I know, I know, we haven’t even got through Halloween yet but your organisation should think about how to get the most from Black Friday now. Last year in the UK, online traffic for Black Friday increased by 46% compared to the previous year, so a strategic campaign should be in place to get as many sales as possible. Here are some less obvious tips to maximise your returns during this over-the-top mega sale.

1. Create excitement before Black Friday

It’s not enough to make your campaign go live from Black Friday itself. Let people know in advance when the event will happen and make them salivate with anticipation. Tease your audience with previews of popular products that will be in the sale. Feature a daily countdown on social media, your home page and your Black Friday landing page. Engage your fans by asking them which products they are hoping to see in the sale. Write in-depth reviews or FAQs on products that will appear in the sale in your blog.

2. Recycle last year’s landing page

Save yourself some time – don’t bother creating a new landing page for this year’s Black Friday event. Reuse last year’s one and benefit from the SEO value already built up. Making your brand easier to find on Google is very important on such a competitive occasion. Before the event is live, ask users to put down their email address if they want to receive an email reminder when Black Friday happens. This gives you the quick bonus of growing your email list.

3. Reward your email list

Email subscribers are the best – they make your job just that little bit easier. Everyone expects to get the usual Black Friday notification emails at this time. Give your brand an advantage by rewarding subscribers’ loyalty with an additional offer. This could be a discount, free delivery or a freebie that they claim when they make a Black Friday purchase. This will encourage users to be more likely to buy something, especially if they were on the fence before.

4. Bring back your lapsed customers

There are infinite reasons why you have lapsed customers. Create an email segment based on those who have not made a purchase from your brand for 6 – 12 months. Send them a personalised message to let them know that they have not been forgotten and they have been missed. On top of the standard Black Friday saving, give them an extra incentive to buy from you. As with your email list, discounts, free delivery and freebies are all good ideas. If they buy something from you, they should have an amazing experience and want to repeat the process again

5. Introduce cart abandonment offers

Sometimes, all you need is that extra push. This year, the average shopping cart abandonment rate is 67.91%. That’s more than two thirds of potential customers adding products to their shopping cart but then deciding against buying anything! These are the most popular reasons:

You can help mitigate this by installing an exit intent pop-up that gives the user an offer. As unexpected costs are listed as the top reason to close the window, why not get rid of them? Offering free shipping in the exit intent pop up so the customer doesn’t have to factor in excessive delivery charges.

Couple these handy tips with a strategic multi-channel marketing campaign and you should see your results improve over last year’s. This can be a stressful time of year so ensure you have great communications, a website ready to handle huge amounts of traffic and – where possible – have fun!