Welcome! In today’s Creative Flow podcast episode, we will be discussing how to plan ahead for Black Friday in your retail business.
Listen in below, read the show notes or download the full Black Friday Guide for free when you sign up for my newsletter.
Feelings around Black Friday
Most small businesses hate Black Friday as it was never meant for independents.
Black Friday is a divisive subject however there are pros and cons:
- It can help drives sales
- It can move old stock that hasn’t sold
but…
- Hinders profit margins
- Adds extra pressure to an already busy period
Black Friday is now a massive marketing event in a customers calendar.
Fatigue is setting in as it is overly relied on and promoted for extended periods by larger retailers.
Why should you plan ahead?
So how do plan ahead for Black Friday in your retail business?
It’s better to have a plan and be flexible with this, than no plan at all.
- Your plan can change when needed and it will, but remember it’s there to work for you!
Avoid any confusion, overlap and pinch points in your product development and launches. If you talk about too many things at once, your customer may get confused – so focus on one thing at a time.
Plotting in your product launches means you have milestones to work towards and can forecast sales.
When is Black Friday?
Friday 26 November 2021
It can impact sales as customers will wait around to see what sales are on.
You need to decide ahead of time what to do and let your customers know.
This should be based on what feels right for your brand and business values.
If your values are honesty and transparency – then let your customers know what you will be doing ahead of time.
- And tell them more than once!
Alternative options for Black Friday
- Offer a charitable donation on the day for all orders placed.
- Give your customers free or express delivery.
- Collaborate with other sellers to offer an exclusive discount, product or offer between you.
- Send a free gift with every order.
- Announce in advance you won’t participate to build trust with customers and make them aware.
- Take part in an alternative sale date that feels more aligned with your values e.g. business birthday or Small Business Saturday
Planning out your Christmas promotions
The key takeaway is to make a plan for Black Friday and your Christmas promotions now!
You can do this by mapping out the last quarter of 2021 using a digital or paper planner:
- Review last year’s sales
- Develop new products
- Create a simple sales plan
- Plot in your product launches
- Plan out your Christmas marketing
- Newsletters, social media, press, fairs
- Decide on your Black Friday plan in advance
Creating your content in advance means you can focus on selling and customer service during Q4.
Remember you can download the full Black Friday Guide for free when you sign up for my newsletter.
Free live training starts next week!
Reflect, Plan and Implement Your Next Goal
Join me for 3 days of action to move past blocks, create a plan & grow your sales that starts on Tuesday 31 August at 8.30 am live on Instagram @creativeflowcollective and runs until Thursday 2 September. We will be covering:
Day one – Tuesday 31 August. Reflect – Moving past blocks to level up in business
- Mindset and strategy go hand in hand. You can have all the strategy in the world, but you also need your mindset to be on point.
Day two – Wednesday 1 September. Plan – Planning ahead and making it happen
- Focus on selling and talking to your customers instead of scrabbling around to throw together last-minute plans and content.
Day three – Thursday 2 September. Implement – Selling and showing up sustainably
- It’s important to grow sustainably as if you were to 5x your income, you’d be overrun! Have a balance between making and marketing.
Intro music: FLOW by tubebackr. Free Download / Stream
Creative Commons — Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported — CC BY-ND 3.0
