10 Creative Black Friday Marketing Strategies for 2023

People anticipate Black Friday because it allows them to land great deals and take advantage of discounted offers from their favorite brands. As a business owner or ecommerce company, you’ll naturally want to tap into the Black Friday buzz and attract a significant customer base willing to spend money for great value on Black Friday. Developing a strategic Black Friday marketing plan helps you spread the good news about all the awesome things your brand offers to the right audience. You can build marketing ideas for Black Friday in 2023 using any of the ten marketing strategies discussed below.

What Is Black Friday?

Black Friday is the Friday after the American Thanksgiving holiday. It marks the beginning of holiday shopping as customers are eager to take advantage of discounts and promotional offers to purchase products they love. On Black Fridays, physical and online stores brim with enthusiastic buyers looking for good deals at reasonable prices. Hence, brands and businesses begin putting out their best deals as Black Friday approaches to benefit from the holiday shopping enthusiasm. What’s more? Black Friday sales seem to climb yearly, as seen by the chart below.

Source: Adobe, 2021.

10 Creative Black Friday Marketing Strategies

A good Black Friday Marketing strategy will increase your sales from new and repeat customers. Your brand is unique, so you’ll need to craft a marketing plan that will work best for your audience, but these ideas can give you a starting point. Explore these Black Friday promotion ideas to boost your sales this year:

1. Give Your Product a Special Look with AI: VirtuLook

You can increase the efficiency of your Black Friday marketing strategy with AI. Attractive studio-quality images on your website and social media pages may be a prospective customer's first contact with your products, so make a good impression. VirtuLook AI helps you generate beautiful images of your products. You can use its product or try-on generation and product photo generation features to create beautiful images, designs, and scenery that'll hook your customer's attention and make them want to know more about your products and offers.

Below is a picture example generated by VirtuLook.

2. Exclusive Deals

There should be no Black Friday and marketing without exclusive deals. What do your customers gain by shopping with you on Black Friday? Create exclusive deals that last for a specific period to trigger urgency. For instance, you can offer a 15% discount to your loyal or new customers for a week or a few days. Customers may be more interested in a time-sensitive deal and seek to take action, especially when they’re the benefactors of an exclusive deal. Business owners can use this Black Friday marketing strategy to attract new and old customers.

3. Social Media Marketing

Many buyers spend time on social media, so it's no surprise that businesses use social media platforms to market their products. Prepare social media content to build Black Friday sales anticipation. Inform your audience of special deals and offers. You can also organize polls and surveys to get their input and boost engagement. From your social media page, they can easily reach your website or product page and make a purchase.

4. Offer Gift with a Purchase

Everyone loves to receive gifts or freebies. You can make a purchase more appealing by offering a gift alongside. Depending on your industry or niche, ensure that the gift is relevant and will encourage the customer to purchase your products. For instance, you can offer a free comb or hair pins as gifts if you sell hair products. Offering a thoughtful gift as part of your Black Friday marketing strategy may encourage customers to patronize you.

5. Optimize Website

Organic search and traffic is an evergreen source of sales. As Black Friday approaches, the search results for the term will increase. You can enhance your site's visibility by including relevant keywords in your website. These keywords may consist of phrases like Black Friday or Black Friday deals.

Do some research to know what's hot on the search bar this period. Include catchy words in your website using these keywords to rank better in search results and attract customers. Ensure your website or online store is optimized for online and mobile users. Consider factors like website loading speed, return policy, customer experience, and satisfaction.

6. Offer Valuable Holiday Guide/Tips

Black Friday marks the beginning of holiday shopping, so customers are starting their preparations for the holidays. You can offer advice or tips on preparing for the holidays using your products. Convince customers that your product will help them achieve their holiday look, food, adventure, or family goals, depending on your niche. If you sell clothing, you can make content showing styles customers can rock during the holiday season. This can trigger desire and take them further on their buyer's journey.

7. Email Marketing Campaign

If you have an email list, prepare a Black Friday marketing email campaign. Inform your subscribers of all the sweet deals you have this Black Friday. Building anticipation a few weeks beforehand may help your customer prepare for Black Friday sales. Use copy or text that triggers excitement and makes the reader enthusiastic about shopping with you on Black Friday.

8. Referral Codes

Referral codes are part of our Black Friday marketing ideas because you can benefit from having a loyal customer base by implementing the model. Encourage your email list subscribers and regular buyers to introduce new customers to your brand with the referral codes you provide. To make this method more effective, offer incentives and discounts to customers who bring in new customers using their referral codes. This method allows you to reach a larger audience and reward your loyal customers for their support.

9. Collaborate with Influencers

Your Black Friday marketing tactics can also involve collaborating with influencers in your niche. As a brand, you can reach out to an influencer with significant followership and engagement on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. You can make a mutually beneficial deal depending on your terms. Influencers can use their platform to advertise your products and make content using them to inspire curiosity and desire in their viewers.

10. Follow Up New Customers

If your Black Friday Marketing is effective, you’ll witness a surge in first-time buyers. However, you aim to ensure that most of these customers become loyal to your brand. A study confirms customer life value is lowest on holidays like Black Fridays. To maximize your chances of getting repeat buyers after the Black Friday craze, send personalized thank-you emails or request customer feedback about their experience.

Bonus: How to Use VirtuLook

You need fresh designs to advertise your products and offerings this Black Friday. VirtuLook can help you do that with the following steps:

Step 1: Visit the VirtuLook website and click on "Get Started" to begin.

Step 2: Select “Try-on generation” and proceed to upload an image.

Step 3: Choose the outfit or parts of the image you wish to keep. And click "OK" to move to the Fitting Room

Step 4: Select the skin tone, age, and gender of the image you’re generating on the left side of your screen. Then, choose the number of images you wish to generate and the background from the options on the right tab.

Step 5: Click "Generate Now" to produce your image. Below is a before and after comparison pictures showing the wonder performed by VirtuLook

Conclusion

Black Friday is worth all the type. If you haven’t hit your sales target for the year, you can go all in with your Black Friday marketing strategy and drive customers to your brand. You can use these ten marketing ideas for Black Friday to craft your unique strategy and get the desired results this year. Remember, VirtuLook will help you generate stunning product images for marketing content. Put your best foot forward this year by employing the best and latest Black Friday marketing strategies to boost your sales.