Benefits of Early Preparation for Bfcm

2 months away from Black November! I have 10 BF/CM seasons under my belt (agency & brand sides). Here are 5 things you MUST iron out before Q4 is upon us👇 1. Understand Your Audience One surprising insight I gathered from last year’s BFCM post-purchase data (s/o KnoCommerce) is that 1st-time buyers during BFCM typically fall into two categories: - known about your brand for 12+ months - just discovered you w/in the last month 1st group is waiting for the perfect deal to make their move. 2nd group is made up of deal-hunters who are ready to purchase if the offer is right. This means your BFCM strategy needs to cater to both audiences—long-time observers waiting to strike & new customers who are deal-driven. Consider different deals for different audience segments. 2. Inventory Forecasting The most common & impactful mistake I continue to witness. Overshoot or undershoot- both equally painful. Under-stocking can completely wreck Q4. Gain confidence in inventory forecasting by tracking your competitors with Particl. When (& how much) are your competitors replenishing each SKU? You still have 2 months to account for any potential inventory shortfalls in November/December. Correct course ASAP. 3. Clear and Immediate Communication BFCM is a frenzy of deal shopping- consumers are bombarded with offers. I stress the ‘half-second rule.’ Your deals need to be understood w/in half a second of seeing your ad. If the deal isn't clear & understood w/in half a second, consider the prospect lost. Also, the offer must be clear throughout the customer journey. If a prospect clicks on a 25% off ad, that discount should be visible from the product page through checkout. Don’t expect them to hunt around for it — they won’t ✌️ 4. Create Urgency Urgency drives action. W/o a clear end time for the sale, customers may assume they have more time than they do and end up getting distracted by other offers. Use sticky countdown timers on your website, make the end date date clear in your ad and email copy, and make sure you iterate urgency throughout your comms... like "Stock Limited" 5. Agility and Segmentation Flexibility is your secret weapon during BFCM. BFCM planning and strategy does NOT stop once Black Friday begins! If a particular offer isn’t hitting your goals, don’t wait—pivot quickly. Yes, that means you may have to scrap all those creatives and ads you made that highlighted the particular offer you went live with. Use templates so you can easily edit your assets to reflect the new sale you're pivoting to. Additionally, segmentation is key. Tailor your email & SMS offers based on customer segments. EX-- offer a more aggressive discount to 1yr+ email subscribers who never purchased vs. a segment that that is less price sensitive. I see the same issues nuke DTC brands' most critical weekend each year. No margin for error in this 4-day span. It can make or break your month, quarter, or year. It's your Super Bowl. You only get one shot.

Every October we get the same email: “Hey, can you build our Black Friday campaign? We need something by next month.” The answer? Yes, but it won’t work the way you think. Here’s the truth most agencies won’t tell you: Great BFCM results don’t come from good design. They come from time. The brands that crush Q4 are the ones that start in July or August. Why? Because we actually get time to: - Audit their account and fix broken flows - Clean up deliverability issues that tank open rates - Build segments that actually convert - Test multiple offers (and kill the weak ones early) When a brand comes in July, we have months to prep. When they come in October, we have weeks to duct tape it together. And in a pressure cooker like BFCM, duct tape doesn’t hold. The result? It’s not about talent. It’s not even about budget. It’s about whether you gave your team time to plug the leaky bucket before the flood hit. BFCM magnifies what’s already working… or what’s already broken. So if your Q4 revenue is riding on this, here’s your real decision: Start prepping now, or keep hoping that last-minute marketing will fix a year-long problem.

The Importance of Early Planning for Black Friday & Cyber Monday 📅 Success during Black Friday and Cyber Monday doesn’t happen overnight—it’s the result of meticulous planning and preparation. At Blade Commerce, we start planning months in advance to ensure our clients’ BFCM campaigns are flawless. Here’s why early planning is essential: 1️⃣ Allows for Strategic Testing // Early planning gives you time to test different strategies and refine your approach. Whether it’s testing email subject lines or ad creatives, this preparation ensures you’re ready to hit the ground running. 🏃♂️ 2️⃣ Secures the Best Deals with Vendors // By planning ahead, you can negotiate better deals with suppliers and vendors, ensuring you have the inventory and support you need for a successful BFCM. 📦 3️⃣ Creates Anticipation // Start teasing your BFCM deals early to build excitement and anticipation among your customers. The earlier you start, the more buzz you can generate. 📣 🌟 Pro Tip // Develop a detailed calendar that outlines every step of your BFCM campaign—from pre-launch teasers to post-sale follow-ups. Having a roadmap ensures nothing falls through the cracks. 🗓️ Early planning isn’t just about being prepared—it’s about being strategic. The more time you invest upfront, the more successful your BFCM will be. 🚀 #BFCM #BlackFriday

