Black Friday is just around the corner—and it always sneaks up faster than we think. It’s consistently the biggest shopping day of the year, with online sales jumping over 7.5% year-over-year in 2023 alone, according to Adobe.
For small businesses, that means a major opportunity to boost revenue, attract new customers, and finish the year strong.
Have you been prepping your site for the big day? The five days between Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and Cyber Monday are the year’s busiest holiday shopping days, and as an online biz with website-only access, you need to be extra prepared!
Don’t worry; we have some last-minute Black Friday prep tips to check off your list before the clock hits midnight on the big day!
PIN THIS POST FOR LATER!
1 | Double check your website’s preparedness
Your website is the first and only line of action for prospective Black Friday shoppers, so it needs to be ready. Some things you can do to make sure you’re website is up for the challenge are to:
- Stress-test your website: You’ll check site speed, links, checkout process, and anything that can affect your customer experience during the sale. You should also optimize for mobile by making buttons tap-friendly, making CTAs stand out, minimizing pop-ups, and checking mobile versions of animations, videos, etc.
- Check your promo material: The promotional elements of your site and social media should be at their absolute best. Make sure you have well-designed and user-friendly banners, pop-ups, product placements, and checkout/cart locations.
For more information on Black Friday, check out How to Prep Your Small Business Website for Black Friday!
2 | Review your sales goals
By this point you’ve set your prospective sales goals for Black Friday weekend. (Or, if you haven’t, now is a great time to do so!) These goals will be your top priority, as they will help position you for what else you need to do to prepare your biz.
Since the sale is now right around the corner you may want to tweak those goals, or even might have ideas for new, better goals based on your recent inventory, marketing, and payroll numbers.
Remember, effective sales goals are specific, measurable, and achievable!
3 | Reach out to your audience ahead of time
Drafting and sending an email, newsletter, or notification signup before your sale begins could go a long way in the days leading up to Black Friday. Use this opportunity to entice your ideal customer and target audience with exclusive Black Friday sale sneak peeks, or coupon codes that are only available to certain audiences (another exclusivity perk!).
Remember, this is a holiday week for most people, and in between family time and waiting for flights a lot of people will be searching their emails and planning out what deals they want to take advantage of before the day of. This is your chance to grab that attention and capitalize on their planning as you continue yours!
Related post: How We Prepare for Black Friday
4 | Prepare your team for the big day
As stressful a time this is to be the owner of a business, it’s also significantly stressful to be your team, too! Take some time to prepare your customer service team about how to manage live chat, emails, social media, etc. during these sale days — and figure out ahead of time who will be online when.
Some people may take the holiday weekend off, so you’ll want to make sure you know you have coverage for your inbox, tech, and so on.
5 | Plan for anything
Mistakes happen; let’s not skirt around it. Make sure that you know how to fix broken links, checkout errors, and even site crashes. It’s not fun to think about these things, but if you’re prepared, you’ll feel so much better when you have an influx of buyers.
It never hurts to be prepared!
Related post: 10 Important Website Elements for a Black Friday Sale
Final Thoughts
Remember, when you’re feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and like there’s way too much to think about before launching your Black Friday sale, tell yourself: it’s only once a year! Obviously, Black Friday is a lot of work, but the results can be really rewarding when you put the right amount of prep into it. The best part? With these steps, you are much more likely to have a smooth sale — and that leads to more money in your pocket and happier buyers.
If you want help feeling confident about your promotions and you want to avoid creating it all from scratch, check out the resources inside our Momentum Biz Vault!
In this marketing guide, we’re sharing all the best tips on how you can prepare for your Black Friday sale. As a Momentum Biz Vault member, you’ll also get access to customizable social templates to create and promote your upcoming Black Friday deals!
No more winging it on the biggest sales day of the year. Skip the stress (and the scrambling) with solid tips and social media templates that can take your strategy to the next level.