When I owned Wee Squeak, I learned that I was in control of my sales.
That I didn’t have to just take what came my way.
That really, I was in charge of what happened and that if I showed up consistently and had a plan, the results were mine.
Black Friday, and every year I owned the company, I made it my mission to make it the best year ever in terms of both sales and profit. My first few Black Fridays were kind of ho-hum, but my last few? Amazing. Home runs.
And over the years, it became pretty clear to me what the difference was between ho-hum and home run results.
There were three things I did that changed everything.
#1: Craft a simple, clear offer for the whole weekend
- Too much talking means too much thinking for your customer, and that’s a conversion killer
- Make sure a 10 year old can understand it.
- No gymnastics at the checkout
- One line – memorable
Here’s an example of a couple of good offers:
- 25% off, site wide
- Buy one, get the 2nd 50% off
And these, not so good:
- 25% off Friday, Free gift Saturday, Free shipping Monday
- 25% off excluding XYZ
- 25% off tops, 15% off bottoms, free shipping over $100
#2: Create a List building Event Now
Build your list now, before the holidays. Time after time, I see email as the top converting source of traffic. This is your opportunity to add in a bunch of new contacts that will be recent and therefore more engaged.
At Wee Squeak, our email traffic converted at 7%.
Simply put, every 1000 more emails I could collect before Black Friday = 70 more sales
Armed with this knowledge, it’s a no brainer to run an event designed to get emails.
Consider partnering with someone who shares a similar customer.
Do it now!
#3: Build a Black Friday VIP list
Why? Because when you tell people what to expect, they’re more likely to take action.
And when you create a new level of service or exclusivity, people love it.
Take the time to create this list and expect open rates and sales to double when you send your VIP email.
So – let’s wrap this up…
Go grab a notebook and write it down.
- One simple clear offer
- Build your list now
- Build a Black Friday VIP list
I challenge you to invest a couple of hours building out a plan – and watch what happens!
You know I love to hear from you, so please get to work, and report back with your results!
Interested in learning more about our membership group for ecommerce entrepreneurs, the Inner Circle? Click here.
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