Forget about waking up to a long line of customers outside your store this coming Black Friday. With Covid-19 showing virtually no sign of abating, businesses that wish to survive the troubling times need to think outside the box. Hi, my name is Francisco, and I am the owner of Planet Marketing, a Digital Marketing agency. I am a specialist in eCommerce, Facebook Ads, Google Ads and Remarketing. Over the past few weeks, I have had quite a number of clients ask how they can get the most out of Black Friday during the Coronavirus pandemic. In this article, I am going to;
- Briefly highlight the challenges faced by businesses due to Covid-19.
- Explain how businesses can overcome these challenges to profit from Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Challenges Faced by Businesses Due to Covid-19
As a business owner, the challenges that have been brought about by Covid-19 need no introduction. They are something with which you will already be very familiar with. Heck, they are something with which I am very familiar! Where do I even begin?
How about reduced demand and lost sales? How about having to lay off some of your loyal workers because you can no longer afford to continue paying them while your business is either closed or operating at a very slow pace? What of disrupted supply chains?
How businesses should approach Covid-19 era Black Friday and Cyber Monday
The business world has had to face calamity after calamity! So, how do you survive? How can you use Black Friday and Cyber Monday to actually take your business along a different but better path?
Think outside the box
To survive the challenges that have been brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, eCommerce stores need to think outside the box. That is what big retailers such as Walmart are doing. Assuming that you have a bricks and mortar business along with your eCommerce presence, one thing that you are going to have to do is to make sure that your deals are made available both to traditional walk-in customers and to your online customers.
In this regard, there needs to be a blurring of the line between Cyber Monday and Black Friday. Why not turn things around and make it all a Black Weekend or some other fancy name that you can come up with! Remember, most people are not going to be willing to expose themselves coming to your store. So you need to meet them where they are, which is online.
Take your business online
Traditionally, black Friday has been more about bricks-and-mortar businesses, while Cyber Monday was the online component. But truth of the matter is; online is where most shopping is now taking place, Covid-19 or no Covid-19. The pandemic has only intensified the trend. I have previously written an article in I give tips on restaurant marketing during the Coronavirus pandemic.
This sector has been particularly hit hard by the pandemic. Restrictions on the number of people that can sit inside a restaurant have meant that these businesses have had to come up with creative ways to continue serving their customers.
Quite a number of restaurants now give their customers the ability to order online. The meal then gets delivered to the customer’s home or office. Or the customer can drop by to pick up their order. It’s a different world out there. So, every business needs to have an eCommerce presence to survive.
Start your promotions way before Black Friday
Black Friday is but a manifestation of human nature; people are always on the hunt for deals. So, why wait for Black Friday before attracting their interest? Why not start having discounts and offers right now? That way, you will be get way ahead of the competition in terms of brand visibility. This is something that even big brands such as Walmart have been embracing.
Broaden your products range
Electronic goods have always tended to garner the most Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Hence the enduring images of people fighting over the latest TV or the latest microwave oven. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has boosted demand for other products.
Most people have been hunting around for exercise equipment, as well as for home entertainment systems. So, you need to identify which products in your catalog have had a Covid-19 induced boost. These are some of the things that you will have to go overboard in promoting this coming Black Friday.
Advertise on Facebook
Most business owners understand the need for innovation as a survival strategy as the world grapples with the pandemic. They also know that they need to get their businesses online. And many businesses have already done just that. However, they run into a brick wall when it comes to implementation.
It’s not enough, I am afraid to say, to have a presence on the internet. That alone is not going to bring customers to your business. To achieve that goal, you need to have a presence on the places where it matters the most.
I have already noted that I specialize in Facebook Ads, along with Google Ads and Remarketing. I firmly believe that Facebook offers one of the best ways through which you can promote your business this coming Black Friday.
Instead of getting people to line up outside your physical store, you should embrace the power of Facebook as the meeting place for people of various genders, demographics and interests. If you want to meet your customers, this is where you should go to find them.
Facebook Marketing for Black Friday
I am not going to leave you hanging by telling you that you need to do Facebook Marketing for your Black Friday sales without giving you a few details on how to go about doing it. Thing is, Facebook Marketing is a vast topic. It’s not possible to exhaust everything in one sitting. Feel free to check out my site if you wish to learn more about the subject. I have written countless articles on the subject. All I can say here with regard to Facebook Marketing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday is the following;
- You should turn Black Friday and Cyber Monday into Events. Facebook Events are a good way for businesses to create a hype around a particular subject. Your work here is already made half easy by the fact that people are actively looking for Black Friday deals. What you need to do is to throw yourself into the ongoing conversation. Make it clear to people that you will be offering online deals throughout the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, and they will remember you when the time comes.
- Use your Facebook Page to promote your Black Friday deals. Again, emphasis should be on telling people that they can get deals both on and offline. Remember we are talking about the impact of the Coronavirus on businesses here. Not many people are going to be willing to queue outside your store to buy from you. So, you need to innovate. Let them queue on Facebook.
- Run Facebook Ads to further the hype around your business and the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals that you are offering. Remember we noted here that you should turn the entire event into a Cyber Weekend. Facebook Ads are a great way of reaching out to people. The great thing about Facebook Ads is the fact that you can be very precise in the people that you reach. That’s what makes Facebook Ads highly successful.
Look Beyond Black Friday and Cyber Monday
A good Black Friday and Cyber Monday strategy can help grow your business
If you are like every other business person who is out there, you will be wondering when the Covid 19 pandemic will come to an end. When the disease first struck, people had very high hopes that a vaccine was around the corner.
However, that has proven not to be the case. In fact, chances are very high that Covid 19 will remain a blight upon the world well into the year 2021. Many countries that were initially optimistic about reopening have had to scale back after the disease showed signs of coming back with a vengeance.
In this regard, Covid 19 is likely to become a world changing event. That’s not only because it has killed so many people; at the time of writing this article, the number of people who had died stood at a staggering 1 million.
Covid 19 is an enduring phenomenon not only because of that, but also because it has had such a profound effect on the way in which people around the world perceive and interact with one another. The business world is likely to be the most affected in this regard.
So, restaurants having people order meals online is not likely to end with the end of the disease. The world has, all along, been trekking towards more and more e-commerce. The pandemic has only reinforced this trend. Businesses that have previously held out now need to use this opportunity to move with the tide.
Summary
It’s clear that businesses around the world need to embarrass the opportunities that are offered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Yes, the impact in terms of human life has been torrid. And yes, businesses have suffered greatly due to lost sales. However, the enforced social distancing is a chance for businesses to embrace the power of eCommerce.
This coming Black Friday and Cyber Monday are likely to see the biggest online sales ever. That’s because people are unlikely to be willing to spend hours queuing outside shops as they have traditionally done on Black Friday. Instead, they will do their shopping online. So, as a business, you need to make sure that you take your offers there.
One challenge when it comes to this is to find the right place to do your marketing. In this article, I gave you the example of Facebook Marketing. Facebook is one of the best places as far as doing your marketing for Black Friday is concerned.
If you need help, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. Facebook Marketing is one of my specialties and I can help you get the right audience on the platform to keep your business going in these difficult times.
