Creating compelling Black Friday offers for a profit boost

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio

 Black Friday is just around the corner. Today, we’re going to be talking about how you can create some compelling Black Friday offers that not only add sales, but profits to the bottom line. Let’s go.

 Let’s start off by chatting about exactly what black Friday is. Now Black Friday traditionally starts on the Friday and continues through until Cyber Monday, which again, in the year 2024 is December the 2nd. But you might already see offers popping up before that day.

What is the history of Black Friday? Well, it’s believed that the name comes from the idea that this is the first day retail businesses go from being in the red, which means running at a loss to being in the black, i. e. running at a profit. Now I know from my background in retail that the end of the year is by far the biggest sales period of the year. Although I’m hoping that the tradition of Black Friday, which is that businesses run at a loss most of the year, is not indicative of what is going on in today’s day and age.

The reason why Black Friday is so successful is really understanding the psychology behind it. Shoppers can be driven by a sense of emotions around Black Friday. They might be feeling a sense of excitement and anticipation. ie the thrill of the hunt, looking for the best deals. They may experience FOMO or fear of missing out, so they really want to have that sense of, of being able to get something before stock sells out. Or some people love the pleasure of saving money, satisfaction of getting a great deal.

Something I want to highlight here, different people and different audiences respond differently at different times. My husband, for example, he loves a bargain. He seriously cannot buy anything unless he’s getting some sort of a discount on it. Whereas for me, I care a lot less about the price. If I want something, I want it. Yes, I will be more inclined to buy something if it is a huge discount, and I find for me, that’s how I tend to impulse buy. So for example, if there was a beautiful, I don’t know, shirt or hat that I wanted, I would buy it whether it was on sale or not. But an impulse buy to me is something that I’m like, I wasn’t even really looking for it, but if I see something at a really amazing price, I might say, Hey, I may as well grab it.

So you can see how different people might buy at different times for different reasons. And it’s important to really think about your audience and what kind of consumers they are. There might be some things that they’re willing to lean in and grab because it’s a bargain. Or you might find that your audience is a bit more discerning with how they spend money. Maybe there are people that don’t like to spend money at all. I don’t know. You need to really think about your audience.

Now, I know that traditionally my audience hasn’t responded really well to Black Friday. I’ve tried it a few times over the years. And the reason I believe that is, is because my brand, my audience is, is a premium offering. You know, I sell high ticket coaching, I sell high ticket services. So I think that the kind of people that I’ve attracted into my world, again, in the past, I’ve not really been looking for a discount necessarily, but I am aware that times have changed. The economy’s changed. The number of people out there offering products and services has changed.

So this Black Friday, I’m going to be trying something a little bit different this year. And the reason why I think this will really resonate is because in the current economic climate, I believe that people are really going to be swayed to make a decision based on having a huge discount. And the second thing that I know that I haven’t done particularly well in the past, when I’ve been selling my black Friday offers is that I’ve just positioned it like, Hey, here’s the deal, which has usually been something along the line of buy something, get something free. I don’t love discounting as a, a go to offer. However, this year I am going to do it. I’m going to go big on the discounting and just see if it resonates. And what I’m going to do behind that is share more of the message behind the thing that I’m selling. Rather than just saying, here’s a discount, I’m going to be explaining to people exactly why they want to invest in this service offering and what the transformation looks like inside.

This then leads me to how you can craft irresistible offers for your audience. Now, first of all, you need to think about what the strategy you are going to employ is. Are you going to offer a percentage discount? Like I said, I’m going to play around with this, this time. If you don’t like the idea of discounting, you could say, buy this, get this thing for free, or buy this thing, get the next thing discounted. You could have limited time offers. You could have tiered discounts, like buy one at full price, you know, get the second one 25 percent off, get the third one, 50 percent off. There’s so many different ways that you can structure your deals. Another idea that I’ve seen companies do in the past is have a loss leader offer, which is essentially where you are selling a product with no intention of making a profit, you might even actually be selling one particular product at a loss with the idea that you are bringing people into your world, either to sell to them on an ongoing basis and have a relationship, or because you are going to have an upsell or a trip wire. So it might be, here’s the hero offer that is, Oh my gosh, that is just so cheap, I can’t say no to it. And then there’s another offer that’s stacked on top and you say, Hey, you know, buy this thing and then sell them into a new product. And that’s where you’re anticipating that you might make the the profit margin. You have to play around with your offers. At this time of year I think, why not have some fun, throw some ideas out there, really think about your audience, What their problem is right now. What is the thing that you offer that solves it? And how can you message it in a way that’s going to be really compelling to them, that they feel like they just have to hand their credit card over.

Remember, times have changed. The markets have changed and something that didn’t work for you years ago, it might work now. I want you to remember that there is no perfect rule book of what works for every business, every industry, and every kind of client.

