Black Friday Checklist: 20 Tips To Prepare for BFCM 2024
Are you having a Menty B (mental breakdown 😉) with all the pressure around Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales? Don’t worry bestie, I am here for you. We shall not kill our Aura and easily prepare a last-minute checklist for the Black Friday Sale. No Cap!
Okay, let me put aside my Gen-Z goggles and focus on the matter at hand. You are a small business owner and feel that the train to hop on the Black Friday Madness wagon has left. There’s still time to get ready for your holiday sales goals . Now, the key is to focus on what actually matters instead of going over lengthy processes. This quick and easy last-minute Black Friday preparation guide will put you up to speed. With this, you can easily grab a fair share of the BFCM 2024 pie, or a pizza, or a keto sandwich whatever works.
These tips are practical and would help you put all the pieces together and get ready for the Black Friday sales event. Grab this map to Black Friday success, coz it’s never too late to make an impact!
Organizing Your Sales Strategy
Before diving into marketing and promotions, let’s make sure your sales strategy is airtight. This section will help you lock down the essentials and avoid any last-minute chaos when the sales start pouring in.
Tip 1: Finalize Your Discounts and Offers
Okay, tell me what you’re gonna do if you have not thought about discounts and offers for the sale? Black Friday and Cyber Monday are for offering your products and services at exclusive discounts or deals. Now, based on your overall cost, you must decide on BFCM offers that don’t burn a hole in your pocket and are also valuable to customers. Yeah, I know that’s a bit contradicting but you must understand the overall cost and profit that can be drawn by slashing the price.
Tip 2: Bundle Products for Quick Wins
You can either offer every product and service at a discount or choose a few. With the chosen few products, you can bundle up other products to provide special bundle discounts. This helps in increasing the average order value as well. This will help you amp up your profitability efforts.
Tip 3: Prioritize Your Bestsellers
Okay, let’s face it. Not all your products or services sell the same or are loved the same. You will have those bestsellers that stock out again and again. Push them in the front with attractive discounts. These items must be promoted heavily during the Black Friday Cyber Monday offers. These will bring in more site traffic that will help you promote other products in bundle offers.
Tip 4: Check Site Speed and Mobile Optimization
Site speed must be at the top of your BFCM checklist. Many businesses will offer deals on their websites on Black Friday. That means your competitors as well. If your site takes even a second more to load, the visitors will bounce off to your competitor. Check the speed and use WordPress speed optimization tools.
Further, make sure everything is perfectly visible on mobile devices as the most traffic comes from these sources.
Tip 5: Optimize Landing Pages for Conversion
Create attractive landing pages that are targeted at driving conversions. Create compelling CTAs that are clear and guide the visitors toward a certain goal. Use attractive product photos, and simplified product descriptions to communicate your offers clearly.
Tip 6: Test Checkout Process for Smooth Transactions
Test your checkout process and ensure that there are no hurdles leading to cart abandonment. Check the mobile version as well for any hiccups and solve them earlier. Be sure that the process is easy to understand and quick to complete. Enable multiple payment gateways to offer options.
Execute a Marketing Strategy (Last-minute Tips)
It’s okay if you’re late to planning, with smart marketing tips, you can turn the tables on the biggest shopping event of 2024.
Tip 7: Launch Flash Sale Teasers on Social Media
What’s better than social media platforms for creating overnight hype and capturing attention? It’s a place of short-lived content so for Social Media, you’re alive at the perfect time for promotions. Create multiple visuals and seasonal creatives for teasers, flash sales, and limited-time offers. Create a sense of urgency or FOMO marketing to drive more visitors and sales.
Tip 8: Use Email Marketing to Boost Urgency
No babe, emails are not outdated. Still, they’re the rizz in a huge market. Fire up your email list and create a series of multiple emails. This campaign can act like a sneak peek at your best Black Friday offers. Communicate special discounts for your email list customers. This will also increase your email list and leads. Tools like Sender, Mailchimp, and MailerLite help you set up your email marketing channels.
Tip 9: Bring Back your Previous Visitors and Customers
This is the time to retarget previous visitors and cash them in. Check out the past analytics data and connect with your old customers or visitors. Show them the value of your offers and draw them in. When a group of people have already been interested in your product, such reminders and offers would motivate them to make a move.
Managing Inventory and Fulfillment
If you run out of stock or face delays in fulfilling the orders, it’s going to be a huge turn-off. You’ll save your internship or job by following these tips, I promise!
