From Deals to Dollars: BFCM 2023 Marketing Strategies for Success

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) have come and gone, and now it’s time to reflect on the success of your marketing efforts.

Did you see an increase in sales? Did you reach your target audience? Did you effectively utilize digital advertising?

It’s always an exciting shopping period, but I was eager to see how impactful it was going to be this year given just some of the headwinds:

• The United States is currently over $1 trillion in credit card debt.

• Even though the annual inflation eased, consumers have become accustomed to tightening their belts.

• With a two-year slump in electronics sales, a weak holiday season was more or less expected.

Regardless, challenges are important and it felt great to be a digital marketer that prepared well for the season – aiming to exceed all projections!

Over the long weekend, here are a few observations I had from this year’s shopping frenzy.

High AOV Made the Difference

Brands that sold higher ticket items seemed to perform well, driven by folks holding out through sales periods in September and October to capitalize on BFCM.

Successful brands removed friction from the shoppers’ journey. Deal-seekers are looking for one thing, so brands with messaging and offers that were loud, clear, and direct, ultimately won.

Building on urgency was critical. Countdown timers, limited quantities, and flash sales – those are some of the tactics that deal-seekers responded to this year.

By emphasizing the limited time or availability of a deal, you can also create a sense of exclusivity that customers respond to very well.

Brand Awareness Mattered

If people already knew your name and wanted your product, you were set up for success for BCFM 2023. As soon as sales turned on for brands, consumers that had waitlisted or wishlisted products earlier were ready to pounce.

Throughout the year it’s easy to focus on low funnels tactics or the blocking and tackling of performance marketing to support your e-commerce strategy. However, building brand awareness pre-Holiday really helps you capitalize on that investment when BFCM arrives.

Many marketers and big brands fall into the trap of solely focusing on direct response KPIs. This myopic approach misses the bigger picture of the customer journey and fails to build organic buy-in. Without a strong top-of-funnel strategy, brands miss the opportunity to cultivate genuine interest and establish a connection with potential customers. Instead of merely selling a product, they should strive to be seen as cool, interesting, and integral to the target lifestyle.

For brands, this is also where consistent/unique content, brand or media collaborations, good customer experience, and positively reviewed products, make up the four key ingredients of building strong brand perception to be most relevant when it really matters.

If your brand isn’t easily associated with a product they want to buy, start early and ensure your pre-BFCM efforts solidify your brand's connection to the products customers crave.

Build on Anticipation

In the weeks or even months leading up to BCFM, building out a specific opt-in list could help unlock incremental sales for brands. So too can emails with a “Back in stock” message.

One idea to build on this list is to create a page to unsubscribers from your emails with an option that says, “Only send me Black Friday/holiday offers.” Again, it’s just another way to cater to the single-minded needs of deal-seekers.

Simplified Media Won

As already mentioned, deal-seekers are looking for one thing. As such, static ads with a clear message won this year.

Shoppers looking for the best deals want to see the product, the offer, and then decide whether they want to click.

UGC was another type of content that seemed to perform well, signaling why people should buy your product outside of an ad. This is also easily consumable while shoppers are at home, on their phones, while potentially polishing off Thanksgiving leftovers.

Offer More Than a Discount

Big brands weren’t necessarily relying on deep discounts this year.

Many brands might have dropped prices, but some offered a free gift with purchase instead to show greater value. For those brands, higher revenue was on the table, without serving up a discount.

Focus on Gifting

It’s easy to forget that this season is ultimately about gift-giving.

Segmenting your customers into gifters versus self-purchasers can be extremely beneficial.

At the very least, you’ll want to try blended messages in your marketing that appeals to both types of purchases.

BFCM really started much earlier

There’s a misconception that starting a sale too soon can cannibalize what you might see on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. That simply was not the case this year.

If you watched major retailers, sales started well ahead of the Black Friday. For example, Target’s BFCM marketing strategy focused on deals starting on October 29.

