Most e-commerce brands drop some kind of deal on Black Friday, but not many do it well.
After all, on that big day, your audience will see a TONNE of similar discounts. So, how can you stand out and set yourself up for a successful sale? With a Black Friday waitlist for your e-commerce deal!
That way, after building momentum and creating FOMO, you’ll launch your offer to engaged subscribers who are already looking out for it.
Much better, right?
Here’s how you can set up your Black Friday waitlist.
What is a Black Friday waitlist?
This waitlist is simply a list of people who’ve expressed an interest in your upcoming Black Friday deals.
So, instead of releasing them to everyone at the same time, you can either:
- Treat them as subscriber-only offers
- Give additional perks and incentives to your waitlist subscribers (like early access, a higher discount, or free shipping)
How can e-commerce businesses use waitlists for Black Friday?
Creating a waitlist for your Black Friday e-commerce deal will benefit both you and your customers.
- Exclusive offer – Your most loyal customers and action-takers will be rewarded with unique offers, higher discounts, and early-bird deals
- Premium positioning – When something is easy to access and available for everyone, it loses its perceived value. Instead, your Black Friday waitlist will show that your products are premium and in demand
- Collecting leads – Most e-commerce companies rely on social media promotions, ads, website traffic, and a generic email list. With a Black Friday waitlist, YOU will cut through that noise by reaching your target customers directly in their inbox and in a more personalised way (we’ll show you how to tailor your emails soon!)
- Building anticipation – Instead of dropping your offer out of the blue, you’ll nurture your waitlist subscribers first, inspiring trust, making a connection, and building momentum and excitement
- Urgency – Your waitlist will increase the sense of scarcity and FOMO that characterises Black Friday, compelling more people to take action
- Managing your inventory – By monitoring your number of waitlist subscribers, you can gauge demand more accurately, avoiding under- and over-stocking
How do you build a Black Friday sales funnel?
To maximise your e-commerce sales, create a Black Friday funnel that starts with your initial offer announcement, keeps nurturing your subscribers, and culminates on that big day.
Its key parts are:
- Landing page – Tease your upcoming e-commerce deal, and compel your audience to sign up for your waitlist to get exclusive access
- Waitlist quiz – With ScoreApp, you can take it to the next level by attaching a short quiz to your landing page. Not only will it attract more people by acting as a valuable lead magnet (for example, “What’s Your Traveller Profile?”): you’ll validate your Black Friday offer idea by asking strategic questions to your audience (like “If you had a juicy 60% discount, which of the following items would you buy first?”). Your quiz will also segment your waitlist subscribers based on their answers, all automatically. This will allow you to personalise the rest of your Black Friday funnel, making your messaging and offers super-targeted for each customer
- Promotional content – Use the rest of your marketing (like social media posts, teasers, videos, website pop-ups, and paid ads) to engage your current audience and reach more people. Then, direct them to your Black Friday waitlist landing page
- Waitlist email sequence – Nurture your waitlist subscribers before, during, and after Black Friday (more on that soon!). By connecting your ScoreApp landing page to your email marketing platform, you’ll get to automate your sequences and personalise them based on each subscriber’s behaviours or quiz results
So, with this Black Friday sales funnel, you’ll launch your e-commerce offer to customers who actively expressed an interest in it and have already been nurtured. A game-changer!
7 top tips to maximise your e-commerce Black Friday sales
Let’s make this your best Black Friday ever!
1. Plan ahead
Ideally, you’ll want to start planning for Black Friday in October. That way, you can:
- Come up with the right offer idea without rushing it
- Launch your waitlist in early November
- Focus on growing it by collecting leads
- Gauge demand and plan your inventory
- Nurture your subscribers throughout the rest of the month
2. Create an unmissable Black Friday deal
The best waitlist funnel, marketing, and ads WON’T sell a bad offer!
- Focus on your target audience – Don’t be generic. What do they value the most? What products or collections are they already drawn to? When you attach a ScoreApp quiz to your waitlist landing page, you get to validate that idea. For example, a skincare brand could lead with a “What’s Your Ideal Skincare Routine?” quiz. As well as engaging your audience, it’ll help you get clear on what they’re struggling with, what they’re most interested in, what motivates them to buy, and so on
- Package it into a compelling offer – For example, this could be a substantial discount, a bundle centred around a specific theme or collection, or some additional perks (like free shipping) that are only available on Black Friday
- Add urgency – Why should your audience act now? Create FOMO by highlighting what makes this offer limited (for example, it might be your stock, or maybe only the first 200 customers get the highest 70% discount before it goes down to 50%)
3. Build trust with your customers
From fake online stores to greenwashing and empty promises, you can’t expect your audience to just take your word on how valuable your products are.