Q4 and BFCM Preparation starts NOW… Especially if you’re aiming for results like these(Video shot November 2023 - BFCM of last year). Yes, it’s early September but it’s important to understand how the digital side works in DTC. You can’t just jack up ads budget and expect good results. Well, in 2015 2016 Facebook Ads era, sure. But it’s gotten so much more difficult that it requires a lot of homework. And it takes a while to ramp up(depending on marketing budget): - Anticipation - Hype Building - Audience Curation - Strategic Merchandising - Content Content Content (Paid and Organic) - Etc. Creative strategy should already be in place while A/B testing is on standby. The goal is to start accumulating your ideal audience. It’s a slow ramp up. It’s a smarter play because you’re essentially spreading your marketing budget over 2-3 months rather than the actual BFCM weekend. You won’t have to worry about high CPMs when it comes time to execute. All homework has been done. When everything is in motion, you can then focus on other aspects of BFCM: - Giveaways - BFCM Offer - Early Bird or VIP List - Influencer Collaborations - Email/SMS Campaigns/Sequencing - BFCM Sandwich (Pre-Sale, Actual Sale, Post-Sale) So if you haven’t started yet, here’s what you should do: 1. Refine your Creative Strategy - UGCs, Evergreen, Memeified, etc. Make sure to have enough to test, manage, and scale. 2. Start running ads–even if it’s just a little per day for building your audience. 3. Think about your merchandising and BFCM/Christmas offers 4. Organize your SMS/Email Marketing Strategies 5. Retarget retarget retarget. Believe it or not, time will fly by very quickly and BFCM/Christmas will be here in no time, so make sure to properly prepare for it.

Your BFCM prep should start early. My friend Nik Sharma’s insider list for you 🧵 1. Start NOW. Yes, in July. The timeline's getting earlier every year. Nik's on his 8th year of BFCM campaigns, and he's already prepping clients. 2. TikTok Shop is a must. 4-12 weeks setup time, so move fast! With 1.9BN users and $17.5BN in GMV this year, it's growing 10x YoY. Americans spend $7M daily here. 3. YouTube Shopping + Shopify integration is another sleeper hit. It's underutilized in DTC. Expect juiced performance for 12-18 months as it's new. 4. Old school direct mail still works. Warm up your top 1,000-10,000 customers. Use services like Post Pilot for personalized, automated postcards. 5. Limited-edition drops create FOMO. Plan these ASAP. Think new styles, colorways, or collabs. Jones Road Beauty's strategy is gold here. 6. Influencers & affiliates are key. Lock in rates early. Focus on whitelisting partners, not just affiliate links. Content creators are gold for lower CPCs. 7. Email more. Way more. Average is 11 emails, but Nik suggests 15-20 over BFCM weekend. He even provides an hour-by-hour strategy for Black Friday. 8. Gamify early orders. "First 1000 get X" always drives sales. Pro tip: Have extras ready for simultaneous purchases. 9. Focus ad spend on retargeting, not cold traffic. You're paying to reach people who already know you. New BFCM customers often have lower LTV. 10. Consider starting your BFCM promos in early November. Nik's seen "Cyber Month" becoming a thing. Don't be the last to get a shot at consumers' BFCM budgets. 👋 P.S. What else would you add?

After navigating 7 Black Fridays, I’m gearing up for my 8th in just under 100 days… The biggest lesson I’ve learned? Start preparing sooner than you think. I begin my planning 3-4 months in advance, and there’s a critical reason why—keep reading to find out. Black Friday isn’t what it used to be. Pre-pandemic, it was all about those four intense days from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. But now? Many brands are running sales all November long. The old playbook has been tossed out. To help you get ahead, here are 12 strategies to prepare for your Black Friday, November, and holiday sales: 1) Get your numbers in order. Understand what your costs were last year and what your costs are going into the sale. Are they up or down? Build out a predictive model so you can make sure you're going to be profitable 2) Make sure your inventory on your acquisition products and other best sellers will be healthy by the time your sales start (this is why you start now) 3) Create a product exclusive to your Black Friday offering. Maybe its a gift with purchase or something they can only buy during that time. This will be fun to promote before the sale starts (this is why you start now) 4) Keep your sale simple. You're competing with a lot of people. Also, we've done a lot of research and the average American doesn't think a sale under 30% is a great Black Friday sale. Do what you want with that info... 5) Get ready to communicate daily with your lists. Use proper segmentation. Remember we built lists to eventually get people to buy. Don't be afraid of people unsubscribing. 6) Match your email/sms opt-in offers with what your BFCM sales are going to be 7) Build up your ad creative repository, test ads, double down on winners 8) Seed product get their distribution, but more importantly get their content to use as ad content (this is why you start now) 9) Start surveying your customers using a post-purchase survey platform like Bestie AI. Learning more about your customers whey they shop with you, why they almost didnt shop with you, how they hear about you, etc is critical to winning over BFCM (this is why you start now) 10) Don't just decrease spend before sale season just because you see performance dip... Look at your Cohort report in Shopify and see if new customers in Aug, Sept, Oct tend to go ham in November (this is why you start now) 11) Build out landing pages that showcase your best selling products and the offer you're giving out 12) Think about doing a double sale. The brands we saw perform the best last year did two sales. One at the beginning of the month and one during BFCM. And there are more. If you listen to this week's most recent episode of the Unstoppable Marketer we dive deeper into each one of these plus add a few more things you can do to crush Q4!