Many brands started early and amplified their holiday sales message over and over again. When tapping into existing customer lists, this proved to perform well.

Black Friday Has Given Way to “Cyber Weekend”

“Black Friday Sale” messaging is still impactful for truly limited time offers. But if your sales run through Cyber Monday, consider “Cyber Weekend” messaging instead.

This strategy lets you continue the sale throughout BFCM without any confusing messaging or mis-naming sales period. Also, keep in mind that Cyber Weekend is even starting to give way to Cyber Month.

Landing Pages Work

Custom BFCM website experiences continue to perform. Once again, deal-seekers are on a mission in this critical but narrow window of time. So, think of ways to showcase offers, value props/benefits, unique merchandising, and messaging, that directly resonates with these shoppers.

Landing pages dialed into the seasonality of this period will drive higher conversions than when using more evergreen customer journeys.

What Else Resonated this BFCM?

Send me an email with other realizations you had from this year’s BFCM.

5 Ways to Maximize Content Marketing ROI

Content marketing is one of the best ways to drive awareness, purchase intent and favorability. According to Nielsen, content such as video or native advertising can increase brand lift by as much as 42%!

The creation of content that’s both informative and helpful is also key to improving trust with customers. It’s especially powerful in the mid-funnel, helping to drive consideration through education. So, it should be no surprise that nearly 70% of consumers also prefer to learn about products and services through content rather than traditional advertising. 

Of course, not all content is created equal. As you build plans around high-quality content, here are a few tips to ensure it’s both profitable and flexible. 

1. Keep it Evergreen

The best way to maximize return is by creating content that’s going to last. 

Leverage original research and data, fact-based information, and visual charts, to tell a compelling story. 

A solid SEO strategy should complement these efforts, driving both link-building and search traffic around targeted keywords within a larger topic cluster.

2. Improve User Experience

Quality content isn’t enough to improve the return on content marketing without a strong design and information architecture that removes friction. 

Users should be able to read and interact with content without hurdles. But if the site takes too much time to load, has confusing navigation, and way too many pop-ups impeding their forward momentum, the content you create isn’t going to be consumed. 

Remove obstructions such as ads and pop-ups, and always be looking at ways to make navigation simpler and more intuitive. Remember that the user’s experience with your content is important for search.

3. Improve Calls to Action

As a marketer, a call to action or CTA, always seems obvious. But it’s amazing how easily they can be minimized or completely forgotten. You won’t be able to maximize content marketing ROI if you aren’t clear about what you want users to do next. 

Of course, leading up to CTA, you need to consider the user’s journey and keep their intent in mind.

What do users need? What are the pain points they’re trying to solve? What will they want to achieve after viewing or reading your content? Perhaps it’s to learn something, acquire a specific benefit, or make a purchase decision. Help your users narrow down those choices and take action – that’s a big key to increasing your content’s return. 

4. Great Headlines Sell

Whether it’s a banner ad or long-form article, your headline should catch attention by speaking to your users’ needs.

Headlines can have a direct impact on the return of content marketing, which is why A/B testing headline variations is also an important tactic to employ. The strongest headlines ultimately should convey a value proposition to users. 

Test several headline variations to help increase click-through rates on your content by as much as 5-10%.

5. Repurpose and Extend

Content curation is just as important as content creation. 

In many cases, improving return of content isn’t about creating something all-new, but rather editing or refining what you have already created. 

Summarize blog content into infographics. Use snippets from email newsletters for social posts. Expand a series of blog posts for an ebook. Embed a YouTube video on a landing page to drive organic search performance. Syndicate blogs within a sponsored article campaign.

The more you can reuse and repurpose content for other channels, the more you’ll get out of the content you’ve created. Plus, this strategy will help you maintain consistency in new formats as you reach different audiences.

In Closing

Content is critical for businesses large and small, but planning and creating high-quality content that customers will respond to isn’t easy. To ensure you’re maximizing your content marketing investments, following the above are just some of ways you could improve the ROI on your content development.

