Effective Black Friday Prep and Strategies for Navigating Bargain Hunters

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In a recent webinar, our very own Arbie Rodriguez facilitated a conversation with Gianfranco Cuzziol, former CRM & Personalisation Lead with Dr Martens and Aesop; Allie Isaac, Business Value Consultant at Talon.One; and Julana Chondrasch, Marketing Director at Peloton around converting holiday shoppers.

This session, titled “Effective Black Friday Prep and Strategies for Navigating Bargain Hunters” is available on-demand here and hits on several key points that e-commerce and retail brands should focus on this holiday season.

The session included 2024-2025 shopping behavior trends and a detailed panel discussion on marketing tips and tricks for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. So, up first, the insights:

2024-2025 shopping behavior trends uncovered

Trends uncovered from“Nielsen, eMarketer, Salesforce and Adobe Insights in our presentation were:

• 65% of shoppers say Black Friday has the best discounts of the year
• 63% of shoppers are making more purchases from stores where they can earn and redeem loyalty points
• 53% of shoppers are interested in using generative AI to find the perfect present.
• 56% of global consumers said they wouldn’t share personal data online because they don’t trust AI to protect it
• 53% of online sales are forecast to happen on mobile devices.

With mobile moving to the primary channel and an interest in AI and how it can inform shopping choices, what Black Friday prep can brands do to lure bargain hunters?

The top 3 essentials for Black Friday or Cyber Monday marketing checklists

Our panelists first shared about ensuring that any discounting is aligned with the heritage of your brand. Don’t be tempted to join in Black Friday or Cyber Monday just because it’s a popular shopping holiday. It is, at its core, for discounts. So, e-commerce brands and retail stores should ensure participating in the discounting makes sense for your brand identity.

If you win Black Friday or Cyber Monday, then you could win the year. So do your segmentation well and start with your awareness and consideration campaign in September so you can go hard on acquisition in November. Know what your competitors are doing and look at when they are starting and what they’re offering. Test what you’re planning to offer in focus groups. Also, have a backup offer ready in case you’re not hitting the forecast. This creative needs to be ready and approved so you can turn it on if the numbers are not coming in.

Lastly, the panelists spoke about personalized incentives and loyalty to protect your margin and keep customers happy about your brand. The more complex these offers are, you need to think about every touchpoint and ensure everyone in your team knows what these offers do and how they work so customers have a great experience no matter who they interact with – including third parties.

New ideas and technologies to add to Black Friday marketing

Our partner, Talon.One, shared that they already have a handful of clients that are currently using AI to determine which offers work best for their customers. Generative AI is a powerful new technology brands can use to determine which offers cause leads to make a transaction. So, applying test and learn using generative AI to determine those offers prior to Black Friday can prepare you with the right incentive at the right time, on the day.

The next comment from the panelists was that working with creators and influencers doesn’t have to be expensive. Mid-tier and micro-influencer creators can make great content for you that will resonate really well for a lot cheaper than a mega-influencer. Peloton has seen that creator ads are extremely engaging and perform better than standard ads sitting within overall campaign messaging. Our panelists shared that this type of campaign content can be a cost-effective way for businesses to promote their products as well as UGC. Your influencer marketing strategy and user-generated content strategy can go hand in hand and complement each other during Black Friday sales. You can use your creator-made ads through your main ad channels as well.

Next, think about the message and medium. Don’t discount minimalism. Simple, strikethrough price-leading ads can be very effective and cut through the noise. Think about the channels of the moment as well – how can you use WhatsApp, TikTok and Instagram naturally? Don’t try to crowbar in fresh channels just for one campaign, leverage where you already are in new and exciting ways. Lastly, don’t ignore the power of your people. How can you engage them to participate enthusiastically from the showroom to the boardroom?

Who are bargain hunters and what do they want?

