6 Things I Learned From Setting Up Black Friday Promotions

by Tiffany Johnson

This was the first year I had multiple clients setting up special promotions all for the same occasion, Black Friday. Usually promotions and product releases are spaced out. In addition, it was the first year we ran our own Black Friday special. I learned a lot of things from a personal standpoint as well as my clients. It was a stressful, high energy time for all of us. However we made it through with smiles, sales, and new customers.

Although it took the entire weekend to recuperate I’m grateful that my Time Warner wifi played nice, I did not have to prepare a dish for Thanksgiving, and no one expected me to rise at 6am to head out to shop on Black Friday.

I learned a lot of things as a result of preparing for Black Friday that will carry over to other special promotions and product releases as well. Clearly there is much more to learn, so let’s collaborate and form an even larger list.

I’m sharing mine first and then I’d like you to share yours in the comments below. Let’s make the next promotion and product release an exciting and less stressful time for all.

Here are 6 tips for a stress free and exciting special:

1. It’s going to take more time than you think.

   Whatever time you estimate double it. This gives buffer time for graphics, editing, and anything else needed to create your product.

2. Drawn charts help to follow the sales process and make setting up all the pieces a lot easier as well as see what pieces are needed.
   

   Draw it out

   Now that you have added e-commerce to your business model it’s important to observe the process when you purchase online from this point forward. Be more aware of the steps you go through. What do you like, what don’t you like. Do you find yourself saying “I wish it was more like this…” Jot this information down for yourself and reference it for your next special or product offer.

3. Expect last minute glitches and be ready to make adjustments quickly.

   This is part of the reason it’s important to finish everything two-three weeks early. When glitches arise you’re not freaking out or sending abusive emails to your virtual team. You can better access the situation and determine if it’s something you’re just not seeing or if it really is a glitch.

4. Complete everything for your promotion a week or two prior to it’s release date.

   The additional time in between is better used for tweaking and testing.

5. Become your own customer.

   Go through the entire sales process from the point of view of a customer. Ask yourself if the process is easy to follow or whether it requires to many additional steps. For example, if you’re selling an EBook, most people are used to getting the PDF version delivered right away. If your process requires them to sign-up for a website completely unrelated to yours, guess what? You may have lost a customer. Make it super easy.

6. It’s not the time to add a new merchant account.

   If you’ve been using PayPal up to this point, stick with that. Add your new merchant later or well in advance of your special promotion. You not only want to make it easy for purchasing, but also easy for yourself.

   Now it’s your turn. Please share what you learned as a result of a special promotion or product release.

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