In this article I'm going to be breaking down the strategy that has allowed me to create multiple, multi-6-figure revenue BF promo days in past years, and show you exactly how you can replicate it for your own brand.
Now look, in the past, I used to brush off Black Friday. I thought it was ONLY for consumers, and since I had a B2B offer, I didn’t want to run it…
Boy was I wrong!!!
Black Friday is a VERY special time of the year where people go absolutely nuts and love buying things. There is basically NO reason to NOT have a BF / Cyber Monday deal.
So if you’ve never done one before, then just follow the plan here and I guarantee you’ll come out with more money than you would have.
And if you have run banger promos before, hopefully this article will give a few extra ideas to squeeze some more juice out of your promotion!
Common Problems Of Typical Black Friday Promos
OK first up, there are some common problems that will kill your promo during Black Friday, so here’s what they are and how to solve them
Everyone and their momma is promoting
Since everyone is promoting, peoples inboxes are going to be PACKED with other offers. People have a limited amount of money, so here’s how were going to solve this:
1. Early opt in list - We’ll get people to opt-in for our EARLY bird deal so we can beat the pack.
2. Promoting outside of Black Friday / Cyber Monday - We’re having a pre-black friday deal and also (possibly) extension post cyber-monday to squeeze some more out of it.
3. Using SMS - You’ll stand out from the inbox by using SMS. (Don't have a Roezan account yet? Sign up here or book a call)
Email boxes are PLUGGED
Fix this by
1. Getting good deliverability - testing your messages to make sure they land in the "primary" inbox. Fix any deliverability issues before hand.
2. Using SMS to stand out - This will add enormous revenue to your promo because of the attention you’ll get landing on their phone (where their attention is all day).
Promos not given enough thought
The better you plan, the more you’ll crank.
So instead of waking up on Black Friday and sending a 20% off email, you’ll have a strategic plan (see below) that will be an all out assault of money on your bank account.
My Rules For All Promotions
I have always had 3 simple rules for promotions:
1. Make it GREAT
Make the deal GREAT. No crappy deals.
Honestly something is better than nothing, but this is the most competitive deal season of the year.
Make it VERY good. Make it amazing. The best deal you’ve ever done.
And if you want to max the value, make it ridiculous on the front end and add immediate upsells (that are not promoted) to increase ROI.
2. Deadline
Alway always have to have a deadline, and TELL people when it’s ending.
3. Follow Up
Always gotta follow up and remind people.
Most people wait until the last minute and need reminded, sometimes multiple times.
You can use segmented lists here and hit harder the people who have engaged (clicked / abandoned cart) or explicitly signed up for VIP deals.
Note On Sending SMS / Text Message Strategy
In this plan nearly every day you’ll be hitting your lists, or portions of your lists with emails + SMS.
SMS is going to give you a huge boost
Sometimes you have a message you want to get across, and a 1 segment sms (160 characters) might not do it.
There are 2 options
- Send a MMS - With MMS you can send pictures and you also get 1600 characters. That rocks. It does cost 3X what a normal SMS does so just keep that in mind
- Send a link to a page - Send a teaser / headline type message with a link, then put your real message on a simple landing page with no header or anything, kinda like this video:
Black Friday Cyber Monday Plan Template
With that said, onto the plan:
Friday Before Black Friday Week - Early Access Invite
Here we’re gonna start the party a bit early. Send out an message that says you’re gonna be launching an early sale and if they want in, they should sign up to your VIP list.
This is a GREAT way to collect current emails AND phone numbers (especially if you didn’t have a phone number list) and make sure you get compliant optins (explicit permission)!
- Audience: All Contacts, Exclude Purchasers
- Goal: Build hype, collect current emails AND phone numbers
- Content: Tell people it’s coming, tell them to sign up. Send them to an extremely simple opt-in page for “Early access to BF deals”
Saturday / Sunday Before Black Friday Week - (Optional) - Pre-Hype
- Audience: All Contacts, Exclude Purchasers
- Goal: Tell them about the product and build hype
- Content: Tell people it’s coming, tell them to sign up. Send them to an extremely simple Optin page for “early access to deals”
Monday - Pre-Black Friday Sale Launch Announcement
- Audience: All Contacts, Exclude Purchasers
- Goal: Launch the sale early get initial traction
- Content: Straightforward we’re having a sale, what you get etc.
