The busiest shopping days for retail and e-commerce businesses are just around the corner.
And it would be best if you immediately started preparing those Cyber Week marketing campaigns as these five days cover major shopping dates: US Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Super Sunday, and Cyber Monday.
To help you prepare better, we'll focus this article on social media marketing campaign ideas for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as they are the crown jewels that could help you hit pre-set business objectives for 2024:
- What does Black Friday mean for digital marketing?
- What does Cyber Monday mean for digital marketing?
- When are Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2024
- Black Friday and Cyber Monday social media campaign tips
- 10 Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) Social Media Post Ideas
- How can Sendible help you manage the Black Friday campaign on social media?
What does Black Friday mean for digital marketing?
In digital marketing and social media, Black Friday is a crucial event that marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season and sets the stage for Cyber Monday.
Originally a post-Thanksgiving shopping day in the United States, Black Friday has grown into a global phenomenon where businesses, both online and offline, offer substantial discounts and promotions.
For businesses, Black Friday isn't just a single day of sales; it's a strategic opportunity to engage with customers, enhance brand visibility, and significantly boost revenue.
On social media, Black Friday campaigns are vital in building anticipation, creating buzz, and driving traffic to your online store or physical locations.
This day is the perfect time to use social media to connect with potential buyers, showcase exclusive deals, and turn engagement into actual sales.
Moreover, Black Friday serves as an overture to Cyber Monday, extending the shopping frenzy and keeping the momentum going through the weekend. Businesses can use this period to maximise their impact, ensuring that their social media efforts carry through to Cyber Monday and beyond, capturing even more sales and customer interest.
What does Cyber Monday mean for digital marketing?
Cyber Monday, following immediately after Black Friday, is a day dedicated to online shopping and e-commerce, offering businesses another chance to capitalise on the heightened consumer interest generated during the weekend.
Originally conceived as a day for online retailers to compete with the in-store deals of Black Friday, Cyber Monday has now become a major event in its own right.
For businesses, Cyber Monday is an opportunity to extend their Black Friday promotions into the digital space or introduce new deals exclusively available online. Cyber Monday campaigns on social media are critical for engaging with an audience ready to shop from the comfort of their homes.
By utilising targeted ads, time-sensitive offers, and creative content, businesses can:
- Drive traffic to their online stores
- Boost sales
- Capture leads
This day also allows businesses to re-target potential customers who showed interest during Black Friday but didn’t complete a purchase.
By continuing the conversation on social media and offering irresistible online deals, businesses can convert these undecided shoppers into buyers, making the most of the extended holiday shopping period.
When are Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2024
With all of the fantastic sales opportunities that Black Friday brings for brands, it's helpful to know exactly when the event falls on the social media holiday calendar, so you can start planning your brand's Black Friday social media campaigns.
Black Friday falls every year on the Friday after US Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday the following Monday.
In 2024, Black Friday will be on 29 November, and Cyber Monday will fall on 2 December.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday social media campaign tips
Now that we know the power that Black Friday and Cyber Monday hold as consumer holidays, it's time to start making your brand's social media campaigns even better this year.
Here are our top Black Friday marketing tips:
- Start your campaigns early
- Build urgency around offers
- Use hashtags to increase reach
- Plan your content and schedule it in advance
- State when your promotions will begin and end
- Allocate resources to reply to and engage with customers
- Make use of unique platform features
- Focus on retargeting ads
1. Start your campaigns early
They say the early bird catches the worm; the same is true for social media marketers! The earlier you start your Black Friday promo on social media, the more potential customers will hear about them.
Build anticipation with your campaign by creating countdown posts, sneak peeks, and deal reveals for your followers to get excited about.
Notice how supermarket chain Walmart began their 2021 Black Friday campaign in early November, giving them plenty of time to drip-feed their followers with great deals before the big day.
Source: @Walmart
The biggest bonus of starting your Black Friday social media promotion earlier is that you'll raise awareness before your competition - and this especially rings true for ads!
