Crafting a Feel-Good Black Friday Cyber Monday Offer KDS: 112

Creating A Black Friday Cyber Monday Offer can be exciting, intimidating, and a little cringe-inducing.It all depends on how you approach it. I’ve been on both sides of the coin and somewhere in between when it comes to creating a Black Friday Cyber Monday Offer. As someone who spent way too many years working in retail management, I had a pretty negative feeling about Black Friday for many reasons, mainly because I usually worked that weekend. I would have rather been enjoying time with family or kicking off my own holiday season. Once I was out of retail, though, I promised myself I’d never go into a store that weekend… and for the most part, I haven’t. I may have gone once or twice with my Mom and sister, but that was more about doing something with them as opposed to shopping. For the sake of all of our sanity, I’m going to stay away from the argument that addresses the ‘for or against’ Black Friday Cyber Monday. It is what it is, I don’t see it going anywhere, and there’s no point getting worked up about it. What we’ll focus on is how to create a Black Friday Cyber Monday offer that aligns with who you are, how your support your audience, and what you can create that feels good for everyone.Rise Above the Noise: Subscribe to the SPARKShould you Create a Black Friday Cyber Monday Offer?This question might seem a little contrary to the topic of this episode (because obviously, I think you should), but there are a handful of things you should consider before deciding whether you should create a Black Friday Cyber Monday Offer. First question: Do you want to? Before you call me Captain Obvious, what’s really important about this question is getting clear on your “why” behind the answer. Many people say they don’t want to because they’re “anti” the whole concept. I’m sure you can come up with many reasons why you or someone else might be “anti” running offers over this weekend. Fair enough. Just make sure you’re being completely honest with yourself. Putting together the right offer for the right reasons and for the right people takes work. You also need to go into it with the right expectations. If you’ve never run one of these offers or created any type of similar marketing campaign, there’s going to be a learning curve, but more on that in a minute. Second question: Do you have an email list? Unless you sell on social media ONLY (and have data that supports how well your social audience responds to offers), you have to have an email list. I don’t care if it’s 500 or 5000. Every single business needs an email list. This is the one source of traffic you control. And yes, if you don’t have one, it’s not too late to build one so you can send an offer over the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend. Last question: Are you willing to do the work? I might sound a little like a stern parent here, but if you’re not willing to put the time and energy into this, then don’t bother. Can you half-ass it and make some sales? Sure, but with enough lead time and effort, why not go all in and do it correctly? There are no guarantees of how it will go, but keep in mind that regardless of how well your offer does, you’re most likely going to make some sales and will gather massive data. And more than likely, you’ll end up with an offer you can use later with another campaign (different season, sale, special, etc.).<a...