- Black Friday Promotions Are Essential – Proves The Recent Statistics
- How To Use Black Friday Flyers in Black Friday Promotions Effectively
The 29th of November is coming…What’s so special about this date? This year on the 29th of November, small businesses, online stores, large chains, and almost anyone engaged in sales participates in Black Friday. The Friday that follows Thanksgiving has become renowned for its crazy discounts and billions of dollars spent in retail stores worldwide. The US tradition conquers other countries as an effective marketing technique and a wonderful opportunity to save on shopping. Customers monitor discounts and start big fights over lucrative bargains, while entrepreneurs try to attract as many people as possible. They display Black Friday ads on the web, use social media, and run other Black Friday promotions.
Unfortunately, such marketing efforts often look too trite to truly engage online users with the epidemic of banner blindness. Focused on digital channels, businesses often neglect direct mail, including Black Friday flyers. In reality, printed Black Friday ads can attract more attention and provoke a stronger emotional response than online Black Friday promotions. According to marketing statistics, the average household response rate for direct mail is almost 10 times higher than email marketing, paid search, or social media. Moreover, thanks to direct mail automation, you will easily synchronize direct mail with other marketing channels.
Don’t miss the opportunity to win more customers during the Black Friday promotions with a direct mail campaign. In today’s publication, Inkit explains why this holiday is so important and how to run outstanding Black Friday promotions.
Black Friday Promotions Are Essential – Proves The Recent Statistics
During the last decade, Black Friday promotions have conquered the world. Starting as a one-day sale, they evolved into a four-day holiday that includes Small Business Saturday, Small Business Sunday, and Cyber Monday. Doorbusters offered by retailers make customers spend a large part of their savings when the time comes (Picodi):
- The predicted Black Friday expenses of the average US consumer is around 515 U.S. dollars; The German consumer is likely to spend twice less, whereas the average Indian buyer anticipates spending about 70 U.S. dollars.
- 100% of US consumers are aware of what is Black Friday and Black Friday promotions.
- 75% of US consumers plan to participate in the following retail bonanza.
Whereas customers participate in Black Friday promotions because of an excellent opportunity to save, retailers have other motives. For both small businesses and large companies, such a shopping spree is a chance to build their brand loyalty, attract new customers, and increase the turnover. Black Friday ads and promotions have become a must as almost every business runs them. 91% of US retailers and 81% of UK retailers organize Black Friday promotions. China shows surprising numbers for its Singles Day (an equivalent to Black Friday) that is also celebrated in November. In 2017, the sales volume on Alibaba sites reached a stunning 25 billion U.S. dollars.
Your customers expect you to offer discounts, and your task is to choose the best way to tell about them. Although email marketing, social media ads, and banners are effective to inform consumers about upcoming sales, you can make digital marketing campaigns more powerful with direct mail. Black Friday flyers, postcards, catalogs, and other mail pieces erase the borders between online and offline marketing. This allows attracting customers to your online and physical stores at the same time. Many consumers still prefer to buy offline, especially when they need to choose very fast.
How To Use Black Friday Flyers in Black Friday Promotions Effectively
For first-class Black Friday promotions, you will need to align several marketing channels. The combination of Black Friday flyers and online resources improves customer experience and establishes a stronger connection with target audiences. In addition to that, you will be able to leg up on those who use solely digital marketing. To help you make the most of Black Friday flyers and outpace your competitors, use the following handy tips:
Tip #1 for Black Friday Flyers: Prepare Black Friday Ads in Advance
A successful direct mail campaign requires preparation. It’s necessary to invest some time in studying your target audience and choosing an optimum design. If a call-to-action, colors, and elements turn out ineffective after the mail is delivered, it will be too late to change anything. To prevent such a situation, you may create several designs and test them beforehand to choose the most suitable option.
Lead nurturing is another reason to start sending Black Friday flyers in advance. Although everyone knows what Black Friday is, it’s easy to confuse the dates. Since every year this holiday is celebrated on a different day, make sure to inform consumers in advance. Send them a postcard or flyer about the upcoming sale and best offers. You can even include a QR code that will take the recipients to your store to find more information.
Note. If you didn’t plan a mail marketing campaign in advance, you can make up for the lost time with the mail automation tool offered by Inkit. It provides a custom postcard builder, you can use to promptly create Black Friday flyers on your own. You can also integrate Inkit with a CRM or upload a mailing list to use the collected customer data for more precise direct mail targeting.
Tip #2 for Black Friday Flyers: Personalize Black Friday Flyers Based on Target Audiences
The way you formulate the offer should depend on the preferences and characteristics of the mail recipients. The research has shown that shoppers expect different levels of discounts depending on their location. For example, the average resident of Chile anticipates a 59% discount, a Ukrainian – 62%, an Italian – 56%, whereas a Vietnamese wants a 54% discount. You can use these expectations to find a perfect balance between the offered discount and your financial interests. A discount that exceeds or equals the local expectations will instantly get people moving.
In addition to the amount of the discount, the expectations towards the products also vary. Clothing, shoes, and electronics are among the most commonly purchased products, but you can dig deeper. Do you know that the residents of every state show an interest in a specific type of product? While Colorado searches for PlayStation 4, New Mexico is more interested in Xbox One.
Therefore, you need to adapt the content of your marketing materials for your target audiences. Segment consumers based on the relevant data using a CRM and integrate it with Inkit for customized delivery. You will be able to personalize every mail piece to include a product or message that makes the related target audience more likely to convert. Moreover, variable data printing supported by Inkit allows you to take mail marketing a step further. You can personalize every mail piece by adding customized user data.
Tip #3 for Black Friday Flyers: Make Your Black Friday Flyers Trigger-Based
If Black Friday flyers are sent in response to a certain action, they yield much better results than bulk mailing. This approach is perfect for online stores. Consumers appreciate when the offer is tailored to their needs and appears at the right moment. In the case of Black Friday promotions, triggered direct mail campaigns may be a perfect solution to reduce the cart abandonment rate. In 2018, the global Black Friday cart abandonment rate reached 73.78%. In the US, the indicator was even higher with 81.93% abandoned carts compared to 74.5% in 2017. This means that despite being attracted by discounts, most consumers refuse to complete the purchase at the last stage.
How can trigger-based Black Friday flyers remedy the situation? Design and print Black Friday ads that promise some additional benefits if the customers return and proceed with the payment. You can offer free shipping, an in-store credit, or other additional bonuses. In this respect, Black Friday flyers are more effective than email marketing since printed marketing materials give buyers the time they need. Most probably the users left the cart because they were pushed to purchase immediately. It also may be that now they regret doing that. Give them an alternative and several days to make their choice with Black Friday flyers.
Tip #4 for Black Friday Flyers: Integrate Direct Mail with Online Black Friday Ads
The integration of Inkit’s direct mail tool and a CRM you currently use is the easiest way to run an omni-channel marketing strategy (to learn what integrations Inkit supports, visit the Integrations page). It will allow you to build a smooth customer journey that combines online experience with offline marketing. You can use the CRM to create a marketing workflow that includes the delivery of Black Friday flyers as one of the stages. For example, your customers will receive a reminder about Black Friday promotions 7-10 days before they start. Such mail pieces may offer them to subscribe to notifications or download an app to be the first to learn about the start of sales.
As a result of the integration, all marketing activities will be interconnected and united with a single idea. The previous step will entice customers into the next one. In addition, it will be much easier to record the results and analyze customer behavior for data-driven marketing.
Want to start automating your Black Friday flyers campaign right now? Try out Inkit’s direct mail automation software.
