The busiest time of year for retailers is upon us. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the two biggest shopping weekends of the year, immediately following Thanksgiving. For online businesses, Cyber Monday’s success is pivotal for a good financial year. Let’s look at how you can go about digital marketing for Cyber Monday and what you can do to maximize your sales.
Why Cyber Monday is Important
Once Thanksgiving is over, the holiday season really gets into full gear, and that means people start to really shift their focus to holiday shopping. Cyber Monday is the biggest day of the year for digital retail and is the online version of what Black Friday is to in-person shopping. This year, Cyber Monday falls on November 27th, about a month out from Christmas, and will see people around the world jump online to get the best deals. But is Cyber Monday really that big of a deal?
The simple answer is a resounding yes. Last year, Cyber Monday was the biggest day for online spending, with the figure topping $11 billion. This follows on from the $9 billion+ that was spent a few days prior on Black Friday. Simply put, these are two of the biggest shopping days of the year for retailers. Consumers are spending more money towards the end of the year, with the holidays fast approaching. According to the National Retail Federation, the time of year in which consumers are planning for holidays such as Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa accounts for around 20% of retail sales for the whole year. Once the year starts coming to a close, people begin to spend more money.
Customers are savvy enough to know that businesses will be saving their best deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which is why these days see a lot of shopping.
Traditionally, people would shop in person, hence why Black Friday has been around for a lot longer and is more widely known than Cyber Monday. But nowadays, in modern life, so much shopping happens online. Over the past 15 years, online shopping has seen significant growth due to its convenience. Customers would prefer to browse an online store from the safety and warmth of their own bedroom and see their products delivered to their door rather than having to go to a shop and carry things home. There’s also the fact that shopping online provides you with an array of options and fewer geographical restraints. Customers no longer have to drive all the way to a mall in a different city to get what they are looking for; they can just browse the online store. Online shopping is more agreeable to busy customers who want a timely and comfortable shopping experience.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, online shopping has become even more popular. People got used to doing their shopping online. Now, some people view in-person retail as an inconvenience that they would rather avoid entirely. And Cyber Monday is a day that epitomizes that, as customers know, they can get the best deals.
For your online store to have as profitable a year as possible, you need to put in place digital strategies for Cyber Monday’s success. Going the right way about digital marketing for Cyber Monday is a key part of ensuring your business is the go-to for customers on the biggest online retail day of the year.
Maximizing Sales on Cyber Monday: It Starts Early
For your Cyber Monday sale to be successful, you need to be well prepared. You can’t just throw together a few good deals for your website on the Sunday night before. Your business needs to start marketing for Cyber Monday early and start planning its marketing even earlier.
Of all the mistakes businesses make around this time of year, the biggest is leaving it too late to promote their Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. Customers are trying to plan out their shopping ahead of the holidays, so they will already be looking around for the best offers they can find.
Before you start planning your strategies for digital marketing on Cyber Monday, you need to identify your core customer base. What type of people buy the things you are selling? By answering this question, you will know who to target in your advertising campaigns. Look at the data from your stores over the past year. Who has shopped with you? It may be wise to send out brief surveys via email. With these surveys, it is best to keep them fairly brief and to be mindful that not everyone will fill them out. A good way to prompt people to answer your questions would be to offer a discount for Cyber Monday to anyone who fills out the survey. This way, you are ensuring that you get important information for your business and that you will get the business of the people who answered the survey.
Preparation
Here are four things to do to prepare for Cyber Monday:
- Before we get close to Cyber Monday, it’s important to be fully prepared for the big shopping day. Make sure you get all your stock secure; you don’t want a scenario where customers are trying to buy from you, but you are sold out.
- You also need to make sure your website is up-to-date and working smoothly. The last thing you need is for your website to crash or be difficult to navigate on Cyber Monday. Ensure the website works at a good speed and that it is easy to find items.
- Crucially, you want people to know about your deals. Start advertising for your Cyber Monday sales early in November. Simple things like a countdown timer until the sale and information about discounts will help you attract customers.
