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It’s never too early for a business to start thinking about events across the year that are designed to bring in more sales — think of Black Friday weekend (including Cyber Monday) and something that we all look forward to — Christmas sales! To investigate further, we’ve teamed up with Cleveland College of Art and Design, which offer a digital arts degree, to look at the comparison of marketing techniques around seasonal campaigns.
To understand the details of sales around specific events, we bring you what you need to know regarding sales patterns across two years for both Black Friday and Boxing Day.
The power of Black Friday for businesses
Making small waves in the UK in 2010, Black Friday was a holiday only recognised in the USA after Thanksgiving celebrations. In 2010, Amazon introduced ‘Black Friday discounts’ to its British consumers, which then had a snowball effect. Now, most retailers around Britain battle for consumer attention — and whether they’re successful or not comes down to their advertising techniques. There are various Black Friday marketing tips you can employ to help your company see a larger return on investment.
One advantage that many businesses see in the lead up to Black Friday is consumer excitement — before any sales announcement is made by a business, consumers are already expecting it and have that date already saved in their diary. It proves the perfect opportunity for consumers to get goods at a discounted price. November is the new December! Consumers are looking for the best deals that will potentially go towards Christmas presents for loved ones — and that third cousin who buys for you, so you feel obliged to return the favour! Whatever the scenario, Black Friday has managed to market itself organically in the minds of British consumers.
Black Friday sales seem to be increasing over time, in 2016 customers spend a total of £1.23bn, a 12.2% increase on 2015. In 2015, £1.1bn was spent on Black Friday in the UK. The day after saw shoppers spend £561m with sales that continued across the weekend. Sunday saw a higher result of spend in Britain with consumers cashing out £676m. Cyber Monday, which has close ties to the Black Friday event, saw £968m worth of shopping.
Research from Ometria shows that in 2017 the amount of orders made on Black Friday were up by 9%! The same source revealed that revenue increased for companies by 10% over the Black Friday weekend showing that this is a great marketing opportunity for businesses. In terms of advertising, mass emails accounted for 50% more total revenue than usual.
One store that showed a high increase on Black Friday was department store John Lewis, who generated £214m across the weekend showing a 7.2% increase on 2016. Products that sold well included those relating to beauty, with sales going up to 27.5%. Electrical products went up by 9.3% and women’s fashion by 8.3%.
Is Boxing Day still relevant to UK consumers?
Another day that is prominent in British shoppers’ diaries is Boxing Day, an excuse to buy as many products one likes to take into the new year at a discounted price. This is an event that happens across different British territories, too. However, many people believe that the introduction of Black Friday in the UK has had a huge impact on Boxing Day sales.
Boxing Day was the most popular day for sales here in Britain and it’s a day that never changes — but is it still as effective? It seems like the anticipation for Boxing Day sales has vanished with the introduction of Black Friday.
Over time, Boxing Day sales seem to be dropping — with only 23% of people going out to grab discounted products, showing a 9% decrease on 2015. Is it possible consumers already snapped up the best deals from the Black Friday sales that occurred a month earlier? The research shows that this was the likely cause. Boxing Day sales in 2016 had dipped by 6.7% on 2015’s results. This included clothing stores, where they had a small drop of 3.2%.
What strategies should businesses use around these types of events?
Marketing for different events across the year can be very similar but can be achieved through different methods. It’s important to start with email marketing and communicating with your current newsletter subscribers first. They were kind enough to give you their details, now it’s your duty to give them a light and ‘exclusive’ reminder that your store will be providing sales on the corresponding date that you’re wanting to promote.
Sending one email will not be instantly absorbed into the minds of your audience — your first email should be your bargaining chip, inform your email listees that you’re going to be releasing a great discount code in the run up, and that they should look out for it — creating a more exclusive feeling. After you’ve sent your first, the news that your store will be offering discounts will travel through word of mouth and potentially get coverage from bloggers and seasonal discount posts by larger publications. We recommend that you start your email advertising at the beginning of November for Black Friday and mid-December for Boxing Day sales, which doesn’t give your consumers too much of a long wait. According to Custora, 25.1% of Black Friday sales originated from email marketing, showing that this is a beneficial way to influence an audience.
If you’re a company that operates around the world, and have your email list linked up, you need to send your emails at an appropriate time to ensure your message doesn’t end up at the bottom of somebody’s inbox. It’s also important to use language which will equal an action such as “Save the date!” or “Add this to your calendar”. Remember that you could create a segmentation for different customers, those who have been loyal and those who are relatively new — the same campaign targeting two types of people in different styles.
Using social media is a powerful way to advertise for a business. With 2.07 billion of monthly active users on Facebook, 800 million on Instagram and 330 million monthly active users on Twitter — it would be a mistake to ignore the huge opportunity that comes with a free platform that provides the potential to reach millions of people. When it comes to advertising, start organically and reach your current followers. As the date comes closer, whether this is the 24th of November or 26th of December, start paid promotions to increase awareness for the deals that you have. Using influencers is another good way to get brand recognition, however, this is highly dependent on the type of industry you are operating in.
Advanced preparation is vital, followed by a method of advertising when the event looms closer is most effective. Once you start advertising, people will be able to become more familiar with your brand and start looking at reviews. Online reputation becomes crucial at this point, as 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business and 88% of consumers trust online reviews as if they were coming from a friend.
Sources:
http://www.netimperative.com/2016/12/black-friday-uk-stats-12-increase-last-year-lower-forecast/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/shopping-deals/boxing-day-sales-see-drop-9523742
