Black Friday/Cyber Monday – 9 eCommerce Experts Share their Top Tips for Success (episode 014)
by April Buencamino-dyIn this episode we have everything you need to know to make this year’s Black Friday / Cyber Monday super successful for your business.
Our 9 eCommerce experts share powerful advice that’s going to help you make 2020 end on a high for your business.
Our experts include:
- Shopify’s Kristen LaFrance
- Voy Media’s Kevin Urrutia
- Omnisend’s Rytis Lauris
- Jessica Totillo Coster from the eCommerce Badassery Podcast
- YouTube star Elle McCann from Curious Themes
- eCommerce Tech’s Derric Haynie
- 10,000 Customers’ Lucy Bloomfield
- host of the 2x eCommerce Podcast Kunle Campbell
- AND our very own Chloë Thomas
Expect to listen to this one at least twice!
Listen now for free:
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Here’s the notes on our experts tips:
Rytis Lauris, co-founder and CEO — Omnisend
The first tip comes from Rytis Lauris of Omnisend who says preparation is the best way to guarantee success. For the first time in history, this Black Friday/Cyber Monday will be digital-first.
- Consumers are buying more from brands they already know and trust.
- Repeat transactions are growing so the best thing you can do is build and nurture your existing relationship with your customers.
- Size—Grow your subscriber list. Use whatever you need to grow that subscriber list.
- Engaged—Warm up and activate that list before the season starts by creating value for those customers.
- Try and create the first transaction before the holidays so those first time customers get an awesome impression of your business.
For the whole of Rytis’ tip – listen to the episode!
Lucy Bloomfield, Director — 10,000 Customers
Lucy Bloomfield of 10,000 Customers says it’s all in the planning. While most people focus on Black Friday and Cyber Monday as the important days—she says the days building up to those days is equally important.
- Think about the 60 days prior to Black Friday/Cyber Monday to create a successful campaign.
- No matter where you are, just get started
Hear ALL Lucy’s advice when you take a listen.
Kunle Campbell, eCommerce Advisor and Podcast Host — 2X eCommerce
Kunle from 2X eCommerce shares more detail on exactly how to get prepared:
- Build your audiences right now.
- The highest value audience will be your email list.
- Be sure to benchmark what your email list was this time last year and compare to what it is now. That should give you an idea of what your sales should look like.
- If you want to grow by X%, grow your email by that percentage
- Look at your status segments and MVP customers on your list. Start extrapolating these people from your base list.
- Look at you SMS list and start nurturing that as well as email
- Start giving tips and engagement messages via SMS
- Make sure your Facebook Pixel is set up to take advantage of micro audiences
- Work on the top of your funnel during Q3
Get more on all this when you listen to the full episode.
Jessica Totillo Coster, eCommerce Strategist and podcast host — eCommerce Badassery
Jessica, host of the eCommerce Badassery podcast says you should be taking care of your email list starting… yesterday.
- Set up your automation—at a minimum your welcome campaign and abandoned baskets
- Make sure your automated emails are converting. If they aren’t, update them
- Make sure you list your value propositions in your emails
- Set up new versions of your most important flows to reflect your current offers
- Increase your campaign sending frequency
- Make sure you are emailing your list frequently
- Tease offers early (shipping is going to be an issue)
- Get your customers excited
hear all the detail by listening to the episode (scroll up!).
Elle McCann, Shopify Expert and CEO — Curious Themes
Elle from Curious Themes has some tips about getting new customers and using Pinterest Ads to increase your sales.
- Have a strategy starting in September and October
- Test Ad images and copy
- Test organic reach on Pinterest now and make adjustments accordingly
Kevin Urrutia, Founder — Voy Media
Facebook Ads expert Kevin Urrutia of Voy Media focuses in on perfecting the right offers and promotions:
- Think about bundles now
- Make checkout flows faster by making discounts sitewide
- Test bundles now to see what the AOV lift is
Kevin’s gives lots more offer sculpting advice in the episode – listen now!
Chloë Thomas, author and podcast host — eCommerce MasterPlan
Our podcast host Chloë shares her Golden Promotional Rule, a must for a successful BFCM:
- What do you want the customer to do?
Do you need to get rid of stock? Do you want to minimize margin loss? Do you want to recruit new customers or are you interested in turning your existing customers into repeat customers? - Segmentation is your friend in this endeavour!
- As cheaply as possible.
Consider if the costs are worth it. - Create the Black Friday/Cyber Monday that works for your business
Derric Haynie — eCommerce Tech
With an influx of orders comes an influx of customer service queries and problems, Derric from eCommerce Tech is aiming to make your life easier during BFCM.
- Sit down with your CX team to talk through what you’re launching to prepare.
- Prepare statements and rules for shipping delays, refunds, exchanges.
- Add in cross sells and upsells only available during Black Friday inside of Customer Service emails.
- Hire more customer service representatives and train them for real time live chat during this time period.
Get all the detail on Derric’s tip by listening to the whole episode (scroll up to find out how)
Kristen Le France, Head of Resilient Retail — Shopify
We were really pleased to get Kristen from Shopify on the show – and her tip is brilliant:
- Prepare to sell differently. Foot traffic is down and all retailers are working online this year.
- Let go of rigidity and preconceptions from previous years
- Get close to your customers right now
- Make sure you offer a great experience
- Give a great shopping experience across all channels
Hear each tip in full by listening to the whole episode for free – just scroll up and hit the play button!
Further Listening and Learning…
- Beat Newsletter Block – check out eCommerce MasterPlan episode 171
- More on Chloë’s Promotional Golden Rules in eCommerce MasterPlan episode 270
- Pinterest Ads with Elle McCann – coming in October on Keep Optimising
- Facebook Ad creative tips with Kevin Urrutia – coming in October on Keep Optimising
- Derric’s running a whole 2-day Virtual Summit on BFCM – get that for free here
- Rytis Lauris on Customer Journey in eCommerce MasterPlan episode 242
- Live now – Keep Optimising Masterclasses:
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