7 E-commerce Trends That Will Dominate 2023

Shopping continues to evolve. To succeed in 2023, brands and marketers need to adapt to the ever-changing, ever-evolving buying behaviors of consumers, especially coming out of the pandemic.

While digital touchpoints are more important than ever, brands should be thinking about the entirety of the purchase journey and how they might be able to make the path to purchase smoother everywhere.

Here are a few e-commerce trends that will impact brands in the year ahead.

1. Social Commerce is Growing

Social media has given rise to social commerce, a growing trend that integrates shopping into our normal social media usage.

Already, nearly 50% of Instagram users leverage the platform for shopping each week. That means brands need to start using tags or hashtags to speak directly to those audiences who are already researching.

Influencer marketing is of course part of the mainstream as well, with countless personalities partnering with brands to help their followers learn about products. Over 70% of US marketers have participated in influencer marketing this year, and that’s only expected to increase.

Live streaming is another way that brands can tell a more robust story around their products. Instagram, Facebook, and Amazon, are just a few of the platforms that have embraced selling via live broadcasts.

The big challenge for brands is targeting the right audience through the right channels. Remember that one size doesn't fit all. Specifically, each channel requires content to be tailored to it’s consumer mindsets:

• Facebook: Users are mainly keeping in contact with close friends.

• Instagram: Visual content, stories, and influencer advice reign.

• Pinterest: It’s all about inspiration.

• LinkedIn: Focus is on professional content and contacts.

While each channel has their own focus or use case, note that social media is rapidly evolving. Increasingly, social channels like Facebook and Instagram are supporting e-commerce, and followers are ready to buy!

Social media serves as a place to discover brands, research products, get help and support. And now, it also gives click-to-buy simplicity to users, all built within the platform.

2. Content (Marketing) is King

While attention spans may be dwindling in an increasingly short-form world, the adage that content is king is alive and well.

High-quality content is critical for making consumers feel like they’re in control, empowered with everything they need to make a decision. The trick is to avoid the traditional sales pitch.

The focus of content marketing is about creating helpful, educational materials to inspire purchases. Brands should not only be creating detailed product page information wherever items are sold, but also supporting that content with videos, blog posts, an email newsletter, and social media posts, that are a mix of inspiration and education.

Instead of selling, brands should be positioned more as a thought leader and as a potential source of advice within their broader market niche.

Not only does building content around expertise in your category help to educate potential customers, but it can also attract new customers who are looking for advice but might not be in-market just yet. So ditch the product-focused sales pitch and you’ll start expanding your reach. Sales will follow.

3. Think Omni-channel All the time

The importance of an omni-channel strategy isn’t a new trend, but it is one that will remain relevant for most brands.

While e-commerce and online shopping continues to be the norm, shoppers today demand a seamless and robust experience wherever they may be shopping. The transition between channels should also be easy.

This may include offering ways for customers to browse online and buy in-store. It may include buying online and returning items in-store. Maybe it is also shopping online via retail partners or online via social social commerce.

Wherever or however a customer chooses to shop, the experience must be tied together whenever possible. An example is a hybrid event that gives shoppers a real life look at a product in either an in-person or virtual format. It could also mean experimenting with Augmented Reality (AR), allowing consumers to use their mobile devices to get a sense of scale or fit before they make a purchase.

An omni-channel presence not only leads to more sales overall, but the right experience can make shoppers more comfortable with brands, give confidence in the product they're considering, and help to reduce returns later.

Voice search is another shopping behavior on the rise, providing yet another way for retailers and brands to communicate with shoppers.

All of this means you can’t be too narrow in your focus and all customer devices – across desktop, mobile, and even the smart home – must be considered.

4. Mobile-first, mobile-must

Omni-channel strategies are about supporting all channels. But regardless of plans to buy online or in-store, chances are that our smallest screens are going to play a big role in the journey.

