Strategies to Maximize Black Friday Success with Digital Products

Adam (00:00):
Hello, this is Adam Weeks and I would like to introduce to you Emma Young. Emma, who are you?

Emma (00:08):
This is a great question that we’ll find out as these episodes go on, but for now you can say that I am a Head of Content at Hostinger and that is the only spoiler that I’ll give you for now.

Adam (00:24):
Alright, well that’s fantastic. And my name is Adam Winks. I do, someone said that I should introduce myself as a public relations professional, which sounded highfalutin, but Cirrus Influence is my main gig. I also hang out with post status and all kinds of stuff, but yeah, PR professional.

Emma (00:47):
Well, it’s nice to meet you PR professional.

Adam (00:50):
It’s nice to meet you too. Ms. Emma Young. Hey, so what we’re going to do, this is Woo Biz Chats. This is our first foray into doing this particular podcast and this is going to be a lot of fun. We’re going to make sure that as people are getting ready for Black Friday, that they get something out of this episode that they did not know before. That’s my goal. If in the course of listening to this podcast, if you do not learn anything, I would like you to send an email to Emma and she will be happy to take your complaints.

Emma (01:27):
Sincerely apologize on behalf. That’s Adam.

Adam (01:31):
All right, so here’s my question. We’re going to get started off. Black Friday is coming up soon. Ms. Emma, do you know why they call it Black Friday?

Emma (01:42):
Do I know why it’s called Black Friday for being in marketing and for doing so many Black Friday campaigns? I never actually looked up the history to that, so no, I do not know why it’s called Black Friday. Please tell me that.

Adam (02:02):
It’s funny you should ask. So interesting. So you and I did talk, so Black Friday has a long history that has nothing to do with shopping. There was the term, black Friday was used in some bad things such as stock market crashes such as the plague, different issues. There was the day after Thanksgiving, people would often call in sick because they just wanted to take that Friday off as well. In modern history as a marketing term started about in the eighties and the notion was that essentially Black Friday was the day that retail stores actually started making a profit. So if you think back to your classes of finance or doing the books, when you do not make money, when you are losing money, it is red. When you are making money, it is black. So hence Black Friday, which is mostly true. It’s a little bit of a folklore of how true that is and I sure it is different for different retail outlets, but essentially that’s the idea is that this is the season when people start to make money.

Emma (03:29):
That is actually very interesting. And I know we touched upon it a little bit in the private conversations, but it is nice to know that that’s actually true and also that people still kind of stick to that after so many years because who knows where that name could have come from.

Adam (03:45):
Well, it was kind of a marketing thing. They started out wanting to call it Big Friday, but Big Friday didn’t stick and Black Friday is what we are left with and because of its success, we are now also adding Cyber Monday. Do you know why they call it Cyber Monday? Back in the day, people had slow internet connections at home. At home they would have something called a modem that would make, and then when someone would pick up the phone, you’d get kicked off of the internet. So surfing on the internet was stupid for many people at home. And what they remembered is that my employer pays a lot of money for a really good internet connection at work. So when I get to work on Monday, that’s when I’m going to start shopping.

Emma (04:50):
Seriously. Well would you look at that? Okay. All right. Adam, how did the cyber week start then, sir?

Adam (04:59):
Marketing people said, Hey, this is successful, let’s just keep this thing going. Same thing, we’re going to make up stuff Prime Days like Amazon. Yeah, just making stuff up now at this point because, so here’s the question. If suddenly we have all of these deals going out there, sales, wouldn’t it make sense for someone say, ah, forget Black Friday, I’m doing black December seven, I’m going to pick that date because then it won’t be so crowded. Is that not a good opportunity for someone to do something that’s not going to be crowded?

Emma (05:38):
I don’t think so because you think about it, well, at least for Americans, let’s say specifically, because Black Friday does come the day after Thanksgiving, and what are we all doing lounging around family watching the game, eating some chicken or going from house, house not working. Usually you get that Friday off and sometimes if you’re lucky, I guess the Monday off.

