7 Creative Black Friday Marketing Strategies for Brands

If you’re a fan of the Olympics, you know just how exciting it can be when the starting pistol points to the sky. The air is heavy with anticipation among track stars on the starting line — all their training and preparation now simmered down to one moment of truth.

While preparing successful Black Friday marketing strategies is, perhaps, less rigorous than training for an Olympic event, there are some parallels.

In 2023, the day’s sales reached a record high of $9.8 billion in the U.S. and $70.9 billion globally, a growth of 7.5% compared to the previous year, per TechCrunch. Olympic-level stakes like this demand early planning and precision to ensure your brand performs at the top of its game — or risk waiting another few years before taking another shot at the gold.

7 Creative Black Friday Marketing Strategies

Below, we’ll explore seven creative Black Friday marketing strategies to help your brand prepare for the Big Event — ensuring you can maximally leverage the massive potential of this iconic sales holiday.

1. Create Short-Form Video Content

These days, almost everybody is familiar with short-form video platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

However, not every brand takes full advantage of this space — a lost opportunity, especially for companies targeting younger customers. One recent HubSpot survey found that 56% of U.S. consumers said they bought something based on an ad they saw on TikTok, with 36% reporting a willingness to do so in the future.

Start creating easily digestible videos highlighting your brand’s main selling points — exclusive deals, lifestyle footage, new products, etc. — and grow your audience on these channels as soon as possible. The more subscribers you can get to trust your channels before Black Friday, the more impact you’ll have when the big day comes. 

2. Collaborate With Influencers

While on the topic of TikTok: Has your brand considered partnering with social media influencers to drive awareness, engagement, and sales?

Most may think of influencers as A-list, household-name celebrities, but marketers in this space are increasingly gravitating toward a different niche: the nano- and micro-influencers. These subtypes — with 1,000 to 10,000 followers and 10,000 to 100,000 followers, respectively — are appealing for their lower cost and perceived higher levels of engagement with specific targeted audiences, per Influencer Marketing Hub.

If you’ve previously questioned the cost or efficacy of influencer marketing, it may be worth revisiting for the upcoming holiday season.

3. Use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automation Competitively

AI is a buzzword these days. But as the tech becomes increasingly popular, businesses must determine the best way to employ these tools to maintain their competitive edge in the marketplace.

This is particularly true on a day like Black Friday when brands are typically confronted with more shoppers — and more kinds of shoppers — than on any other day of the year.

Using AI optimization as part of your Black Friday marketing strategies can:

• Help automate processes like personalization;
• Unearth and act on deep data insights; and
• Create relevant and resonating experiences for your customers.

Other tools, like automated chatbots, can take some of the strain off of your human customer service teams while guiding customers along the sales funnel, providing personalized interactions that respond to their needs and interests.

These technologies save time and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing efforts — ensuring that no customer query goes unanswered during the busiest shopping day of the year.

4. Experiment With Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)

While initial excitement about VR and AR technologies has cooled in recent years, the increased adoption of this tech — combined with its slowly lowering cost — has prompted some marketers to reconsider its usefulness, per HubSpot.

By offering immersive shopping experiences, these technologies help customers visualize products in their own space or interact with them in a virtual setting — increasing engagement and confidence in their purchase decisions.

As shoppers grow accustomed to interactive and enriched shopping environments, integrating VR and AR can significantly boost your brand’s appeal and distinguish it from competitors, making your Black Friday promotions stand out.

5. Flex Social Media Channels

Is there a lot of “noise” on social media? You bet. And these battlegrounds for attention will only get more intense during the build-up to Black Friday.

As such, consider launching interactive contests and exclusive Black Friday giveaways that encourage customer participation and shareability. This approach can increase your brand’s visibility and foster a sense of community and excitement around your promotions — increasing engagement that will continue to benefit your brand after the holiday. 

6. Audit Your Product Detail Pages (PDPs)

Just as a traditional retailer would ensure their shop windows were in tip-top shape for the holiday season, your product detail pages (PDPs) should act as the storefront for your products featured on the digital shelf.

Every element of your PDPs should be optimized to zoom customers along the path to purchase. High-quality images, clear and concise product descriptions, and easy navigation are essential in addressing customer concerns and standing out as trustworthy among competitors.

Also, customer reviews, ratings, and other forms of social proof should be prominent and easily searched by your shoppers. Respond to negative reviews and create an FAQ for your most common questions.

Finally, ensure that your PDPs contain relevant keywords and adhere to other search engine optimization (SEO) best practices to ensure your products stand out in search results. 

7. Maintain Post-Black Friday Engagement

It would be a mistake to engage in all of this preparation only to let the momentum cool off after the Black Friday peak.

Take your gains earned from the shopping holiday and leverage them into long-term customer engagement — strategies like thank you emails, discounts for repeat business, requests for feedback, and more all build trust and are shown to delight customers.

Remember: Every touch point is an opportunity to reinforce your brand’s commitment to customer satisfaction and lay the groundwork for future sales. Black Friday is no exception.

Black Friday Marketing Strategies: It’s Go Time

Luckily, unlike the Olympics, all kinds of winners can take home the gold this Black Friday.

Take the opportunity to not only maximize day-of purchases but as a springboard for long-term customer engagement and brand growth — you won’t go home disappointed.