Now I want to go on and talk a little bit more about how to make sure that you’re crafting your offers in a profitable way. But before I do go on, I just want to tell you a little bit about my black Friday offers that are coming. These are the biggest offers I have ever released. And for the first time ever, these are including my one on one coaching. So if you have ever wanted to work with me as your coach, Now is the time, well, during the Black Friday window is the time. If you want to find out what these offers are, and trust me, they are huge, please ensure you’re on my email list and that you are following me closely on social so you don’t miss out. I will put a link in the show notes. You can download one of my freebies to make sure that you are on my email list and you hear about these huge offers when they pop up. They are only available for a few days, so please keep your eyes peeled for my offers. All right, back into your Black Friday offers.

So how do you craft your offers in a profitable way? One of the things that you need to consider when you are crafting what the offer looks like is the investment or the expenses that you will incur in delivering this product or service. For example, are you going to pay for online ads? Is it something that you need to physically deliver to your clients? Do you, are you running it in through a retail store? Are you going to have staff packaging costs? What are the other costs that may be associated with the distribution? Of this product or service. And also in the marketing of it. If you have an online business, your costs might be low. For example, if you were selling a digital product that you’ve already got. But if you are going and creating something brand new, there’s obviously gonna be costs associated with that. Both your time, your energy, but even things like, you know, designing the, the freebie or the course or whatever it might be. And one more thing, don’t forget to add in customer service. When you are sharing an offer with the world, even if it’s a digital product, you might have your team that is spending time to answer customer queries to be delivering, you know, sending things out. So make sure that you are capturing all of the associated costs. Then when you are forecasting or projecting your revenue, you are working out what is the actual profit I am making. It doesn’t matter what your sales are. If you are spending just as much in the marketing and delivery of the thing that you were creating, you’re going to come away with no profit. So you really want to be intentionally thinking about what exactly is this costing me? What are the incremental costs? You know, if I sell a hundred of these, how much is it going to cost? And how much profit am I anticipating to make? Obviously the best way to do this is to try and keep your costs as lean as possible. And then that way, if you don’t hit the projected sales target, at least you aren’t running this at a huge loss.

One of the biggest things that I just say is be mindful about the way that you are delivering it and be intentional. Actually map out your forecast. If you are running paid ads through this period of time, remember that there is a lot of competition in the market at this time and you will likely find that your ad costs are Really, really elevated over what they might normally be. So again, you need to build this in to your forecasting.

The next thing I want to chat about now that you’ve figured out what your offer is or your office, and you’ve thought about how you can ensure that you do it in a profitable way. I want you to have to think about how you’re going to market your offer. As I mentioned earlier, are you going to run paid ads? Are you going to add a banner to your website? Are you going to promote this on social media? Are you going to do email marketing and how are you going to bundle this up and message it in a compelling way? As I said, in hindsight, I look at years gone by and I was so focused on the, Hey, buy this thing, get this thing free that I wasn’t really talking about the transformation that would happen to people through the investment. So that’s a little messaging tweak that I’m making this year. Again, with your product service offering, whatever it might be, how is this helping your client with a problem that they have right now? And when you’ve got your messaging and your marketing clear, what are the channels? And can you start preparing all of this creative now so that it’s not a mad, crazy rush in those last couple of days?

I know that I tend to work with a lot of creatives, a lot of digital marketing agencies, designers, et cetera. And they are always sharing that this time of year is manic because everyone at the last minute wants a Black Friday offer. So try and get ahead of the eight ball, plan things out in advance, and it will be less stressful at the last minute.

Something else to bear in mind with your Black Friday offers, this is not a period of time where you are like sales at all costs, just get the money in the door. You really want to ensure that people come and have an amazing experience with your business, your brand, your product, your offer, ensure that your customer service doesn’t slip during this period of time, because a surefire way to build a more profitable business is to create lifelong customers who has a positive experience with you, who buy from you again and again.

The last thing to remember with your Black Friday offers, after it’s all done and dusted, hopefully the dollars are stacking up in the bank account, step back and analyze the performance To understand what’s going on. This is something we do really well in my business. We look at our metrics. We have regular metric meetings and we sit back, have a look at the key measures. What were your email open rates? What were your sales like? What was your website traffic, your conversion rates? Really make sure you are looking at what the data is telling you so that you can take valuable lessons and learnings away. And make sure that whatever those learnings are, that you capture it somewhere and refer back to it next time around, next year around, or next time you’re wanting to run any sort of promotion. What worked? What didn’t work? I know that this is something really helpful when I am, like, for example, relaunching a course or a retreat or whatever it might be, we go and look at our reflection on the year before, because as much as you think, I won’t forget this, believe it or not over time you do. So make sure that you capture those learnings and you can refer back to this data in months or years to come.

Hopefully today’s episode of the podcast has got you inspired Excited about how you can create some profitable black Friday offers. And don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for my own black Friday offers because I have never done anything like this before, but in the spirit of Black Friday trying something new. I’ve got some really cool, exciting offers that are going to be around for just a few days. So make sure you’re on my email list so that you don’t miss out.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today’s episode of the poddy. If you have a biz friend. Who you think would love to listen to this episode, make sure you forward it to them and or share on your social media, because we want to spread the word and help more people to be building profitable businesses.

Thanks so much for tuning into this week’s episode of the Clare Wood podcast. And I will chat to you again next week.

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio