Black Friday is just around the corner and there some essential marketing strategies you should implement before it starts to achieve maximum sales.
Building up your email list, planning out your email blasts, building a cart abandonment plan, and taking advantage of segmentation are crucial to boosting your sales.
Regardless of whether you’re selling a product, membership, service or something different, these are five Black Friday strategies that you’ll want to implement on your WordPress site ASAP.
1. Pre-Black Friday Opt-in Popup
It’s no secret that when the month of November rolls around, potential customers are on the lookout for some deals. Customers will hold tight to their wallets until sales begin.
Creating a pre-sale Black Friday popup is a super effective way to build your list ahead of the sale, giving subscribers an opportunity to subscribe so they can be notified when the deal starts.
This ensures that when they are doing their sleuthing, they won’t forget about you when the time comes.
Using HollerBox, or another popup plugin, you’ll want to include:
- An email optin field
- A graphic including dates and some details about the deal
The popup can look something like this:
On the back end of Groundhogg, you’ll want to connect this information to a funnel. Anyone with the appropriate tag will get an email after filling out the form.
The email can look something like this:
Afterwards, you can send them follow-up emails when your deal goes live to encourage them to purchase.
2. Upselling and Cross-Selling With Funnels
When it comes to Black Friday, you don’t want to be leaving money on the table. You can use email automation to really help push people to upgrade their orders.
There are two strategies you can use to get more money through your Black Friday WordPress site sales: upselling and cross-selling. Here’s what you need to know.
Cross-Selling
Cross-selling is the art of getting customers to spend more by purchasing multiple related products.
Examples of this could be to buy your plan, but you also offer a bigger deal if they purchase your support and training package on top.
Or, if you are selling baking products you could run a deal where if someone buys a baking tray, they could also save 10% off if they purchase baking liners.
In order to create a funnel for a cross-selling promotion, in Groundhogg you’ll want to add a tag to people who have purchased your base product.
Once the base product is purchased, an automated email can be sent that encourages your user to purchase the other product. You’ll want to make sure that there is a time limit on the deal, to give customers the incentive to act fast.
An example of this can look like:
Afterwards, you can send two other follow-up emails to remind them of the deal. The content can look the same, but you’ll want to change the subject lines. Here are some examples for your next two emails:
SUBJECT: 3 Hours Left to Add “Premium Support” at 30% For Black Friday Special
SUBJECT: Last Chance To Add “Premium Support” For 30% Off, Black Friday Only
If a customer purchases the product, you can give them the tag “purchased support” to end the funnel early so they don’t receive the rest of the emails.
Upselling
Upselling is similar to cross-selling. The term is used when you’re getting customers to spend more on a superior product.
Examples of this could be encouraging customers to purchase the pro plan instead of the basic plan. Or, purchasing the extended cookbook with extra dessert recipes, as opposed to the regular cookbook.
In order to create a funnel to help upsell to your customers, you’ll want to start with a “purchased base product” tag and end with a “purchased upsell product.”
Once someone buys your base product, you’ll want to follow up with an email to encourage them to upgrade. It could look something like this:
Just like cross-selling, you’ll follow up with a few more emails before the sale ends. The content can be fairly similar, with changing subject lines.
SUBJECT: Are you sure you don’t want access to EVERYTHING?? Get it now, 30% for the next 3 hours (Black Friday Only)
SUBJECT: Last Chance to get access to everything at 30% off, Black Friday ONLY
3. Activate your list with an email series
Depending on how often you communicate with your list, it may require a little bit of warming them up before you can expect to email them offers and ask them to buy something.
By creating an email series you can see a 20-30% open rate and click-through rates around 15-25%. So it’s definitely worth putting the effort in.
In order to pique your readers’ interest, it’s best to send them out a series of emails to get them hyped about your deals! Here’s an example of an eight-part series that will activate your subscriber base. (It’s important to note that depending on your business and what you’re selling, you’ll want to tweak these to give them your own feel.)
