Let’s take a look at what strategies you can implement for your social media pages, as well as Black Friday 2018 best practices for your e-commerce store.

Social media hacks

Here are nine tips for your social media presence during the shopping season:

1. Focus on your social media strategy

Don't lose focus of your social media strategy and remember to create specific ads relating to your Black Friday offering. Make sure to use top-performing hashtags and special discounts that are social media specific.

2. Use a competition mechanism

The 'like, comment and share Facebook and Instagram giveaway' and the 'Twitter retweet giveaways' are a classic competition mechanism that can easily run as a build-up prior to Black Friday madness. This will help you gaining double the exposure before Black Friday even starts.

3. Get your profiles ready

Prepare your social media profiles with new profile pictures dedicated to the Black Friday craze.

4. Update your call-to-action

Update your call-to-action buttons to include a direct link to your dedicated Black Friday or Cyber Monday landing page.

5. Don't forget to pin

Pin your special offers to the top of your social media pages so that it's the first things consumers see when they go onto your page.

6. Capitalise on FOMO

You can capitalise on FOMO by using words like 'Hurry', 'Shop now', 'Limited time offer', 'Don’t miss this', etc.

7. Be proactive in scheduling your posts

Don't forget to plan and schedule your social media posts in advance. 

8. Generate a buzz

Capitalise on social media by generating buzz and excitement the week before Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Use teasers by posting sneak peeks of your offers and cryptic clues that could mean a coupon code for the winning few.

9. Create Facebook events

Create Facebook events in which users can participate to quickly spread the word about your upcoming sale (this can work for both in-store and e-commerce sales).

To really catapult your social content, here are Black Friday hashtags that are sure fires to get you trending:
  • #blackfriday
  • #blackfriday2018
  • #cybermonday
  • #blackfridaysale
  • #blackfridaydeals
  • #deals; #bargain
  • #cybermondaysales
  • #giftguide
  • #giftsforher
  • #giftsforhim
  • #giveaway
  • #neverpayfullprice

E-commerce store recommendations

Here are a few best practices for your online or e-commerce store during this time:
  • Have a dedicated landing page for Black Friday and Cyber Monday specials.
  • Make sure your tech systems can handle the increased volume during this busy time.
  • Be mobile friendly.
  • Test, test and test again to make sure you have ironed out all glitches.
  • Create a sense of urgency with countdown timers and added bonuses for fast action.
  • Segment your audience and target potential customer types by their behaviour. For example, 'abandoned carts', those who’ve opened an email, those who’ve visited an offer page but didn’t purchase, etc. Then, create custom emails for these groups of users and make use of re-marketing strategies to entice a conversion.
  • Double up your email marketing game by including catchy subject lines and contact all customers (even former customers) to provide them with a special VIP discount code.
  • Invest in digital media spend and third-party placements that direct additional traffic to your online store.
Host an afterparty

Lastly, don’t forget to engage with users after the Black Friday madness has calmed down as well. Capturing sales can be easy during this time, so try running a post-Black Friday or Cyber Monday Promotion.

This is an excellent way to market any leftover stock and reach shoppers who missed the initial offer. An exciting angle for positioning such marketing is by using an 'after-party' angle, with teasing emails title such as 'What’s a party without an after party?' or 'Missed out on our Black Friday deals? Here’s one last chance to save BIG'.

For more information, visit www.arcinteractive.co. You can also follow Arc Interactive on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram.