How to Plan a Month-long Black Friday Campaign on Social Media
November is right around the corner, which means it’s time to start planning your Black Friday campaign on social media!
Black Friday in 2019 was the biggest day ever for mobile shopping, with $2.9 billion in sales coming from smartphones alone.
If you’re hoping to get in on the action this year, you need to start planning early.
Planning a Black Friday Campaign Step #1: Set Your Goals Early
If this is your first time planning a Black Friday campaign, your first step is to set your goals and key performance indicators (KPIs).
Some businesses use Black Friday and Cyber Monday to clear old inventory, while others use it to launch a new offering or boost sales of a holiday-centric product.
There are really endless possibilities here. But the goals you set will determine the type of campaign you run, as well as the metrics you use to track your success, so try to get as specific as possible.
If this isn’t your first Black Friday campaign, start by reviewing last year’s campaign results.
Was your 2019 Black Friday campaign successful? Did it perform as well as you hoped? What metrics or KPIs did you use to measure your success? Were they useful?
Reflecting on your previous successes or failures is a great way to identify areas where you can improve, so don’t skimp out on this step.
As part of your campaign goals, it’s also important to identify the target audience for your offer.
Depending on the goals of your campaign, your target audience could be very broad and include users who don’t currently follow you, or it could be a narrow subset of your followers.
Whatever the size, your campaign efforts will be much more effective if you focus on an ideal customer, considering their demographics (age, gender, and location), as well as the attitudes and emotions that drive their purchase decision (their interests and pain points).
Here are a few questions to help keep you on track:
What kinds of content do they engage with?
Do they prefer photos or videos?
What stickers do they engage with the most?
What hashtags do they use and follow?
What communities are they a part of?
Once you can nail down your campaign goal and your target audience, you’ll have solid foundations to help plan and execute the rest of your Black Friday campaign!
Planning a Black Friday Campaign Step #2: Nail Down Your Timeline
While Black Friday and Cyber Monday used to be one-day events, a lot of businesses now run promotions throughout the whole month of November.
Set the length of your campaign depending on your individual goals, but remember, the longer your campaign runs for the harder it can be to keep momentum.
Since Black Friday and Cyber Monday are both tied to a specific date, let that act as your starting point and then work your way backward from there.
For example, if you’re launching a one-day promotion on Black Friday, you need to break down when each product will be promoted in the lead-up to that day, as well as what channels you’ll be using to promote those products (something we’ll be discussing next).
Planning a Black Friday Campaign Step #3: Choose Your Social Channels
Now that you have a goal and a timeline, you’re ready to start choosing what social media channels you’re going to light up when you launch your social media campaign.
It’s a good idea to be active on most of your social channels during this period to maximize the impact.
But each channel you choose – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Youtube – should have a slightly different strategy and approach, because of how your audience responds and how each platform functions.
For example, while Twitter is a great channel for keeping your audience in the loop about your promotions, it isn’t as good for e-commerce sales.
Instagram, on the other hand, is an e-commerce powerhouse, so if online sales are your main objective, it makes a lot of sense to keep Instagram front-and-center in your strategy.
Planning a Black Friday Campaign Step #4: Create Your Assets & Prep Your Promotional Strategy
Now that you have all the background details like goals, timeline, and channels locked down, it’s time for the fun part: what will your campaign look like?
If you’ve never run a social media campaign before, this step is all about brainstorming!
The goal is to come up with a solid creative direction that is in line with your existing branding but distinct from your day-to-day social posts.
Here are a few questions to help you get on track:
What is the idea or concept behind the campaign?
What is the focus of your campaign? What products or services will you be focused on marketing?
What is the campaign’s promotional strategy?
How will the campaign help you reach our business goals?
Planning a Black Friday Campaign Step #5: Schedule & Go Live with Your Campaign
Once you have all your content and assets, it’s time to put everything together and plan out your social media content calendar for your campaign!
Now’s the time to plan when each piece of the puzzle goes live across your social channels for maximum impact for your campaign.