Is the thought of black Friday, cyber Monday, kind of stressing you out? I’m sharing five different types of sales and ways to make it not quite so daunting this holiday season.
There's been a lot of talk about Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday, in my Enamel Pins:101 group, both in Facebook and in our monthly coaching calls, so I thought it would be a good idea to give a broad overview and share a few different types of sales that you can do during that weekend.
I have been doing Black Friday sales since 2006, so I have a variety of experiences to draw on from that decade + a couple of years. This season is different for everyone and what works for one business owner and their customers might not work for someone. I want to give you some options and let you choose for yourself what works best for you.
Which day should I have a sale?
The question I get most often is: Is it better to have a sale on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday?
There are a few options. You can either pick one day and go for it and just have your sale only available during that 24 hours. This creates a lot of really good urgency for your customers and you know that one day is going to be really good.
You can also choose to do it over the course of a few days. If you choose to do a sale from Friday through Monday then just have an announcement somewhere in your shop. That way if anyone comes by during that weekend, there will be a discount for them no matter what day they show up.
So I think choosing between those two is a good way to go. I don't think either one is better than the other. It all depends on how you promote it to your audience and the type of deal that you have. You can also test it over the years to see what your audience responds to.
You could also just flip the script and do it during a totally different time. Have your “Black Friday” sale, but have it the weekend before or the weekend after if you want to avoid the madness completely. I wouldn't push it back too far into December because then you'll getting into shipping issues. If you want people to be able to get their stuff in time for Christmas, or whatever holiday they are celebrating, I would probably suggest doing it before the Black Friday rush. I've seen some people who have a November birthday they'll have their big sale during that time.
I do like to capitalize on the weekend because I feel like, um, there will be people coming to look for deals specifically. So I like having something for my customers on Black Friday, but that's just my personal preference. So whenever you choose to do it, as long as you prep your audience, as long as they know what to expect, I think you'll be okay.
What kind of sale should I have?
Okay. So let's get into the different types of promos you can do. I have experience with all of these and I would recommend any of them. It all depends on your personal preference.
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PERCENTAGE OFF
The obvious option is the percentage off. This is a blanket percent off for a whole day or the whole weekend. You can do this with no minimum purchase price necessary or require a specific amount purchased before the discount kicks in. Quick tip for minimum purchases, if you want to go that route, I would look through your analytics and see what your average purchase is and then make that minimum requirement a little bit higher. This way you're encouraging people to spend a little bit more in order to get the discount.
When you're deciding on a discount, do not price yourself out. I have made this mistakes before. You are a small business. You are a single person. I am one human being that is running my entire shop by myself. You have to be able to pay yourself. You have to be able to recoup your costs and everything you put into your business.
So don't make your discount too low. I don't going any higher than 25% now. Yes, there are big box stores that will flash 40, 50, 60, 70% off. We are not those places. Our customers know we are not those places. So just be sure if you are doing a percentage discount, don't go too low. Value your work !
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TIERED DISCOUNT
There are a couple of different ways to approach this. First, you can create a discount gets a little bit lower each day. So say on black Friday you wanna do 25% percent off, Small Biz Saturday is 20% off and then Sunday is 15% and Cyber Monday is 10%. There’s a lot of urgency to get things on Friday, but they're still going to get a percentage off no matter when they find you during the weekend.
You can also do a tier that has to do with the price. This means, for example, if they spend $50 they’ll get 15% off, if they spend $75 they’ll get 20% off and $100 will get them 25% off. The more you spend the more you save.
There needs to be a lot of communication with this one because it’s a little more detailed. I love these types of promos personally. SoKo Glam has done these in the past I’m all about adding more to my cart when they do!
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FREEBIES
Free stuff with purchase is always a good idea! Some ideas for things to offer as freebies: seconds pin, locking backs, stickers, a pin, prints, washi tape, any other product in your shop that you feel comfortable and can afford to include.
You can either set it to trigger the freebie when your customer purchases a minimum amount or just have it available with no minimum. No minimum is great because you don't have to deal with any discount codes if you don't want to. You'll just know if they bought on that specific date you’ll know to put the freebie in their package.
That's a good promo to do throughout the year and you don't want to deal with a discount or you just don't like doing discounts. I know a lot of people don't do discounts at all in their shops and that's totally fine.
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FREE FOR ALL
The last type is just kind of a free for all. Maybe on Black Friday you offer your discount. Then, on Saturday, you offer a free second pin with purchase. And then maybe on Sunday you'll do a mystery freebie. So you can have fun and figure out which things draw in your customers. So that's a good way to test what works or if you just want to have fun!
What do I need to do to get ready?
So now you know what promo you want to do and now it's time to get ready for said promo.
So the first thing you need to make sure you have under control is your shipping. Make sure you have all of the like, mailers, all of your packaging, any of your business cards, whatever you put in there, make sure you have it ready. You don't want to be left in the lurch when you have a bunch of orders come in and you’re out of envelops. You want to ship out as quickly as possible and not have to worry about waiting for new shipping boxes. So make sure you have that ordered now.
Secondly, I recommend you get all of your social media posts and your emails written ahead of time. Takes some time to write out your promo emails and plan out what kind of posts do you want publish to Instagram.
I'm actually write out the caption and have them ready to go. That way you are not scrambling at all during the big weekend. I like to be able to be online and be available for my customers if they have any questions. Because, inevitably they'll come in and you just want to be able to like sit back, take care of your customers, watch the sales come in and not have to worry about what to post on IG. YGet all of that stuff ready ahead of time.
I recommend sending an email that talks about what sale you're going to have, so get them ready for it and email on the first and last days of the sale.
And then post like you normally would on IG with some bonus stories and maybe a couple more posts a day to make sure everyone has seen what you’re offering. I have a whole webinar about how to grow your following with lots of tips about what to post, pictures to take, and how to write engaging captains captions. So be sure to check that out so you can be increasing your following before the weekend and know what to post during the weekend.
Celebrate your wins!
And the last things I want you to do after black Friday is all done:
First - Take note of how much you made. If you did different discounts on different days, check out how much you made so you can take note of that for next year. It's always good to be prepared and be able to compare year to year and then celebrate.
Second - I want you to take a minute, take a breath, be proud of yourself for surviving the weekend and for doing as well as you did because I know you're going to do awesome! Take a minute to truly celebrate it. Treat yourself to something, even if it's something little but make it something special because it's going to be crazy until the last shipping day in December. So take a minute to just take a breath and be excited for what you've accomplished and then get back to work.
Okay, so now you have five different types of promos to choose from when considering what to do for Black Friday, and you've got some ideas of what you need to do to prepare for that. I definitely think you should do what feels good. Do what feels right for you and your shop and your audience.
Everyone is different. Do not compare yourself to anyone else and what they're doing. There's enough to stress out about during the holidays, so don't let comparison add to pile. Prepare ahead of time, make your decisions and execute. You can do this. I don't ever like to leave things, to the last minute and stress about it because there's no need for that. You can take care of it now and feel confident in your decisions now and then let it go and then reap the rewards and it'll be awesome.
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