Adam (06:02):
Yeah, there’s kind of this other thing where we want to stand apart and that is important. And I would say that if you’re big enough such as Amazon, you can kind of do your own special prime day deals. This phenomenon sort of happens in, at least in the US, and I think this is kind of around the world, is that auto malls, why would Ford want to be next to Lexus, next to B Honda next to these different is that people kind of go to these places to put themselves in that frame of mind of I’m here to buy that thing, to do that thing. And so I think that’s one of the things with Black Friday is that we’re taking advantage of this group think, hey, it’s now time to buy stuff where people will actually save up, oh, I’m going to wait until Black Friday and then I’m going to see if I can get a deal on that thing.

Emma (07:04):
And it’s like game on. It’s like, okay, I’m actually not going to buy this TV because I’m waiting to see what this guy’s going to sell and what this guy’s going to put out. And then it’s almost like this bid to beat the timer before you run out of time and then all of a sudden it’s like Christmas or you have to wait until the next deal.

Adam (07:26):
So here’s the question for us who might be putting out sales and deals, are we at risk of stopping sales happening the month before Black Friday? Do we see sales dip because people are Yeah, I’m going to wait.

Emma (07:46):
What’s interesting is, at least for me, is I kind of use it as Black Friday as the high point because usually it is, I totally get why the history of it and why it’s called that name. But when we kind of have good quarters coming up to it, we’re like, oh, this beats our last year’s Black Friday week. And then last year we also noticed that, oh, we weren’t dipping. And maybe for some places are, maybe some places aren’t, depending on what I mean. Especially Covid. Let me rewind. Okay. Covid was different because everybody was just sitting inside. I bought three coffee machines during Covid.

Adam (08:37):
You bought, how many coffee machines did you buy?

Emma (08:40):
I bought three.

Adam (08:42):
Were they different in some significant way

Emma (08:45):
For when I was in a different mood to drink coffee, then I had one of those fancy, I think it was a DeLonge where it crowns the coffee beans and you can steam your own milk. I used to work at Starbucks. I’m probably saying that so wrong. Just some of these letters they got into each other. So Covid was a whole different time for things that Black Friday didn’t even have to, it was Black Friday for three years I guess. But yeah, so now I don’t know. I feel like there isn’t so much of a dip because people are aware that you kind of have to do these mini steps working up to your Black Friday. I think that’s a good point to bring up is how early do you start your Black Friday sale?

Adam (09:50):
Here’s my research from my brain and my observations just logically thinking about it. So essentially people buy things on Black Friday that they don’t necessarily need at that time. So most of the rest of the year people buy things because, oh, in our business, such as on the interwebs, I’m doing a project, I have to build this website, so I need to buy this tool, or I have this client and I buy it when I need it. So yeah, I would agree. I don’t think you’re going to see necessarily a dip leading up to Black Friday because people are purchasing the things that they need regardless of if it’s going to be on sale, if you need it, you need it with Black Friday. The trick is that your deal has to be good enough for that person to somewhat impulse buy something that they think they will need over the course of the next year. I don’t need this now, but this deal is never going to be this good. So I got to grab it now and that’s what I see happening. Do you agree? Does that make sense?

Emma (11:08):
Yeah, I do agree. And especially when you come from people that are looking to Costco, Sam’s Club type shoppers, they’re thinking about, I’m going to get this bundle pack of birthday cards, I’m going to get this, this little monitor or TV because my 10 year old’s birthday, I don’t know why I said 10. That’s sad. Oh, okay. My some 10 year old needs an external monitor for his laptop in like six months. But yeah, no, I 100% agree with that.

Adam (11:39):
So that is going to lead us into, let’s talk about how we set up our Black Fridays as we’re thinking about the philosophy. So generally people are purchasing for Black Friday, they’re buying things they don’t necessarily need right now, but I believe I will need it within the next year, six months soon. So let me go ahead and grab it now I’m going to save some money. How do we balance this with we can’t do 90% deals then you wouldn’t make any money versus like, oh, $2 off. How do we start planning and designing out our deals? And I’m going to kind of set the scene here. I want to make money, make as much money as I can because as someone who is in business to make money, you want to make money at the same time, you don’t want to give it all away. So how do we set our deals up successfully? Ms. Emma Young.

