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After 5 years in business I’ve noticed a pattern in new and small business owners habits - which is knowing optimal shopping times are approaching yet doing very little to take full advantage of this.
Every year, they sit back and watch dozens of online businesses make millions for Black Friday weekend while they barely get traffic, sales, or engagement on their content.
I’m here to tell you, the only difference between your results and those you admire or envy is the time and dedication to developing and implementing a Black Friday strategy. So, to help you figure it out, let’s review 50+ Things To Do To Sell Out For Black Friday.
Before we dive in, check out our resource library and custom print shop. We offer ebooks, courses and print products that can help expand on this article, teach you new skills and give you creative content ideas to standout.
Start planning 5 months ahead
If you think any company, especially large ones, wait until November or even October to plan for Black Friday, you’re terribly mistaken. The companies that see the most success, typically are accompanied by the best planners. The reason being, to have a successful Black Friday means that several parts of business are running efficiently and automated in some capacity.
Being a “Small business” doesn’t mean you should plan, strategize or automate any less than large corporations. Instead, it means you should do it more because being a one person run business leaves room for several vulnerabilities during high sales periods.
If you’ve avoided this because you don’t know what to plan, you’re in the right place. Below there is a checklist of what you need to plan for Black Friday & the benefit of doing so for your business.
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What to plan |
Planning specifics |
Business benefits |
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Timeline |
Identify When everything needs to be done and then work backwards to set dates. Set a deadline for every single task Create weekly to-do list Then create smaller daily to do lists with a maximum of 5 tasks. |
Setting a timeline can help eliminate the guesswork and give you clarity on what type of deadlines everyone you work with needs to have as well. Working backwards from your final deadline shows you how much time you have, how many hours a week you should dedicate to planning and how to best use your time moving forward. Finally, creating a shorter daily to-do list can alleviate the anxiety you may have after reading this article and developing your strategy. |
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Final Budget |
How much will you spend on planning, outsourcing, and executing your strategies? Will you need new software? Do you have to hire a graphic designer? Do you have to hire a web designer to update your website? Will you need sales pages dedicated to specific products? Are you running advertisements? If so, what is the maximum you plan to spend? Will you hire an expert to run and manage your ads for you? Will you hire seasonal contractors or part time staff to help meet additional deadlines? |
Before you begin buying anything or even researching things to buy, come up with a number that you will not exceed - no matter what. Keeping this number in mind will ensure that you keep realistic expectations and don’t go broke trying to maximize on Black Friday the first time around. When setting your budget, keep in mind how many of these things you’re currently doing and successfully at that. If you are doing something but its not an income producing activity, you either need to learn how to do it properly or outsource it. Asking yourself these questions allows you to save as needed, consider developing a simple training curriculum if you are hiring, You can get ahead of the ball If you know you’re going to hire a graphic or web designer which will make their job 10 times easier. First, you can create a google drive with organized folders for your brand and Black Friday information (Hex codes, Logo, brand fonts, socials, websites, sales, discount codes, sales dates & times, relevant brand themes, memes etc.) any vital brand information goes here. Next, you can find graphic examples you like and add them to a new folder for the designer. This will help the designer more clearly understand your vision, while also providing them with all relevant information. Doing this now means you don’t have to do it in 4 months just to rush through it and miss vital information. Also, now you have an official space to brainstorm, collect vital information and add to over the next 5 months. |
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SMART Goals |
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant and Time Bound.
Email list growth |
Helps you paint a picture of the what, why, how, when & where for your strategies. Having a minimum means anything extra is a bonus. So if you’ve never done Black Friday seriously, this helps you put into perspective what you can realistically do. Having social & email goals helps you track content effectiveness. |
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Inventory |
Are you selling old or new items? What is the manufacturing cost How many discounts can you really afford to give a way for next to nothing? When will it arrive, if new Inventory budget ? |
Knowing what you’re selling helps you prepare everything from content to shipping supplies. Tracking when your supplies are coming will help you prepare adequate storage, sales launches, and ship orders out on time. Calculating the true cost of profit you can sacrifice for sales ensures you do not lose money on Black Friday and that having sales, even slightly discounted, is financially beneficial to you. Preparing an inventory budget can help you map out projections, expenses, anticipated income, and even an idea of what you may not sell for the weekend. |
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Packaging |
Will you have special limited edition packaging? Any special thank you cards or business cards? New boxes? Would a custom Black Friday journal help you stay on top of everything? How much will this cost? When will they arrive? Who will manufacture them for you? Will you need to hire a graphic designer? |
Planning what type, if any, packaging upgrades you want to make can help you order far in advance. The reason being, after September, print companies become extremely busy. You could experience processing and shipping delays if you do not order far enough in advance before people who order 10,000+ units from manufacturers become the priority. Identifying what type of upgrades you will be making also gives you ample time to work with a graphic designer and perfect each concept as needed. Making a price and quality comparison will help you ensure you’re getting the best deal for your money and maximizing the effectiveness of your budget. Right now you have time to make an excel / google spreadsheet to compare prices, quality, reviews and processing times. If you do this once, you only have to update it every year after. Now you have a personal directory of who you like to work with, why, and their information. |
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Sales, Codes, & deadlines |
What type of sales will you be running? What is the operating and manufacturing cost of running these sales? What will the assigned discount codes be? When will the codes end? |
