Black Friday has become a national holiday all of its own, being the post-Thanksgiving savings bonanza that has seen crowds of people amassing outside department stores and clamoring violently over consumer goods. Today, Black Friday is a much less volatile affair than it once was; savvy consumers seek the same deals online as opposed to in-store, and the pressure on physical locations has lessened considerably as a result.
Now, Black Friday can be viewed properly as the opportunity it is. Smaller businesses can also stand to benefit from this true consumer’s holiday, with offers and discounts of their own. But the money made is on volume as opposed to margin, and the high volume of customers attainable on Black Friday is naturally nowhere to be seen elsewhere in the year.
There are ways, though, in which Black Friday can be made to work for the smart business year-round. What methods can your business use to boost customer retention following the next Black Friday sale?
Collect Data
Information is your friend when it comes to Black Friday. Every customer that comes to your website or through your door on Black Friday is a potential lead for future sales – and securing a way to contact them after Black Friday dramatically increases your chances of selling to them again.
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Requiring an email address with every purchase enables you to build a Black Friday mailing list, which you can use to reach the vast majority of Black Friday customers with email marketing campaigns – which, themselves, have the highest ROI of any marketing discipline at $36 per dollar spent.
Loyalty Programs
But what can you offer customers to sweeten the deal on their return? One strong option is to introduce a loyalty program with rewards that scale through repeat purchases. Loyalty programs are exclusive enough to make new customers feel special. Your Black Friday customers will also have a head-start on receiving their first reward, incentivizing them all the more to return and spend more.
Gift Guides
Essentially, the route to persuading customers to become repeat customers involves demonstrating value above and beyond the products you sell. This can be done in several ways, including the quality of your customer service, but there are also marketing tools you can use to bolster your business’ ‘usefulness’ to customers.
One such idea comes in the form of the ‘gift guide’, where your marketing material includes suggestions on what to buy for upcoming holidays and occasions. Customers that find value in these suggestions are more likely to follow them with your business, especially where all suggestions are natural products you stock.
Shipping Deals
If you offer delivery, whether an online or physical store, there is a simple thing you can do as a cherry on top for returning customers on the fence. Rendering the delivery of items as free gives customers the illusion they are spending less while making their shopping more convenient. The cost of delivery can be offset through incremental price rises elsewhere, but free shipping has a much larger overall impact from a marketing perspective.
