20 Creative Black Friday Marketing Ideas to Inspire You & Increase Sales

Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year. Incorporate these Black Friday marketing ideas to boost your sales this holiday season.

Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year, but to take advantage of it, you need to plan. Many shoppers start deciding where they will go on Black Friday days if not weeks in advance, so you need solid Black Friday marketing campaigns that get the word out. Your strategies should also set you apart from the competition, as every store will be trying to attract customers.

What is Black Friday?

Black Friday is considered the start of the holiday shopping season. It’s easy to remember when Black Friday is, as it always falls on the Friday immediately after Thanksgiving.

Over the years, Black Friday has evolved from just being that Friday to being an entire weekend. Many stores start Black Friday sales on Thursday. On top of that, it now includes Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday.

The first time the term Black Friday was used was during the 1960s. It began in Philadelphia. The name came from the complaints of police about the number of people searching for shopping deals and going to the football game between the Army and Navy.

It later took on a different meaning, referring to the colors used in ledgers. Red indicates a loss while black indicates a profit, and Black Friday marked the switch from red to black as people began holiday shopping. This Friday the start of shopping started with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924.

Cyber Monday officially made its debut in 2005, with Small Business Saturday joining the weekend in 2010. 

Why You Should Care About Black Friday Marketing

Black Friday gives small and large businesses alike a great opportunity to make more sales. In 2021, Shopify store owners around the globe have made a whopping $6.3 billion in total sales between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  

Businesses of all sizes participate in Black Friday, so you will need a solid holiday marketing strategy if you want to compete with major offline and online retailers and win potential customers. During this holiday, it’s more important than ever to incorporate unique ideas into your marketing strategies.

When Should You Start Marketing Your Products for Black Friday?

Proper timing is crucial when it comes to promoting your Black Friday deals. It’s best to start creating your Black Friday marketing strategy in the summer so you can have ample time to reach your target audience. 

With your marketing strategies in place, you can start rolling out your Black Friday offers between late September and early October. Over 50% of winter holiday shoppers plan to start their Black Friday shopping during this month. 

Top 20 Black Friday Marketing Ideas to Boost Sales

To get you started with your advertising plans, consider the following twenty Black Friday marketing strategies that can help get shoppers excited and boost your sales.

1. Giveaways or mystery savings.

One of the best Black Friday marketing ideas to get people in your doors is to offer a giveaway or some type of mystery saving. If the idea of mystery savings is confusing, picture a digital or physical wheel that customers can spin to get an extra discount code or freebie. Or even a scratch-off prize or other game of luck to determine their savings.

You may not realize it, but if someone is unsure about buying something, the mystery and element of surprise may be enough to convince them.

On a similar note, consider the Black Friday marketing strategy of bundling some of your most popular products. It will encourage shoppers to buy more. For example, if you sell furniture, you could offer a living room set along with side tables and a coffee table for less than it would cost to buy each separately. If you sell bath products, maybe bundle different bath bombs or create a set that includes soap, shampoo, and conditioner.

Of course, you should also keep this marketing strategy in mind throughout the year. It just happens to be especially effective at the beginning of the holiday season when spending is on everyone’s mind.

2. VIP program.

VIP or loyalty programs are a great idea any time of the year, but especially during Black Friday. If you get it ready beforehand, your Black Friday marketing can include early access and extra-special discounts for VIP members. To get the VIP program started, collect opt-ins through email or SMS marketing.

Early Access

As mentioned, Black Friday starts earlier at some stores than it used to. This can be an effective strategy since many shoppers like to take care of their holiday shopping early. You can appeal to this customer segment by offering early bird discounts or specialty items to VIPs. 

Sneak Peeks

You don’t even have to give your VIPs early access. Just incorporating Black Friday marketing strategies that show them what to look forward to can do the trick. This will get them excited about holiday sales and encourage them to plan to buy from you before they get the chance to see offers from competitors.

3. Don’t forget about small business Saturday.

While Black Friday marketing is important, don’t forget to also promote your company for Small Business Saturday. This day is all about supporting small, local businesses, so if that describes you, you should take advantage of it. 

It is the time to highlight that you are a part of the community and owned by a person, not an international corporation.

Part of Small Business Saturday is the feeling of community that goes along with it. Increase that positive feeling by helping shoppers choose what to buy for their loved ones. 

A simple way to do this is with a gift guide. You can make a digital gift or a paper guide to hand out in stores. You can even make a display in your store highlighting the best gifts for family members or friends, such as your parents, best friends, or neighbor. 

