Eight-Step Black Friday Sales Strategy Guide for Creators

Jan 2, 2025

The time for sales is now! If you are a designer, late winter and fall is prime shopping time so you have a big opportunity to increase your income in these months. Black Friday is one of the biggest occasions for companies to make significant profits. Indeed, that's the reason the name was coined for the holiday as many companies wouldn't be profitable (or "in in the black" in the accounting language) until their Black Friday promotions became a success.

To make the most of your time during the period when consumers are in spending-mode You'll require a well-thought out marketing strategy that will get old and new customers excited about your online products. Read this post to get a complete Black Friday sales strategy guide that will help you build an effective, profitable campaign in the fall.

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Why do I need an advertising campaign that is seasonal for Black Friday?

Campaigns for the season are those that occur during a certain time of year, based on a holiday or event related to the season. As an example, Black Friday promotions always take place in November, since it is right before the major holiday gift giving season and is a prime time for consumers to shop for gifts.

As a majority of companies use these holidays to encourage sales, this has become an extremely sought-after opportunity for customers to try new brands that they may never have had the chance to.

The same goes in promoting upsells to existing customers!

How far in advance should I begin planning the Black Friday sales strategy?

Planning for seasonal campaigns starts about a month in advance of the celebration. It can take time to think about to plan, create, and design all of the elements that make up a campaign. Many large corporations even design for the year ahead. Usually marketing, sales, and the product development teams are involved in the development of campaigns. However, if you're a solopreneur could also do it!

With this in mind, aim to start with your Black Friday sales strategy planning during the months of August and September. It's possible to launch last-minute campaigns as well, especially when your company is small and nimble group, however some paid media channels can be crowded. The best way to plan your campaign is to create your template for your campaign early and complete the smaller details including messaging and calls to action, closer to your go-live date.

8 steps to create a super effective Black Friday sales strategy

No matter how big the content team you have, Black Friday sales strategies are achievable in 8 simple steps. Breaking it down into these steps can help you plan in advance and assures you've hit your milestones before the big day.

Pro tip: if you're not able to complete your task you can only complete one task per week until you hit the date you'll go live! If you're starting an teaser campaign in order to drum up your followers ahead of the time when your promotion officially launches, use the teaser announcement date as the date you'll go live.

Do research & set your budget

Effective research is mandatory for making you Black Friday campaign a success. The most important things to study are:

  • What problems are most relevant to your intended market today?
  • What strategies are successful or isn't working? Why?
  • What makes your approach different in comparison to other solutions available?
  • Where does your target audience look to find information on the solutions?
  • What do your customers anticipate from What do they expect from a Black Friday sale? In other words, are they attracted by discount offers, multi-item packages or access to your learning community?

While this seems to be a lot of inquiries, it'll give you a good idea of your ideal customer will be online throughout your Black Friday rush. It will also help you discern what message and product you should put before them.

Also, it's crucial to consider both new and existing customers. If the two types of customers require a very different approach with regards to channels, messages or offers, it's best to split the two campaigns now.

Another preparation you need to make is your budget. What amount of money are you ready to invest in advertising? How much money are you anticipating to earn from a return on investment (ROI)? As a guideline, aim for a minimum of 30% ROI for any campaign (but more is always more effective).

Promote on channels where your audience is

Marketing channels refer to any electronic or physical location that you can use to promote your offer. Digital channels are easier to follow, especially if you're selling digital products on the internet too.

Below is a table that offers channel options to consider. There are a variety of organic channels, as well as "free," channels which don't come at an additional price, however they take a bit longer to gain engagement and conversions on. Paid channels, on the opposite, have different costs but earn higher results faster. Naturally, the more you pay for it, the more results you earn.

It is possible to mix a mix of strategies and channels, however it's not recommended to only utilize just one marketing method for sales.

Organic (free) channels Pay-per-view channels
Organic social media Website Email Paid social media Search Paid Industry advertising
LinkedIn

Facebook

Instagram

TikTok

YouTube

Pinterest

X (Twitter)

Blogs

Pages for product landing

Newsletter

Drip campaign

Webinar

LinkedIn

Facebook

Instagram

TikTok

YouTube

Pinterest

X (Twitter)

Google Ads

Bing Ads

Amazon

Physical magazine

Digital magazine

Shows for trade

There are a few points to keep in mind when creating material that you put through your channels. The content should

  • Have fast loading speeds to make sure that customers do not bounce off or fail to purchase
  • Clearly state the offer & directions to purchase right at the top so it's quick to get conversions
  • Do not focus too much on items that are not part of Black Friday promotion, as you'll want to focus on getting best results from some of the core items

Map how conversions will happen

  • Lead collection forms and forms. How are customers going to be able to share their contact information with you?

This is also the perfect moment to discover the differences between the top funnel and bottom funnel. The top funnel is an early awareness stage while the bottom will be right after your lead converts. If you're using blogs or other organic channels, don't forget to map the path that leads take from top funnel pages to content in the bottom of the funnel.

Commerce is a full suite of payment and selling features proven to help our creators increase conversion rates and average order value:

  • Buy Now, Pay Later: Providing the possibility of financing in installments has allowed customers to grow their order sizes by 3 times.
  • Order Bumps: Providing additional products during checkout can help shoppers increase the amount of items they purchase by 98percent on average.
  • Abandoned Cart: just started Abandoned Cart email notifications to be ready for Black Friday. This feature can help customers recover lost sales and drive more revenue.

Design an irresistible offering

What's the exact Black Friday deal that you're offering?

