If you’re like most marketers, a great deal of planning goes into getting ready for Black Friday. Then, finally: the big day arrives. New and existing customers are hitting your stores, website, and mobile app. It’s natural for your first thought to be: here comes the revenue! And while it’s true that shoppers will be looking to spend, collecting their money isn’t the only thing to think about. What’s equally important, or arguably more important in terms of your long-term goals, is collecting their data.

Ready to start using the strategies? Download our ebook, Power Up Your Black Friday: 10 Omnichannel Strategies to Beat Competitors and Make More $$$.

Shift your focus to gathering data

Deals and discounts are a big motivator for customers shopping during Black Friday. But because they’re so eager to hear about the holiday sales promotions, they’ll also be much more likely to opt in to your promotional channels, like email and SMS. 

Black Friday is a perfect time to gather more of the customer data that drives your 1:1 marketing efforts. As great as it is to see big holiday shopping revenue numbers, it’s even better to win a long-term customer. Focusing on gathering data can help you drive repeat purchases long after Black Friday and holiday shopping is over. 

So how do you get this detailed customer data? You need to establish a value exchange.

Offer Value-Adding Experiences

Customers are willing to share their data… but usually not for free. 

You can encourage and tempt customers into giving you valuable, actionable information, but you’ll succeed only when they understand the value of what they’re getting in return.  

Focus on the ways your brand offers value in the form of unique, relevant experiences that no other brand provides. In exchange, customers will consent to giving you their data — data you couldn’t have captured any way or anywhere else. 

A few ideas on how you can create value-adding experiences during Black Friday in exchange for their data include: 

  • Exclusive products and services
  • Pre-sale access
  • Priority customer service

For more ideas, check out our ebook, 10+ Value Exchanges to Grow Your first-Party Data.

Use Intelligent Segmentation of Limited-Time Holiday Shoppers

You’ll be getting a variety of customers engaging with your brand during Black Friday. Many of these will likely be limited-time shoppers that intend to buy only for the holidays. To maximize engagement with these shoppers, skip the standard “one holiday email for all” approach. Smart segmenting will enable you to speak directly to each customer segment based on their needs.  

Not every type of holiday shopper will respond to your content the same way. Leaning into intelligent segmentation will allow you to better personalize your holiday campaigns and boost conversions. 

A few segments you may want to consider for Black Friday shoppers:

  • Last-minute shoppers: Use time-based calls to action like, “for a limited time”
  • Back-again shoppers: For those who have expressed a desire to keep buying similar items, make reordering easy, or offer items in other varieties (the same scarf in a different color, for example)
  • Loyal for the holidays shoppers: A personalized “just for you” discount or a “close to next tier” campaign can be especially powerful with this customer segment

Go Omnichannel to Meet Customers Wherever They Are 

Going omnichannel is essential not only for business results, but for improving the customer experience. Holiday shoppers are just as savvy and time-crunched as customers at other times of year, sometimes even more so. Black Friday and the weeks leading up to it, as well as the days following it, require you to put your best foot forward by meeting customers where they want to interact. 

While email remains the biggest way marketers connect with customers, Black Friday is a great opportunity to find other ways to interact with shoppers.

For example, do you have new customers shopping in your store? Great! Use QR codes to identify them and move them further along their journey with your brand, whether by encouraging app download or a social media follow. By incentivizing a customer to scan a QR code with their mobile device, you can get a great deal of data and insight about your customer that will help you drive further engagement and begin the steps to turn them into a loyal, lifelong customer. Online-only customers can similarly be encouraged to take the next step with your brand so you can continue the relationship even after the holiday shopping season is over.

Get Started Today

Use the biggest shopping event of the year to begin (or deepen) relationships with a broad number of customers. Savvy messaging and a focus on relationship-building instead of one-time transactions can mean that the efforts made on Black Friday will continue to bring rewards long after the holidays are over. 
To get more ideas on how to prepare for Black Friday, what to do to maximize your efforts on the big day, and how to follow up to nurture relationships with Black Friday buyers, download our ebook, Power Up Your Black Friday: 10 Omnichannel Strategies to Beat Competitors and Make More $$$.