It’s that time of the year again! It never fails to surprise us how quickly department stores pull down their Halloween decorations and replace them with Christmas ones. But as email and SMS marketers, we prepare for the silly season months in advance. Black Friday Cyber Monday is the biggest annual sales event on most eCommerce calendars, so it makes sense to plan ahead.
To take full advantage of the influx of new customers and additional sales, we recommend having your BFCM retention strategies planned year-round. However, if you’re running behind with your sales strategy for BFCM 2022, there’s still time to spring into action.
We’ve compiled a list of five different sales tactics to implement this Black Friday Cyber Monday — that aren’t just the standard 30% or $50 off offers. The best part is that these last-minute sales ideas are designed to protect your margins, while delighting customers.
1. Buy one get one free
It goes without saying, the buy one get one (BOGO) strategy only works for certain product offerings. It also depends on the value of the product, and cost to produce and sell it. If it’s within your margins to offer a BOGO incentive, then go for it. It’s a huge benefit to customers who repurchase the same product over and over again. Also, with the right campaign messaging, you could encourage customers to get started on their Christmas shopping, and buy one for themselves, and get a free one for their friend or family member. It’s a win-win.
2. Free gift with purchase
Another great way to encourage customers to make a purchase. For customers who were on the edge, it gives them a little push. A free gift with purchase (FGWP) incentive is an effective way to participate in the Black Friday sales, without eating into your margins. Free gifts can also have a perceived high-value to the customer, however the raw cost to merchants can be much lower — especially compared to a straight dollar-off incentive. Set a minimum spend in order for customers to redeem their free gift, or you could even offer higher value gifts for higher value orders to spice it up. This can be easily set up in Shopify. Be sure to include instructions on how to redeem the free gift in your Klaviyo email campaigns (if needed).
3. Spend and save
The ol’ spend and save mechanism. What can we say — it works! All customers receive a discount (if you choose to set it up that way) and the more they spend, the more they save. You can set up a sitewide sale, or apply the spend and save to particular collections only. Of course, you can apply limits to this sale tactic. For example, buy one, get 10% off, buy two, get 20%, and buy three, get 30% off. No further discounts for four or more items.
4. Spend and earn
Spend and save’s cousin — spend and earn. Your product value / AOV is a good way to determine the way you set up this offer. Spend $100 and earn $10 store credit is a popular one. It’s also another great tactic to encourage repeat purchases with your store.
5. Double loyalty points
Loyalty programs are a great way to keep your customers engaged, making repeat purchases, and becoming advocates for your brand. The key to making sure your loyalty program is profitable, is to work out the right points-to-dollars-spent ratio. If you’re using a loyalty platform such as Loyalty Lion, you can check out their resources to help guide you. Or, if you contract a talented bunch of email marketers from say, a customer journey agency, they’d be happy to work this out.
When it comes to BFCM, most customers are prepared to spend money (or, more money than usual) because of the savings, or benefits. Offering double loyalty points is a tactful way to encourage your customers to shop with your store. It also encourages repeat purchase, as customers will earn points to be redeemed on their next order.
If you’re interested in running a double points campaign for BFCM, we recommend approaching your email strategy the following way:
- Hype campaign
Let customers know about the double points offer. Include a CTA to encourage non-members to sign up to the loyalty program. - Early access campaign
Give your top tier loyalty members exclusive early access to your BFCM sale as an additional perk of being a loyal member. - BFCM launch campaign
Announce to the rest of your loyalty program members that the sale has gone live and that they could be earning double points. - FOMO campaign
Let your entire database know that the BFCM double points period has been running since Friday, and that it’s not too late to sign up to the loyalty program and reap the benefits before BFCM is over.
Check out our case study for World Fitness Australia, where we implemented a double loyalty points strategy for their Black Friday Cyber Monday sale.
To recap
When it comes to BFCM, one thing for certain is that your customers’ inboxes will be flooded with offers. Now, these could be from your competitors, or merchants in different industries altogether. The fact of the matter though, is that your offer needs to stand out. You want your customers to acknowledge your emails, and decide to spend their money with you.
Offer your customers exciting sales offers this BFCM (while protecting your margins) including:
- Buy one get one free
- Free gift with purchase
- Spend and save
- Spend and earn
- Double loyalty points
Get cracking — Black Friday 2022 is just around the corner!
What’s next?
If you’re interested in implementing these sales tactics throughout the year, and want to make sure you wow your customers, reach out to the team at [email protected]. Did we mention that we offer free audits?