+In the face of the major retailers starting their Black Friday planning on 1st December, i.e. 11 months before, the more time retailers can allow to plan and implement activity, the better. We’ve seen early planning is a consistent feature of high performing retailers.
+Key is to be fully ready to push the button – particularly if the trend for Black Friday week continues as we think it will – so you can respond quickly to competitor activity.
+Alongside online activity, ensure the logistical side marries up, such as accounting for additional demand for key promoted stock.
+If you haven’t yet started planning for Black Friday 2018, schedule some time aside and start today.
Here’s your optimum Black Friday 2018 countdown timeline:
Immediately – ensure your site is mobile-optimised; optimise your Black Friday offers page for SEO – ensure you implement a targeted SEO campaign to allow time to gain traction; ensure your BF comms strategy is nailed, taking into account last year’s learnings
18 weeks – make sure you are capturing new data for retargeting and CRM activity
16 weeks – ensure your comms calendar is fully mapped out – allow for category activity (e.g. 20% off this category) and discounts on product combinations
15 weeks – liaise with affiliates and ensure they understand your activity plans
14 weeks – speak with your hosting provider to make sure the site will stand up to a spike in traffic
12 weeks – start optimisation of your PPC campaigns
10 weeks – build all of your digital communications including emails and online ads
5 weeks – Plan Facebook retargeting and prospecting.
2 weeks – monitor for competitor activity – particularly Amazon – be ready to react quickly and push the button on your campaign
1 week – push Black Friday activity live and start trading
Black Friday – the final push
1 week after Black Friday – now’s the time to plan the run into Christmas. There are just fours weekends to go, so there’s a lot of trading to do over this period. Ensure you have a clear and enticing plan for this
4 weeks after Black Friday – start the 2018 evaluation process – it’s important to capture learnings and implement into 2019 activity
Infinity Nation is a retail growth consultancy based in Royal Wootton Bassett, specialising in creating innovative strategies for ecommerce clients to boost online growth, visibility and revenue. Al Keck, the founder and MD of Infinity Nation, started his ecommerce journey working for a large outdoor clothing company before his entrepreneurial spirit took hold, leading him to create Infinity Nation in 2005. Now a team of eighteen, Infinity Nation has a wide range of sector expertise to advise and deliver effective online growth strategies for clients, covering areas such as SEO, PPC, email marketing and content marketing.
