With consumers needing to turn to all things digital in the last few months of 2020, it’s a no-brainer that this holiday season (including Black Friday & Cyber Monday) is going to be unlike any other we’ve experienced!

Think about it – the more in-person shopping is limited, the more potential online shoppers there’ll be.

And as such, competition is going to be FIERCE to promote your best deal of the YEAR!

With retail giants Amazon and Walmart looking to kick off their holiday shopping sales by mid-October, it’s imperative that you’re ready to CRUSH sales with a holiday season digital marketing strategy.

To ensure you’re armed and ready, we enlisted the help of Black Friday Legend, Andy Franco, and Digital Distillery Pro (formerly FATC) coach, Eddy Gaur.

1. 🗓 QUICKSTART = LONG REWARD 💸

Two of the best pieces of advice we can give you is:

• Launch your marketing strategy as early as possible. As in, YESTERDAY!   

Your holiday season digital marketing strategy should include social proof and proven creatives. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel or test new things within the week of Black Friday. Launch with your best creatives – what you know your audience gravitates towards and you’re able to optimize! 

From your Facebook ad creative to email marketing campaigns, when it comes to designing your creatives, ensure that there is continuity from a design perspective (look, feel, offer info) across all forms. 

The reason for this is because research has shown that it can take potential customers up to 5-12 times of seeing your ads before they pull the purchase trigger. 

TIP: If you’re looking for ideas on creatives, check out ThinkWithGoogle and Facebook’s Ad Library. Also, with Facebook doing away with their 20% text on image rule, you’ll be allowed to add the actual offer to the artwork (if that works with your audience).

• Your BFCM deal can literally make or break your Holiday Season Digital Marketing Strategy
  

It’s a good idea to start testing mini sales (that won’t break the bank), ad copy & creative, and use the data to craft the most compelling offer for your target audience. 

Andy finds that creating one solid offer for Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) has helped his clients maximize their efforts and prevents the BFCM marketing team from having to do too much work on the backend. 

Note: Essential to note for your holiday season digital marketing strategy is that even though Black Friday gets the most hype, Cyber Monday has historically been the biggest spending day as consumers hold back from purchasing in fear that a better deal is lurking around the corner.

PLUS, starting early gives you the ability to:

• Have conversations with your clients about expectations and budgets
• Warm-up your audience and move them further along your funnel 
• Ensure creatives you’re using are proven and easier to scale in your holiday season digital marketing strategy
• Sell to your cold audience and entice them with retargeting ads to come back to your site when the big days hit
• Get your ads approved by Facebook – even if you can’t launch them until the day, ensure they’re approved at least a week before and turn them off quickly until you’re ready to hit ‘Publish’
• Create a retargeting campaign that focuses on those who Added To Cart (ATC) in the last 14 days (leading up to BF) and offer them a discount if your budget allows 

2. Out With The Cold 🌨, In With The… Remarketing 

TOF campaigns are important to increase brand awareness and get leads into your funnel to later remarket. A great way to do this is by running branded video campaigns as part of your holiday season digital marketing strategy. 

About two weeks before Black Friday pops up (when CPMS starts to rise), Andy recommends switching off your TOF campaigns and only focusing your marketing efforts on MOF and closing BOF leads.

Use your best performing/engaging Facebook, Instagram, and or website content at MOF to further warm up your audience. 

A rule of thumb is to spend at least 40% of your budget within BOF. The split should look something like this (please note that the below should be individualized to your ad campaigns):

PRIOR TO THE BLACK FRIDAY PERIOD (>2 weeks)

TOF: 30% 

MOF: 30% 

BOF: 40%

 

TWO WEEKS BEFORE (<2 weeks)

TOF: 0% 

MOF: 30% 

BOF: 70%

It’s also important to launch branded search keywords and remarketing campaigns on Google as well. Failure to do so can result in money being left on the table.

TIP: Check the spending amount each day. If Facebook is spending all of your BOF budget, then it means that the platform is hungry for more ka-ching!

3. Think BFCM > Think Mobile > Think Convert on Desktop! 📲

Research has shown that 70% of online BFCM search traffic is driven from mobile and that research is happening earlier and earlier each year.

And since individuals usually use their mobile phones to do research and later convert on Desktop after seeing retargeting ads, Andy and Eddy recommend that you spend the time now (in October) to:

• Check mobile page load time – it should be around the 4-second mark
• Double-check the customer journey from a UI and UX perspective. Your customers shouldn’t need to jump through hoops to reach your checkout page. 
• Ensure that your hosting service provider can keep up with the higher traffic demands
• Make sure that your sales funnel, pixels, analytics tracking, and product catalogs are firing every other week 

TIP! Now is usually the time that changes or new pages are created on eCommerce stores so it’s essential to double-check EVERY. THING before and during the launch of your holiday season digital marketing strategy!

4. 🔥 Drip it like it’s hot 🔥

Drip email marketing campaigns are essential for every BFCM seller looking to CRUSH their holiday season digital marketing strategy.

But what Andy and Eddy have found is that most sellers are concerned that sending too many emails will bombard their email list.

Something essential to note is that if your cold email list is not ready to purchase during BFCM, then they most likely never will be. 

NB: It’s costing you money having people on your email list who aren’t inclined to purchase during the holiday season.

To get the most out of your email marketing campaigns, Andy recommends sending at least 1 email a day, 7-10 days before the Black Friday/Cyber Monday period. 

And on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, be sure to up the ante to at least 2 emails a day. 

TIP: 👀 Use emojis in subject lines to attract eyeballs 👀. You could even go as far as segmenting your lists and crafting offers and messages specific to behavior.

For example, if you’ve found that individuals haven’t opened up emails within the last 90 days or so, create a more lucrative offer for them to a) reengage them and b) turn them into shoppers.

5. FIND YOUR TRUE NORTH 🧭

One of the key parts of a successful holiday season digital marketing strategy comes down to identifying your goals and using it as a guide to check if you’re on track.

Ideas of goals could include:

• Increasing average order value (AOV) through upsells
• Selling out a particular product line

Whatever it is, jot it down and make sure the rest of your marketing efforts drive those goals.

📈 TEAR A SHEET OUT OF OUR HOLIDAY SEASON DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY 

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