Black Friday is a fantastic opportunity to skyrocket sales.
Unfortunately, some businesses end up wasting a tonne of time, energy, and money on offers that don’t take off.
Let’s make sure it doesn’t happen to you!
Here’s how you can avoid the most common and costly Black Friday mistakes, setting yourself up for success.
Mistake 1. Starting to think of your Black Friday marketing too late
Many businesses leave it until a couple of weeks before Black Friday (or even later than that!).
The problem isn’t just that you’d churn out a random discount in a rush: you won’t have time to build momentum!
So, your Black Friday deal will drop out of the blue, competing against aaaaaall the other discounts released at the same time.
How to avoid this Black Friday marketing mistake
Start planning your Black Friday strategy in advance (ideally, in October) so that you can:
- Build momentum – From social media teasers to countdown timers and paid ads, keep reaching new people and getting them excited about your upcoming offer
- Collect leads – Direct this traffic to a Black Friday landing page that teases your offer (and, even better, exclusive perks for subscribers) so that you can capture your audience’s email addresses. That way, you’ll get to contact and nurture them directly. With ScoreApp, you can attach a valuable quiz lead magnet to it (for example, “What’s Your Entrepreneurial Profile?” or “Build Your Skincare Routine”). It’ll compel more people to sign up while giving you juicy data, allowing you to personalise your emails and offers (more on that soon!)
Mistake 2. Not understanding your target audience
Generic messaging and a product-centric approach? They just don’t cut it anymore, especially when your audience is bombarded with all kinds of Black Friday offers. So, to stand out, you must make it about them.
If you’re not clear on who you’re selling to and what motivates them to buy, you’ll have to settle for low engagement and poor conversion rates.
How to avoid this Black Friday marketing mistake
Segment your audience to then make your Black Friday messaging and offers relevant to them.
- Segment your audience – Divide them into groups according to their behaviours (like previous purchases or interactions), demographics, or preferences. With ScoreApp, it couldn’t be easier! When you attach a strategic quiz to your Black Friday waitlist, it’ll segment your subscribers automatically based on their answers
- Personalise your marketing – Personalisation leads to a 20% increase in sales! So, through different versions of your paid ads, emails, and landing pages, make your messaging super-targeted for each segment. With ScoreApp, you can set up separate nurturing sequences and personalise your emails even further based on someone’s quiz answers. And why not create separate deals for each group?
Mistake 3. Offering generic discounts
Were you thinking of promoting a 10% discount or a broad “Black Friday sale”? Well, so are your competitors!
Unfortunately, everyone is competing for your audience’s attention (and wallets) online. So, you can no longer expect to stand out with something that basic.
How to avoid this Black Friday marketing mistake
Create value-driven offers with your specific target audience in mind, and market them in a way that makes them think “There’s no way I’ll pass on this deal!”
- Plan the right Black Friday offer – What’s your target audience most interested in? What are their problems, values, and goals? Use that to identify the most relevant products or services. Then, come up with an exciting Black Friday deal around them. This could be a substantial discount, a strategic bundle, or a bonus that isn’t normally available (like free shipping or complimentary 1:1 sessions)
- Nail your messaging – Emphasise the sense of urgency and scarcity that characterises Black Friday. Why should people buy NOW? Maybe the discount expires in three days, your stock is limited, or the first three clients who sign up for a retainer will receive one whole month for free. Whatever it is, make your messaging compelling, crystal clear, and relevant for each segment. With ScoreApp, you can use your audience’s quiz answers to inform your messaging, leading with what each subscriber values the most
Mistake 4. Overloading customers with offers
Offering multiple deals sounds generous and strategic in theory. In practice? When customers feel confused or overwhelmed with too many options, they usually choose… nothing.
So, if your Black Friday offers trigger decision fatigue, your audience will either abandon their cart or ignore your brand altogether.
How to avoid this Black Friday marketing mistake
Stick to either one campaign or a small handful of key offers, and make it as easy as possible for your audience to access them.
- Create a smooth path for your customers – Lead with clear and compelling messaging around your Black Friday offer so that your audience can immediately see how it’ll benefit them. You also need to make it easy to find and use, especially on your website (for example, the discount code could appear automatically when someone clicks the link in your emails)
- Personalise your offers – As teased before, you can also choose to create different offers but ONLY recommend the most relevant one for each segment (that way, you won’t overwhelm and confuse them!). For example, this could be based on someone’s past purchases or their current situation and preferences, which you can uncover through your ScoreApp quiz
Mistake 5. Ignoring mobile users
Maybe your marketing and website already look great on a desktop, but did you know that over 1 in 2 Black Friday customers come from mobile devices?
