Not all businesses can match the deals that larger big box chains can offer on Black Friday, but all businesses face the same challenges in liquidating older inventory, posting a profit and acquiring new customers. Small businesses and entrepreneurs can cash in on Black Friday and I’ll share a six powerful suggestions that you can do today so your business can be on your customer’s minds.
Black Friday has been around many years, but if you don’t know the etymology of the phrase, it originated when consumers would converge in the city and cause traffic jams when retailers opened and closed. Though, the context has been adapted to modern-day logic on why retailers mark prices down (even accepting marginal losses) — selling on volume and clearing inventory to push their books from red to black all in a day’s work.
In recent years, with the aid of the Internet, many Black Friday ads and special offers become leaked (or carefully released to viral audiences) resulting in people strategizing their day of lower-cost merchandise, hoarding even, across multiple merchants. It’s a buyer’s market here. Trust me, those “leaked” ads aren’t leaked; well-timed in fact; it’s kibble for the engaged shoppers to nom on.
What I’m saying is, if you ever wanted a green light to push attractive and relevant sales offers on prospects, now is the time! Most people this week tolerate sales specials from retailers in their inbox when it’s relevant. Be responsible with this rare opportunity.
As we slowly rebound from a depressed economy, Black Friday is a big deal (nice pun, eh?) for people looking to stretch their dollar further. It’s the Super Bowl for retailers to prove their inventory, prices and marketing will hold their weight. Considering holidays account for 40% of sales activity for retailers, it’s a big deal that retailers make every strong attempt to engage customers.
Cashing in on Black Friday (for Small Businesses):
- Alert Customers to Helpful Black Friday Deals from Big-Boxes. Doing this will position you as knowledgeable and advocating for their overall success when sleuthing for sweet deals on Black Friday. Consider your customers’ interests and cherry-pick deals that make sense to them.
- Make a Compelling Sales Offer for Black Friday Specials. If you’re planning to run a Black Friday deal, make it truly compelling … even take a small loss for it. The goal is to reward engagement. But what if you don’t know what kind of deal to run …
- Don’t Only Focus on Price. While several offers made on Black Friday focus strongly on price, don’t let it inhibit you from delivering value. Price is only as good as the value it provides, so feel gutsy and creative and offer bold warranties, in-store credit, helpful installation (live support), payment plans and even raffles for bigger and better things.
- Watch Closely What Competitors are Doing. This is critical if you want to be effective. Nothing is more relevant than not doing what everyone else is. Why just discount the cost of an item; you can roll a bundle of helpful products and services in an attractive and affordable option for customers on the edge of purchasing.
- Follow Up! Alright, nothing is more lame than not following up with customers or prospects who have taken action. Go the extra mile and ensure that they got all their needs met. With Infusionsoft, you can effortlessly use Trackable Links to tie actions to them such as a reminder on your dashboard for follow-up on Monday morning.
- Break the Rules. Anyone who knows me knows that I can justify breaking the rules for any reason. Break the rules of offer dates and even warranties – in favor of the customer. This is a great way to take an uncomfortable situation to be one they can be proud of that they can tell friends and family about. Of course, be sensible about this so you don’t augment your guidelines in favor of pleasing everyone.
With these six pieces of advice to make Black Friday a great opportunity for your small business, you will at least be in front of your customers when they whip out their credit cards, possibly even when they start talking with their friends about special deals. Missed Black Friday? There’s Cyber Monday to follow, so make certain your marketing campaigns are tested and ready to follow-up and sell.
You will also learn more about your customers and what matters to them. Does it matter if you make a ton of new sales or even just one – no – it matters that you made a solid attempt at helping to empower prospects and customers to take advantage of a buying opportunity.
What are you doing Black Friday? Let us know in the comments!
