Introduction

It’s that time of year again that has every online store and retailer shaking in their boots. That’s right, Black Friday & Cyber Monday are upon us in the next few days, and if you’re in the final throws of preparation, don’t fear, you’re not alone!

Here’s our checklist of things you need to be prepared for on Black Friday, and how you can setup your WooCommerce store for the crazy weekend ahead.

 

This tutorial uses the The Coupon Email System plugin to enhance the capabilities of WooCommerce.

Get the Coupon Email System plugin by YITH

The Solution

Setup Your Coupons

Luckily WooCommerce makes it a breeze to setup coupons for your store. We suggest that you make special coupons for the most popular products over the weekend which have an expiry date, instead of just discounting your products manually, that way you have more control over how your users spend their money.

You can also setup a coupon email system, which let you send coupons in post-sale emails, upsells and linked discounts. In fact WooCommerce has listed some incredible ways that you can use coupons to double sales.

The Coupon Email System by WooCommerce

Prepare Your Support Channels

Here’s the secret to the Black Friday weekend: support is everything.

You need to make sure that your support email addresses are setup to notify you loud and clear when someone has a question. It’s likely that your inbox will be ringing off the hook, so to speak.

Each contact is almost a guaranteed sale over this period, so make sure you’re on top of it.

  • Have pre-written answers to common questions.
  • Make sure that your email address won’t bounce.
  • If you have a support team, tell them to give extra attention to potential customers this weekend.
  • Get additional help if you need, if you don’t have spare cash to get support team, get family and friends to help out.

It could be worth even setting up a free Live Chat box right in your store to engage your customers.

Make Sure Your Checkout Flow Works 100%

You know what’s more important than marketing? Not losing sales in the checkout process!

  • Make sure you have the correct Payment Gateway installed and configured.
  • If you’re doing up-sells and rewards make sure that they’re super clear to your customers with the Points & Rewards plugin.
  • In your thank you page, get your customers to share your deals with their friends.

It’s not uncommon for customers to be really excited about Black Friday, so make the most of their enthusiasm in the checkout process.

Prepare Your Marketing Material

Now that all your systems are ready you need to make sure your marketing is up to scratch. The best way to get your customers attention is with a carefully designed newsletter and landing page.

Your landing page should be entirely focused on the deal and leading them directly to purchase without any distractions. Make sure all your other marketing tools are disabled, such as pop ups and email sign ups, so that the potential customer is focused on the offer at hand.

Display as many photos of your products as possible and emphasise the deal and the saving the whole way down the page. If your customer has to enter a coupon code then try to automate this process by filling it in automatically during the checkout phase.

Landing Page Checklist:

  1. Remove all other distractions
  2. Focus entirely on the deal
  3. Less words and more photos
  4. Speak directly to the visitor, not the collective
  5. Emphasise the saving as often as possible

When writing the newsletter make sure it highlights the most important points about your offering and only include one call to action, such as “Buy this deal now”.

Be careful not to over complicate the text by emphasising too many points of the deal. Rather focus on two key points, the biggest element of the saving (for example: ‘Save 50%’ or ‘Save $1200’).

Newsletter Checklist:

  1. Address your user/customer directly
  2. Keep it short and sweet
  3. Emphasise only two elements of your deal
  4. Include one giant call to action

Once your newsletter and landing page are ready you need to make sure that your social media strategy is also well thought out. The best thing to do is to schedule at least two or three posts in a single day, spread across different timezones, so that you are sure your potential customers don’t miss out on the promotion.

Make the Most of Your Traffic

It’s likely that traffic to your site could double or even triple if you’ve promoted your store correctly, so you’ll want to make the most of the traffic while you have it.

Good Luck

Finally, you’ll need luck on your side, so here’s us saying good luck and we hope you have a great festive season.