So, if your campaigns and checkout process translate into a poor user experience on phones, you’ll cut out on a MASSIVE chunk of your audience.
How to avoid this Black Friday marketing mistake
Ensure that your Black Friday marketing, deals, and UX are just as good on mobile devices as they are on desktops.
- Optimise your marketing – All your Black Friday emails, ads, and marketing materials must be easy to consume and interact with on phones, too (for example, are the buttons large enough to click with a thumb?). When building your landing page and quiz with ScoreApp, you can preview them on both desktops and phones
- Make your checkout mobile-friendly – Your website should already be mobile-friendly, with fast load times and easy navigation. However, don’t forget to test your Black Friday additions and checkouts on different browsers and devices (for example, is it easy to apply that discount code?)
Mistake 6. Poor email marketing strategy
Let’s face it: your audience’s inbox will be FILLED with Black Friday promotions.
So, if you send generic emails (or, worse, if you drop your offer without any kind of build-up), how can you hope to stand out and grab your customers’ attention?
Plus, as well as missing out on sales, you’d run the risk of annoying your subscribers with impersonal emails.
How to avoid this Black Friday marketing mistake
Build momentum via email, nurturing your list with personalised messages to then make them the perfect offer on Black Friday.
- Grow your list – Leading up to the big day, use your paid ads and organic marketing to direct traffic to a Black Friday landing page, teasing your offer and collecting your visitors’ contact details
- Nurture your subscribers in a personalised way – Plan a waitlist email sequence that builds trust, creates momentum, and teases that big offer drop. When you attach a ScoreApp quiz to your waitlist (for example, “What’s Your Summer Holiday Aesthetic?”), you can personalise these emails based on each subscriber’s answers and results
- Get the MOST out of your list – As well as putting that pre-launch campaign in place, contact your audience with cart abandonment emails (more on that soon!) and post-purchase thank-you messages. This will increase your sales, customer loyalty, and retention at the same time
Mistake 7. Underestimating the importance of social proof
There are already lots of fake online stores, but more and more tend to pop up right before Black Friday. So, your customers are warier than ever, especially if they got scammed before.
At the same time, many “legit” stores are also offering similar Black Friday discounts, promising that their products are the best.
So, if you just expect all your customers to take your word, you’ll miss out on so many sales.
How to avoid this Black Friday marketing mistake
Use social proof in your Black Friday marketing to build trust more quickly and easily.
- Collect your best social proof – Go through your existing customer reviews and client testimonials (psst: if you haven’t got many, now’s the time to ask for more), and focus on those that are most relevant to the products or services you’ll be pushing on Black Friday. Don’t sleep on user-generated content either: 84% of consumers are more likely to trust brands that harness it in their marketing
- Make the most of it – Add this social proof to your website, Black Friday landing page, and emails, and use UGC on social media and in some of your paid ads, too
Mistake 8. Poor inventory management
This common Black Friday mistake can lead to two equally pesky problems.
If you run out of stock too early? You’ll disappoint your customers, especially if you over-promised in your marketing. If you’re stuck with too much leftover inventory, on the other hand? That’d be a massive waste of money!
How to avoid this Black Friday marketing mistake
Look at data to manage your inventory successfully, and set the right expectations with your customers.
- Review your existing data – To plan your inventory in advance, you could analyse data from your past Black Friday sales and also look at what products are most likely to be in demand based on recent trends. When you create a Black Friday waitlist with ScoreApp? You can gauge demand more accurately by looking at the number of subscribers and, if you included a quiz, what they’re most interested in
- Manage expectations – To avoid disappointment and use scarcity effectively, communicate your stock levels to your customers (in real time too, if possible). For example, when they’re looking at a specific product on your e-commerce website, they could see messages like “Only 5 left” or “17 people already have this in their basket”
- Have a backup plan – If your main products still sell out sooner than expected, be prepared to push different items, bundles, or offers. You could do the same with your discounts, too. For example, if you only offer 70% off to the first 200 customers, everyone else could get a surprise email saying “Oh, no! 200 travel enthusiasts have already snatched our limited 70% offer. But as a thank you for being on this waitlist, guess what? Here’s an exclusive discount code for 50% off, valid for 24h. Don’t miss out again!”
