Black Friday Marketing Tips To Drive Sales On Instagram

IT’S HERE. It’s that time of year again – holiday season! If you’re a business owner or even a shopper for that matter, you know that nothing kicks off the buying season more than a good old-fashioned Black Friday Sale. In fact, between the time period of Black Friday to Christmas, businesses will experience 30% of all annual retail sales. 

That being said, are you ready to rock this sale season?? Kick it into high gear with the help of this guide, and get up-to-date on all the Black Friday Marketing tips for Instagram. They’ll be sure to maximize your sales throughout the holidays!

Unless you’ve been living on another planet, you’ve probably come to realize the importance of Instagram for gaining exposure and driving sales, especially as a business owner. This is the one tool that is going to help your business reach it’s fullest potential. That is, if it’s marketed correctly.

Whether you’re a buyer or a seller, Instagram is where all the purchasing magic is going to happen. Buyers are going to turn to Instagram to see how the brands they love are participating in the Black Friday madness. And sellers will use the platform to market their campaigns to as many people as possible. 

In order to keep up with market trends, it is so important to have a solid social media marketing strategy on Instagram or else you’ll be easily beat out by your competitors.

Additionally, it’s important to note that many people have shied away from physically walking into absolute chaos throughout the wee hours of the morning to indulge in a more convenient way of shopping – online. 

By shopping online, people are able to take advantage of all that’s happening from the comfort of their own homes. Which is why you’re going to want to begin promoting your sales not only while the sale is happening but also pre and post sale. 

Here’s how to being: 

Choose Your Promotion.

You’re going to need to be extremely creative here in order to keep up with your competition. See what other brands within your niche have offered in past years to get an idea of what you should be doing for your Black Friday/Small Business Saturday- Cyber Monday/Tuesday sales. 

Your promotion must be motivating enough to get users to want to buy your products and feel like they’re really striking a good bargain. In today’s day and age, it’s going to have to be one step above free shipping or else people are simply going to go elsewhere to find what they’re looking for. Stand out from the rest!

Plan Your Content.

Once you’ve chosen your promotion type, make sure you start creating some excitement leading up to your sale. Announcing your sales in advance allows users to know what to expect and when to expect it. Get people to mark their calendars so they’re ready to go directly to your site on the day of the event. 

Begin posting 2-3 days before (aka today!!) to have the largest amount of reach across the platform. In simpler terms, the more you post across a longer amount of time, the more people will potentially see your campaign. 

If you tend to post only once a day, take it up a notch and post 2 or even 3 times throughout the day so that you really maximize your potential and reach as many followers as possible.

Your content should be somewhat repetitive so that users have been exposed to the details of your sale and those details remain engrained in their minds.  

Additionally, this is the time to use your best content! And by best content we mean content your users respond to most. If palm trees and sea views get the most interactions from your users, then you know what to do! 

Have A Clear Call-To-Action In Your Caption! 

Play around with some different call-to-actions within your captions during the days leading up to Black Friday. This will allow you to have a better understanding of what your followers respond to most.

Essentially, you want the most interactions within this timespan to ensure you’ve reached as many people as possible with your posts. 

Use call-to-action buttons to encourage viewers to carry out a specific action when viewing your ad. Instagram has made this very easy to implement into your posts by adding buttons like “Learn More” or “Sign Up” and “Shop Now.” Essentially, you want to be a part of the consumer’s journey and help them every step of the way.

Instagram has also launched an in-app shopping feature where retailers are able to tag products within their images for viewers to click and purchase directly. This allows viewers to see a product in use through visual content, where they can clearly see what is for sale on the ad. Plus, this eliminates the consumer having to go on a wild goose chase throughout your website to find what it is they’re looking for.

A creative way to implement this feature is to create a gift guide using the Instagram shoppable feature. This is a way to tie informative content together so that your Instagram becomes a one stop shop for popular items. Viewers can easily tap on the photo to see the price and all details on a product they love.

Think of this as a digital catalogue, except much more convenient. If the viewer is interested in purchasing a product they see, the link on the image will take them directly to your website’s purchasing portal. This feature saves a lot of time on the consumer end of things and is a sure way to maximize sales.

Use Great Content Across All Features.

Utilize features such as Instagram Stories to get as much content out as possible. You’ll want to use the ‘hit them from all angles’ approach to really get the word out. In addition, Instagram Stories is a great way to invite your followers to engage with a brand. Most people reach out to brands via Instagram Stories to ask questions or comment on their thoughts about a product. 

Make sure to post high-quality vertical content when posting to Instagram or Instagram Stories. If you need help figuring out how to create compelling Instagram Stories, check out our  “How To Create The Most Engaging Instagram Stories Of All Time” guide.

Work With Influencers.

This is a great way to market via word of mouth and gain automatic trust. Once an influencer posts a photo with your product, their followers will then see they’re backing up your brand.

Even if you feel as though you’re late to the game for influencer help this Black Friday, don’t freight! Use this tactic to market other upcoming holiday sale campaigns. Just be sure to begin reaching out to influencers as soon as possible. Then you can get something going for Cyber Monday or even other holiday sales that will be happening later next month. 

Additionally, you can create Instagram specific promo codes for both your own Instagram followers and for influencers you choose to work with. This will allow you to gage how successful your marketing campaign has been via Instagram, while also giving people an incentive to follow you in order to see new deals and sales. 

Use Appropriate Hashtags.

Taken directly from the source itself, according to Facebook business, 

“Top hashtags for Black Friday on Facebook and Instagram over Thanksgiving shopping weekend1 included: #BlackFriday, #CyberMonday, #SmallBusinessSaturday, #ShopSmall and #ShopLocal”

Include these hashtags within your captions or stories to get your content seen by more people. When shoppers are on the hunt for Black Friday sales, they’ll inevitably search the hashtag #BlackFriday to see what’s happening across the platform. 

Shorten Your Links.

Use tools like the free URL shortener Bitly to make sense of long, confusing links. Once you’ve created a shortened link for your sale, add it to your Instagram bio. This improves user-experience and is another way to minimize any confusion or inability to find your sale. Pair this with a call-to-action to grab the attention of new viewers and increase profile visits!

With more than 500 million active monthly users on Instagram, you’ll definitely want a piece of the pie. The business pie that is. Make sure you’re on top of your game throughout the holiday season, regardless of how chaotic it may be. You’ll want to be as responsive as possible as you receive questions or comments pertaining to your brand or sale campaign. 

Use apps like Iconosquare to respond to the large influx of comments you’ll be receiving on posts, or Later to schedule your content in advance. Both apps will help free up time and make monotonous tasks seem like less of a burden. 

While it may require a lot of time and effort to stay on top of everything, don’t forget to have fun with it. Incorporating some fun into the mix will help get those creative juices flowing and roll out some amazing marketing campaigns!

Happy Selling/Shopping! 

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