BFCM is just around the corner. We know that as a brand, you must have worked on your SEO months ago and worked on various deals and marketing strategies to lock in the BFCM crowd. Here are a few last-minute tips and tricks that can help you with your whole BFCM strategy.
Last minute tips and tricks for BFCM
1. Retarget buyers with Banners and pop-ups in session
Banners and pop-ups would be something that brands already do when a customer enters the website. Either the brand offers x% discount in exchange for email addresses or a contact number. But we are not talking about the typical banners and pop-ups. We are talking about retargeting in session using banners and pop-ups. A lot of visitors tend to visit your website during the holiday season, especially BFCM. Many visitors tend to do their research before BFCM and purchase during BFCM due to the offers available. Now, you can target those revisiting customers with personalized banners and pop-ups just to entice them to buy the product that they have viewed or abandoned in the cart.
This could be beneficial in a lot of ways :
- Increase conversion rate
- Reduce abandonment rates
- Offers Fine-tuned targeting
- Offers hyper personalized experience
- Enhances brand recall
2. Monitor your traffic with Heat maps
For those who are not already using heatmaps, now is the right time to install heatmaps on your website. Technically Halloween marks the beginning of the holiday season, but BFCM is when a huge chunk of sales happens. Targeting and monitoring how a typical user uses your website to browse products can be very insightful. These insights can further be used to re-target them or later during the Christmas holidays. This also says a lot about your consumer behavior. And how countdowns, banners, and pop-ups affect your consumer behavior.
Heatmaps also allow a brand to identify hotspots in their website. These hotspots could be enhanced using website designs and could be changed to festive elements to bring in the holiday mood.
3. Turn one time shoppers into lifetime customers
Don’t go cold on your one-time BFCM campaign visitor. Collect email addresses and contact numbers from them and try to stay in touch with them by adding them to your newsletter, subscriber, and email list. Send out various coupons and offers and personalize recommendations for them during the holiday season also. Building a relationship with your audience is very important in this digital world. We live in a relationship economy. There are a number of ways with which you can establish a relationship with a client. When a customer trusts you, they turn into brand advocates and you could use free word-of-mouth promotion to increase sales and acquire a lifetime customer.
Ways to build relationships with your customers
- Loyalty Programs
- Customer Retention Activities
- Collecting the Feedback
- Post-Purchase Customer Service
- Omnichannel Messaging
4. Offer multiple Shipping options
Shipping is the last element which your customer considers before clicking that buy button. Offering shipping optionality would be a very big competitive advantage and give the customer the freedom to make their own choices.
There are various types of shipping options. Brands can offer free shipping for high-purchase-value customers. There is expedited shipping, which is a faster way of shipping. Statistics show that customers are willing to pay extra for this expedited shipping to get their products delivered sooner. There is eco-friendly delivery, international shipping, and local delivery. With the help of a shipping cost calculator, customers can get an overview of how the whole shipping process works.
5. Think of your Post purchase strategy
The other part of the customer journey begins only after the buy button is clicked. It is important to send proper notifications to customers when the order is placed. There are a variety of emails that you could send out regarding the product delivery update. Mainly – order placed, order shipped, in transit, order is out for delivery, order delivered, and any apology emails if there is any delay or shipping mishaps’. Brands should take responsibility for what happens after the product is shipped. Customers usually understand that there are supply chain disruptions during the holiday season and an apology email from the brand would leave a long-lasting impression on the visitor. Bring delight up to the last mile.
The post-purchase journey paves the way to retention. Brands can experience a lot of returns post the holiday season or post-BFCM. Brands should see returns as a revenue channel.
Branded tracking pages, both during delivery and in return, can be a beneficial thing to turn the shipping status page into a cross-selling platform.
Start cross-selling and up-selling for Christmas through personalized recommendations on the Branded Tracking page. Here’s an example of a Branded Tracking page.
6. Offer exclusivity for members
Did you forget to add early access to your email list subscribers and loyalty members? Well, you should do so now. Making your loyal customers feel exclusive is an important part to retain them for life. This exclusivity would make them feel special and valued.
Checklist for BFCM
- Countdown timers: Countdown timers are a great way to remind that the offers are about to expire and create a sense of urgency.
- Website speed optimization: There’s going be a lot of traffic coming in and your website should be able to handle the in search traffic slow websites lead to lost opportunities make sure that your website is fully optimized along with site search operations.
- Product page description: To reduce returns, often when the product clearly describes what it is and states all the necessary information it could significantly reduce the return rates. Here’s a guideline of what an anatomy of a product page should look like.
- Social proof: Adding social proof inside the product page and your website significantly influences a customer to buy from your brand.
- An eye on the metrics: Do take a look at how your brand performed in the past years. Take lessons from those metrics and implement strategies that work for you.
- Abandoned cart recovery strategy: Yes, there are going to be a lot of visitors and researchers who could check out your products. Make sure to retarget them with abandoned cart emails or social media targeted ads.
- A special incentive for loyalty members: Of Course you cannot let your loyalty members go. You should make them feel special by offering extra for being your loyal customer.
- Customer support: Your customer support executives should be fully equipped with information to handle the number of inquiries which are going to flood through during this peak season.
Contingency plan for BFCM
There’s nothing wrong in having a contingency plan in place. What if you’re out of stock on a particular product? Think about how you can restock it as quickly as possible. What if there’s a shipping delay or a shipping mishap or what if a parcel goes missing? The CEO of Lecherman.com, Sriram Sridhar, always says that successful e-commerce brands during the holiday season always have a plan B in place. They have a backup shipping carrier to help them in the time of need and deliver to customers on time. It’s okay to be too careful sometimes, but to disappoint your customers is not a good thing. It’s much easier to come up with a plan now than to cross the bridge when you get there.
Final Word
BFCM could be one of the most profitable weekends you can have if you have proper strategies in place. If the customer is impressed with your BFCM, if the customer is comfortable with the BFCM experience, they might revisit your website to buy something else for the holidays.
In these final moments leading up to BFCM 2023, take a deep breath and trust in your thorough preparation. The potential for growth and success is significant, and your dedication to serving your customers and delivering value will be the foundation of your achievements.
So, as you finalize your checklist and put the finishing touches on your campaigns, remember the essence of BFCM: a celebration of your brand, your customers, and the exciting possibilities of a prosperous holiday season.
Here’s to a successful Black Friday and Cyber Monday, filled with joy, growth, and memorable customer experiences.