Emma (12:44):
Yeah. Well, I mean without getting too much into somebody that’s going to help you out with pricing. If you’re not going to do it just all by yourself, you definitely need to keep an eye on your profit margins and when you’re choosing what exactly you are going to offer. But I think this actually leads good to the percentages off versus an actual number. Yeah. Okay, good. I would love your answer. So when you’re setting up your Black Friday deal or Cyber Monday deal or a cyber week deal, how do you know when you should do a specific percentage off or an actual number? And I know that there’s some research behind this.

Adam (13:31):
Oh, I did some research

Emma (13:34):
That you can fill use in on.

Adam (13:34):
So yeah, you can look up this type of things. There are different people who have essentially looked at the psychology. When should it be a percentage and when should it be an amount off? So here’s the question, would you rather buy a vehicle? Let’s say what’s your dream car? What car do you, if you could just not dream your, this would be a responsible but car I would,

Emma (14:03):
I always wanted a wrangler as a kid, like a Jeep Wrangler. But then I was a female and I was under 25 when I wanted one in the insurance. But let’s just go with Jeep Wrangler for while.

Adam (14:14):
Jeep Wrangler. Alright, so Black Friday deal for Jeep Wrangler, it is 7% off or we’re going to take $3,500 off. Which would you choose?

Emma (14:28):
$3,500?

Adam (14:29):
Yeah, that sounds much more better.

Emma (14:31):
Do tell me why? Because seven is sounding so tiny,

Adam (14:35):
But it would be about that if you were depending on your options for your fantastic. What color color is this wrangler?

Emma (14:43):
It’s like a forest green with lifted some pretty nice tires. Yeah, I actually do remember my dream board now it’s more like a mid-sized SUV like hybrid. Good for the hybrid. I don’t want to be stranded in the middle of nowhere. Heck yeah,

Adam (15:07):
Those are pretty cool. Alright, so for this forest green lifted Jeep, when we think about 7%, it doesn’t sound very exciting. Like oh

Emma (15:22):
Neat,

Adam (15:23):
Thanks $3,500, I’m going to save that type of, oh well I don’t need this jeep, but I’m going to buy it. Yeah, there you go. Alright. But when we come down, let’s go the other way. You’re at the grocery store and there is gum and this is why they do it. This is the impulse aisle. They put this specifically at the checkout because like, oh, I came in for bread and I might as well get, what’s your gum of choice or candy when you’re going out at the checking aisle, what is the thing you grab?

Emma (16:03):
They’re like in this white tub type thing, maybe it’s orbit.

Adam (16:22):
Okay, so this said, do you want it to be 50% off or would you like it to be a dollar off?

Emma (16:36):
Oh, 50% for sure. I won’t even look at the price

Adam (16:39):
Half off. Wow. I might as well get two. Alright, so high priced items for stuff over $100, Mike, for up maybe a $500 product, a dollar amount off, like a hundred dollars off feels like a better deal than saying 20% off for low priced items. For items under a hundred dollars, percentages are king, as they say, a 50% off of a $20 item feels bigger than $10 off. So this article from popm Smash kind of goes through and kind of gives you different examples of when to do a percentage and when to do a dollar off. But that hundred dollars hundred euro depending on or a hundred wherever people are at in this great big world. When you’re selling stuff online in the old WordPress, what should people be thinking about specifically when you’re talking, let’s say about something that is, it’s digital and it’s unlimited. So how would your deal, now that we know if it’s a dollar amount or percentage off, what do we do when our things are unlimited?

