16 Things To Check Before Launching Your Black Friday Promotion

Is anyone ever 100% ready for Black Friday slash Cyber Monday? Seems unlikely.

This year, started planning their BFCM promotion 1-3 months earlier. But the stakes are just as high. And there’s always more you can do before the projected .

Luckily, everyone from “the DTC guy” Nik Sharma to the folks behind The Hustle shared their BFCM tips and tricks.

So, we’ve compiled their best advice (and added a few nuggets of our own) into 1 last-minute checklist. Here’s everything you need to do for BFCM peace of mind:

Pre-promotion

Confirm you have the inventory available to support whatever promotion you鈥檙e running. While this might sound like retail 101, we can鈥檛 think of anything more frustrating (or embarrassing) than ending your BFCM early because you stocked out. Don’t have enough inventory? Try offering a smaller discount (like 20% off instead of 30%) to decrease demand and increase your margins.
Set all your live with Google Shopping. This way, when someone searches for your product, they鈥檒l see your BFCM deal attached to it in the search results.
Ensure your ad creatives match the landing pages you鈥檙e sending traffic to. This lets folks know they鈥檝e come to the right page and decreases the likelihood they鈥檒l bounce.
Test everything (before and throughout the promotion). This includes buttons, coupon codes, Shopify scripts, and email automation. Why? Because things break. And if you don鈥檛 find those issues, your customers will 鈥� and it could cost you a lot more than a lost sale.
Double-check where you鈥檙e sending folks. Meaning, click every link you send in your emails, SMSs, and ads to confirm they take you to the right spot. (Hot tip: If you sell via Shopify, you can send folks to automatically apply the offer and streamline the checkout experience.)
Check your emails on different devices and browsers. To do this, simply send yourself a test email, then check that email in multiple browsers on multiple devices (you鈥檒l notice different mistakes on, say, mobile Safari than on desktop Chrome). Every time you update the email, send yourself another test (or someone else for a fresh set of eyes) until nothing looks funky.
Ensure your website is linked in your social bios (you can even temporarily change your bio to include your deal or discount codes). While seemingly small, this is an easy way to get customers 1 step closer to checking out.
Confirm that all your pixels are live, firing, and collecting data on all your pages. You can do this with the (a Chrome extension by Meta) by simply clicking a button and confirming it鈥檚 collecting the correct data. (Don鈥檛 forget to check landing pages that might be hosted by another CMS too.)
Remind influencers what you agreed to (if you鈥檙e working with any, that is). Meaning, send them an email confirming when to start posting, how many posts to make, what discount code to use, any creative requirements (like messaging), and so on.
Have contingency plans in place, like selling on backorder or offering digital gift cards via if your bestsellers stock out.

Mid-promotion

Double-check that all your sales follow-up flows are set up properly 鈥� and that they have complementing information going out to your customers. For instance, your typical flow might feature the price you normally sell your bestsellers at. In this case, pause that flow, duplicate it, and update the copy to reflect your BFCM promotion (this’ll prevent confusion).
Disable any discounting in your cart abandonment campaigns. Think about it: If you鈥檙e already offering a deep discount, you don鈥檛 want customers combining that with another offer, further shrinking your margins.
Tag anyone who shops with your brand during the promotion as 鈥淏FCM2022.鈥� This way, you鈥檒l have better data on what worked from a contribution margin and lifetime value standpoint. Plus, if anything goes wrong (like you experience shipping delays), you can easily communicate those updates to everyone with this tag.
Update your email pop-up copy to highlight the promotion you鈥檙e pushing. For instance, 鈥淕et 30% off today鈥� is much more compelling than 鈥淪ign up for deals.鈥� Then, tag these new contacts so you can track how they perform over time.
Push your BFCM offers every day on all your organic social channels. (Remember: Most brands will simply post a daily graphic with their promotion. So, bonus points for getting more creative with these daily creatives 鈥� like by leveraging video, which tends to be more engaging.)