You’ll start by creating each of these emails in Groundhogg and schedule them as Broadcast Emails on the date mentioned. You’ll send them to anyone who has not purchased the product you plan on selling (unless it’s a consumable/repurchaseable product.)
Email 1: Reminder we exist & build curiosity!
On November 23, it is to remind your subscribers that your company exists. People are busy, and they don’t always have you top of mind. We have to remind them that you’re here to provide them with epic service and products!
Things to accomplish in this email:
- Remind the subscriber we exist.
- Set expectations for future emails.
- Tease that the Black Friday deal is on the way.
- Get feedback on what people actually want.
Here’s an example of what this email could look like:
Email 2: Partial release of deal & added benefits
You’ll want to send this email out on November 24. Based on the results of the previous email, you should have a better idea of what to offer in your Black Friday deal. So as you muse over what it should be, let your subscribers know what you’re thinking!
Things to accomplish in this email:
- Stay on top of the inbox.
- Tease the added value from the previous email.
Here’s an example of what this email could look like:
Email 3: Disclose all benefits and products included in the deal
On November 25, let’s disclose the products we’re including in the deal along with their retail prices. When we release the discounts and deal prices we’ll be able to use retail price as a comparison.
Things to accomplish in this email:
- Stay on top of the inbox.
- Establish the retail value of your deal package.
Here’s an example of what this email may look like:
Email 4: Pile on the value. Full disclosure.
Okay, enough teasing. On November 26, let’s give them the details! In this email, we’ll disclose the discount and Black Friday package price for the list. We’ll also throw in some additional bonuses just to make it that much more attractive.
Things to accomplish in this email:
- Stay on top of the inbox.
- Disclose the deal.
- Add value with bonuses.
Here’s an example of what this email could look like:
Email 5: BUY! BUY! BUY! The deal goes live.
On November 27, it’s time. We’ve built it up and now it’s time to reap the rewards. Send out the link to claim the deal and start watching those payments come in.
Things to accomplish in this email:
- Launch the deal.
- Get paid.
The email could look something like this:
Email 6: Time’s Running Out!
On November 29, it’s day three of the deal. It’s time to start closing those people on the fence. How? By letting them know what it will cost if they DON’T take the deal.
Things to accomplish in this email:
- Convert people on the fence.
- Focus on what happens if they don’t take the deal.
- Reframe the positive outcomes.
The email could look something like this:
Email 7: Extend the deal!
On November 30, this is technically the last day of the deal. We’re going to keep the good time rolling and extend the deal a few more days.
Things to accomplish in this email:
- Give stragglers a bit more time to claim the deal.
Here’s what it could look like:
Email 8: Last Chance
Send this email out on December 2/3rd. If you extend the deal any longer it starts to look desperate, so this is the real last chance email to mop up any stragglers. In this email, we summarize everything that we’ve shared in the previous seven emails for a last-ditch attempt to get stragglers to convert.
Things to accomplish in this email:
- Summarize everything we’ve shared in the last 7 emails.
- Get stragglers to convert.
- The actual last email.
Here’s what it could look like:
5. Setting up your abandoned cart recovery funnel
You should have an abandoned cart recovery sequence running at ALL TIMES! But if you don’t, this is the time to have one set up.
Cart recovery can recover up to 10% of potential abandoned orders. Using this Black Friday strategy for your WordPress site can work even better by utilizing the scarcity of your Black Friday deal to entice would-be abandoners into new customers.
To start, you’ll want to add benchmarks in Groundhogg titled “Product Added to Cart” (to start the funnel) and “Product Purchased” (to end the funnel if someone purchases before the email series is done.)
When a customer adds a product into their cart but doesn’t check out you can then start sending them a series of emails to encourage them to purchase.
The first email should be delayed before sending. This is so someone doesn’t get an email when they are still shopping and potentially even buying.
If they haven’t checked out in 3 hours, we can assume that something got in the way of them purchasing and we can start the recovery process.