2. Build urgency around offers
To increase the chances of converting your followers into customers and generating sales, when writing your social media post captions for Black Friday weekend, make sure to include phrases like:
- Limited availability
- While stocks last
- Available for a limited time only
This is precisely how makeup brand Glossier advertised its Black Friday sale on Instagram.
Source: @glossier
And since Cyber Monday already lasts 24 hours, you can create a few countdowns throughout the day with various time-limited offers. This is an incredible hack that will keep your audience engaged full-time.
3. Use hashtags to increase reach
Utilising hashtags has long been a way to increase reach on social media. And luckily for social media managers, they can be used effectively on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
There are plenty of other reasons you should use hashtags in your brand's Black Friday social media campaigns. For example, hashtags can help increase your brand's visibility and attract new followers to your profiles.
In 2020, fashion brand ASOS included their very own hashtag in their Instagram promotions - #ASOSBlackFriday. This was a smart move because it will have increased the organic reach on the post and helped the brand to maintain a strong sense of identity amongst the frenzy of deals and offers happening on the day.
4. Plan your content and schedule it in advance
Organisation is a massive part of a social media manager's job, especially when promotional campaigns roll around.
Make sure to plan out your brand's content and promotions in a social media calendar beforehand so that you can keep on top of your priorities as Black Friday gets closer.
It's also worth investing in a social media scheduling tool like Sendible to save time and help take out the legwork of manually posting to each social media platform.
5. State when your promotions will begin and end
To avoid confusion for your customers, make sure to always add a note or disclaimer to your content or post a caption letting them know when your promotions will begin and end.
Similarly, if your brand plans to continue its promotions into Cyber Monday, let your customers know.
Notice how supermarket chain Target specifies exactly when its Black Friday deals start and end. This ensures that customers have their expectations set from the outset of the promotion.
Source: @Target
6. Allocate resources to reply and engage with customers
Excellent social media customer service takes time and resources. So, before you release your brand's Black Friday social media campaign into the world, ensure you've got the capacity to answer any questions customers might have about taking advantage of your promotions.
If you're a one-person team, consider scaling back the number of social media posts you create to promote your offering and which channels you decide to post them on. After all, do you really have time to reply to comments on multiple posts and messages on Instagram, Facebook, and X?
Remember that bad customer service on social media can make a big, negative, real-life impression, so never take on more than you can handle.
7. Make use of unique platform features
Social media marketers can take advantage of so many unique features of each platform and make this year's Black Friday and Cyber Monday genuinely unforgettable.
Why not experiment with Instagram Video by creating your brand's promotions using Reels or Stories? Maybe you could take on TikTok to promote your deals, as you don't need any followers to reach millions of users. Or create a poll on X to ask your followers what kind of deals they'd like to see from your brand.
Hulu's Black Friday social media promotions on Instagram consisted of a Carousel post that viewers had to scroll through to reach the deal on the final image - great for creating suspense and engagement!
Source: @hulu
8. Focus on dynamic retargeting ads
It doesn't matter if you're tight on budget or ready to invest thousands - Cyber Monday is the day to focus on dynamic retargeting ads.
Kickstarting your Black Friday marketing earlier this year means your ads will have more time to reach their full potential and target audience before the competitors start promoting their offers. But Cyber Monday is the same for everybody - it lasts just one day. And yes, you can transform it into a weekend sale, but with all the holidays before it, it's not likely your new ad campaign will have time to achieve anything meaningful.
This is why your Cyber Monday promotion should focus on retargeting people who have added items to their cart but haven't purchased them or those who have at least visited your online shop. It is the perfect time to give them that extra push and close the gap between "added to cart" and "purchased".
10 Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) social media post ideas
Creating compelling social media content is crucial for making the most of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Here are some post ideas to help you capture your audience's attention and drive sales:
1. Countdown Posts
Build anticipation with daily or hourly countdowns leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Use eye-catching visuals and engaging captions to remind your followers of the upcoming deals.