Mistake 9. Ignoring abandoned carts
On Black Friday, cart abandonment rates can be a whopping 77.74%. That’s a huge number of people who were clearly interested in your offer but changed their minds (for now!).
If you forget about them? They will forget about that purchase.
How to avoid this Black Friday marketing mistake
Include cart-abandonment messages in your email marketing automation, using urgency and FOMO to sell more.
- Optimise your checkout process – Some customers end up abandoning their purchase simply because… it was too complicated! So, make your checkout as smooth and intuitive as possible (for example, by removing unnecessary fields and adding various payment methods)
- Automate your cart abandonment emails – Tailor them to make them super relevant and effective (with ScoreApp, as well as referencing the product itself, you can include elements from each lead’s quiz answers, personalising that email even further). Automate these cart abandonment emails to go out within 24h, the most critical time. If that person still hasn’t bought the product in their basket? Send them a different email with a bigger discount or incentive, like free shipping
Mistake 10. Not testing the campaign ahead of time
Imagine creating a Black Friday deal, promoting it for weeks, getting lots of people on your website… only for your checkout to NOT work on the big day.
Or maybe something goes wrong in your marketing and pre-launch campaign, like a broken link or an automation that wasn’t set up properly.
Either way, you’ll miss out on sales and frustrate your audience.
How to avoid this Black Friday marketing mistake
Double-check each part of your Black Friday sales funnel in advance, ensuring that everything proceeds smoothly.
- Test your marketing – Check your emails, ads, and landing pages, including all their links and automation. If you can, conduct some A/B testing too (for example, with your ads and emails) so that you can then push the version that performed best
- Black-Friday-proof your website – Are your new offers easy to find and claim? Is the checkout process smooth on every device? And can your website and team handle higher traffic, or will you need more support around Black Friday? These are all things you must think about before that big day!
Mistake 11. Failing to track and measure results
Were you planning on throwing your Black Friday offer out there and hoping for the best, without looking at your data?
Unfortunately, as well as wasting money now, you’d miss the chance to make more informed and effective decisions when planning future campaigns, deals, and even products.
How to avoid this Black Friday marketing mistake
Analyse the performance of your campaigns and sales, during and after Black Friday.
- Track and optimise your campaign – Familiarise yourself with the built-in analytics of the tools you’re using, or set up external ones (with ScoreApp, you get robust analytics that are really easy to measure). For example, you could track your website traffic, conversion rates, cart abandonment, and average order value, but also your promotional campaigns: how well are your ads performing? Which emails are getting the highest click-through rates? If you start checking this at the beginning of your Black Friday promotion, you might even be able to optimise it before it’s over!
- Review and use your data – Refer to these metrics after Black Friday, too. What went well, and what could have been better? Then, use this valuable data to inform your next Black Friday promotion and upcoming marketing campaigns
Mistake 12. Neglecting post-Black Friday follow-ups
Black Friday might be over, but your strategy doesn’t have to be! After all, you’ve already invested so much time, effort, and money into this campaign.
If you ignore your new customers and the people who interacted with your offer without buying? You’ll miss out on both new sales and brand loyalty!
How to avoid this Black Friday marketing mistake
Keep nurturing your subscribers and customers in a personalised way, fostering loyalty and encouraging repeat sales.
- Nurture your customers – Set up a post-sale email series to thank your customers, stay in touch through tailored messages, and upsell and cross-sell the right products for them. You can do this based on their Black Friday purchase and personalise it for each segment according to their ScoreApp quiz answers
- Nurture your new leads – Just because someone didn’t buy from you on Black Friday, it doesn’t mean they never will! On the contrary, they’ve already expressed an interest in your brand by joining your waitlist and interacting with your landing page or products. So, keep up the momentum: send them valuable messages, inspire both trust and FOMO through customer reviews, and offer additional discounts (for example, for Cyber Monday or with a time-limited code)
Maximise your Black Friday sales with ScoreApp
Due to these common Black Friday mistakes, many businesses will churn out the same generic offers and miss out on revenue. Instead, YOU can choose to set yourself up for success!
Promote your Black Friday waitlist and quiz with ScoreApp, use your data to nurture your subscribers in a more personalised and effective way, and truly maximise your sales.
Create your Black Friday sales funnel with ScoreApp today and for FREE.
