The ultimate last-minute BFCM checklist

With Black Friday/Cyber Monday a little over a month away, you may be wondering how much you can still get done and what tasks have slipped through the cracks.

Take a deep breath: it's not too late. We brought together marketing experts across ecommerce to list out everything you can get done in the next few weeks to set your brand up for success.

Your Cyber Weekend discounts are likely the best you'll offer all year. Make sure the spotlight is on them-and that shoppers aren't layering them with additional discount opportunities when they're shopping on your site.

"Remove your regular website pop-up offer, and get people excited for Black Friday. Put up a new pop-up and banner to invite your website visitors to your Black Friday event-your biggest sale of the year," suggests Judith Prugger, digital marketing freelancer.

Pro tip: Use AI to choose the time and date you want your form to go live with Black Friday messaging.

2. Simplify your user experience

Black Friday is not the time to overcomplicate your website copy and design. Instead, consider ways to make the experience straightforward for stressed-out shoppers.

"A top converting element during sale periods is your homepage's masthead-and that's never more important than over BFCM. You want to make it as easy as possible for shoppers to understand what you're offering," says Nick Disabato, designer and writer at Draft.

He recommends that brands do the following to keep their UX straightforward:

• Remove carousels
• Make CTA text clear and concise
• Rotate out imagery as the season changes from BFCM to pre-Christmas
• Keep promotions going until the last day you can guarantee arrival before Christmas for free shipping

3. Optimize the window shopping experience

Too many marketers put all their energy into converting shoppers around Cyber Weekend without thinking through what happens if a shopper doesn't immediately make a purchase.

"Make sure your browse abandonment and abandoned cart emails have updated messaging, and set clear expectations regarding possible delayed times," suggests Molly Becker, marketing director at Perfect Keto.

4. Make timely gifting easy

Sometimes, the most difficult part about buying a holiday gift for someone is keeping it hidden until it's time for them to open it. So how can you help shoppers alleviate this complication?

"Consumers want to shop for gifts during BFCM, but they don't want to ship directly to their loved ones 6 weeks before the holidays. They also don't want to ship the gift to themselves and have to reship it to their loved ones," points out Kelly Anne Parker, startup advisor and founder of Send Ribbon (acquired by UrbanStems).

Parker recommends offering a gift hold date and ship date-"an amazing feature for ecommerce businesses to save their customers time and money, and build loyalty by providing this thoughtful service for gifting."

5. Make early-access BFCM sales work to your advantage-now and later

The early Black Friday sale is nothing new in ecommerce-in fact, you've probably already seen BFCM deals in your inbox. But it comes with more strategic advantages than you might realize, and if you haven't been planning to do one, it might be worth reconsidering.

"Leverage early access to BFCM deals as a mechanism to both identify subscribers who are likely to engage in more frequent content, even beyond BFCM, and to add new potential customers," suggests Ben Zettler, digital marketing and ecommerce consultant at Ben Zettler Digital.

Zettler recommends building a list of users over a two-week period prior to the week of Black Friday by:

• Using an on-site pop-up for new and returning customers
• Using an embedded form, which Zettler says is "effective for organic social or in general if you want to link users to a page that has some preview content"

Then, "use the Wednesday of that week to give shoppers early access, or even a promotion, product, or bundle that is exclusive to that group of users before releasing sales content widely later in the week," Zettler suggests.

6. Update and test your product images

Even if you've optimized your ecommerce store in almost every way, one of the biggest deterrents to shoppers can be product images that don't properly convey what they'd be buying.

"As it turns out, those boring product shots on a white background are not your best converting images. Try to find or create action and lifestyle photos that speak to the value of the product and watch your conversion rate go up," says Derric Haynie, CEO and co-founder of EcommerceTech.

"Don't have any images that you think will work? Gift the product to Instagram influencers and see if they can get it done for you by posting user-generated content on social media," Haynie suggests. "Just be sure to get permission to re-use their content on your site."

7. Reduce, reuse, and recycle past BFCM campaigns

Marketers put a lot of pressure on themselves to always create the next campaign from scratch, but who's to say you can't make what's old new again? Yes, even for Black Friday Cyber Monday sales.

As the adage goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The same is true for past marketing campaigns you've run.

"Take your best-performing asset from the last 3-6 months and stick the offer on it in the form of a headline or dot whack button," suggests Dara Denney, director of performance creative at Thesis Testing.

"You don't need to make any other changes-just put the offer on that piece of creative. This tends to be a top performer on BFCM creatives year after year," Denney explains.

