5 Ways to Prepare Your Business for Black Friday

8 min readOct 14, 2022

Black Friday is undoubtedly one of the busiest times of the year for businesses all around the globe. It allows business owners to bring in new customers, increase traffic to their store or site, and drive sales. In 2021, Shopify reports show that shoppers spent about $6.3 billion dollars in the US during Black Friday — the second-largest online spending day that has ever been recorded in the US. However, many businesses struggle to compete with the big brands that plan all year and have massive advertising budgets to spend on this single promotion. So, the question is: are you prepared for Black Friday? Get ahead of your competitors and start preparing for Black Friday with these top five tips.

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1. Digital Ads

Digital advertising can drive traffic to your shop or website, find new customers, and increase awareness of your brand. This makes digital ads an excellent way to find new customers and entice repeat customers with Black Friday deals. Did you know you can set up your digital ads to target people near your store’s location and only during open hours? This helps you get the most from your advertising spend while letting potential customers know about your Black Friday deals. Unlike other forms of advertising, you can narrow your audience, adjust your spend daily, and learn more about the type of people who are interested in your business. Not sure how to get started with digital ads? Here are some digital ads platforms you could consider:

Google Ads: This option offers you the ability to reach customers based on several factors such as device, search history, and location. There are two main options for targeting new customers: create a campaign to target niche audiences to bring in returning customers or target a broad range of people to draw new people to your business.
Microsoft Ads: Also known as Bing Ads, this network-level ad program running on Microsoft-powered sites since 2009. There are a wide range of ads available such as: basic text ads, shopping ads, image ads, rich media ads, and video ads. Since many companies use Microsoft products for their employees, Microsoft Ads can be a fantastic way of reaching new customers during the week of Black Friday and on Cyber Monday when employees are back in the office.
Social Media Ads: If you’re searching for a way to connect with new customers for your services or retail location, then consider using social media ads. Many small businesses use social media pages to reach their customers since there isn’t the hassle and cost associated with having a website. Leverage your page by using social media ads to bring new customers to your business. Some of the best platforms for social media ads include:
Facebook Ads: Still a dominant force in social media, you can create Black Friday campaigns linked to your Facebook page or keep it simple and boost a post.
Instagram Ads: Since Instagram is also owned by Facebook’s parent company: Meta, Instagram ads work in tandem with Facebook. Ads can be displayed in several formats, which is ideal for retail products and services like photography or landscaping.
Twitter Ads: Twitter continues to grow and ads on the platform come in a variety of formats such as promoted tweets. With promoted tweets, you can easily boost your businesses’ organic tweets about Black Friday deals.
Tiktok Ads: Advertising on TikTok is a great way to introduce your business to a new generation. Access an enormous audience of potential customers through TikTok ads and rapidly build brand awareness. 52% of users claimed that TikTok ads were fun and engaging, while 66% had a positive perception of TikTok advertising. With the right creative assets and marketing strategy, brands can drive a huge volume of conversions and skyrocket their revenue.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed with all these options, don’t worry. There are highly skilled professional digital marketers on AnyTask.com to create and manage your digital ad campaigns on all social media platforms.

2. Website Updates

It’s important to keep your website looking fresh and exciting with regular updates. Highlight promotions like Black Friday and stay relevant with seasonal content to compete with big brands. Here are some steps you could take to enhance your website:

SEO: With so many businesses offering Black Friday deals, one of the smartest ways to get ahead of the competition is to improve your website’s SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization which is the process of improving how your website communicates with search engines like Google and Bing. Good SEO practices can place your site ahead of others when people use search engines which is helpful for Black Friday. And while SEO is an ongoing project and can always be improved upon, it can be a cost-effective way to reach new customers.
·Keyword Research: Do you know what search terms bring customers to your website? Keyword research helps identify the queries people enter when searching for related products or services. Analyzing this data can help your site’s SEO and add to your Black Friday content.
Website Audit & Editing: Nobody likes a long wait. If your site fails to load quickly, you might be losing shoppers at a critical time for your business. In fact, 40 percent of people will abandon a website that exceeds three seconds while loading. Audit your website, ensure checkout is easy to understand and add new payment options to give your customers more choices.
Website Banners: Create a homepage banner dedicated to your Black Friday deals to make sure that any visitors to the site are aware. Add a link to the Black Friday part of your site to make it easier for new customers to convert.
Black Friday Custom Landing Page: If your Black Friday plans include new services or products, a custom landing page can make offers irresistible. Your landing page should motivate visitors to become new customers. Or have visitors sign-up for emails to receive a discount code so you can continue to reach out long after Black Friday is over.

On the AnyTask.com freelance platform, choose from professional graphic designers, SEO experts, and website developers that can optimize your site for Black Friday.

3. Social Media

Your brand’s presence on social media can improve Black Friday sales. Make your social media content conversational, engaging, and provide value to your audience. Available data shows that over 4 billion people use social media globally and customers will see thousands of messages during Black Friday, so you need to catch their eyes while scrolling. A successful Black Friday sale needs a properly planned social media strategy. Here are some social media strategies you should consider:

Written Posts: Make your social media posts shareable and engaging. Don’t just target existing followers, try to reach prospective customers who are interested in your Black Friday deals. Make use of hashtags that your industry is using and incorporate them smartly into your social media posts.
Social Media Graphics: You need to add a quality product image or eye-catching video when marketing your Black Friday deals on social media. One critical aspect of your social media campaign is visuals. People are likely to remember 10 percent of the information they hear three days later, but when the same information is paired with a relevant image, they retain 65 percent of the information after three days. Focus on promotional graphics and social posts to create excitement around your Black Friday offers.

If you don’t have the time to do this yourself, not to worry. Fortunately, there are highly skilled graphic designers and social media marketing experts on AnyTask.com who can take on the seasonal workload as freelancers.

4. Emails

Black Friday is the busiest email day, with 116.5 million campaigns being sent. This highlights the importance of setting up your email marketing campaign early. Email marketing provides an opportunity to connect directly with your customers and provide them with great discounts. Successful email marketing campaigns should include:

An eye-catching headline that mentions your Black Friday deals or discounts.
Unique visual design especially for Black Friday.
A call to action that is clear and easy to understand. You can restate any discount codes and include a countdown to make sure no one loses out on these offers.

Check out some of the best professionals on the AnyTask.com platform who can help you with your email marketing campaign for Black Friday.

5. Imagery

To stand out from your competitors, you need unique imagery. Add a Black Friday twist to existing products to help customers locate and purchase them on your site. Improved product photography with unique graphics can help convert customers. When working on your images, you need to:

Create Black Friday Images: When creating your unique images for the Black Friday sales, ensure they reflect your brand.
Photo Editing: You may also want to edit the images to suit your brand. Black is the popular colour associated with Black Friday, so go for designs that have a touch of black for this time period.

Need a hand with prepping your images for Black Friday? Take a look at the visual design category for all your needs.

Final Thoughts

Black Friday is still one of the key sales times of the year. It requires a lot of work to get your store or website ready. Following the tips above, you will be well prepared and able to compete against the biggest brands as well as your hometown rivals! Don’t know how to do all the things mentioned above? Reach out to the Sellers on AnyTask.com! Have a successful and exciting Black Friday with help from freelancers on AnyTask.com.