Identifying the types of sales you will run puts you in the position to survey your audience and see if these are things they want. If they don't want those offers, keep surveying until you’re only giving offers they can’t resist. Calculating the cost ensures that without a doubt, even with the discounts, you will still make a profit. Writing out your discount codes means you can upload them to your website and prepare a space to track data on which codes are most used to understand what your audience loves the most for next year. |
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Content for social media |
What platforms will you be posting on? What is your strategy for each platform? Will you need to batch record content? Will you need to hire a video editor? Write out your captions Write out your tweets or facebook post Schedule and automate the content to post on each social platform. Plan engagement periods daily to build rapport and trust with your audience. |
Pick 2 platforms to dominate. Making content for multiple platforms by yourself will become very draining, very quickly. This gives you space to develop a schedule and give both platforms quality content to grow your following more quickly. Batch creating content in advance means that you can spend Black Friday Weekend packing orders or relaxing and getting ready to package orders on Monday. Either way, doing this ahead of times means you don’t have to rush through it two weeks before or even the week of, If you’re unsure of how to create content or what type of content to create, check out our Interactive Content Workbook. Here we provide 15 tips, 15 worksheets, graphics, examples and more. |
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Content for Ads |
What content will you use to run advertisements? Do you know how to run ads? Will you learn or will you outsource? When will you test this content? How will you measure the success of the ads? What media types will you use: Picture, video, gifs, reviews, podcast etc.? |
Pro-Tip: If it couldn’t convert organically, it likely won’t convert in an advertisement. You should never run ads on every piece of content you create, only the pieces that generate income before running ads. Consider creating a google drive folder with your most popular content saved and ideas for how to reuse this content to go viral again. |
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Content for email marketing |
What content will you use? Do you know how to run email campaigns? Will you learn or will you outsource? When will you test this content? How will you measure the success of the content? What media types will you use: Picture, video, gifs, reviews, podcast etc.? What will the email schedule be? How will you segment your list? |
Examples of content include client testimonials, before and after clients, product announcements, blog post announcements, newsletters, exciting company news, etc. We provide more examples in our Interactive Content Workbook . Consider creating a google drive folder with your most popular content saved and ideas for how to reuse this content. Segmenting your list allows you to send specific content to specific customers or leads. This ensure everyone is receiving content specific to their interest, instead of spamming them with things they do not care for. |
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New product releases |
Will you be releasing new products, services, or bundle deals? How much will these items usually retail for? What will be the discount? Will you raise the price before discounting it to limit the loss? Will you focus more on digital products? |
Planning ahead allows you to focus on the quality of the new products, build excitement, and gather emails for the launch announcement. Raising the price slightly can help limit the loss due to sales, especially if the turn out is a bit lower than what you expected. Focusing on digital products can be a great way to bring traffic to your website and host sales without cheapening the value of your physical products. |
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Old product that was hard to sell |
What inventory have you had for months but can’t get rid of? What problem does this inventory solve? How can you showcase this product solving this problem in your content? (Be creative) What methods have you previously tried that were unsuccessful? What can you do differently than before? |
Documenting old inventory can show you everything you’ve had longer than you should have. Identifying the problem this product solves gives you a new selling point you hadn’t considered in your previous content. Identifying the methods you tried previously that did not work makes sure you avoid using them and wasting time again. This also makes it easier to brainstorm new methods with clarity on what not to do. |
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Preorders |
What will you pre order? Why? Will you allow pre orders once products are sold out? Will you only offer pre orders to avoid over ordering products? When will pre-order end and begin? |
Preorders can help you gauge your audience and avoid over buying products if this is your first Black Friday You could do different preorder sales all week and discount it more during the weekend to make it more appealing to first time buyers You can also develop content for current customers to have additional offers from pre orders |
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Order cut off |
When will the last Black Friday order be accepted? When will the orders be shipped? Are you extending processing times for higher order volume? |
Setting deadlines helps you set realistic SMART goals more accurately Planning this out now means you won’t have to if your sale goes viral and you get hundreds of orders unexpectedly. |
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Website updates |
Do you need dedicated sales pages? Do you have email or text message popups? Have you done A/B marketing on these pop ups? |
Mapping new website needs allows you to plan ahead and budget for hiring a developer You’ll also have time to do website mapping per new sales page Now you can research A/B marketing to see what CTAS work best for your audience |
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Promo graphics |
What types of graphics will you need for social media? Will you design these graphics or hire out? Do you know the graphic aesthetic you’re going for? When will you set the graphic deadline to begin automating content? |
Planning out your graphic types and purposes makes it significantly easier to have them created If you’re unsure of aesthetics, that’s okay because when you start early you now have time to do a mood board, color palettes and more creative planning. Starting 5 months early means you can work with designers for 3 months to revise and get it right. |
There are so many other things you can do after following everything in this chart including preparing all of your content in advance, Survey your audience, Segment your email list, Host a pre-black Friday sale, & SMART goals + Sales Producing Activities.
However, before you can successfully do any of these, there’s At Least 2-3 areas in this chart for you to review. Once you’ve mapped out your strategy, come back to this resource for your custom printing and content marketing needs. We’ll drop some resources for you below to help you get started.
If you found this article as helpful as I hope you did, leave a comment for the author down below. Let us know if you want more information and content like this for Black Friday!
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