The first email could look something like this:
Depending on what you are selling, there are two ways you can continue this email series.
a) Stock Limitation Emails
If you are selling a product with a limited amount of stock, or a course with a limited amount of space- you’ll want to focus on letting your customers know they should purchase before you sell out.
These emails can be sent days apart and you can send as many as you would like as a reminder before the deal ends.
Here’s what one could look like:
b) Time Limitation Emails
For companies that have unlimited products (like software), it’s better to focus on how many days customers have left before the sale ends. Because of this, you’ll want to plan these emails out based on specific dates.
For example, you could send out three separate emails on the last three days before the sale ends. The content in each email could be fairly similar, with the subject line indicating just how little time they have left to purchase.
Here’s what this could look like:
The last email of the series looks something like this:
6. Increase revenue by selling to existing customers
Many businesses leave money on the table during sales by excluding the customers who have already bought.
The thing about existing customers is that someone who has already spent money with you is much more likely to spend money with you again than someone who has never purchased anything.
As businesses, we’re often narrowly focused on getting more customers, rather than increasing the average value of the customers we already have.
Let’s shift that focus, and see what tools we have in our back pocket to increase the value of our existing customers!
There are two main categories in which you are selling for Black Friday deals:
- Products/Services: Selling items like bakingware, hardware etc. or services like haircuts, plumbing services etc. These are usually items that people can repurchase.
- Membership/Subscriptions: When a consumer will pay a specific term (monthly, yearly etc.) up front for access to a variety of products and services for that time. Some examples of this include Netflix, software tech support, etc.
Selling existing products/services to customers
There are four main ways you can encourage your existing customers to cash in during Black Friday deals.
- Rebuying a product that they have already purchased at a discount
To do this, make sure to segment customers who already purchased the product you want to promote. Then, you will send a broadcast through Groundhogg to those contacts with your attached deal.
For extra power, you can even add a bonus inexpensive consumable product/service to the deal package.
An example of this email could look like:
2. Cross-selling and upselling similar products
If you have related products that you want to promote, make sure to target your existing customers during the Black Friday Deal. You’ll follow the same steps as above, but this time you’ll segment customers who purchased a similar product to the one you are selling.
Here’s what it could look like:
3. Book advanced time slots
If you are a service that is booked solid throughout the month of November and even December, you can pre-sell time slots for the new year.
You can segment customers who purchased the product/service you want to promote and send a broadcast when those contacts can get a deal where they pay less to book in advance.
An example of this could be booking a massage appointment pass for the spring at a discount.
Here’s what this could look like:
4. Pre-Sell Orders
Do you have a popular item that is currently sold out, but you don’t want to miss out on Black Friday deals? You can still offer to pre-sell your item, as long as you make it clear that your customer will get the item at a later date.
You can segment customers who purchased the product before and send a broadcast out to let them know about the sale.
Here’s what it could look like:
Selling a subscription/membership
There are two main ways that you can get existing customers who are already subscribed to take part in your Black Friday deals.
- Upsell to a higher membership level
If you have multiple tiers of your membership, you can segment customers who are on your basic plan and send out a broadcast encouraging them to upgrade to your pro plan at a discount.
This could look something like this:
2. Membership term extension
The other way to get your existing customers involved in the Black Friday sale is to get people who already paying to pay for additional years/months in advance for a discount.
This can really help your churn rate, as people will lock in for longer and will be more likely to stay for the continuing months or years. One good example of this is to buy 2 years of subscriptions and get the third year for free.
Here’s what this could look like:
It’s time to crush your Black Friday deals by using these strategies for your WordPress site
You can get started on your Black Friday strategies for your WordPress site with HollerBox and Groundhogg!
To get started with Groundhogg, you can:
- Start a 14-day demo.
- Purchase a plan.
- Take the free quickstart course.
- Keep reading!
To get started with HollerBox you can view our features and pricing page!
Have questions? Don’t hesitate to shoot us a message about the Black Friday strategies you use for your WordPress site.
