For many small businesses, the holiday season is the busiest time of the year. And with days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, small businesses need to be ready to promote their products effectively in order to reach their customers and drive sales. We’ve put together a list of 15 creative marketing strategies, social media tips and more to help your small business boost sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2020. 

1. Host a VIP sale

Reward your loyal customers and drive repeat purchases by hosting an exclusive VIP sale or secret discount code exclusively for your VIP customers. Send out an email about the VIP deal to your past customers before Black Friday & Cyber Monday to give them a heads up.

2. Hold a countdown

Build excitement and make sure your customers are aware of any and all upcoming sales and discounts you’ll be offering for both Black Friday and Cyber Monday by posting a daily countdown on social media starting now! Using the Countdown Sticker for Instagram Stories will help build anticipation:

3. Release a limited-edition product

Part of the appeal of Black Friday and Cyber Monday to customers is the excitement of knowing they got a great deal. Release a limited-edition product that they can only get on Black Friday and Cyber Monday to boost sales for your small business and create a sense of urgency for your customers to act quickly to get the deal.

4. Write a blog article about best sellers

A great way to promote your products is by writing a round-up article about some of your best-selling products or services. Share a little more about why customers love it and be sure to include product photos and videos. Don’t forget to include lots (and we mean lots!) of links for easy shopping! You can then use the blog post for social media content, paid ads, an email newsletter and more.

5. Host a giveaway before Black Friday weekend

Giveaways are a great way to increase your followers and boost organic engagement on your social media channels. In order to build your social media following up before your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, host a giveaway so you’ll have an even bigger audience to promote your deals to. For insights on how to host a successful Instagram giveaway, check out our guide here.

Here’s a Boosted template you can customize for your brand’s Black Friday giveaway:

6. Host a flash sale

Host a flash sale by offering a discount code to your followers on social media and your email list. But make the discount code only available for a few hours to encourage your customers to act quickly in order to get the deal before it’s gone!

7. Donate to a charity

This time of the year is all about being thankful for what you have and giving back if you can. Partner with a charity and donate a portion of your sales for a specific product or date to that charity. Customers will be extra happy to buy your products, knowing they will also be helping support a good cause.

8. Add video content to product pages:

Driving more sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday isn’t just about marketing tactics and sales strategies. Did you know you can also increase sales conversions by optimizing your small business’ product pages? Social Media Today reported that 74% of consumers who watched an explainer video about a product subsequently bought it.

9. Offer free shipping

If you are able to offer free shipping, 2020 is the year to do it. Customers will need to do most of their holiday shopping online this year and free shipping is a great incentive to purchase more. If you can’t offer free shipping for every order, try offering free shipping once a customer hits a certain threshold – such as $100 in their cart.

10. Provide gifting options

With many people buying their holiday gifts online this year, gifting options will be extra important in 2020. For customers who are shipping gifts directly to their loved ones, they will appreciate options like gift messaging and gift wrapping to make the gifting experience personalized, even from a distance.

11. Create a squeeze page

A squeeze page is marketing jargon for a mini pop-up website to quickly capture emails. Before customers can access the sales you are promoting, drive them to a squeeze page to collect their emails in order to view a web page.

12. Boost video ads on Facebook

For small businesses with small paid advertising budgets, you will want to make sure you’re promoting high-quality content that will give you the best return for your ad dollars spent. With 88% of marketers stating video marketing resulted in positive ROI, you should definitely pay to boost video ads on Facebook and Instagram. Check out How to Create Your First Holiday Instagram Ad in 7 Simple Steps for more insights.

Luckily, with Boosted you don’t need to pay to create professional marketing videos. Check out the app for pre-made templates just for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, like this one:

13. Have a Cyber Monday sale on Tuesday

We aren’t suggesting to not host any sales on Cyber Monday – but have you ever wanted to buy something but got too busy or forgot to buy it while it was on sale? Customers are inundated with sales and discounts on Cyber Monday. Extend your Cyber Monday sale throughout the week to allow customers to take advantage of the Cyber Monday deals fora bit longer.

14. Create a gift-giving guide

With the holidays coming up, finding gifts for friends and family is on a lot of customer’s minds while they are shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Make it easy for your customers to find gifts and support your small business by creating a gift-giving guide featuring all of your products or services.

15. Partner up with another small business

Make it easy for customers to shop small businesses by partnering up with another small business and offering a bundled product that pairs well. This will make it easier for customers to support two small businesses at once and allows your small business to build awareness with a whole new audience. 

There are so many ways to make your business stand out during the busiest (and most festive) time of year. And the good news is you can do it without breaking your budget. So, happy holidays, and even happier Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales!