As the great holiday season is approaching once again this year, it appears that all the retailers around the globe are ready once more to come together with one ultimate goal: Beating Amazon, Walmart and other similarly large retailers around the world.
This is because Amazon alone accounted for over 50% of all online internet deals that happened in 2017.
Now while bringing down these big internet players may seem like a far-fetched idea in just a few days, nevertheless there are many things that small businesses can do to put up a good fight using business growth technology to help them to guide them in their quest for success.
However, before we delve into the strategies and tactics for beating down the online giants, here are the Clack Friday and Cyber Monday promotion stats for 2018:
Now that we know these incredible stats let us find out how SMBs can craft a compelling Black Friday 2019 strategy and follow it up with Cyber Monday promotion for sales growth:
Build your theme
It is really hard to make customers remember your brand when your business lacks its physical appearance in this over-crowded marketplace.
Hence provide your customers with an online touch and feel to associate your brand with and to remind your customers why they should shop at your website.
Create your own strategy so that you can find a unique way of pinning your brand into the minds of your ideal customers and make them return times and again for more.
Play to your strengths
It is foolish to assume that big online businesses like Amazon, Walmart, and others necessarily have all the aces up their sleeves.
This is because while having thousands of customers is good, it often becomes impossible to offer each customer with a personalized shopping experience mostly because of the sheer amount of time that is required to invest in it.
However, small businesses do have the luxury of spending this time to understand each of their customers (or groups of customers) shopping habits and behaviors and thereafter craft a strategy that will permit them to grab a sizable of the cake.
Now if you buy CRM for understanding the buying habits and shopping behaviors of your website audience or the segregate the customers base into groups that have similar likes and wants and thereafter create personalized offers your brand is sure to make better during the Holiday Season sale this year.
Targeted email campaigns
A study done by ContactPigeon stated that email marketing alone drove 23% of all Black Friday sales in 2017, and this trend is on a rise.
Here are some of the other interesting facts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales:
According to the same research done on Black Friday sales (based on 2.5 million emails sent during Black Friday promotions in 2017) it has been found that 4 PM as the go-to time for sending emails during Holiday Sale in the USA.
Start your Black Friday promotion early
Consumers all the globe are simple beings, and so it does not requires something big and extraordinary to earn their favors or get them excited.
Now when they are left unattended, it is true that most often they visit the biggest online stores owing to high chances of finding what they are looking for, nevertheless, if your brand can make a resonating promise, you will definitely be able to steal them away from the competition, at least during the Black Friday promotional days.
Hence start your promotions now (a couple of days ahead). For these Emails are the best channel followed by social media and SMS.
Make sure that you showcase different offerings to different customers or groups of customers with each email.
This way your brand will not only improve its overall effectiveness of the sales but also provide the given consumers’ number of deals to look forward to.
Therefore, do not wait for the last hours but showcase your Black Friday promotions on a regular basis during the Holiday Season sale this year.
Additionally, providing special discounts on your offerings to the new subscribers of your emails will also help in generating a lot of fresh leads in the process during this time.
Learn from the best
It is a known fact, that good businesses invent, but great ones copy. Hence there is no shame in copying other businesses’ tactics that have proved to deliver results.
For example, providing additional items (like a mouse and a cooling pad with a laptop) that go well with the Holiday promotions is a killer tactic that every brand should utilize for Good Friday and Cyber Monday sales growth.
Offer an excellent mobile experience
Each year mobile e-commerce is growing exponentially. In fact, in 2018 mobile users accounted for more than half of e-commerce sales and shows no sign of stopping even this year.
This is because according to research it has been found that mobile users spend at least twice as much time browsing online shops compared to desktop users nowadays.
Lastly, pay attention to mobile transactions. 84% of users encounter issues/have a hard time completing a mobile payment, which can lead to losing hundreds of deals and thousands of dollars.
According to a recent survey, it has also been found that 40% of prospective mobile users will not go to a competitor after a bad mobile experience.
Therefore incentivize your consumers to download your mobile app and then make a purchase through it so that you can offer your customers a highly user-friendly mobile app and provide “lightning deals” that can be only accessible via mobile.
Superior customer service: the key to every Black Friday promotion
World-class customer service always goes a long way.
Hence to remain on top of the game make sure that your offers must mark all these checkmarks that include:
Therefore if required as a small business it is advised to double your customer support team during these promotional periods, and keep up your increased support resources well beyond the Holiday Season and turn it into a weeklong or a fortnightly experience.
Your greatest revenue stream is your returning customers
Convincing your consumers to make a purchase from your eCommerce website is only the beginning. This is because it is more important to make sure that your customers are satisfied with their shopping experience with your brand and will make them return in the future for more.
Here are a few well-accepted stats to prove the veracity of our statement:
Therefore, offer free gift wrapping, include a small present for rewarding loyal customers that are directly linked with their purchases, offer faster delivery for over $X purchases so that you can show the consumers who have been shopping continuously on your eCommerce website for at least a year that your brand treats them with special care.
It does not have to be big, you can even send your loyal customers an email with 5-10 percent discount code for their first 3 transactions and they will be more than happy to support and remain a loyal customer of your offerings.
Utilize easy to use CRM software to your advantage
All these tactics and strategies mentioned above can be implemented with greater efficiency and ease if you buy CRM and use this cutting-edge business growth technology during the Back Friday sale of your offerings.
CRM is a lead management software and more that helps in storing customer-related data, and gauge the buying habits and the offerings your consumers are most interest in, using lead tracking and email integration features than can help in automating tons of workflows and processes, allowing you to focus on research and selling your products and services, by providing all the information needed to push a prospective customer towards a purchase.
Conclusion
Competing with big online retailers is hard, but not altogether impossible.
Hence reward your loyal customers, provide excellent customer service, deliver a great mobile experience, and utilize your easy to use CRM data to your advantage, and you can be ensured to customers will come to your brand this Black Friday, without even considering Amazon, Walmart and others for fulfilling their needs this year.
