People go bonkers during Black Friday. Like… severely bonkers.
And whether you participate or not, whether you’re all about the online or you wait in long lines with a belly full of pumpkin pie, we bet you wish you could generate the kind of mania that occurs around Black Friday for your business. Not just one day of the year, but all the time.
Obviously, the way you create a Black Friday deal is to wildly reduce the prices of your products for 24 hours or less. But that’s just one day. And unless you’re Walmart or Amazon or Target, the juice just may not be worth the squeeze for that one day. Not to mention, severe price reductions usually aren’t easy for a small business operating on smaller margins.
So let’s talk about how you can create WILD enthusiasm without the massive price cut ANY. DAY. OF. THE. YEAR.
Anticipation is a Heck of a Drug
Black Friday has the “I look forward to this every year” vibe. Exclusivity and limited-time offerings tend to drum up a fair amount of excitement. Maybe you release a seasonal product one time a year for a short amount of time. No discount is necessary to get fans amped up about a favorite item they can only order occasionally.
Most importantly, you have to be consistent about bringing it back and building up anticipation. Remind them again, and again and again that something they love is on its way. We entrepreneurs have a tendency to always come up with new ideas and to rapidly release things as we think it up. When you strike gold though, bring it back, but give your audience some time to get enthused.
Take Advantage of Shopping Mindset
Obviously, consumers go all out around the holidays, but that’s not the only time their interest in shopping is peaking. The turn of just about every season demands fresh products. Regardless of what you sell. If you’re into fashion, the demand is obvious at the seasonal change, but EVERY product can adopt this model. A food blog can release cookbooks using the best ingredients of the month. An educator can take advantage of snowy months where people have extra time on their hands. Plant shops can feature summer-centered ceramic pots. Pool service companies can educate customers on the best time of year to upgrade or deep clean to get ready for the swim season.
The point is, there are times when people are primed for your product. There are also ways to take your product and adapt it to the times.
Black Friday capitalizes on the fact that just about everyone has a huge spending season ahead and the big box stores offer products they know are major hits for the season: electronics, toys, jewelry. Meet your customers where they are at in their shopping life cycle.
Repetition Works
When you’re a small business with limited capacity, it’s hard to stick with something that doesn’t immediately take off. It’s easy to forget that sometimes, people need a little time to catch up. They have a lot of distractions and a lot of options, but if you feel you really have something that works, just keep bringing it up. Black Friday is impossible to ignore because every year, it just comes right back around. If stores did it sometimes but missed other years, not as many people would show up for it. It’s the reliability that drives the reaction. Every year it happens. Every year people are “trained” to dedicate the entire tryptophan-filled day after Thanksgiving deal-hunting.
Create an Offering Within Your Community
Black Friday also works because it isn’t just one business offering discounts. It’s just about everyone. While you may not be able to drive a nationwide campaign, surely you have some people in your sphere willing to go in on a group sale strategy. Bundle your courses, do a multi-brand giveaway, create gift baskets with like-minded business mavens such as yourself. If two heads are better than one, then multiple promoters are the BEST. You will reach their followers and they will reach yours and you’ll all grow together.
Most people who participate in Black Friday don’t just go to one store for one item and call it a day. They hop around looking for all the fantastic savings they can find.
Black Friday is an extreme experience and small businesses can get lost in the corporate chaos, but that doesn’t mean you can’t generate a little frenzy of your own using some of the same tricks..