Emma (18:36):
But yeah, so when you’re selling digital products online, I do think that a lot of things you can tie in, it doesn’t just become percentage versus this much money off. You can do combo deals, which is something that I wanted to ask you about. What can you make it a little bit more desirable for? I can’t think of another word, but yeah, what kind of, there’s so many words that Jackie use that bundles buy one, get one free, some free sample type of things. I think that can add doesn’t just have to be the percentage off versus $10 or 10 euros off anymore. Now it can be what other type of things are you going to give if you’re not able to offer as big of a percentage or as big of a number off as you would?

Adam (19:31):
I think an interesting part of this is that Black Friday, as we often think about there’s these, they literally call ’em doorbusters because people are busting down the doors to get the seven TVs that Walmart has for $17. But that’s not the case with what we’re doing because you do have an unlimited amount. So yeah, how do you get that attention and how should we make sure that we structure these deals to get as many eyeballs to get that click? Because people are finding these deals in different ways on different lists and they’re going to see that, okay, or that email that goes out, what is clickworthy? What am I, oh that I am interested, I do want to know more about this. Is this deal? Is this deal right for me? And so yeah, kind of figuring out how do we get that same door buster feeling. Do you have any tips on creating that fomo?

Emma (20:38):
Yeah, I think it kind of depends. Oh, I finally said it. It depends. It depends on the context too. But yeah, it really does depend on what you’re selling and what your end goal of it to define your goal. And then if that is leading to this, yeah, you can definitely do a bundle. I like adding more than one product to each other. Especially like Amazon does a good job of being like, oh, other people buy this and this because they pair nicely. But so those type of bundle deals or maybe giving you more time than you usually get on something. So the normal, you buy one month or three months or 12 subscriptions, but maybe let’s just throw in something random and you get six extra months, that’s half a year.

Adam (21:29):
Yeah, that feeling is I might as well. So let’s go back to the psychology a little bit of why people buy things. Because us as maybe product owners or people that are selling stuff, it’s not about us. So put your mind in that of the person buying the thing. People buy things because it’s about them. And we think of this idea that our customers are the hero of their own story. You as the person who are designing the deal, your company isn’t the hero, this is about them. So your example of the cell phone is really good. Hey, you’re going to spend a lot of money on this cell phone, but don’t you want to protect it? You want to make it also more functional. You’re also going to maybe need these cables or the stand or hey, when you’re in the car, you want that magnetic. These are those impulse buys to I’ve already decided I want this thing, but let me go ahead and add this on so that I am more successful. I’m already here. And that I think is something that we can keep in mind with your bundle ideas. Like yep, you can buy this, but only idiots buy this by themselves. You’re the smart person, the hero of this story. They’re also going to add in this other element to it. And that’s that extra that bonus. I think that’s where a lot of the money can really be made

Emma (23:01):
For sure. If you’re like, I think that’s also a good way or a good part to remind everybody to pay attention to who your target audience is and who exactly your targeting. For example, on my sailboat that I don’t own, I will want a different type of cell phone or maybe some stand that can go that has a compass built into it. Whereas Adam’s minivan would, my brother’s minivan, he has this cool, it’s actually really cool, it just sticks really easy to the window so he can put his navigation thing up but then just knock it off when he needs to go through a drive-through. I never would need that, but for him that’s perfect. We would never get targeted the same ad as well. So putting the user first is key. I 100% agree with that. And I think that’s also where you could say you can give certain discounts for different lifestyles. People that are teachers, you used to be a teacher, I know how much teachers make, I used to be a teacher. We need discounts. So give the teachers discount, give the students discounts. So you can give just a little something extra too to the people who might need it.

Adam (24:15):
Yeah. Alright, so let’s summarize and go over some of the highlights. Let’s wrap this all into a nice pretty package of what have we learned and how are we going to apply this? Alright, so first off, we know why Black Friday is a big deal. The reason people are buying is it’s at some point over the next year, I’m going to need this thing and this is the best deal that I’m going to get. So that’s the mindset. So first off, when we’re, what are a few things, taking that mindset, how do we attract customers? And we’re going to stick with the digital products for now.

