Rev your engine! It’s time for everyone’s favorite retail holiday. Things are sure to be different this year, and if your business isn’t locked, loaded and already marketing for Black Friday, you’ll want to get a move on. Having a well-planned and executed online experience waiting for your customers is priority #1.

Segment Your Lists

If you have not segmented your customer contacts, now is the time. Strategically decide who do you want to target. Analyze past purchases, engagement data and persona data to quickly identify who is your highest priority.

Segmenting may be time-consuming, but it’s beneficial. If you are a brick-and-mortar business, you wouldn’t waste your time sending in-store offers to your out-of-town customers.

Ways to segment your contacts

  • Geography
  • Age
  • Persona
  • Industry
  • Product/service usage
  • CTA Clicks

Target Your Lists

Target your segmented lists with social ads. Consider where your customers hang out. Use geographical tools and filters to get current and potential customers’ eyes on your products. A/B testing is a great way to find out what works best.

Optimize e-Commerce

If your website isn’t optimized for mobile users, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Now more than ever, customers are making purchases from their mobile devices. Don’t lose customers due to a poor mobile experience.

Optimize for mobile. Not sure what your mobile experience looks like? Hop on your phone and take a look for yourself. If you’d like to see how your online experience stacks up, utilize a free business scan for insight.

Test & Send

How’s your email looking? Shoot a test round to a few co-workers in your department. Before you press send to all your customers, you’ll want to ensure any spelling and grammar issues are corrected. Your offers deserve to be talked about, but for the right reasons.

3 email marketing improvements to make

  • Tweak your subject lines
  • Use engaging content
  • Crank up your CTAs

Create Automation

Don’t leave money on the table! Recover lost green by creating some automation. A simple abandoned cart reminder is all you need to convert sales most times. When you automate these messages, you can get the job done by creating triggers, and then continue doing what you love — running your business.

Plan for Interactions

Preparation is key when it comes to everything. Plan for how your company will handle as many customer experience interactions as possible. Refer to your company’s customer journey map to help guide this process.

Perhaps this looks like crafting pre-written drafts to have at your disposal for any issues or returns. For one-off problems that may occur, create a protocol so customer issues don’t fall through the cracks.

Now Launch

Black Friday is here and if you followed this guide, you will rock it! Take a breath because you earned it. What are some takeaways from this year’s sale? Collect your findings and start planning on how you’ll crush it next year. If you had a financial roadblock, it’s time to take a look at how to better manage your cash flow.

Follow Up

The holidays aren’t over yet. Follow up with customers who showed interest during Black Friday. Whether they purchased, had an unfinished cart or browsed away on your site, you’ll want to reach out one more time. It’s your duty to remind them of why they stopped by and tempt them back. Holiday email marketing doesn’t stop after November. Take a quick breather before heading into the next round.

Gather & Prepare

Revisit your Black Friday Campaign to begin polishing prep work for your holly jolly winter campaign. Figure out the best way to re-engage holiday shoppers. Pull out all the tricks to get customers back in the door.