2. Sneak Peek Previews
Give your audience a sneak peek of the discounts and promotions you’ll offer. This could be in the form of short videos, carousel posts, or Instagram Stories, teasing what’s to come and creating excitement.
3. Flash Sales Announcements
Post about limited-time flash sales exclusive to your social media followers. Use urgent language and countdown timers in your posts to encourage immediate action.
4. User-Generated Content
Encourage your customers to share their purchases or experiences with your products using a specific hashtag. Repost their content to build social proof and community engagement.
5. Behind-the-Scenes Content
Show behind-the-scenes preparations for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Whether it’s a glimpse into your warehouse or your team getting ready for the big day, this humanizes your brand and builds anticipation.
6. Live Unboxing Events
Host a live unboxing event on platforms like Instagram or Facebook, where you reveal and discuss your top deals. This can create a sense of excitement and immediacy among your audience.
7. Influencer Partnerships
Collaborate with influencers to promote your Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. Influencers can create authentic content that resonates with their followers, amplifying your reach and boosting credibility.
8. Polls and Surveys
Engage your audience with polls or surveys asking them what deals they’re most excited about. This not only boosts engagement but also provides insights into what your customers value the most.
9. Holiday Gift Guides
Create and share a holiday gift guide featuring your products. This can help your audience find the perfect gifts and highlight your best offerings in a visually appealing way.
10. Post-Purchase Thank You
After Black Friday and Cyber Monday, post a thank you message to show appreciation for your customers. Include a call-to-action encouraging them to stay tuned for future deals or share their purchases.
How can Sendible help you manage the Black Friday campaign on social media?
Sendible can help you save hours on planning BFCM social media campaign, scheduling posts, managing and tracking them, and analysing performance to prove ROI.
You can use a plethora of features to better organise, produce, and manage your campaign:
- Campaigns: You no longer have to manually manage your social media marketing campaigns across all your channels. This helpful feature allows you to organise your social media posts into cohesive campaigns, ensuring that your messaging is consistent across every platform. Additionally, you can delve into detailed campaign-level analytics to gain insights that will elevate your strategy to the next level.
- Team Collaboration: Use our collaboration tools to easily approve posts before scheduling, monitor and respond to incoming direct messages and comments, and delegate messages such as sales opportunities and support issues to improve campaign performance.
- Bulk Import: Seamlessly upload and schedule Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaign weeks or months in advance with our bulk scheduler, ensuring efficiency and productivity. This feature also allows you to ask for approvals for your social media posts in bulk.
- Content Library: With a massive volume of assets that should be posted to multiple platforms in multiple locations, content management can easily become chaotic during the BFCM days. Enter the Content Library feature. This feature allows you to line up content for future purposes, craft and save content whenever inspiration strikes, index your content with tags for better organisation, store campaign hashtags for easy access, bulk import content to the library, and oh so much more.
- AI Assist: Sendible's AI tool acts as your virtual sidekick. In seconds, it generates content ideas and captions for each social media channel and optimises your existing content. This way you won't need to worry about creativity blocks when you already have too much on your marketing mind.
- Custom Tags: Sendible can help you customise content in bulk in just a few seconds by adding prefilled, brand-specific specs like URL, phone number, text, hashtags, and more, unique to your audience or location-specific brands. This handy feature will help you ensure everything is on-brand during this hectic period.
- Reports Hub: Our social media management tool has advanced reporting tools you'll love. You can create custom, branded reports with numerous modules, automate reports to eliminate the need for manually sending them out or missing deadlines, or even get a snapshot of how your social media channels are doing without having to dive into the reporting of each social platform with our One Click report.
There are many more features that can help you get the most out of 2024 Black Friday on social media. And the best news is that you're just in time to try them all for free, for 14 days! Get started today and watch how your ROI improves and stress declines.