As discussed, it’s important to ramp up inspiration and education content for 2023. As time goes on, it is easy to realize we live in a world with increasingly shorter attention spans — some argue that our attention span is less than 9 seconds, shorter than that of a goldfish!

That’s more reason to keep mobile devices top of mind and optimize visuals for these smaller screens. Desktop visuals should be secondary, as most brands’ desktop web traffic has been on the decline.

Mobile-friendliness, vertical orientation of imagery, and short-form video, should all be in your content mix.

5. Social Proof with Online Reviews

Whether we’re selecting a new dentist or buying consumer electronics, most of us leverage ratings and reviews whenever we shop. While as many 95% of consumers already do this, the shift to e-commerce will only make reviews more impactful in the shopping journey.

There are many ways brands can illustrate their product, including high-quality imagery, video, even AR, but there’s ultimately no way for a consumer to interact with or feel the products they’re browsing online.

Ratings and reviews are key to painting a real-life picture of the product, and help shoppers feel comfortable making a purchase decision. For brands, embracing ratings and reviews also provides transparency which builds trust with customers.

6. Online and In-store Events

Brick-and-mortar stores offer many ways to educate and inspire shoppers. In-store events, such as cooking classes at Sur La Table, are ways physical stores can influence purchases.

With fewer shoppers going in-store for their purchases, it is still important to create unique experiences. In the same way that omni-channel strategies help bridge online and in-store purchasing, virtual or hybrid events are key to delivering that seamless live in-person and online education.

Hybrid events are unique in giving more people the option to attend, including for those looking for an opportunity to interact with products in-store before they buy. Additionally, hybrid events are engaging because shoppers get to choose how they want to experience the event, even if they can’t make it to a physical store. Together, these unique benefits offer huge opportunities for sales.

7. Connecting with Customers

E-commerce, and technology in general, continues to change retail. Today, shoppers benefit from speed (same-day shipping!), convenience (shop from anywhere 24/7), and consistency (access everything you need to make a purchase decision, regardless of retail environment).

However, customer experience is key, and that goes far beyond making a great lifestyle image of the product in-use.

Coming out of the pandemic, we’ve seen shoppers wanting to connect with smaller businesses, or even buy direct from big brands. Moreover, shoppers were happy to pay more to make their purchases away from traditional retailers.

The reason for this is simple – people are increasingly loyal to the retailers and brands that provide both value and minimum friction. Delivering the right experience impresses shoppers. When that happens, customers reward brands with loyalty, and they also spread the word!

Cashierless Checkout is Finally Coming

Back in grad school I had a research project where I prototyped an easier way to shop inside a grocery store. 

While there have been plenty of improvements in e-commerce and online shopping over the years, going into a physical market to shop for items that go into our refrigerators is still arduous. 

For my research, I spent an uncomfortable amount of time in local grocery stores to document some of the pain points. My findings reinforced a simple truth – shopping in large supermarkets was unnecessarily inefficient.

For example, once customers add all necessary items to a shopping cart, they must endure long lines to checkout. This checkout process then requires emptying out all of the items in the shopping cart onto a conveyor belt, where a store clerk scans each item individually by hand. Typically an additional store clerk is required to refill the shopping cart once again. 

This process is not only slow, but physically grueling.

Clearly, there was a huge opportunity to make this process faster and less analog. It became apparent to me that a self-scanning system could reduce the repetitive lifting that customers would typically have to perform, not to mention the filling, emptying, and re-filling of a shopping cart.

Years before the first Amazon Go stores opened, my design for cashierless checkout was inspired by a single piece of technology that is abundant in many retail stores, but is almost never present in supermarkets: RFID tags.

The prototype I made would require supermarkets to outfit shopping carts with RFID readers, as well as digital displays to provide users with feedback on what they were adding to their physical carts. It was aimed at helping customers get in and out of the store in less time, while also limiting friction in the process and reducing customer frustration.