Tip 10: Do a Last-Minute Inventory Check
Check the stock of all the products that are put on sale. You should also ensure that the bundled items are in stock. Based on past data of sales during the discount period, anticipate a target of sales. Based on that, keep your inventory ready. Have a buffer stock ready or supply chain tight.
A smart thing to do here is to update your sites with stock in real time. This will save you from over-selling and disappointing customers.
Tip 11: Align with Fulfillment Partners
Partner up with a trusted shipping partner and be aware of the increase in shipments. They too would be facing the same issues. To be on the safer side, clarify the maximum number of days of delivery during checkout. Try to keep it as low as possible.
If you are dealing with digital products, make sure your support team is ready and your servers are all set to take the load.
Enhancing Customer Experience
If customers feel valued and at ease while browsing through your website, the chances of them being repeat ones increase. Make all the improvements that you can to modify your website. That’s the answer to your question of ‘How to prepare for BFCM?’
Tip 12: Add Live Chat for Immediate Support
Customers are going to have queries and issues. These if not resolved instantaneously, you’re going to lose them. This is your cue to enable Live Chat or Bot support to deal with basic customer queries. Incentivize your support staff to deal with heavy workloads to keep them motivated to work endlessly during the BFCM sale period.
Tip 13: Highlight Free Shipping and Returns
If possible, provide free shipping and return during this period. It can be one of the most powerful incentives that will push the products from the user’s cart to your order history. Clarify the return policy in advance that assures them to purchase without worry. Provide personalized customer support to ensure there is no point where you will drop your customers in the well of insecurity and confusion.
Tip 14: Add Countdown Timers for Urgency
There’s going to be increased advertising competition. Every business keeps a budget aside for promotions during the Black Friday Sale days. In this competition, utilize countdown timers to create the effect of urgency. These timers can push your customers to take the benefit of the offer before it expires.
Preparing for Post-Sale Follow-Up
Your sale is not over with the end of sale dates. Now is the time to fulfill any remaining orders, and get follow-ups, and customer feedback for a strong community.
Tip 15: Plan Retargeting Ads for Cart Abandoners
Many visitors would like a product and stay on your website, but abandon their cart. Share final offers to these cart abandoners and re-engage them with your business. Retargeting efforts after the Black Friday & Cyber Monday sale remind them of the value they left behind and help you gain the lost revenue.
Tip 16: Check In with Your Customers
In the tips to maximize sales in the future, connect with the customers who purchased during the offer period. Thank them for making a purchase and trusting you. Ask them for feedback and suggestions. This will be a part of your post-sale marketing strategy. The customers would feel valued with such personalized communication and care that can convert them into repeat customers.
Fine-Tuning Last-Minute Details
Just as you set up everything before a launch, it’s time to check all the nooks and corners for fine-tuning the details.
Tip 17: Review Your Website’s Functionality
At no cost should your website go down during this period. Check with the technical team to work on any last-minute glitches. Prepare your site and software well for high-traffic. Check for any broken links or heavy images. Use image optimization plugins to enhance your site performance.
Tip 18: Prepare Customer Service for Increased Inquiries
Customer inquiries are going to blast up while preparing for Black Friday. Ensure that all the necessary information about products, services, policies, and deals is clear. Create a dedicated FAQ section and have it on all product pages.
Tip 19: Set Up Analytics Tracking
Even if a customer doesn’t make a purchase, their behavior and interaction with your website are crucial. Set up a powerful tracking system to record customer behavior. This will help you understand where a user stops or from where they discontinue the purchase process.
Tip 20: Get Your Team on the Same Page
It is going to be a high-stress period for your entire team. Ensure them that everything is perfect and in place as much as possible. Motivate them with performance incentives so that their dedication towards work does not waver. Positive employees and teams will in turn create positive customer experiences.
Wrapping Up the Black Friday Tips to Maximize Sales
Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are thrilling, agreed. But they are equally challenging for businesses. This last-minute 20 Tips checklist for Black Friday Deals is going to be your savior. Just note the tips down and paste them on your work desk for everyone. Keep ticking as it’s getting followed or even write a name beside it to delegate the task.
Focus on the essential tips that relate to your business and work them through. Instead of juggling everything at once, go one by one and keep tracking progress of each. Dunzoo! Start your work besties and let me know if you’re stuck somewhere. I shall help you out super soon.
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Lindsay Liedke
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