How to Utilize Black Friday and Cyber Monday as a Small Business
Late November is one of the most eventful times for businesses with Black Friday. As the holiday season kicks into high gear, the weekend of endless deals ensues. This year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday will take place on November 29, 2024 and December 2, 2024, respectively. Customers are scanning websites and local businesses for every bargain available. As a small business, it is imperative you embrace this key selling period and use every tool possible to take advantage of the nationwide shopping spree.
2023 STATS
- Consumers spent $9.8 billion in online sales on Black Friday
- 90.6 million shopped online over 76.2 million in-store
- Online shopping grows every year on Black Friday
- The average discount was at 28%
- Despite less traffic, Cyber Monday brought in $12.4 billion over Black Friday’s $9.8 billion
- U.S. Black Friday sales were up +2.5% from 2022
- Stats from Fit Small Business: https://fitsmallbusiness.com/black-friday-statistics/
HOW TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND
1. Offer Exclusive Deals and Coupons
The name of the game for Black Friday weekend is deals. Now’s the time to start planning your involvement and determine what discounts and offers you’ll provide to new and current customers to get them on board. More unique and enticing deals will be important for martial arts school rather than the standard specials you run throughout the year. Instead of offering a simple free trial or other standard introductory offers, offering “one-time-only” or other unique specials can make Black Friday a monstrous business success for your martial arts school.
2. Paid Ads
The weekend of holiday offers is swarmed with deal after deal, making some fall through the cracks or lose visibility. By running paid search or social media ads, you can rise to the top of screens and social feeds for consumers who are interested in martial arts. While companies spar for attention and try to break through the noise, paid digital ads can give you an advantage and help get your buyers’ interest piqued. If you don’t know where to start with digital advertising, Kicksite offers Marketing Services where our team of experts will get them up and running in time for the holidays and manage them to ensure effectiveness.
3. Offer Bundle Deals
Bundle deals are a great way to further entice customers to join you on the mat. Rather than making multiple smaller purchases on Black Friday for one person, one big purchase that includes friends or family members can set your offer apart from others. For inspiration, check out the story about our client, Kyle Watson at Watson Martial Arts, HERE to see how he used bundle deals and landing pages to bring in $45,000 last Black Friday alone with ‘unlimited’ two-year and lifetime memberships!
4. Set Countdown Timers
Countdown timers are a staple of flash sales. It’s a good way to alert customers that they have a short time to take advantage of your deals. If you have a limited amount of rash guards on a deal or cap the number of special memberships you sell, customers may want to quickly take advantage rather than waiting. If your website does not have a true countdown timer, setting offer end dates and communicating limited quantities also furthers the sense of urgency.
5. Create a Landing Page
A separate landing page for Black Friday/Cyber Monday makes the customer experience vastly different. Instead of hunting for deals, all it takes is one click and they have a dedicated page to view all the available offers. Quick and simple website interactions make sales much easier and provide a better user experience. Everything from offers on merchandise to membership signups can all be on one page together for customers to peruse. Check out Kicksite’s latest landing page live training session HERE.
6. Offer Purchasing Thresholds
Purchasing thresholds are a great way to entice customers to go the extra mile. Customers may jump on board for a larger purchase with the discount (Ex: 10% off with a purchase of $20 or more, 20% off with $50 or more, 30% off for purchase of $100 or more), possibly signing up their whole family for a martial arts class instead of just themselves.
Kicksite Tools that can Help
1. Creating a Landing Page
One of Kicksite’s key tools for this upcoming holiday season is our Landing Pages tool. You’re able to create a customized, one-off landing page just for holiday specials. With the capability to embed membership signup flows, sell items, and even run credit card transactions, landing pages become a hub where students or parents can easily take advantage of your offer without any confusion. Plus, with handy tools like a shortlink generator and QR code generator, you have an easy way to share and drive traffic to them. Need to brush up on everything you can do in the Landing Pages tool? Check our our Knowledge Base article HERE or watch our most recent live training HERE.
2. Use of Membership Section
Within Kicksite, you can create a dedicated Membership option for your holiday offer to make the landing page experience even more streamlined. This especially comes in handy if you decide to offer paid-in-full memberships as part of your deal. You’re able to set up the Membership Template with a specific duration, billing frequency, and special pricing so it’s distinguished from other standard memberships in your system. Need a refresher on how to set up Memberships? CLICK HERE.
3. Inventory Sales
If you are interested in selling merchandise, apparel, gis, etc. at a discounted price during the holiday season, Kicksite has you covered. You can dive into your Inventory within the Kicksite software and set up a new category just for Black Friday or Cyber Monday merch deals. Set the special pricing, establish quantities, and then you can sell them by creating system invoices or including on a landing page. This allows current customers to also get in on the weekend deals and become even more invested in your martial arts school. Check out how to set up Inventory HERE.
GET OUR FREE DOWNLOADABLE GUIDE!
We’ve combined some of the tips above with additional recommendations and best practices in a downloadable, PDF guide. CLICK HERE to save the 2024 Holiday Offer Guide for martial arts schools!