Black Friday is this Friday and Cyber Monday is next week! Hopefully, you’ve planned an email marketing campaign to take advantage of the big event.
This year on the MailPoet blog, we’re taking a different route. In this post, we’re going to cover some nontraditional tactics for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There are already a million articles out there about Cyber Monday strategies, so we wanted to do something different. That’s right – we’re going full-on hipster. Normal tactics need not apply.
Looking for more vanilla tips? Check out our post from last year, a 15-point post from SellBrite, or a really detailed guide by Optimizely.
Skip the rush
The days leading up to and after Black Friday/Cyber Monday are full of emails. Your subscribers receive roughly 12-15 emails per day in the lead up to the sales day. That’s a whole heck of a lot of emails. It’s very likely that your deal will get lost in their inbox.
Instead, try skipping Black Friday / Cyber Monday entirely. Run your deal offer a week before or a week after. You’ll stand out from all of your competitors (and annoy your users less, as well!)
Don’t sell anything!
Last year (and again this year), the outdoor apparel company REI did the unthinkable – they closed their stores on Black Friday! They also shut down their website and didn’t accept any orders.
The result? Their social media campaign (called “OptOutside”) blew up on the web. REI’s idea was to encourage their customers to go outside rather than go shopping. A genius idea for an outdoor apparel company, indeed.
Can you implement a similar strategy? Try to think of a creative way to “do the unthinkable” and have no sales on Cyber Monday while simultaneously marketing your business.
Host a live event (with chat)
Black Friday / Cyber Monday emails are often very impersonal. After all, they are purely about selling and (not always) about giving useful content to your subscribers.
One way to combat this perception is to have a live chat on the day of the sale. By “hanging out” on your site during the day, you’ll help to dispel the idea you only care about your subscribers’ wallets.
I recommend the plugin WP Live Chat Support. It works directly on your WordPress site, so your customers won’t need to visit an external application.
Partner with a good cause
Finally, you can draw extra interest to your Cyber Monday deal by partnering with a nonprofit, charity, or other good cause. By tying your offer directly to a good cause, you will increase the likelihood of a purchase. Aim to make the partnership specific and cumulative; for example, for every product you sell, you’ll donate $5 to the charity.
For bonus points, include the deal in the subject line of your email. It will greatly increase your open rates, as everyone loves to hear a good story!