The pepernoten have been on the shelves for another month. Have you had a Christmas wreath yet? I recently found a bag from last year, you could smash a window with it. It's coming up again: the holidays. And traditionally, these are kicked off with Black Friday. Black Friday will be on November 26 in 2021.

Black Friday?

Come on, you couldn't ignore Black Friday in recent years in the Netherlands too. Traditionally, this is the start of all the sales and buying sickness that surrounds Sinterklaas and Christmas. It is the day when, for shops, the "red numbers" (losses) turn black again (profits).

It exploded, of course. That Black Friday sometimes takes up to a week. And we keep buying. Should we have missed Friday, Cyber Monday follows immediately after, when that one television is even cheaper.

Join Black Friday

Now, should you have an online shop, and have got it into your head to participate in Black Friday, I do have some tips for you. You have to remember, that that day or week you are mainly busy selling, and you want everything to be in order for that. Nothing should go wrong, because it might get incredibly busy!

1. Start on time!

And by on time, I mean: NOW. Give Google some time to get used to the Black Friday content on your site. Get your promotional tools ready in advance. Provide content that you can publish on and around Black Friday. Here are some examples!

2. Landing pages

A landing page is a page you set up for a certain specific visitor. That could be someone who has signed up for your newsletter, for example, or someone who has used your profile link on Instagram ended up on your site.

That landing page welcomes the visitor, gives a clear proposition and has an indispensable call-to-action (the action you want the visitor to do on your page). Examples abound. Above all, remember that you are the thing that you wants the potential customer to do should be central. And without too many distractions. So for example, remove your menu from that page, which only offers an opportunity to click away without buying.

Put your Black Friday landing page live right now. Maybe you can even put a link to the page somewhere on your site (in your footer?). Because the page links through to your shop, and clearly states the date when your sale is, there's no problem showing Google (and visitors) that page in advance. It's a trigger to come back on Black Friday!

3. Newsletter content

In the past, I have occasionally had to discuss too many newsletters around Black Friday. The reality is, that's actually not possible. The whole world floods consumers with newsletters. If you want yours to be read in that huge mess of emails, I think it's fine to send two in a day. Extreme? Maybe. Will you then get more unsubscribes/unsubscribes? Absolutely. Some of them will sign up again after the e-mail tsunami, some of them you'll just lose for the time being. So be it for a while.

You could update your newsletter unsubscribe landing page: "Sorry for all the email, but we promise it's just this week of Black Friday / Cyber Monday for a while, after that it will go quiet again. Are you sure you want to unsubscribe?". Apologise, and ask for understanding.

In terms of content, you can go either way. Especially if you send out more newsletters, I can imagine that the one about lawnmowers and the other about high-pressure sprayers goes, to give just one example. Keep it focused, for example on a product group by email. If you include here in, say Mailchimp already created a segment for it, you can send your newsletter nicely targeted.

For the newsletter, what applies to the landing page applies: make sure there is a concrete action. That action should not be too far down in the newsletter (people already get enough mail around Black Friday), and be immediately clear in the subject of the email.

Tip: you can already send people discount coupons valid during your Black Friday sale. A reason to come back then!

4. Create a promotional video

In your newsletter, on your homepage, landing pages, on Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin. Everywhere you want to tell people that you are having a Black Friday sale. And of course you dress up your story with beautiful images. These can be photos, but video is of course totally HOT. Instagram Reels, a video on Facebook. Hurray, we have a sale!

Difficult? No ya. Get in touch with Eyes & Ears for your corporate or promotional film. There are also specialised companies for video in your area. The advantage of Eyes & Ears is that besides being highly professional and skilled, they are also just really nice people! And you want to set a nice, enthusiastic mood for Black Friday!

Tip: If you don't put the year throughout that video, you'll have a kick start for next year!

5. Black Friday deals on your product page

Yes, Michiel, that makes sense. No, I mean that you the text "Black Friday deal" is best mentioned around that time on your product pages. Just let that visitor know that you have customized your website especially for them! Make sure you have a good plan for putting such text on your product page quickly. For example, is the text on your buy button generic all over your website? It already fits in there. Can you provide the product description with standard text? Put there at the beginning "Take advantage of our Black Friday deal!" or something similar. In WordPress, for example, you can easily do that in the template of your product page.

6. Urgency

Do you have products that sell out faster than others? Maybe you can pull out the figures from your last sale. For the products that go fast, it's okay to say something like, "There is a lot of attention for this product, order on time!". The only thing not allowed is lying. So saying you have two more in stock, when you still have a warehouse full, is not allowed. Read this. "Almost sold out" if you're almost sold out is allowed of course! And "Only 1 left in stock" if you really are, of course, too! Maybe your shop system can do that.

7. Test your website

Walk through your website carefully yourself. Are there any one-way streets? By this I mean pages that are an end point on your website. People visit the page, and at the end of the page they can't easily go to the next page. That can be solved:

Related products or pages.
A buy button for a particular product.
A newsletter subscription.
A link back to the overview where the visitor came from.

Just to call out some simple things. Of course, this advice applies throughout the year.

A second thing to test properly is your checkout process. Can people easily order or request something, do all forms work, are there no weird things or distractions in your shopping basket? Something I think many online shopping systems make far too prominent is the option to enter a discount code. Only if you have set it up and spent it for that specific day or sales period does that thing need to be there. If you don't use it, remove it. Quick & dirty, your web builder can do that with one line CSS code, so it should not take longer than 10 minutes.

Did you know that many/all credit card companies specifically to test just test credit card numbers have spent? Then you won't have the hassle of refunds and such. Do it. You don't want your sales process to turn out to be flawless during Black Friday!

Get a head start on Black Friday

Tip of the iceberg. Your marketing agency will have many more ideas. My main aim with this article was to point out that you'd better get started. I hope for your sake that you'll soon be too busy to bother with this!

Whether I'm having a Black Friday sale? No ya. I think I'll take the day off myself. I like that iPhone 13 mini. Or maybe I'll get them to get a robot hoover at home after all. The museums are open again, maybe an annual pass extension will be on sale. Have a nice day of shopping!

If you want me to with you thinking along, I'd rather refer you to my SEO stripping card. That one is just competitively priced all year. I'll hear about it!

Good luck with Black Friday!