It's acceptable to have different offers as part of a selling method. But if you're seeking to promote multiple offers to different audiences, you should consider the division of your campaigns in more distinct initiatives. This will let you target more in depth and earn a higher result.

Examples of deals include:

  • 50% off any of the courses you choose for first-time customers
  • 25 percent off of any course for customers who are already members.
  • 2-for-1 deals, or bundles of products for a reduced cost
  • Exclusive access for those who are the 100 first customers who become part of your on-line learning community
  • Exclusive access for those who sign up for the initial 50 times to receive your new course for no cost.
  • VIP one-on-one coaching sessions

A few pro sales tactics to use when you are deciding on your sales pitch:

  • Do not have more than three different offers on the same time as you don't want to divert prospects.
  • Every offer must be straightforward, so that it's easy to explain and create excitement about
  • It is an offer that is impossible to obtain at another season.

Craft messaging that converts

Messaging (also called marketing copy) is how you convey the benefits of your business to customers. It should be specifically tailored to the audience you're targeting, your brand, and the channel you're planning to advertise on for your Black Friday campaign. Remember that many channels have a preferred messaging format. For example, while Instagram captions permit you to post up to 2,200 characters, most posts should contain captions of less than 500 characters, making it easier for customers to understand.

  • Download now
  • Access here
  • Join now
  • Register here.
  • Join the community

Tease and promote it

It's time to execute!

If you're a solopreneur who is busy or are ready to start on your next seasonal campaign, a great tip is to schedule your content in advance. Applications like Hootsuite, Meta's Business Center and Letterdrop are fantastic platforms that allow you to create and plan content well ahead of the start date.

A lot of Black Friday campaigns are starting to be announced earlier and earlier every year. Based on the strategy you choose for your sales You may decide to make a limited-time deal. Also, you could present your Black Friday deal a week or two in advance of the date of the celebration. Given the short duration for the promotion, consider making an effort to sneak in a "light" launch, which offers previews of the deals to come.

Monitor and improve

Make sure you remember about your campaign when it's live. Keep an eye on it as soon as it is live. The first day make sure to check it multiple times during the day to verify there weren't any technical issues. Then, daily monitoring is the best. It's true that Black Friday campaigns have such an incredibly short time frame, so you'll want to pay close on the campaign. A single day gone awry can lead to huge losses of business.

Frequent optimization is the key for a successful Black Friday sales strategy. If you notice that your advertising or content aren't performing optimally, try changing them! Experimentation is the fastest way to determine what is most effective for your target audience.

Be aware that any modifications to content for campaigns require a bit of time to be absorbed before it shows results - there won't be a dramatic improvement in just a couple of minutes. Organic content can take longer more time than the campaign's window. Pay-per-click content usually shows gains in the results in a matter of hours to the duration of a full whole day.

Engage post-campaign marketing

Offer your brand new and loyal customers with more exclusive offers. For example, give your customers an additional, however lower, discount if they are looking to purchase more courses from you!

Examples of great Black Friday promotions for digital products

Ready to start working to develop your Black Friday sales strategy but need a little ideas? Take a look at these super successful campaigns below.

Aural's Subscription Deal for new members

Audible is a company owned by Amazon that allows subscribers to listen to audiobooks and podcasts. Customers pay on a subscription basis. They can subscribe either a monthly or an annual basis in order to have access to a collection of digital media.

In anticipation of Black Friday in 2023, they ran a wonderful marketing campaign that encouraged new sign-ups as well as build customer loyalty. This is what they did that was great:

  • Offers a very low initial price for 4 months this is sufficient for new users to explore fully the features of the system.
  • The offer also included Audible credit in the deal, which allowed users to access other content "for free" in the event that they weren't satisfied with the included content.
  • The purchase was simple because users were able to use their existing Amazon account as well as payment details to convert. Removing this barrier to conversion led to higher revenue.

The Classy and Fashionable eBook Sales

The site is a classy and trendy online learning center for anyone who wants to build minimalist wardrobes. It has a range of digital and eBook downloads that help users visualize their own style and create a simple outfit to go with.

In 2020, they announced in 2020, they launched a Black Friday sale on all of their Capsule Wardrobe eBooks. What's great about their approach to sales?

  • They timed it right based on what their readers would like to see. In a period when many people were staying home more often and cleaning out their closets, they promoted eBooks about how to achieve this.
  • They made the offer, discount code, and landing page for redeeming the deal easy to find.
  • They included teasers of what the inside of the eBooks looked like, to encourage purchase from risk averse purchasers.

Ran Segall's Webflow Course

Ran Segall started as a web developer and afterward, he began teaching his website course design skills through YouTube and now has more than 400K users. In the first few months, he's made over $3M from selling his digital products.

Just a few months ago, he promoted the launch of his brand new Webflow Course. Though this wasn't technically an actual Black Friday promotion, it has plenty of appealing elements that are similar. Here's what made this campaign excellent:

  • He promoted the deal via LinkedIn which is where he currently has an audience with 9,000+ followers.
  • An urgency for purchase can be created. In his blog post, he writes, "And to make this launch more delicious We're offering our customers a 30% discount off of the course. However, don't hesitate because this deal expires on Friday at midnight."
  • The 30% discount is right in the middle of the picture, making it difficult to overlook.

Conclusion

This Black Friday sales strategy guide can help you determine which, when, and where you will target your new and existing customers this holiday season. Be sure to conduct the research ahead of time and begin planning ahead. There's plenty of competition and noise during this time of the year So being thoughtful and loud when you promote helps your brand stand out in the rest of the pack.

Are you ready to begin building and selling digital products from just one platform? Start a free 14-day trial with today!