Black Friday is here, and we all know what that means! Retailers around the world have adopted Black Friday & Cyber Monday as the most significant sales events of the year. It’s something you shouldn’t miss out on, whether you are a retailer or a consumer.

This year, Black Friday is on Friday 29th November 2019, followed closely by Cyber Monday on Monday 2nd December 2019 – with many companies already promoting their deals and pre-orders ahead of time; including us here at MoboHost with 25% off your first year of Web Hosting, Premium Hosting & Reseller Hosting (valid until Tuesday 3rd December 2019). 

Let’s talk about five things you can apply to your website strategy right now. Be prepared for the two most important days of the e-commerce calendar!

Create coupon codes

One of the easiest ways to get involved with Black Friday and Cyber Monday is to create coupon codes and promotional offers on your website. These coupon codes do not have to be anything extravagant; a pure 10% off your next order should suffice.

If discounts aren’t your thing – you could get creative around your offering here. How about a gift, or an extended trial period? Depending on your product, and your market, you might find something that fits better than a flat discount!

Create a landing page

Creating a landing page specifically for your Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals is an excellent bit of advice. Having a specific page makes it easier for you to target your SEO and marketing efforts to a particular page, making it easier for users to find.

Tip: Add graphics to your landing page to “make it pop” – you can download them from various stock photo sites on the web to use in your pages. We recommend using seasonal graphics (think: turkey, Christmas lights, etc.) which are likely to capture the attention of your readers.

Check the speed of your website

When did you last check your website? Is it fast? We mean, really fast. No customer is going to stick around (Black Friday or not!) if you have a slow website, as attention spans on the web are decreasing more and more – speed is more important than ever. While you are running tests, it’s also worth checking your website is fully responsive – with more and more users shopping on mobile devices year on year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are no exceptions!

We highly recommend running tests using Google’s PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom Tools and GTMetrix to run speed tests against your website. Each of these tools provides similar information, but some more in-depth than others. These tools will help to identify any components or scripts which are slowing down your website and require further optimisation.

Email Marketing

The holiday emails are coming! Black Friday is the most significant time of year for email marketers. Marketing campaigns vary from a simple, quick triggered email, or a more elaborate drip campaign. There is an importance of sending emails to support and drive traffic to landing pages this time of year. As a result, we have a few top-tips for you to take advantage of to improve your campaigns and ultimately, your results.

It’s the perfect time to grow your list of subscribers too, an endless circle of benefits! Users are more likely to give up their email address in return for Black Friday or Cyber Monday promotions delivered to their Inbox. Something of value that you can provide them pretty quickly in return! Why not ask your visitors to sign up for your mailing list to receive Black Friday savings and other deals and build your email list this Black Friday?

Social Media & Other Promotions

If your business has a presence on social media; it can be super-helpful for offsite promotion. For instance, scheduling a set of posts to encourage shoppers to visit your site or running a competition to win something from your store, or a special discount. It can help boost traffic to your landing pages and improve the reach of your promotion. Another option is to use PPC (Pay Per Click) through Google Ads, or Facebook (these are two we would recommend!). It can get a bit complicated if you aren’t sure what you are doing, but you may yield good results from a well managed and thorough campaign.

Do you have any tips to share? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. We’d love to hear your feedback and what you have planned yourself for your e-commerce store!