Emma (25:00):
Yeah. So just because we didn’t mention it earlier, remember to define your goals, how many sales you’re going for, how many signups, how many, I don’t know, something that you’re measurable and then do these steps. So yeah, I think a first thing to do is figure out how early on you would like to start your sale. Whether that’s Black Friday, whether that’s Cyber Monday, whether that’s a bundle into a cyber week, which we didn’t mention as well. You can do all of those things. Whatever works best for you.

Adam (25:32):
Why would you do one over the other? What would be a reason to just that one day versus more days?

Emma (25:40):
I actually think that there’s a combo that would be really good. So you could have that fomo, don’t miss out with a timer, which is you like timers? I am, yeah. Oh yeah. And those things would be good for the day of black Friday, the day of Cyber Monday. But then you could also do a type of, let’s say a mid-level discount. And that way you can give maybe not as strong or as big, but you can extend the sale period. So it’s not just that day anymore, but you can not fully miss out on it, but you don’t get as good of a sale. So you still ensure that you reach your potential clients or your potential customers. And

Adam (26:23):
One of the things you can do is talking about your combination, your package deal approach is that you can then, on this date, it’s going to be this combo and then you can have a different like hey, maybe you are wanting something different. So you can bring up different parts of the sale. So our clients, they are looking at essentially the 24th of November, which is Black Friday this year they go through the 27th. So that’s really like the Black Friday weekend into Cyber Monday. So you get both of those. You get Black Friday and you get Cyber Monday and we’ll throw in Saturday and Sunday for good measure.

Emma (27:06):
I still love when they do an on the hour type of special deal. So maybe you don’t have unlimited amount to give 300 free whatever this much of a percentage, but you can still have that FOMO or that excitement that when the clock strikes 12 you won’t turn into a pumpkin, but you might get this and which is 10% off, which is 80% off and it just still builds the type of excitement that you can get for your Black Friday sales.

Adam (27:39):
What are some ways that you can create the fomo? So we’re talking about digital products, but is there a way that we can create constraints that are authentic? This is the thing, it’s like, oh, we’re only going to sell 150 of these licenses. Well why? You literally can sell a bajillion of them. How can we limit them? How can we create that fomo?

Emma (28:58):
So if it’s with something like that or I really trust it’s a brand, or if it was like you only get a certain percent or you only get a timer on this bundle. So if you were to something very specific about that, then I think it’s a lot more credible. And then the next time, next year when it comes around and somebody needs to buy a similar product or they’re recommending something to their friend, you’re going to be like, oh, don’t worry about them. You can buy something from them whenever you want. But that’s something that really gets me. If you refresh a page and the timer restarts, I’m just like, oh, get off X.

Adam (29:38):
So there’s a few other things that can potentially do. One thing is I like the white glove, I’m not sure why I’m doing this, but if I were to put on white gloves where it is a limited amount, you may get, depending on the size of your company, if you have a smaller type of deal, hey the onboarding includes within the first year, you get an hour with the founder or you get this extra help that we do have a limited amount of because time and our effort that is not unlimited. Make sure that when you put those deals out that have a constraint that you’re not angry when someone buys it. So that means that you would only have, we have 20 of these and that does have the counter and we’re telling our VIP, our other customers, our special people, we’re sending that out in the newsletter ahead of time and we’re helping people prepare for it. So you can create this FOMO authentically because yeah, you can only do a certain amount of these onboarding calls or these different package deals because there are a limited amount.

Emma (30:56):
And also being very clear on what you’re offering when you do these FOMO deals make it definitely attractive. So people want to sign up but also very clear that it’s not like 12 hours or a week or a month of QA on your website or something, but it’s actually, I don’t know, you get a designated web developer or designer to help you do something.

Adam (31:25):
So as another principle here is that it’s difficult to remember what it’s like to not know something. So once you know it, it’s hard to remember, oh yeah, other people don’t know this. So make sure that you’re not using lingo that people are like, I don’t know what this deal is. And say your things in as simple of words as possible. Say them repeatedly, multiple, multiple times. Because may have missed it. I was playing a game while this person was on this podcast and was not paying attention.