It’s incredibly rewarding to see that Amazon continued to build on this same concept to make the physical shopping experience smoother. 

More recently, Amazon has even announced that it’s expanding this experience, along with its own smart shopping carts, to Whole Foods locations next year. 

What was exciting about my concept, as well as Amazon’s iterations, is that cashierless shopping isn’t as revolutionary as it may seem. 

RFID and even QR codes are not new technologies. RFID tags are less than 1 mm thick and can be attached to all items. While bar codes require manual operation, RFID tags can wirelessly transmit data, so that collecting product information can happen within seconds.

Over the past year, fast fashion retailer Uniqlo has also released self-checkout machines using this same concept, which quickly reduced queue times in-store.

It just goes to show how a fresh perspective, and a new application for something already available, can dramatically reshape the most basic experiences.  

Getting Things Done: 7 WFH Tech Essentials

The right technology can really elevate your home office set up and boost productivity.

I’ve picked out seven of my favorite work from home tech essentials that have helped me stay connected and do more, especially as I’m working from home most of the time with occasional visits to the office.

Whether you want to improve your workspace, or find gift ideas, these tech essentials have worked for me, so maybe they can also enhance your workspace and productivity.

MacBook Air M2

The center of my home office has long been an iMac. I had a first-gen Intel 27” model and it worked like a champ for more than a decade! It was hard to part with it, but needless to say, it was time for an upgrade.

Although I considered a new iMac, I couldn’t wait for Apple to introduce another large screen version of its latest generation all-in-one. Plus, I kind of wanted something I could take with me when I’m traveling. So, I picked up a 32” monitor and paired it with the new MacBook Air M2.

This laptop is thin, lightweight, and gorgeous. But thanks to the M2 processor, it’s practically Pro.

I had considered a MacBook Pro 13” with the M2, but discovered the MacBook Air M2 offered a better webcam, nicer speakers, more modern looking display, fast-charging support, all in a lighter package. It was a no-brainer to go with the Air M2 and I couldn’t be happier, especially since I felt it was a better value over the Pro model.

CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub

Naturally, there are multiple devices in my home office and I needed a way to tether everything together. One challenge was that I also had two laptops – one personal and one for work – that I needed to toggle between seamlessly.

The solution: CalDigit’s Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub. Harnessing the power of Thunderbolt 4, this simple dock provides an incredible amount of flexibility for my home office set up.

I use the dock to connect my 4K monitor, laptops, a couple external SSD drives, a keyboard and mouse, plus charge devices like headphones and my mobile phone.

As mentioned, I togged between work and personal laptops, and this dock makes the process simple. I just unplug the one Thunderbolt cable between them, and I’m good to go.

Audio Technica ATH-M20xBT

One of my newest tech additions are these over-ear headphones. I had been in the market for premium headphones for a while and was so close to pulling the trigger on a pair of $299 cans that offered premium design and sound.

But then Audio Technica introduced these bad boys…

They’ve got a no frills design and don't have fancy features like companion apps or carrying cases. But in terms of sound, they really deliver.

While they may not look like $299 headphones, they’re super lightweight. I usually wear glasses while I’m working at the computer, and still the lightweight design of the ATH-M20xBT headphones make them comfortable to wear for long periods.

The 40MM drivers crank out Audio Technica’s unique sound signature that’s tuned for clarity. Everything is clear, and you’ll never hear anything too crazy. These deliver deep bass, excellent mids, and bright highs without harshness.

For just $80, these hit well above their weight class. I’ve also been using them for all of my calls and the mic does a great job of picking up dialogue while reducing ambient room noise, even without ANC support. Plus, they have a crazy battery life of 60 hours so I don’t have to worry about plugging them in constantly. You can even listen to music wired or via Bluetooth, so they’re super flexible.

eero Mesh Wi-Fi Routers

The key to productivity is good Wi-Fi. So for me, eero’s mesh Wi-Fi routers are essential.

