 5000 or visit https://www.insidedata.co.za/summer-promotion/  sign up for your Sweet Summer discounts.