21 Proven Black Friday Ideas to Succeed This Shopping Season

To make the most out of this shopping season, your Black Friday planning should begin as soon as possible. There are many things to be taken care of – from your marketing, content, email, and sales strategy, to logistics, preparing your ecommerce website for traffic, and many other tasks.

What lies at the core of your Black Friday success, though, is driving as many sales as possible to your website. We’ve got you covered on this most important part with 20+ Black Friday ideas that will boost your sales.

21 Creative Black Friday marketing ideas for your business

If you’re still asking yourself, “but how do I attract customers on Black Friday?” Worry no more: let’s dive into those 21 proven techniques for drawing more clients to your website.

1. Sneak peeks

One of the most powerful Black Friday promotion ideas is providing a sneak peek of the products and services that will be included in your Black Friday sale. Create a collection of your top products and services and explain how they will benefit your customers.

Sneak peeks help spark interest and build excitement among your followers. That’s why it’s important to make sure that you advertise your sneak peek well in advance and through appropriate channels.

For example, you can reach out to your audience once your Black Friday teaser is ready, and once again when the sale is live on your website. What’s more, use various channels to communicate the sneak peek, such as email campaigns, social media platforms, website pop-ups, PPC ads.

2. Early-bird sales

Early-bird sales are also among the must-have Black Friday marketing ideas. Consider offering this type of sale ahead of Black Friday to your loyal customers. These are people who already know your brand, they’ve purchased your products and services, and are more likely to engage with your offer. The sense of exclusivity will also inspire them to take action.

You can also make the sale exclusive to just email subscribers by sending them targeted early-bird sale email campaigns. Tailor your content in a way that emphasizes the fact that you’re giving them early access to your deals. Use phrases like “exclusively for you,” “before everyone else,” or “early access” to make them feel they have access to unique Black Friday deals.

To make the offer sound even more exclusive, you can evoke a sense of urgency with words like “limited availability,” “limited-time offer,” or “don’t miss out.”

Having an early-bird sale will help you not only make customers feel valued and appreciated, but also increase sales before Black Friday actually begins. At the end of the day, you’ll increase both your brand recognition and your margins.

3. Bundle deals

Bundled deals have proven to be some of the most successful Black Friday campaign ideas. For Black Friday, you can bundle products or services (that are usually purchased together) and offer a special bundle price. This price should be lower than if these products or services were purchased separately.

You can go even further and curate different levels of bundle deals with different prices, depending on the products or services that are included. For example, a basic set of facial care products will be less expensive than more advanced care products.

With bundled deals, your customers will appreciate that they’re getting more value from your deal, and you will benefit from an increased average order value.

4. Gift cards

Another Black Friday advertising idea includes offering gift cards, which are a great Black Friday idea for the upcoming Christmas season as well. There are two main ways to incorporate gift cards into your marketing strategy. 

First, you can offer them upon purchase. When a customer buys something specific or above a certain value, they get a gift card for their future purchase. This way, you ensure the customer will return to make another purchase. What’s more, they often end up spending more than the actual value of the gift card, which further increases your revenue.

The second strategy involves selling Black Friday gift cards at a discounted rate. If the card’s value was initially $100, you can offer it at a reduced price for just $80. Your customers will be incentivized to make a purchase, as they’ll be getting a great deal.

5. New product(s) launch

Launching a new product is one of the most profitable Black Friday ideas for ecommerce businesses. This will set your brand apart from all general discounts and sales. 

If you announce a new product, you’ll not only stand out among the competition, but you’ll also increase your sales. Your customers will feel a sense of exclusivity and uniqueness when they see a brand-new. You may even wish to make it a limited-time product to add an extra sense of urgency.

To unveil your new product, you can publish a dedicated Black Friday post on your social media channels. You can even build up your followers’ curiosity by posting a teaser or countdown timer ahead of Black Friday. Or you can add the product a few days before Black Friday in order to increase your sales.

Keep in mind that consumers are always on the lookout for something new and exclusive, so Black Friday can be the perfect timing to provide them with your newest product.

6. Gift guides

Creating a gift guide is one of the best Black Friday marketing ideas, as well as one of the most practical and useful ones for your customers. It is a curated collection of products or services that suit different groups or events. This is yet another chance to showcase your products and make them appeal to your audience.

Assemble a list with appropriate gifts, depending on different target groups, such as the type of gift recipient (e.g. teens, women, babies, etc.), or the occasion (e.g. Christmas, birthday, wedding anniversary, etc.). 