Tuesday - Value + Sale
- Audience: All Contacts, Exclude Purchasers
- Goal: Deliver value + push them to sale
- Content: Tell a story, break a common objection, or explain the product + push to deal
Wednesday - Value + Sale
- Audience: All Contacts, Exclude Purchasers
- Goal: Deliver value + push them to sale
- Content: Tell a story, break a common objection, or explain the product + push to deal
Thursday (Thanksgiving) - Happy Thanksgiving
- Audience: All Contacts, Exclude Purchasers
- Goal: Connect + Be real + Social Proof
- Content: Great time to say what you’re genuinely thankful for, or tell a motivational story of a customer's success and why you’re thankful “to be able to do what you do and serve people like this.” Show realness / gratitude. Remind them of the sale in the P.S.
Black Friday - Black Friday Sale Is ON!
Email 1: Black Friday Morning Email
- Audience: All Contacts, Exclude Purchasers
- Goal: Straightforward Sale, added bonuses
- Content: Tell them the sale is on, remind them of the urgency to buy / limited time
Email 2: Black Friday PM Email
- Audience: Engaged, Early Subs, Exclude purchasers
- Goal: Urgency / Scarcity / FAQ
- Content: Remind them of the urgency and that the sale is closing down soon!
Sat - (Optional) Motivational Story
- Audience: All contacts, exclude purchasers
- Goal: Motivation / Objection Handling / Proof
- Content: Send a value driving story, something that handles and objection and/or shows proof. If you had closed your deal friday night push to signup for VIP cyber monday list, or push straight to deal.
Sunday - Cyber Monday Reminder
- Audience: All contacts, exclude purchasers
- Goal: Build hype for cyber monday deal, sign up for VIP list
- Content: Quick reminder that Cyber monday deal is coming, build hype, and remind them of limited nature, push to signup for VIP so they are on the notification list.
Cyber Monday - Cyber Monday Sale Announcement
Email 1: Cyber Monday AM
- Audience: All contacts, exclude purchasers
- Goal: Get traction on deal
- Content: Straightforward here’s the deal, here’s when it ends, urgency
Email 2: Cyber Monday PM
- Audience: All contacts, exclude purchasers
- Goal: Urgency + FAQ
- Content: Deal is ending soon! It will be gone. FAQ. Urgency.
Tuesday After Cyber Monday - (Optional) 24-Hour Extension + Reasoning Last Chance
If you want, you can extend it 1 day, but give a good reason WHY it got extended.
- Audience: Clickers or VIP signups, Exclude purchasers
- Goal: Urgency + FAQ
- Content: Reason why you’re extending, last chance.
Tips For Best SMS Deliverability
Here at Roezan, we're big on deliverability, and after watching millions and millions of messages go out, we've developed a playbook on how to max deliverability.
We expect carriers to have increased filtering (essentially blocking messages) around this time as we have seen more and more filtering over time.
So here are our suggestions:
1. Always Send Compliant Messages
We gotta start with this, there is no avoiding it, the first step is to simply make sure that you are sending messages in a compliant way.
There are many rules to follow, but make sure that:
-You are sending to only contacts that have given explicit permission to text them,
-Always identify who is sending
-And always include opt-out instructions (reply stop to stop).
2. Warm Up Your Number Before Black Friday
It's best practice to start sending to your list early, warm up your number and show carriers that you are trustworthy.
(That means if you don't have a number yet... get started with Roezan now!)
3. Follow Our Carrier Filtering Guide
This is huge and very simple to do. Carrier filtering is kinda like the "spam box" of SMS. You try to send a message, carriers see it as spam, and they simply don't deliver it.
By following our playbook, you can create compliant messages that have less chance of getting filtered.
4. Don't Schedule Directly On The Hour
Avoid scheduling messages right on the hour mark.
The highest traffic is scheduled for on the hour, so if you schedule yours at a more random time, you'll increase your deliverability and avoid hitting at the same time as others!
Instead of scheduling it for 12:00PM right on the hour for example, schedule it for 12:17PM or another more random time.
5. Test Messages Before Scheduling A Broadcast
This is very simple, but test your message before sending with the Roezan test feature.
Send it to yourself and make sure it goes through and the message isn't being filtered!
Conclusion
By following this guide, you'll be well on your way to crushing a HUGE Black Friday / Cyber Monday promotion.
If you aren't using SMS yet, sign up for Roezan here and we'll help you get started!
If you have any questions, book a call with us here.
Have any extra tips? Let us know in the comments.
