3 Black Friday campaigns trends in 2019
Miguel Nicolás
03/12/2019
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Black Friday has already passed, and in the following days we like to analyze the trends in Black Friday campaigns that we have detected to analyze them calmly.
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Black Friday is, today, one of the campaigns that concentrate more sales throughout the year. Therefore, all the patterns we can extract will help us for Black Friday 2020 - and for any other action that we launch later.The best way to draw some interesting conclusions is to analyze what some of the most important brands have done. Sometimes, we can be inspired by them and adapt our strategy.In this particular post, as we did when analyzing Black Friday 2018, we are going to focus on email marketing, which is one of the channels that historically have the best performance, both during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
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#1 – Extending Black Friday
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We have seen it for seasons. As this date is gaining weight in the account of results and ales, companies try to extend the effect of the Black Friday.We see cases in which “it is extended” beginning quite before Friday. The idea is, logically, to anticipate to other competitors and generate income before their reaction. At the same time, that allows to play with the idea of urgency linked to a probable breakage of stock: buy now before it is sold out.
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EXAMPLE: Historically, electronic products are those that are better sold in the BFCM. For that reason, FNAC wanted to win the game before beginning the battle. Because of this, they launched a special offer in Mac products more than 10 days before the beginning of the Black Friday, in which, by all means, they referred to Black Friday in both the subject and the copy.
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We also said that another option is to extend promotions and offers a posteriori, from Saturday onwards. With the previous strategy, we anticipate the competitors but, with this one, what we are looking for is to get some more sales among the undecided or those who have arrived late.The main argument in favor of doing so is that we maintain the essence of one of the most effective eCommerce sales drivers: urgency. The focus is still on Friday sales, since the user cannot be sure even if there will be a post-campaign. If we hit them later with it, they will perceive it as a last chance.
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EXAMPLE: Notice how clear Catch It is in their communication. The email subject is “we extend Black Friday” and in the graphic they add that circular resource with the text “We extend until Monday at 23: 59h”. It is interesting to stop and think in the format, because it takes us to a clock: it seems that we are before a countdown, which leads to urgency again.
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#2 – Progressive discounts vs. fixed discounts
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Although simplicity is often imposed on promotions, setting global discounts for everything purchased in the store, there is a certain tendency that begins to be seen regularly towards establishing progressive discounts based on the customer's ticket.They are two different but equally valid estrategias When we say that the first is simple, we do not say it pejoratively, since, in most cases, simple mechanics are the ones that best convert.
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EXAMPLE: Ben Sherman uses a very clear message announcing a 30% discount on all products in the store. Absolute minimalism, large letters, a very clear code and the call to action. We do not need for anything else.
By the way, we would highlight the fact of having opted for a color code that goes beyond black and bets on an orange that is traditionally associated with conversion.
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Sometimes the same company can adopt a mixed or combined strategy. By playing with different messages and tempos you can finish up the actions. By establishing a volume discount in the offers, we will have the possibility of boosting upselling and crossselling to raise the average value of the orders we receive during Black Friday.
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EXAMPLE: Ben Sherman himself launched a series of progressive discounts in the pre-campaign with 3 ranges between 10% and 20%.We sacrifice simplicity in a way but, at the same time, we are stimulating that feeling of being able to get a bargain by spending just a little more. The perceived value of the offer is raised when, for the purpose of margin, it does not make such a difference for the company.
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#3 – Real-time reactivity
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Since we have the possibility to analyze in real time what happens with our sales, we can use that quality of online marketing to propose actions in real time that allow us to get more performance from those products that are more likely to be sold, or stimulate the sale of those that do not meet expectations.
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EXAMPLE: This is one of the companies that best play their cards in email marketing. During this Black Friday (which they have turned into Black Weekend to extend the effect), they have used several interesting resources such as boosting the use of wishlists in the previous days.Looking back on Black Friday trend of reactivity we can see this example in which, after midnight on Friday, a list with the best-selling products on BF is sent to its subscribers. In this way, we also use social proof.
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And, what about you, what do you think about Black Friday 2019 trends? Have you perceived the ones we have listed? Do you think you can apply them in your next campaigns? Come on, let us know how.
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Images | Mentioned brands, Unsplash.