Black Friday Campaigns Perfect for Brand Community

In the retail world, the day after Thanksgiving is widely known as “Black Friday.” It is the busiest shopping day of the year. And for brands looking to stand out in a crowded market, it can be an opportunity to drive sales with limited-time offers and creative Black Friday campaigns. For many retailers, that means offering steep discounts on items to drive traffic. 

But while Black Friday sales might make you money, they don’t necessarily make you customers. Brands need to think beyond profitability if they want to continue seeing success after Black Friday. 

Check out these five tips for successful Black Friday campaigns today!

Decide your Black Friday campaign goals

Before you jump into Black Friday campaigns, you need to decide what your objective is. Here are some questions to ask yourself to help determine your goals.

• Are you trying to drive traffic to your site?
• Capture sales leads?
• Boost brand awareness?
• Or all of the above?

Depending on your campaign objectives, you may want to allocate your resources strategically. For example, if you’re trying to drive traffic to your site, you should front-load your budget on paid channels like social media and paid search. If you’re looking to capture sales leads, consider prioritizing giving away freebies to incentivize your customers to provide their information.

Create urgency with limited-time offers

Creating a sense of urgency is a tried and true way of getting people to make a purchase. Whether it’s a limited-time sale or a limited-quantity offering, a ticking clock can help drive purchase decisions for shoppers who don’t want to miss out. Remember that you don’t just need to promote your sale on your website; you also need to make sure you’re promoting it across your owned channels like Facebook and Instagram.

In addition to highlighting your sale, you should also remind customers that they can use your brand’s channels to help others in need. For example, if you’re running a campaign to donate coats to kids in need, you could tell people that they need to buy your brand’s coats by a specific date to donate them. This will encourage your customers to buy while also bringing attention to a worthy cause.

Leverage influencers and ambassadors

Even though you’re only going to be running your campaign for one day, you still want to be able to extend the life of your promotion as much as possible. One way to do this is to involve your brand’s influencers and ambassadors. Get this dedicated group to promote your offer, along with a link to your website.

Black Friday campaigns

It would be best to ask your community to help promote your sale by posting photos and videos to their networks with your branded hashtag.

If you’re running a campaign meant to bring attention to a specific cause, you can also ask your community to promote your sale to generate donations. For example, if you’re partnering with a food bank, ask your community to donate $5 by purchasing a branded $5 t-shirt.

Black Friday campaigns for TikTok

One idea that works well with influencers and ambassadors is to request that they create a list of Black Friday must-have items and sales that they share in a TikTok video.

Also, on TikTok, make a countdown to Black Friday that includes all the things you’re looking forward to getting.

Develop a Black Friday campaign entitled “Merry & Bright: Shop Black Friday Tonight.”  The activity for brand ambassadors would be to create a TikTok with Black Friday prep that includes making your list, dividing the shopping stops with friends, and loading those items in your online shopping cart. 

Instagram Black Friday campaigns

Have ambassadors make a countdown to Black Friday, including the items they are most looking forward to buying. Ensure that at least one or two of those most anticipated products are from your store. Request that ambassadors post the countdown on their Instagram Reels.

Another campaign idea for Black Friday is to ask members of your brand community to upload an Instagram Reel or Instagram Story depicting their “Black Friday Haul” or Wishlist on the social media platform.

Lastly, a fun Black Friday campaign that one Roster client ran was named “Rejoice! The holiday season has arrived!” The brand asked ambassadors to post discount codes with early Black Friday deals on their Instagram. When friends and family clicked on the discount codes, they were redirected to the brand’s Black Friday sale landing page. Hundreds of new customers purchased items using the discount codes. 

Involving brand ambassadors is one of the most successful strategies for Black Friday campaigns.

People are 90% more likely to trust and buy from a brand recommended by a friend, and word-of-mouth marketing impressions generate 5x more sales than paid media exposure. (Source)

Involve your community

While you’re going to want to leverage your brand’s community and influencers, you also want to make sure you give your community members a way to interact with you and each other during your campaign. One way to do this is to run a contest or giveaway that is tied to your brand hashtag. This gives your customers a chance to show off their creativity and encourages them to engage with one another by voting for their favorite submissions. It also gives you the opportunity to get feedback on product ideas or future campaigns.

Another way to use your community during Black Friday campaigns is to provide them with a chance to be involved in the creation of your campaign. You can do this by creating a social media story that lets your community members add their own content to a template to create a branded story. You can also let your community members curate your timeline, highlighting their favorite products or pieces of branded content.

Surprise and delight with unexpected perks

Keep your Black Friday campaigns fresh and exciting by adding some unexpected perks to your sale. For example, if you’re offering steep discounts on a line of winter jackets, let customers know they’ll also be entered to win a free ski trip to Aspen.

You can also include additional benefits for customers who make a purchase. For example, you can offer free shipping on all orders over a specific dollar amount or give away a free gift with every purchase.

Another way to surprise and delight your customers during your Black Friday campaigns is to offer them a behind-the-scenes look at the process of creating your product. Whether that means giving them access to your brand’s Instagram stories or live-streaming your designers at work on Facebook, you can give customers a glimpse of how your brand operates and make them feel like they’re part of your team.

Give customers a reason to shop with you again

While you’re trying to drive sales during your Black Friday campaign, you also want to think about how to encourage customers to shop with you again after the sale. One way to do this is to tie the end of your promotion to the beginning of a new one. For example, after your winter jacket sale ends, you can start a spring jacket sale that offers the same discounts. Or you can set up a loyalty program that gives customers points for their purchases that they can use toward a future purchases. Another way to keep your customers returning is to offer extended warranties or maintenance plans on branded products.

Wrapping up

Black Friday is an excellent opportunity to drive sales and increase brand awareness, but it’s essential to keep in mind that it’s only one day. Your success isn’t only going to be determined by how many sales you can drive on Black Friday; it’s also going to be determined by what kind of lasting impact you can make on your customers. That’s why it’s necessary to think beyond profitability and consider how you can use your Black Friday campaign to help your customers and improve your brand image.

With these tips in mind, you can ensure that your Black Friday campaigns are ones that is talked about well into the holiday season.