So, use your Black Friday waitlist funnel to build trust, too. Share reviews from past customers and user-generated content:
- In your email sequence
- In your social media posts and organic marketing
- In your paid ads (especially UGC!)
- On your website
You can also inspire a stronger connection by sharing stories and behind-the-scenes content or by telling your audience why you created that deal for them, perhaps tying it back to your mission.
4. Personalise your Black Friday marketing
Around Black Friday, your audience will be bombarded with aaaaaall kinds of promotions and generic emails.
So, the more relevant and tailored your messaging is, the more likely your customers will be to engage with it and take action. No wonder personalised marketing leads to a 20% increase in sales!
- Segment your list – Divide your audience into groups based on their behaviours (like past purchases) or preferences and needs (which you can uncover when you attach a ScoreApp quiz to your waitlist landing page, segmenting them automatically. Easy!)
- Personalise your emails – Set up different email sequences for each segment, or personalise certain elements accordingly. For example, if you started with a “What’s Your Fashion Aesthetic?” quiz, you could mention “For cool people who are obsessed with [type of aesthetic] like you” (we’ll look at your email funnel more in-depth in the next step)
- Personalise your offers – Take it one step further: recommend the best Black Friday deal or products for each segment. For example, if you started with a ScoreApp quiz on their traveller profile, you could say “Since you turned out to be an Adventurous Explorer, enjoy 60% off on this exclusive camping bundle”
5. Set up a strategic Black Friday email funnel
Your nurturing and promotional sequence is the BIGGEST part of your Black Friday sales funnel. So, prepare emails to send out:
- Before Black Friday – Build momentum and excitement, highlight scarcity, and create FOMO. You can share teasers, exclusive content, customer reviews, and UGC, too
- During Black Friday – Time to drop your offer! Lead with how it’ll benefit your customers (for example, “Get all the best gear for your next adventures for 40% less”) and emphasise that sense of urgency. Send multiple reminders, and make it a breeze for your subscribers to start shopping RIGHT NOW. Set up personalised abandoned-cart emails too, retargeting those who haven’t completed their purchase… yet!
- After Black Friday – Your e-commerce waitlist funnel shouldn’t end on Black Friday! Keep nurturing your new customers and subscribers, even those who didn’t buy from you this time. Stay top of mind, and consider offering them new deals (for example, for Cyber Monday or Christmas)
If you need more direction and inspiration, steal our Black Friday email templates.
6. Test your funnel before Black Friday
Avoid bad surprises, like broken links or a difficult checkout process that loses you customers.
- Optimise for phones – Over 1 in 2 Black Friday customers come from mobile devices. So, ensure your entire waitlist funnel and online store work just as well on phones as they do on desktops. ScoreApp shows you how your landing page and quiz will look on each of them before you launch them
- Test every element – For example, you should check your landing page, emails, call-to-action buttons, links, and checkout to make sure everything will work smoothly on Black Friday
7. Track and measure your results
Find out what resonates the most with your audience. As well as informing your future campaigns, this will allow you to optimise your current Black Friday sale!
- A/B testing – Whenever possible, run some split tests by showing alternative versions of your ads, emails, or landing pages to different segments. When you do this at the start of your Black Friday funnel, you can adjust your main offer promotion accordingly
- Analytics and data – Use your new insights to fine-tune your future emails and to create super relevant offers for your customers, from discount codes for their favourite collections to your next Black Friday deal. With ScoreApp, you get robust and intuitive analytics that couldn’t be easier to monitor
Boost your e-commerce Black Friday sales with a ScoreApp waitlist
Don’t churn out yet another generic discount a couple of days before Black Friday!
With ScoreApp, you’ll get to:
- Build a waitlist of customers who are genuinely interested in your upcoming deal
- Nurture them, build momentum, and create FOMO
- Launch your offer to engaged subscribers who are already excited about it and looking out for it, maximising your sales
Create your Black Friday e-commerce waitlist with ScoreApp today and for FREE.