8. Introduce your best Black Friday offer first

Think of the last time you bought something, only to see it go on sale the next day. This experience is frustrating. As a merchant, you want to do what you can to prevent customers from feeling like they should have waited to purchase.

"Last year, we ran 3 different BFCM offers over the course of November, but made sure to introduce our best offer first," says Matt Mullenax, CEO of Huron. "You never want to evoke the feeling in your customers of 'Ugh, I already bought from the brand, but this is a better deal.'"

9. Put yourself in your customers' shoes

BFCM is the perfect time to put on your customer hat. Go through your online experience as a shopper to poke holes in what's working and what's not, so you can make necessary last-minute optimizations to your store.

"Make a purchase from your own website and go down your post-purchase flow yourself. Did you receive all of the necessary shipping emails /texts? Did you receive enough education about the products you purchased? Did the content feel personalized?" advises Joanne Coffrey, assistant manager of retention marketing at Jones Road Beauty.

"Build trust with small touchpoints," Coffrey adds. "Put yourself in your customers' shoes and make revisions based on your own experiences."

10. Get the most from TikTok

"TikTok is the new search engine, and many brands don't have enough content on the platform or know where to start. UGC creators can help boost a brand's awareness, engagement, and sales," says Kelly O'Brien, founder and CEO of Kapshure.

O'Brien recommends using TikTok to find users who are already talking about your products. "Select those with the highest engagement metrics and reach out to see if they're willing to partner with your brand."

11. Set up holiday SMS campaigns

Trying to spread good vibrations for Cyber Weekend-literally? Make sure you're setting up BFCM SMS marketing campaigns-specifically sending to past purchasers who you know will be eager to come back for your best deals of the season.

"No matter how you slice it, 'tis the season for SMS retention. Think about it-who better to buy your product than customers who have already bought from you, and who have specific holiday-centric needs?" points out Jon O'Toole, head of marketing at Peel Insights.

"This BFCM, there's no need to reinvent the wheel for your marketing campaigns," O'Toole explains. "Find those customers who have a history with your brand and are primed to purchase. Identify those stories within your data, build hyper-targeted audiences, and launch perfectly timed, meticulously tailored messaging via SMS."

With Peel, O'Toole says, "you can build audiences in just a few minutes with a super deep set of filters, send those audiences directly to Klaviyo, and then measure growth once you launch your SMS campaigns. Forever."

12. Segment your audience by shopper

Someone's relationship with your brand, what they're looking for, and where they are in the customer lifecycle are all going to affect how they shop. Different content is going to resonate with different target audiences and types of shoppers, so segment your lists accordingly.

"Segment your everyday shoppers vs. your gift shoppers, and then cater your email content accordingly-both in terms of email creative for promotional blasts and then for automated flows, including post-purchase," advises Troy Petrunoff, retention marketing manager at Every Man Jack.

"We're sending out an email and SMS campaign soon asking, 'Who are you shopping for this holiday season?' and then tagging accordingly," Petrunoff adds.

13. Add a customer support touchpoint for big spenders

Your customers with the highest lifetime value deserve a little 1:1 attention, and they'll especially appreciate the opportunity to chat with your team during the chaotic holiday season.

"For high-end brands, consider adding a notification to your abandoned cart flow during this time for high and top CLV customers-or VIPS, loyalty customers, etc.-who have started checkout but not proceeded to purchase," suggests Ash Simpson, CRM manager at Elephant Room.

"This can prompt your sales or customer service team to reach out to talk directly to these VIP customers," Simpson explains. "Notifications within flows are an often untouched feature, but they can add so much value and be super useful in the right setting."

14. Go against the grain with your discount strategy-if you dare

While it might not be the journey most marketers decide to take, there is a case for rethinking deep discounts.

"With Black Friday, it can be tempting to discount your products drastically. However, a deep discount can hurt your profitability more than you realize," cautions Steve Chou, founder at Bumblebee Linens and MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.

"This is why you must be careful when offering coupons and discounts-because they can have a tremendous effect on your bottom line," Chou explains. "If you can't generate twice the sales you normally get, it might not be worth running a sale."

15. Nail down your returns process

If you haven't solidified your returns policy, now's the time.

"Many brands ignore a key correlation-that a spike in sales creates a spike in returns, and that managing them well can mean the difference between increased costs from unhappy customers and increased revenue from happy customers," points out JP Arnaud-Marquez, content marketing manager at Loop Returns.

"Nailing your return process down before the Black Friday Cyber Monday rush allows your brand to grow sustainably and makes for happier customers when it counts the most," Arnaud-Marquez explains.

