Did You Take Advantage of Black Friday?

Black Friday is the granddaddy of all retail holidays. Since the late nineteenth century, it’s marked the unofficial beginnings of the Christmas season. It’s even been designated a state holiday in nearly half the country. Yes, state offices from California to Maryland close up shop, allowing state employees some quality time to find good bargains.

Events like Black Friday are still a big deal. In online sales alone, Black Friday spending in 2017 amounted to over $2 billion dollars. An estimated 137 million people did some shopping on Black Friday and the days after, including other retail holidays like Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday.

So did you take advantage of any of them in your marketing? If you did, here are some ways to make it even more effective.

Promote it. Having a sales event doesn’t do you any good if no one knows about it. Figure out where your best customers are likely to be and make sure you’re there. The earlier you can get started, the better.

Make it personal. As a small business owner, you probably know your local area and your client base a whole lot better than a big corporation in a distant city. Use that knowledge to personalize your marketing and target it to your clients’ specific needs and interests.

Bundle Up. Take a look at your different product lines and examine ways you can bundle some of them together. Gift packs make great presents, after all. If one particular product isn’t selling well, get it back on track by combining with one of your top sellers.

Give back. Customers are a lot more charitable during the holidays, and they appreciate a business that gives back to the community. Combine your product marketing with a worthy cause. Not only does it make good business sense, but you’re helping to make the world a better place to live.

If you haven’t taken advantage of Black Friday, there’s no reason not to next year. Even if your business isn’t designed around sales events or retail shopping, you don’t have to sit this one out. Black Friday is a big deal to a lot of people, so you want to be part of that conversation. Whether it’s through an article you wrote or perhaps through a partnership with a retailer who’s actively trying to promote their holiday sales, when Black Friday comes up, you want your name to come up as well. To quote P.T. Barnum: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”

Black Friday is a sales holiday that’s here to stay. If you didn’t use it in your marketing, what will you do for 2019? If you did use it, what will you do differently?