Friday 27 November is the day again. The day of the year when people, mainly in America, run into the shops en masse and push each other over for a discounted 2-by-2 flat screen. Every year, you see it popping up on the news and we Dutch are amazed at what people are capable of when extreme discounts are given by big shops in America. This hype has now also spread to our cold little country and is gaining popularity here every year. Have you already called up your shop's security to handle Black Friday? Just kidding, of course! Online, this is not necessary at all. But what then? With our five golden tips, you as a marketer or entrepreneur will be well prepared for Black Friday and score big online!
Rise of Black Friday in the Netherlands
When you look at the number of searches by Dutch people for Black Friday, it is striking that it has increased exponentially in recent years. More and more Dutch people are looking for great Black Friday deals in November to fill up their shopping cart. If you compare this to the keyword "Christmas" (red line), you see that in 2015 and 2016, the number of searches regarding "Black Friday" (blue line) was still far below the number of searches regarding Christmas. But since 2017, the number of searches regarding Black Friday has been pulverising the number of searches regarding Christmas and all Dutch people seem to be shopping en masse during this "holiday". Another new hype from America has been born in the Netherlands!
Figure 2: Searches about Black Friday vs searches about Christmas
But as an entrepreneur or marketer, what can you do with this information? A whole lot! Black Friday offers a great opportunity to send your sales through the roof. As you can see, many Dutch people go shopping en masse during Black Friday. So open the virtual doors of your shop and flood your shop with website visitors on Black Friday with Alona Marketing's five golden tips. Luckily, people can't knock each other over online to get a flat screen. How we love E-Commerce!
Tips for a successful Black Friday
Golden tip #1: Make sure you are and stay findable online! The degree of online findability of your online shop during Black Friday can make or break its success on this day. Therefore, make sure your Google Ads campaigns are live with more daily budget than you normally set. This is because on Black Friday, you can expect many more clicks on your ads than normally. As a result, the daily budget runs out faster, which means that the ads are no longer visible in the afternoon. So make sure you have set aside more daily budget on Black Friday to rake in the entire stream of potential customers.
Golden tip #2: Add Black Friday related keywords to your campaigns. During Black Friday, many potential customers use slightly different keywords than they normally do. For instance, we see that during Black Friday, the word "black friday" often appears in searches as well. Like, for example, "black friday iphone" or "black friday shoes". These searches are commonly used when someone is looking for a great deal regarding shoes or a particular type of iPhone during Black Friday.
Figure 3: During Black Friday, the search term "Black Friday" is also widely used in Google.
Golden tip #3: Write new ad copy specifically aimed at Black Friday and promoting your Black Friday deals. Let your potential customers know what great promotions you have implemented. This will make it more attractive for your potential customers to click on your ad and visit the shop. This, in turn, will bring you more website visitors. Do not forget to use the promotion extension within Google Ads. This is an extension that allows promotions to be communicated. Google has even set up a special setting on the occasion of Black Friday.
Figure 4: Setting Black Friday as a promotion extension in Google Ads
When you set this up, potential customers on Google immediately see your Black Friday promotion. This in turn creates more relevance which ensures a higher click-through rate on the one hand and lower costs per click on average on the other.
Figure 5: Black Friday as a promotional extension in Google's search results
Golden tip #4: Provide attractive promotions. Big online shops in the Netherlands such as Mediamarkt and Coolblue will not hold back. Therefore, make sure you don't lose the battle. Are Coolblue and Mediamarkt not your competitors? Then look at what your competitors are doing with Black Friday and make sure you are the most attractive to potential customers during Black Friday. Don't forget to communicate this clearly in the ads, but also on the website.
Golden tip #5: Employ remarketing to chase website visitors who have not bought anything with banners. Many website visitors will visit multiple web shops to compare prices. By using remarketing, you stay in view with these website visitors and therefore top-of-mind. A click on the banner also increases the chance that a website visitor who left the website earlier will still make a purchase.
Golden bonus tip: We would Alona Marketing not be if we didn't give you a bonus tip. As you now know, Black Friday is very popular in the Netherlands. But have you ever heard of Cyber Monday? Cyber Monday takes place on the first Monday after Black Friday. In the past, physical shops were mainly visited during Black Friday. As a result, many webshops created Cyber Monday to attract many visitors online with promotions. Cyber Monday is not as popular in the Netherlands yet, but it is very popular in America. We therefore expect it won't be long before Cyber Monday will also become popular in the Netherlands. If we look at the number of searches on "Cyber Monday", we see an upward trend in the number of searches in recent years.
Figure 6: Growth of searches in the Netherlands regarding Cyber Monday
However, Cyber Monday is nowhere near as popular as Black Friday. This does offer a unique opportunity to be innovative as a company and introduce Cyber Monday with a select group of other online shops in the Netherlands.
Figure 7: Black Friday vs Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday is only in its infancy.
We hope that with our five golden tips and bonus tip, you are well prepared for the craziness during Black Friday and Cyber Monday at the end of November. Black Friday and Cyber Monday offer a great opportunity for you as an online shop to capitalise on it and, as a result, generate wonderful sales. Make sure you have properly implemented our tips in your marketing strategy and you're bound to score online! Could you use some help with this? We will gladly help you! Feel free to contact with us to discuss the possibilities. The coffee is already ready ;).
