Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year. In 2023 over $70 Billion was spent globally. If we consider the whole Cyber Week that number swelled to almost $300 Billion.
Whether you are an online business or a physical shop, Black Friday is not to be taken lightly: if played correctly it can boost your revenues by quite a lot.
But with such an opportunity you can be sure that many other businesses will do everything they can to get a piece of the cake. That’s why it is not only important to prepare compelling sales and discounts but promotion and marketing are even more crucial.
Preparing campaigns through traditional channels like TV commercials, billboards, or even online ads can be cost-prohibitive and almost ineffective during Cyber Week due to audience over-exposure. Meanwhile, influencer marketing lets you reach your target audience through a trusted source and is effective in creating pre-sales anticipation, and urgency on the event days resulting in a force multiplier for your sale.
The Black Friday/Cyber Week Phenomenon
The term Black Friday was originally used to indicate days of financial turmoil in the US, especially the collapse of gold prices of 1869 which left many investors in ruin.
By the 50’s the term started being used by retailers to indicate the Friday after Thanksgiving, a day in which workers were more likely to call in sick and spend it shopping with their families.
Since the 80’s its use has become widespread and indicates the start of the Christmas shopping season.
In order to maximize the opportunity retailers organize large sales and on that day to draw crowds to their shops.
From 2005 the event has been followed by Cyber Monday, later often expanded to Cyber Week. Similar to Black Friday, Cyber Monday is composed of substantial discounts offered by online retailers on their stock.
Black Friday in Numbers
- $70.9 Billion spent online globally on Black Friday
- 76.2 million US shoppers went to brick-and-mortar locations on Black Friday making it the most popular day for in-store shopping.
- 90.6 million US consumers decided to shop online on Black Friday, making it also the most popular day for online shopping.
- Across Cyber Week consumers spent an average of $321.41 each.
- Almost 70% of consumers’ spending is on gifts.
- Social media drew 5 times more online traffic than digital and email advertising.
Why Influencer Marketing on Black Friday?
Influencers are a perfect marketing medium to get the best out of your Black Friday campaign. Their content can be perfectly timed to hit your customers exactly when the deals start. But they can also be used to create anticipation for what is coming.
While none of us would think to wake up and right away go watch some commercials most of us check our favorite social media first thing in the morning. Being able to connect with your customers right away in a special period like Cyber Week is going to help them retain your message and can even push a sense of urgency.
Influencers are highly trusted figures in the eyes of many followers: their recommendations are taken with a much higher degree of trust than the ones of a random spokesperson.
In the case of Cyber Week influencers can be great for conveying “insider scoops” kind of messages and pointing their audience to less noticeable deals that may be much more appetizing for their interests.
Too late to harvest the best out of Cyber Week? No problem! Read how to get the best from the holiday season.
Preparing for the Cyber Week
A well-crafted influencer campaign can bring attention and interest to your Black Friday deals long before is time for them to hit the shelves.
To bring all the eyeballs on you the moment Cyber Week starts is advantageous to tease what is to come in the weeks that lead to it. To achieve this goal you can partner with influencers to create content that establishes your name in the mind of future customers.
While these can sound like just an awareness campaign, it does not have to be: the collaborations can be tailored to foreshadow what is in the plans for the Black Friday period.
With many retailers trying to anticipate the effects of Cyber Week by starting their promotion earlier (but often not as effectively) anyone can see how just building excitement for what is to come can be a great tactic to distinguish from the pack.
Partnering with content creators in the weeks leading to Black Friday can be used to give a sneak peek of what is coming. Often Cyber Week is used by shops to get rid of their old stock therefore creating content that highlights what will be available works to create anticipation in the customers.
But of course, you can also use creators to follow the trend and anticipate the discounts creating exclusive deals for their followers that can be portrayed as better than the ones on Cyber Week.
Leveraging Influencer Reach on Black Friday
Having an influencer campaign set up for starting exactly on Black Friday means that you are going to reach them exactly when they are going to shop. Most social media users use their favorite platforms multiple times a day. All of these are perfect occasions to connect with them.
Setting up campaigns that are multifaceted and include not only posts but also stories and live streams is going to provide you with full coverage of social media and create many more touch points for your audience
Live streams can be particularly effective. With the emergence of social shopping live streams not only bring more attention to your deals but they become an additional selling channel. Viewers can purchase from the links you provide, eliminating friction or extra steps.
Influencers can interact with the audience and inform them about your promotion in a more organic and less pushy way, while also targeting who they are specifically talking with.
Stories include a temporal aspect to the promotion, they guarantee high reach, and they communicate urgency.
Amplifying Promotions and Deals Effectiveness During Cyber Week
While large companies and retail chains have the means to create multichannel campaigns that carpet bomb their potential customers at different moments of the day and through different mediums, smaller and emerging brands often cannot afford such marketing efforts.
But influencers can be a perfect, and affordable, alternative. Thanks to their social media presence they are very likely to reach their audience almost immediately, plus they can offer access to very specific audiences who can be targeted with targeted content.
An upcoming brand can decide to activate anywhere from one to tens of creators right on Black Friday or Cyber Week with each creator promoting specific deals that are more akin to their audience interests. Due to the modularity and versatility of this kind of campaign, there is no need for a large initial investment or a long-term commitment.
The content and formats of the ads can also be tailored to the audience to better represent the products and connect with their needs. Unboxings, hauls, and product demos are all tested formats that can compel your audience to make a purchase but you can switch up the game and brainstorm with the individual creators to create unconventional and never-seen-before approaches.
Too early to think about Cyber Week? Look at some spookily effective Halloween influencer campaigns.
How to Drive Conversions Fast
For many marketing campaigns and mediums repetition is a key point with customers expected to complete a purchase only after up to 9 times they encounter the brand message. Influencer marketing can be easily integrated with sales channels, think of links to store and social commerce tools, and has a timely element that no other channel has.
Tools like Stories have an inherited ephemeral element built in, creating a sense of urgency and exclusivity that not many marketing channels can rival. Is the temporal element that will be a prime catalyst for conversions on short-term promotions like the one on Black Friday.
By timing the release of the collaborations immediately before the start of the promotions you can expect to reach your audience and convey a sense of urgency and exclusivity that can make a huge impact on their purchase decision cycle.
Conclusion
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are a unique opportunity for brands and retailers to drive sales and engagement right before the end of the year.
While large companies and retailers will engage in multichannel marketing campaigns that may last for a month or more, smaller brands can be extremely beneficial to rely on micro-influencers to accurately target their desired audience with personalized messaging.
Well-crafted and targeted influencer campaigns are able to capture the attention of the audience with messages that convey the immediacy of the opportunity and be a great incentive for a purchase.
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