4. Drive online sales with Cyber Monday.

Black Friday doesn’t end until the following Monday, Cyber Monday. Over the years, Cyber Monday has grown, and now shoppers expect most retailers to offer Cyber Monday deals. It is true even if you already offered in-person or online deals on Black Friday.

The only challenge can be figuring out how to stand out. After all, with online shopping, you have to compete with the entire world, not just other local stores like you would for in-store sales.

You can try incorporating some of the already-mentioned strategies, such as a digital wheel of bonus savings or highlighting that you are a small, local business to drive sales. Or try one of the following.

Offer Discounts Every Hour

Consider offering a different set of discounts every hour. This will keep shoppers going back to your website to see if anything they want to buy is on sale. As such, it can lead to multiple purchases from the same person. 

Flash Sales

Flash sales are among the best ways to incorporate the fear of missing out into your Black Friday marketing. You also take advantage of the sense of urgency that encourages purchases. 

As with rotating hourly discounts, this method brings people back to your website again and again. That gives them more chances to buy something and add an impulse purchase.

It also gives you yet another chance to gather their contact information and consent for an SMS or email marketing campaign.

5. Get the word out.

No matter how many great sales you have for Black Friday, you aren’t likely to see results without solid Black Friday marketing that announces your deals.

At the minimum, be sure to include the following channels as you announce your sales.

SMS Marketing

Stay compliant with all relevant laws by ensuring you have opt-ins before sending any SMS marketing messages.

Email

Increase your open rate by including a catchy email subject line. Keep in mind that email marketing also requires opt-ins.

Social Media

There are multiple Black Friday marketing ideas involving social media. At the very least, create and publish posts about your upcoming sales and promos. Make sure to include hashtags.  

Website

Get your website ready for Black Friday marketing by adding banners to your homepage. If you don’t already have a dedicated page for discounts and offers, consider adding one. Or, if you do already have one, add a temporary landing page for Black Friday. 

Increase Ad Spend

You also want to stick to some of the most basic Black Friday marketing strategies: paid ads. Allocate a larger portion of your budget than normal for your ad spend during the holiday season. You hopefully already planned for this with your long-term marketing budget.

Remember that this ad spend is for both social media ads and paid search engine ads.

6. Optimize offers for mobile.

Statistics show that in early 2023, there were nearly 400 million active cellular mobile connections in the United States. Meanwhile, nearly 50% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 shop online using their mobile phones. So if you want to attract more customers during holiday shopping, include mobile optimization in your strategy.  

Optimizing your offers for mobile means ensuring that your entire website is mobile-optimized, from landing pages to product pages and checkout. This makes shopping easier for customers.

7. Partner with influencers.

Another great strategy to implement for Black Friday is creating an affiliate or influencer marketing program. Influencers are people on social media with a dedicated fan base. The most popular influencers have follower counts in the billions.

You can find influencers and collaborate with them to create content promoting your Black Friday deals. It’s been done by many big brands like Amazon Fire TV, and many are still including influencer marketing in their marketing strategies, 

But you have to find the right influencers. To do that, you need to define your target audience first and then search for influencers who match your target audience.  

Lastly, assess the influencer’s authenticity by looking at their engagement rate and content quality. Once you’ve established partnerships with influencers, give them a unique link to share. The influencers will post about your products and business on social media and earn a small commission in return.

8. Use social media to advertise your promotions.

You’re missing out if you don’t use social media to advertise your offers and promotions. More than 4 billion people around the globe are active on social media, and this number is expected to reach around 6 billion in 2027.

So whenever you do social media marketing or advertising, there’s a guarantee that someone will see it. 

9. Implement countdown timers

Consider adding countdown timers you plan to offer promotions and discounts for a limited time. Countdown timers can capture consumers’ attention by creating a sense of urgency. Additionally, it can motivate your potential customers to take advantage of the deals before the timer runs out. 

10. Offer special discounts to loyal customers.

Offering special discounts to loyal customers will show that your business appreciates their loyalty. You can give them gift cards, discount codes, giveaway entries, or whatever you would like to offer.

Another great idea to get more customers and increase your sales during Black Friday is turning your loyal customers into brand advocates.  

You can also create a referral program. By giving rewards to customers that refer their network to you, you can get new customers and increase sales at the same time.  

11. Create a digital gift card. 

Gift cards can effectively attract new buyers and motivate your existing customers to buy more. And since many people these days are doing transactions online, consider making your gift card digital. 

You can combine gift cards with other offers, like a certain percentage off on all purchases, and other marketing strategies, like user-generated content, to be more effective. 