16. Encourage post-BFCM loyalty

Any frequent Starbucks customer will vouch for the effectiveness of a good loyalty program. But if you want to increase both sales and retention, a loyalty program is especially important throughout-and after-BFCM.

"Brands that focus on keeping customers around after the holiday season see higher CLTV and expand their customer base beyond this season surge," says Annette Snow, manager of partnerships at Stamped.io.

Snow shares a few ways to leverage loyalty during BFCM: "Give new customers a generous points bonus for signing up to your loyalty program, implement a referral program before Cyber Weekend, and include point updates in your emails to increase the likelihood that existing customers make a purchase with you during the holiday season."

17. Pique shoppers' interest with gift guides

Shopping for friends and family can be overwhelming, especially when there are endless choices at hand. If your store offers multiple products, gift guides can help shoppers reach a decision quicker-and improve the chances their decision will be to buy from your brand.

"Create gift guides such as '5 Gifts for Him,' '5 Gifts for Her,' 'The Perfect Stocking Stuffer,' etc. and include them in your upcoming email and SMS campaigns," suggests Oliver Allen, CEO of Blade Commerce.

18. Send a re-engagement campaign-and let lapsed customers go their own way

The weeks leading up to BFCM are a great time to address lapsed customers before BFCM.

"There's likely a percentage of your list that isn't currently opening or clicking your emails. This is a great time to ask them if they are still interested in remaining on your list, and tease that you're about to drop a huge sale," says Monica Grohne, Klaviyo consultant and founder of Marea Wellness.

"Suppress the people who don't re-engage and save that money you would have spent on them to reinvest elsewhere," Grohne advises.

19. Update your email automations

Your core email marketing automations are putting in the work all year long to keep making you money while you sleep, eat, and work on other parts of your marketing strategy.

While these workflows typically require little maintenance, it's smart to take a second look around large sales events like Black Friday.

"Be sure to create a version of your core email flows, such as your welcome email series and cart abandonment emails, with your BFCM discount to re-emphasize your sale," suggests Magan Le, senior email and lifecycle marketing manager at Bolt.

"This will also ensure you're not confusing customers with multiple discounts that aren't applicable during this time," Le adds.

20. Take the opportunity to test

"In the sprint to plan, produce, and launch all of your BFCM campaigns and assets, many marketers often forget that this time of year is a huge opportunity for testing and learning. Triple the site traffic means triple the sample size for A/B testing," points out Tessa Mu, CEO of Plot.

"Use this week to set up some conversion and engagement rate optimization experiments," Mu suggests. "It doesn't have to be intense-every bit of learning (e.g., changing this button color leads to a 10% increase in email sign-ups) can have exponential and measurable impact."

Pro tip: Read how to use Klaviyo AI to level up your A/B testing.

21. Pause smart sending

Klaviyo customers depend on the smart sending feature throughout the year limit the number of emails and texts subscribers receive from their brand within a set period of time. If you have many active flows and campaigns, it's typically a good way to prevent your subscribers from receiving too many messages at once.

For Cyber Weekend, though, subscribers typically expect more BFCM emails from ecommerce brands. It's a special occasion where you might consider turning the feature off.

"I almost ruined a whole weekend of campaigns in the past, but thankfully checked on my emails and turned it off before that happened," Bond adds.

22. Perfect your post-purchase flow to keep Black Friday shoppers coming back

Black Friday shoppers come and go, but your email automations are forever. And if you do them right, you actually might retain more of those Black Friday shoppers than you anticipated.

"If you're interested in keeping all those new BFCM customers you're spending money to acquire, my best advice to you is to focus on retention," says Val Geisler, customer advocacy lead at Klaviyo.

Geisler's suggestions for a post-purchase flow include:

1. Post-first-purchase education pre-delivery
2. Post-delivery review request and referral program intro
3. Post-review request to second purchase

"When you break down that post-purchase experience into unique milestones, you honor that customer's journey with your brand," Geisler explains. "And that's what you're going for-a full journey. So use that time to educate between the purchase and the delivery, save the referral and review requests for once they actually have the product, and then-and only then-go after that second purchase."

Small improvements lead to big Black Friday successes

Cyber Weekend may feel like a massive undertaking. But if you planned ahead and focused on creating the best brand experience you possibly could throughout the rest of the year, you're probably already in a great position to meet and exceed your holiday sales goals.

Use this checklist as a resource to comb through the last-minute details of your BFCM marketing strategy, and give yourself the peace of mind you deserve going into the holiday shopping season.

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