Mesh Wi-Fi routers like eero help to eliminate dead zones by using multiple pods that work in unison to blanket your home with fast, stable coverage.

Unlike traditional routers, eero is super easy to set up and is controlled by a powerful, yet easy to use app. I also subscribe to eero Secure which adds an extra level of security to my network.

In addition to supporting my WFH activities, eero supports all my smart home’s needs. From my TCL TV, to my Nest doorbell, Sonos speakers, or smart lights in my backyard, having Wi-Fi that’s fast, stable, and keeping everything connected in every corner of the house (inside and outside) is pretty awesome.

I’ve also upgraded to eero’s latest generation of routers that support Wi-Fi 6. So, as I add more devices around my house supporting Wi-Fi 6, I know that my WFH set up — and my smart home in general — is future proofed.

Litepro Laptop Stand

I’ve got a hybrid schedule where I bounce between my home office and work office. However, I’m at home most of the week and discovered that a laptop stand is essential.

Litepro’s laptop stand is pretty basic, but it raises your laptop about five or six inches to improve ergonomics if you’re using your laptop’s screen as a second monitor, like I do.

It's lightweight and sturdy, plus it’s super easy to move around your desk. The forward tilt and open design also allows for improved airflow to keep your laptop cooler.

Since there are two laptops on my desk, what’s great about the design is that I’m also able to tuck my personal laptop underneath my work laptop to keep my workspace organized and tidy.

TCL 20 Pro 5G

TCL is known for creating products that punch above their respective weight classes, with a level of performance that usually belies their price tags. That can certainly be said for the TCL 20 Pro 5G which is why it’s still my daily phone of choice.

Although specs alone won't suggest a major leap forward, I can attest to the TCL 20 Pro’s reliable software, incredible build quality, and gorgeous design.

First and foremost, TCL’s expertise in display technology is evident in the 20 Pro. The display is bright, colorful, and is easy on the eyes, no matter what I'm watching or reading. The processing also makes it buttery smooth while jumping between apps or scrolling through long pages.

One of my favorite features is the SmartKey. It's an extra button on the side that can be programmed to do quick tasks. Unlike other manufacturers, TCL makes it easy to quickly launch just about anything with SmartKey. I personally use it to close background apps in a pinch.

The phone is fast, smooth, and shows no signs of sluggishness moving between apps or while browsing the web. Even the camera processing for modes like Portrait and Super Night photos feels fast.

Something that might get lost in reviews, but that I really appreciate as a former Pixel user, is the lack of bloatware. Beyond some basic software like TCL's excellent NXTVISION technology, or theme improvements, the phone isn't too far off from stock Android.

Sonos One

There are many multi-room speakers available these days, but in my opinion you still can’t go wrong with the Sonos One.

I’ve got one in just about every room of the house because they make multi-room listening so easy. For work, it’s satisfying to quickly cue up some ambient music on Spotify and play over the One.

Sound quality is excellent. Every time I listen I can’t believe how much detail and rich bass can be achieved in such a small package.

With both Alexa and Google Assistant built in, not to mention AirPlay support, Sonos has also made it easy to control music and incorporate the One into any smart home ecosystem.

On Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance is an important topic in this always-on, digital world we all live in. The last couple of years has also given new meaning to the idea of balance as we’ve all adapted to “new normal” conditions. 

Heavily focused on how people structure and manage their days is Balance the Grind, which hosts conversations about work, life, and balancing the two. The editors talk to people from all over the world, in different careers and backgrounds, to give readers insight into what work-life balance means and how it can be achieved. 

There are always some incredible conversations at Balance the Grind, plus explorations of daily habits, schedules, rituals and routines of successful world leaders, artists, startup founders, business executives, writers and world class athletes. I was honored to be featured to give my two cents on an important topic for young professionals.

Shout out to Hao Nguyen and the editorial team for taking the time to chat, and for building an amazing community.