Research who your target audiences are shopping for, and then provide them with a relevant gift guide. They will be keen to take advantage of it because a gift guide will save them time, effort and stress when choosing the perfect item for their loved ones.

Your gift guide can take many forms. For example, it can be a downloadable asset on some of your web pages, an email newsletter well ahead of Black Friday, or even a blog post.

7. Partner with influencers

If you want to make it into Black Friday headlines, you may want to consider partnering with an influencer as part of your Black Friday marketing and PR strategy.

Your first move should be to research and select the right influencers for your brand. Start by making sure their audience aligns with your own target group. Next, it’s important that their own personal branding and communication style corresponds with your own brand. Last but not least, consider their audience size.

Once you identify the right influencer(s), you have to approach them. You can even give them some guidelines on the promotional campaign that you imagine. Another thing to consider is giving a discount code exclusively for their followers so that they feel even more special. Keep in mind that many influencers will want to be paid.

Remember to let them be creative. They will come up with some unique Black Friday ads, videos, reels, etc, that they know will resonate with their audience and that will elevate your brand. They may even create a Black Friday interactive post for your customers to engage with on their social media platform of choice (usually TikTok or Instagram).

8. Giveaways

Giveaways won’t necessarily boost Black Friday sales. But what they will surely do is strengthen your brand awareness. 

To leverage this, you need to make the giveaway appealing for your followers to participate in. It should have very precise rules for participation in order to avoid complaints from unhappy customers. Not only should the rules be clear, but they should also be easy to follow, so that more people are motivated to take part.

For example, you can get inspiration from some of these ideas: “tag 2 friends and follow us”, “use the hashtag to repost,” “follow us and leave a comment which prize you want to win,” etc. You can include your rules on the image, too.

Last but not least, offer tempting prizes. You can have three prizes, where the first one is the biggest. Or you can have one big prize and many (e.g., around 10) smaller prizes. Make sure that you brand all the prizes to raise brand awareness.

9. Flash sales

Flash sales, also known as daily or hourly deals, are among popular Black Friday sale ideas for small businesses. 

They bring many benefits because they keep your customers excited and expecting more sales every hour or day. Flash sales also encourage your customers to come back to your website in order to check the next deal. These sales also allow you to sell different categories of products from your inventory. 

An important aspect to keep in mind is to incorporate your flash sales into your Black Friday social media campaigns. Timely posts, alerts, and reminders on social media can work miracles in terms of web traffic and sales conversions.

If you have an international audience, flash sales can be particularly beneficial because they allow you to target different parts of the world with different time zones.

10. Partner with a charity organization

Partner with a non-profit organization whose cause aligns with your and/or your brand’s values and resonates with your target audience. This might not sound like one of the common Black Friday theme ideas, yet it can be beneficial both for your business and your community.

For every purchase made on Black Friday, donate a small percentage to the cause. Inform your audience about the organization you’re supporting across all your communication channels. You can also share stories, videos, or information related to the cause. These can appeal to your audience and make a big difference when it comes to their buying decisions.

11. Gamification

If you’re looking for outside-the-box promotion ideas, you can gamify your offer. Gamification can increase your audience’s engagement and boost your website’s traffic. Give your followers a chance to win discounts, prizes, or coupons.

You can incorporate a pop-up game on your website, such as a virtual spin wheel. To do that, use an external application or hire a web developer to code it on your website.

Gamifying your Black Friday sale will not only create fun for your audience, but also provide them with a positive experience with your brand.

12. Social media challenges

Other proven Black Friday ad examples include leveraging the power of social media challenges.

Encourage your followers to participate in a challenge on your social media channels and incentivize them with a gift or discount code. Ask them to create a wishlist with your products, share a Black Friday (carousel) post you’ve created, or post a photo or video of them using your product(s).

You can even think of some fun promo code ideas to include in your social media posts to grab the attention of your audience. Incorporate them into your image or buttons, etc.

13. Countdown timers

Incorporating a countdown timer on your website or main sales webpage is also among the most popular Black Friday banner ideas. Countdown timers create a sense of urgency among your website visitors. This sense of limited-time availability will entice shoppers that are still doubting whether to make a purchase or not.

You can set the countdown timer to reflect how much time is left until your sale starts or ends. In the first case, your sale will remain top of mind for your customers, and in the second case, it will encourage them to buy as quickly as possible.

To incorporate a countdown timer, you can leverage a third-party tool to generate the timer on your website, or hire a developer to insert the necessary code on your site.