Emma (31:59):
But yeah, 100%. And that’s something that we practice a lot. Content marketing, very simple, easy, but actually just explain what it is that you are trying to sell. Don’t assume that anybody knows anything.

Adam (32:14):
I like to think of it in terms of calories because calories, it’s energy and we think of that when we’re running or doing workout. But as you are thinking your brain is using up calories. That’s why in you can be exhausted from a long day of sitting and doing nothing at your computer. Absolutely exhausted. Your brain has been using up calories, help people use as few calories as possible to understand the deal that you’re offering and you will get more sales. It’s as simple as that. So start there and understanding some of the background that we’re putting as we are wrapping up here. Any kind of final thoughts or just things that really stand out as people are setting their Black Friday deals? You may already have a Black Friday deal, but maybe you can add to it or change it up.

Emma (33:10):
Yeah, I mean it would be kind of fun to do a fire off of a tips thing, but we didn’t discuss this before maybe for next time. So let’s see. Like I said, I specifically love on the hour or every three hours doing something random so you can even test out what’s actually getting people the bundle or the bogo. Buy one, get one just in case you don’t have to Google it. Discounts for lifestyles, I don’t know, referral discounts. We didn’t even touch on that. But also you could do discounts to the first 30 people or the first 300 people. Whatever works best for what it is that you’re offering. And yeah, I think figuring out how early to launch, that’s not too early, whatever that sweet spot is. And it’s okay to iterate on that every year. I would love to talk about email marketing as well and some sneak peeks, but we can.

Adam (34:07):
Alright, so yeah, we’re going to be talking about all kinds of really cool stuff in this podcast going forward. We hope you’ve gotten some value. We hope that you did learn something because if not, please send Emma an email, put it in the chat below, comment. We are looking for that engagement. Share this with someone else. And before we go, Emma, what are you working on? What’s happening in your world?

Emma (34:35):
Yeah, I think too, just to wrap up some of the stuff that we didn’t get to touch so much upon. Yeah. We’ll also link to a blog that we’re working on hosting our.com that we’ll do some different marketing tips, some specific codes and also some things that you could do specifically for email marketing. But we can maybe share that after the next episode. And I heard that you have actually something super special

Adam (35:05):
Doing some stuff. Well I’m going to just extra plug you hosting her academy has some incredible information there. So if you need to learn good, go over there. If you learn, well do that as well. A lot of good content happening on hosting your academy. Just solid work. What I’m working with actually partnering, so Cirrus Influence is our public relations agency focused on companies in WordPress and we are working with Marcus Burnett, he’s got the WP world. And you can head on over to WP World and srs influence.com and we are sending out the list of lists, where are all these Black Friday deals happening? And that’s a last kind of point is look and see what other people are doing and like, Ooh, that’s a really good deal. I’d like to buy that. And if you have that emotion, if you see someone else doing your competitor take note and maybe adjust your Black Friday deal. It’s good to see who else is out there and what they’re doing.

Emma (36:09):
Yeah, for sure. So we will link all of that stuff to our podcast. We’ll link all of those links and yeah, hopefully it helps. And like Adam said, do let us know what was actually helpful and what things you learned and what things you were like. Oh,

Adam (36:27):
And if it’s not helpful, we don’t want to know. Don’t

Emma (36:29):
Actually tell Bob. Okay,

Adam (36:32):
Tell Bob. So here’s tell Bob if it’s helpful, let us know because we have egos and we want to hear about it. If it wasn’t, wait, should they tell Bob? Because then

Emma (36:40):
No, they actually don’t tell Bob. Yeah, then he might not want us back.

Adam (36:44):
If you can’t say something nice,

Emma (36:47):
Tell it.

Adam (36:48):
Come whisper it to me. Anyways. Alright, I think that’s about all the time we have because eventually I think people have gone on their walk and their walk is about done.

Emma (36:59):
So yeah. So now that you’re rounding up your walk, go home, have a cup of coffee from your three coffee machines, sit at your computer and please implement some of these cool Black Friday marketing tips.

Adam (37:12):
Happy Black Friday.