In our last article leading up to Black Friday, we spoke about how small businesses can get creative with Black Friday deals. Now, let’s take a look at how to promote your specials so you can spread the word and maximise your returns.
As a small business owner, you don’t have the budget to drive a nationwide marketing campaign. Luckily, you can still make Black Friday a success in your business – even with a modest marketing budget.
“Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes, it’s an ad.” – Howard Gossage
Howard Gossage – sometimes referred to as “The Socrates of San Francisco” – was an Ad Man from the Golden Era of advertising. Think Mad Men.
Gossage’s hay day may have been over sixty years ago, but his views of creating advertising which interests the people you’re trying to connect with is essentially the kernel concept of targeted advertising.
If you know who your customers are and what they enjoy, you can make your budget go further with hyper-focussed advertising. It’s a great play for small businesses who are looking to reach and connect with customers on the cheap.
What’s more, things have gotten easier for business owners since Gossage’s day. In the digital age, even businesses with tight marketing budgets can create targeted content that reaches their market where and when they choose.
Looking to promote your Black Friday specials? Here are a few new school and old school marketing techniques that your business can use without breaking the bank.
5 Ways to Promote Your Black Friday Deals
Social Media
Advertising on social media is fast becoming a staple for small businesses. According to Facebook Insights, advertisers can reach approximately 20 million South Africans via their ads. While that may seem like overkill for your small business, platforms like Facebook and Instagram also enable you to create highly targeted advertising campaigns based on filters such as location or demographics to narrow in on your ideal customer.
Creating content is also easier than ever before. Traditionally, business owners needed to hire a freelancer or approach an advertising agency. But with the addition of design tools like Canva, content creation is now cheaper and more easily accessible. You can now take your entire content creation process in-house, or even develop content on your own steam if you have the time.
Email Marketing
Building a database of email contacts to which you can send regular updates and promotional information is a must for any business that takes customer engagement and retention seriously.
There is a perception that email marketing is a channel reserved for big businesses, and as a result, many small businesses choose to omit it from their marketing strategy. However, email marketing actually offers some of the highest return on investment (ROI) when compared to other digital marketing tools. In fact, CRM solutions provider Sendinblue notes that email marketing can increase ROI by up to 4400%!
If you’re considering a monthly newsletter or another email marketing campaign, perhaps these pros may help convince you:
- Incredible ROI
- Drives constant engagement for relationship building
- Provides a platform for specials promotion
- Great for brand awareness
- It helps you better understand your customers.
Google AdWords
While Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a must for small businesses in the long-term, Google AdWords is a tried and tested short-term solution that’ll attract new customers to your business with immediate effect.
Familiar with AdWords? Even if you haven’t had a stab at Google’s advertising before, you’ve seen and interacted with AdWords thousands of times. The first two or three returns on any Google search are all Google Ads. You’ll need pay every time a web user clicks on your ad, but the returns can be exponential.
You can also target these ads based on location, age, keywords, time of day and more. This will keep your costs down by helping you reach the right people who actually have a chance of visiting your business.
Need to brush up on your Google Adwords skills? Here’s a course.
Flyers and Posters
Point of sale advertising such as flyers, posters and other printed marketing material available from your counter will raise awareness of your upcoming specials among your current customer base. You could even galvanise your staff with a sales-based campaign, getting them to spread the word and distribute marketing.
It’s also a great idea to share digital versions with your WhatsApp network. Think about it like this. If achieved a 30% open rate on an email, you’d consider that a success. On WhatsApp, the average open rate is 98%, which makes WhatsApp the most engaging marketing channel on the planet!
There are a number of ways you can leverage WhatsApp to build your business such as sharing promo images with your customers to creating a business account, manually adding numbers to your contact list or signing-up with WhatsApp Business.
Word of Mouth
Word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful forms of marketing. Asking your happy customers to share your specials with their friends through messaging platforms will spread the word about your specials and your business.
Social proof is also a must. Social proof includes online reviews and feedback from your customers. Reviews on Google, social media and on your website determine whether a new customer will trust you or not. According to Bright Local, approximately 78% of shoppers trust online reviews as much as they would the advice of friends and family, which shows just how important online reviews are for your business.
To Sum it Up
Those are our go-to channels for small business owners that are looking to make a splash on a modest budget. Remember, you’ll need to be very strategic in how you target your ads and apportion your budget, but with the right planning, you can make it work.