14. Referral rewards

Take advantage of referral discounts on Black Friday to get more customers, and even use it as an opportunity to (re)start an ongoing referral program.

Provide loyal customers with discount codes, extra sales, redeemable points, or other incentives that entice them to share your brand with other potential customers. This way, you will strengthen your brand, drive more sales, and increase your customer base.

At the end of the day, word of mouth is one of the most powerful and effective ways to attract new customers.

15. Upsell and cross-sell promotions

With upsells, encourage customers to buy a more premium product or service than they had planned to purchase initially. For example, encourage them to buy your premium subscription plan by showing them the benefits – even if they originally only planned to purchase your basic plan.

Cross-selling, on the other hand, involves encouraging customers to buy another item or service that is complementary to what they have already purchased. For example, recommend a related product, such as a scarf matching a hat that they’ve bought.

Some good Black Friday ideas for upselling and cross-selling are to provide free or discounted upgrades for upselling purposes, and a special bundle deal for cross-selling ones.

16. Exclusive email deals

Exclusive email deals are among the Black Friday ideas that will drive more sales to your website. Make the most out of your email list, because your email subscribers are the ones that are already interested in your brand.

Send them exclusive deals in an email blast well ahead of Black Friday. In this dedicated email campaign, you can include special discounts or early access to limited edition products or services that will only be available to the rest of your audience later on. You can also give them access to limited-edition products.

In this way, you will show your appreciation for your customers’ loyalty and strengthen your brand recognition even further.

17. Virtual shopping events

One of the most creative Black Friday campaigns is hosting virtual shopping events. These events can bring the in-person shopping experience to an online environment.  In doing this, you can showcase your products, hold a Q&A session, and offer attendees special discounts.

You can also stream your online shopping event via social media platform (e.g. Instagram, Facebook, etc.), where more people can gain insights about your products.

To take this idea to the next level, you can even use augmented reality (AR) for the online event. With the help of AR, customers can visualize how different products will look in their natural environment (e.g. trying on outfits, or placing furniture in their home) by using their digital devices.

18. Conditional discounts

Conditional discounts can include anything from “buy 1, get 1 free,” free shipping when you purchase a product above a certain price value, “[X]% off on orders above $[Y],” among other offers.

The conditional discounts can include products or services from different categories in order to encourage people to buy more items. In this way, you also allow them to create their own “special deal” that suits their needs, and therefore increase the chances of them buying more products or services.

Make sure to spread the word about your special discounts. You can communicate the conditional discounts to your customers via all your channels – website sales page, email campaigns, social media platforms, or even create a traditional Black Friday flier with a catchy design.

19. Checkout coupons

Once your potential customers end up on your checkout page, you certainly don’t want them abandoning their shopping cart. With that in mind, we have another Black Friday idea that minimizes this risk.

Provide your potential customers with a special (or even surprising) checkout discount to stimulate that final click and close the purchase. You can even decide to have that checkout discount appear only if the orders are above a certain value or contain particular products from your inventory.

On another note, you can offer customers a discount code that’s visible at checkout, and which they can redeem with their next order. In this way, you increase your chances of returning customers, and drive even more sales.

20. Free shipping

Shipping cost is another reason why you might end up having many abandoned shopping carts. As a result,  offering free shipping on Black Friday could be another intriguing way to incentivize visitors to eventually make a purchase.

That said, offering free shipping on every purchase can be financially overwhelming for your business. Therefore, you can choose to only include free shipping under certain conditions, such as only making it applicable on orders above a specific price.

This will be a win-win for your business – you’ll avoid abandoned shopping carts and boost your margins at the same time.

21. Free gift(s) with purchases

Attract more customers by giving them free gifts with every purchase.

To avoid a situation where free gifts hurt overall profit margins, offer small gifts whose overall value is around $2. Alternatively, provide a gift for purchases that are above a certain order value.

Make sure to provide good visibility for this special offer by including a banner on your home page, promoting it on social media, and/or spreading the word about the freebie via email.

Got even more Black Friday ideas? Way to go!

Black Friday can be your most successful season in terms of sales, yet it’s definitely the most competitive time of the year. That’s why creative Black Friday ideas play a vital role in your marketing strategy.

With all these aces in your sleeve, you’ll be able to drive more sales to your website and create buzz around your brand this shopping season.

What are some Black Friday marketing ideas that we haven’t yet thought about, but you have already successfully incorporated? Share in the comments below.