12. Reduce shipping fees.

Another Black Friday promotion you can consider is free shipping. Consumers love free shipping offers, and research shows that 90% of consumers consider free shipping one of the top reasons they buy goods online. 

But if your business cannot afford to give free shipping, consider offering shipping discounts instead.

13. Retarget abandoned carts.

In the first quarter of 2023, 86% of all baskets created on mobile devices in the United States end up getting abandoned. If potential customers also often abandon their carts, don’t give up yet and consider running retargeted ads. 

Retargeted ads can help increase your conversion rates. If done right, these ads can send 26% of shoppers back to your online store. And personalizing these ads can lead to an ROI of more than a thousand percent. 

If you want to reduce your cart abandonment rate, especially during Black Friday, consider adding an exit intent pop-up that detects when shoppers are about to exit your site and offers them a promo once they complete a purchase. 

14. Build an email and texting list.

Building a texting and email list is another tactic that can effectively boost your sale during holiday shopping. You can use it to make everyone aware of your upcoming offers.

You can use tools like Podium to make the process easier. Podium Text even comes with 500 ready-to-use texting templates and allows you to send multiple messages simultaneously.

You can also integrate the tool with Mailchimp, so you can carry out both email and text marketing from a single platform.

15. Offer more payment options.

A survey conducted last February 2023 found that only 9% of Americans pay using cash. These days, consumers prefer to pay using debit cards and credit cards even when shopping in ecommerce stores.

Using digital wallets is another common and sought-after method of payment. By accepting a variety of payment methods, you are making it easier for consumers to transact with your business. Eventually, it can result in more sales.  

16. Minimum spend rewards.

Another thing you should consider offering on Black Friday is minimum spend rewards. Give your customers something, like a discount, a freebie, or a gift card whenever they spend a certain amount of money in a single shopping spree. 

This offer can encourage customers to spend more to gain rewards. In addition, you can use this as an opportunity to thank your customers for trusting your business. 

17. Create Black Friday Referral rewards.

Consider offering referral rewards to anyone who refers your business to their peers, whether they are new customers or existing buyers. Referral marketing is proven effective in terms of increasing sales. Reports show that companies with successful referral programs have acquired an 86% growth in profit. 

18. Live stream events.

Live streaming is another great thing to do to increase your Black Friday sale. US livestream shopping is growing, and Black Friday is a great time to test the waters. 

Live streaming is also a great opportunity to build a close relationship with your target audience and engage with them in real time.

19. Offer new products and services.

IKEA, a Swedish company, once used this strategy. They run a Black Friday marketing campaign called #BuybackFriday, where they bought back and resell unwanted furniture. The products are not new, but the offer is refreshing and exciting.

And that’s what bringing in new products and services can give your customers: excitement. Everyone gets excited when there’s a new offer. 

But make sure to announce the launch of your new product before the actual event. You can upsell your new products or cross-sell them to your existing customers.

20. Offer gifts for every purchase.

Giving gifts with every purchase is another idea you should try during holiday shopping. But make sure to offer something that is within your marketing budget. You can promote this offer through your website, social media, emails, and other channels. 

In addition to increasing sales, this strategy may even help you get more customers. Once your new client knows your business through this tactic, they may stay around and refer others to you. 

Take Your Black Friday Marketing Strategy to the Next Level

With the right Black Friday marketing strategies, you can get shoppers excited about your sales and start the holiday season off on the right foot. Use the above Black Friday marketing ideas for inspiration and get the word out with SMS campaigns and other methods. 

The aforementioned marketing tactics are also great for other occasions like Christmas and year-end shopping.

And to make your marketing strategies easier to execute, use tools like Podium. Podium comes with all the tools you need, like a text marketing solution, free text templates, and email integration, to make sure your target audience knows about your offers. 

There are also review management and Google review link generator to help you manage your online reputation. The more positive reviews your business gets, the more customers you’ll attract.  

In addition, Podium also comes with a web chat tool. You can include it in your website to ensure timely responses to your customers.  

Black Friday Marketing FAQs

1. What type of marketing is Black Friday?

Black Friday marketing is how companies or business promote their deals for consumers shopping on this holiday. It usually includes Black Friday email marketing, social media promotion, flash sales, etc. 

2. What sells the most during Black Friday?

The best-selling product categories during Black Friday include home, toys, beauty, fashion, and devices.

3. How do I get customers to visit my store on Black Friday?

Here are a few ways to get customers to visit your store on Black Friday:

• Launch referral programs
• Run ads through social media
• Collaborate with influences
• Feature creators in your events
• Offer gifts, discount coupons, and other incentives
• Run a retargeted cart abandonment marketing campaign