Is it too early to start preparing for Black Friday? I don’t think so. Every year, I see eCommerce brands waiting until October, or even November to plan for BFCM. If Black Friday & Cyber Monday are a big part of your yearly sales (and for most brands they are), it’s worth planning now. Here are 5 BFCM tips I recommend to all the brands: 1. Start planning early The earlier you start, the better your campaigns will be. You’ll have more time to test ideas, improve your emails, create better designs, and build a clear promo strategy. Brands that wait until the last minute often rush, and it shows. 2. Learn from past campaigns You already have valuable data. Use it. Which emails performed best in the past few months? What subject lines got the most opens? Which products had the highest click-through rate? Look at what worked—and double down on it. 3. Build your audience before the rush November is the most expensive time to advertise. So build your email and SMS lists before the season kicks in. Offer early access to your sale or a simple discount in exchange for sign-ups. Even better, focus on re-engaging past visitors instead of cold leads. 4. Segment your audience Don’t send every campaign to everyone. Segment by behavior: who clicked, who bought recently, who hasn’t opened in months. This way, you can avoid email fatigue, reward loyal customers, and boost your deliverability during the busiest time of the year. 5. Pause Smart Sending (just this once) Normally, you want to avoid sending too many emails. But during BFCM, everyone expects more messages, and they’re more willing to act on them. So if you’re using tools like Klaviyo, consider turning off “Smart Sending” for this weekend only. Just make sure your messages are well-timed and relevant. 👉 Bottom line: BFCM isn’t about sending more emails—it’s about sending smarter emails. The brands that win are the ones that plan early and stay focused on the customer experience. If you haven’t started planning yet, now’s the time. #emailmarketing #bfcm #emailtips #flowium

😱 There are a few things to note as we approach the holiday season: Do not wait; it could, and most likely will, cost you. ⤵ 1️⃣ Start planning in August. No later than August. Think about it. 🤔 Plan in August > Copy and Design in Sept > Development and Stage in Oct > Cross your T's and dot your I's in Nov > Deploy 2️⃣ Planning should not only include what happens and what the offers are for BFCM and holidays; think about what you need to have in place for it to be successful and what the post-activities look like. (segmentation, retargeting, win-backs, etc.) 3️⃣ Creating coupons is not a BFCM/holiday strategy. This busy item goes beyond coupons: ▶ You can grow a channel by offering early access for SMS subscribers (if that channel has no or has low subscribers) or drive app installs if you have an app ▶ You can introduce/drop new products leading into BFCM, a new drop each week - expose them to specific segments only to "guarantee" products to your best customers. ▶ Create acquisition, retention, and win-back offers ▶ Make sure that within the above, you segment audiences and personalize communication and offers to them. ▶ Think about what will be retargeting offers post-BFCM/holidays. 4️⃣ Most people that will convert probably had some touchpoint with your brand -- this is not a time to focus on filling your funnel but rather clearing it. Yes, you will fill it with new prospects, but that should not be an intention; it will be an effect of the moment. 5️⃣ Not everything needs to be on sale - your hero product does not always need to be discounted. Think about creating bundles/kits to keep the value up and increase AOV. 6️⃣ Do not be afraid to test offers. Create early Black Friday sale landing pages and drive segmented traffic to them to test the offer, but keep in mind that conversions will be lower as the consumer mindset might not be focused on spending. 7️⃣ It is election season, and A LOT more capital will be spent on ads, driving up the cost across social, programmatic, etc. Create an AOV or LTV plan to combat acquisition costs. For example -- give them an offer, gift card, or coupon code if they come back in January or February (and a plan to remind them). 8️⃣ Try to leverage automatic discounts or adjusted pricing. Do not make it hard for customers to find codes, copy them, etc. Make it as easy as possible for them to maximize the utilization of the offer. 9️⃣ Do not forget to create goals - top and bottom line. Connect with your team and partners and ensure you have the resources, products, and budget to achieve them. Compare performance against LY. 🔟 Make sure you align with all your internal team and partners on planning and execution. Get on a call with the appropriate parties to plan appropriately.