Our panelists highlighted that bargain hunters are customers who are specifically waiting for this time when they expect an amount or percentage off of their purchase. The risk is that you’re training customers to do a specific thing – wait. That’s why technology to reward the right behaviors is so important. Many people will come to your brand at this time of year because they’re doing Christmas shopping. They’re looking to buy what they need for the festive Christmas season and they would have had a longer consideration period than you’re giving them credit for. Somewhere, down the line, they’ve begun to make a list of suitable gifts for themselves and others. Giving them a good offer means that they can feel a little better about themselves for not buying at full price. It can sometimes even stop them from thinking about if it’s a necessary purchase – instead, they’ll look at the attractive offer first.

How can brands maximize profits from bargain hunters?

It’s a balance of margin and expectation. What level of discount do you need to give away to make that customer feel that they’ve got a bargain? How can you give them an entry point to the brand or to the category where they might become a longer-term customer? Can you turn them into ambassadors, leverage them for referrals and keep them excited about their new investment? Our panelists discussed adding value to your content and your ecosystem, so being a part of your world is so beneficial to your new clients they want to stick around and become brand advocates.

Next, brands should think about lifecycle marketing to reduce or delay that margin hit. Instead of offering a 25% discount, if you already have these customers and they are engaged with your brand, you might want to try offering double points, doing point accelerators, offering cash back and giving them some sort of reason to come back to shop with. Make sure to tie it to use within a specific period so they don’t forget and they do redeem it. Brands participating in Black Friday and Cyber Monday can elongate the margin hit by offering these types of loyalty incentives. This is only possible when you have the right data and correct segmentation; so that should be a priority.

That’s something that MoEngage and Talon.One have collaborated to address:

With our ROI BOOST programme, combine data and messaging to cleverly retarget abandoned carts, layer loyalty messages, reduce churn and send the right comms at the right time, to the right segments. 

Need some campaign ideas? Get your hands on 5 Proven Post-Holiday Customer Retention Campaign Examples you could use right now.

Can you really convert bargain hunters to loyal customers?

Our panelists spoke about how it’s possible to convert customers if your product delivers something at a good price and good quality. But it’s important that the product not just meets, but surpasses expectations and that the level of service that you give them does as well. When that happens, you can turn that customer into a valuable long-term client of yours. Look for purchases where the customer was very specific in their intent, track where they have come from and you can make some assumptions about what they’re looking for. What upsell, cross-sell and loyalty marketing can you do to retain them for longer?

How can you break down barriers to conversion for high ticket items over Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

In this case, our panelists discussed the long consideration time for less impulsive products. From when they first hear about your brand until the buying decision, there’s a substantial amount of time that passes where you need to hit the customer with adequate messaging. Segmentation and knowing your customers, knowing their needs, knowing exactly who they are and where they are is key. What are their reasons to believe? How can you get them to trust in your brand promise? Bargain hunters need to feel that your product is actually gonna deliver what they’re looking for and that they are buying something of value. 

If you’re not a domestic brand, you’ll need to do local marketing well with people who will give your brand credibility in these markets. Lastly, what are the non-transactional touchpoints you can add? Can they pick it up in-store? Can you give them a personal shopper? Where can you leverage word of mouth? If you’re early to market, you can get people talking about your brand and putting trust into your campaign with reviews, seals and badges. This is key to getting conversions for high-ticket items over Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

What are some last-minute tips for a good Black Friday or Cyber Monday campaign?

It’s not too late. Go to market with a simple discount leader, the stripe with a slash through it – people understand what that means this time of year. If that’s appropriate for your brand, offer those large discounts. But if it isn’t, what longer-term loyalty strategies could you use instead? Think about what channels are available to you quickly like CRM and social. These will be your most effective, fast go to market strategies. And it’s not too early to start planning for next year, right now.

Need more inspiration? Read about how MoEngage delivers effective conversion messaging for brands you know like Poshmark, Samsung, Nestle, Unilever, Panasonic and more in our Retail & E-commerce Customer Success Stories here.