- And one really important part of marketing for Cyber Monday is budgeting. Budget both time and finances to prepare for the big sale. Set aside time for when you will prepare marketing tools like emails and when you will be able to optimize the website. Spending the time and money in the right way will go a long way toward ensuring Cyber Monday’s success.
Digital Strategies for Cyber Monday Success
So, what exactly can you do when it comes to digital marketing for Cyber Monday? Here are some ideas to consider.
Make it an Occasion
Black Friday and Cyber Monday fall on either side of a weekend, and this weekend is really the start of the season for spending the holidays. Take advantage of that and promote your deals for Cyber Monday weekend.
Exclusivity
You want to make sure people spend their money at your online store on Cyber Monday. One way of doing this is to offer exclusive deals for Cyber Monday. A customer will be more likely to miss out now if there is a fear that they may miss out. Offer products and deals exclusively for the weekend.
Hook Customers in Advance
With so many options, how can you be sure consumers go to your website to buy? You can boost the likelihood of your business being their first choice by offering deals in advance. Send marketing emails to past customers with codes for discounts for Cyber Monday and different offers. Sending out well-put-together personalized marketing emails will make sure your business is at the forefront of your customers’ minds. And you can ensure they come back by offering discounts for customers who spend a lot on Cyber Monday. Loyalty offers like this give customers an excuse to come back and spend money at your online store.
Paid Social Campaigns
One thing that is worth spending money on is social media for your business. This goes back to looking at who your target audience is. Whether your customers are using Facebook, X, or Instagram, push your special offers there. Do this with eye-catching visual content that is promoted.
Giving Back
People will spend money on your products if they feel like they are helping someone else. Cyber Monday is a great time to pair with a charity or non-profit and promote that some of your revenue will go to them. Customers are more likely to part with their cash if they think some good will come out of it.
Something Free
Whether it’s a gift or just offering reduced shipping, people like free stuff, consider doing a special offer just for Cyber Monday where people who buy certain products get something back.
Optimize for Cyber Monday
When it comes to turning digital content into Cyber Monday sales, think SEO. This stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it is key to maximizing sales on Cyber Monday. By optimizing your website for search engines, it will be easier for consumers to find you, and they will be more likely to visit your online store. This is because your website will show up higher in search engine results. Here are four ways to optimize your content for Cyber Monday success:
- Keywords: You can’t optimize anything for your website if you don’t understand keywords. When thinking about keywords, think about the words and phrases people you want to attract would be searching for. For example, if you are selling gaming consoles and accessories, you are going to have keywords like the latest gaming console. Keep in mind that a lot of consumers will be looking for general Cyber Monday deals, so make sure you have terms like Cyber Monday Deals, and Exclusive Cyber Monday Offers mentioned on your page.
- Tags and Categories: Just like keywords, having items labeled with the correct tag and category is crucial for people to find them. Every single item you are selling should have relevant tags and be sorted into the right categories. This way, you are optimizing each of your products and product pages.
- Build Backlinks: One sure way to get traffic to your website for Cyber Sunday is to promote yourself on other sites. Think about people with blogs that you can collaborate with, and ask them to backlink you. A backlink is essentially a link to your website from somebody else’s. It’s a key part of SEO because if your website has a presence on other pages, then search engines will prioritize it. The best way to go about this is to approach people who are writing content about Black Friday or Cyber Monday. If they are posting a blog post, you can collaborate with them so that they link to your products or page.
- Clear and Easy: Cyber Monday will see people frantically looking around for the best deals and shopping in a hurry. You need to ensure that your website is well-labeled, highly organized, and easy to get around. There are so many online retailers offering great deals that shoppers simply won’t waste time on a website that is badly laid out.
Once you’ve optimized your website, you can start tracking data. Use every bit of data and metadata that you get through your website. See what people are looking at on your site and what they are clicking on. Did they find you on social media or through another site? What are your most-viewed items? This information is key to promoting yourself on Cyber Monday.
Final Words
If you follow these digital strategies for Cyber Monday success, you’ll kick off the holiday season with a bang. Turning digital content into Cyber Monday sales can happen through having the right digital marketing strategies and ensuring your website and content are fully optimized. A well-prepared marketing campaign will lead to you maximizing sales on Cyber Monday.
