‘Tis the jolliest time of year for ecommerce merchants! Black Friday Cyber Monday is the peak online shopping time, and you’ve likely been planning for months. Before you kick up your feet in front of the fire with a warm hot cocoa and wait for the sales to come rolling in, there may be a few last minute efforts you can do to increase sales and drive ongoing engagement.
The following five items are must-do digital marketing efforts for Black Friday-Cyber Monday.
1. Deploy Cart Abandonment Emails
Abandoned shopping carts happen all the time, but it’s especially common during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Customers know there are deals to be had at this time of year, and they’re on the hunt for the best ones. They often leave items in their cart to go searching for better deals. You can re-engage these potential customers by sending emails listing items left in their cart. Reminding them of your BFCM deals or creating urgency by showing limited qualities can further incentivize them to complete their purchase.
2. Add Remarketing Code
Place retargeting pixels on your ecommerce store before the spike in holiday traffic. This will allow you to build lists for reaching customers after the busy shopping season, whether you’ll be running retargeting during the holidays or not.
3. Offer Social-Only Discounts
Reward your loyal fans on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other social channels by offering discounts exclusive to them. Use a discount code that shows this exclusivity (e.g., INSTA20 or FBFREESHIP) and has the added benefit of allowing you to track usage of these offers.
Check out our blog about using social media for the holidays.
4. Submit to Deals Websites
Rather than visit each website individually to learn about Black Friday-Cyber Monday deals, customers flock to deal sites where the best discounts and sales are consolidated for them. You can submit your BFCM offers to these sites to get them in front of these deal hunting customers. Some of the top deals sites are: RetailMeNot, PromosPro, Coupon Chief and MyCoupon.
5. Track Everything with Analytics
Make sure ecommerce tracking is turned on and properly recording data within Google Analytics. For additional insights about your store’s performance, add event tracking and goals for on-page events like email sign ups, wishlist additions, review submissions, social sharing, etc. For more advanced tips on using Google Analytics, check out our blog "Not Your Basic Google Analytics Implementation."
You still have eight whole days to implement these items. That’s plenty of time to ensure you’re driving more traffic and sales this Black Friday-Cyber Monday, and getting the most out of this peak shopping season.