Because no, you don’t have to have an elaborate marketing campaign planned out 6 months in advance to still rock your Black Friday goals… or Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday for that matter either. Swipe these super quick Black Friday ideas for your online business that I’ve used both myself and with clients to crush that November goal.

While myself, and any other marketing aficionado, would tell you to create awareness about your sale early on with things like: super relevant content, email marketing strategies, and all the social media things to grow your audience before the big promo day to maximize profit potential… that doesn’t mean that you can’t still have a successful Black Friday sale or that you should ditch the whole sale altogether. 

Because real talk: Most of what you’re already going to do leading up to Black Friday week can easily be transitioned into prepping for Black Friday sale anyways!

Start transitioning your content leading up to your Black Friday campaign–

Like if you were going to be posting to social media anyways, just post about your Black Friday sale instead– who cares that you didn’t start announcing it a few weeks ago!? Don’t let the marketing “rules” and best practices keep you from spreading the word or monetizing your goods– that’s just what the enemy wants!

And same with your weekly newsletter or blog post or podcast episode… If you were gonna drop content anyways, just make it about a topic relevant to your offering or product and let them know to keep an eye out for your upcoming Black Friday announcement.

… or just put up an announcement graphic at the end of your blog post or slap a “Ps. If you’ve been eyeing my  (product/service) make sure you keep your eyes open for a major sale announcement coming your way in the next X days!” at the end of your email. 🤗

Don’t give in to the lies of there’s a “right” way or it’s “too late” now…swipe these 6 super quick and easy Black Friday ideas to promote your small business:

1. Swap your traditional weekly newsletter for a straight-sales announcement.

Ditch the lengthy devo or newsletter and opt for a straight-forward sales announcement that week instead.

Create a brief email that lets them know about the sale coming in advance and make a pretty graphic easily with something free like Canva.

2. Offer a free gift with purchase.

Whether it’s a freebie download, free shipping, or some other sort of value-add– this is especially helpful to stay in the Black Friday competition if you don’t want to discount your products or services.

For example, if you’re a coach like me, when you take discovery/consult calls offer an incentive like any of the above mentioned instead of slashing your service prices. It can be something like a bonus coaching session or a free website audit in lieu of offering discounted rates.

3. Bundle errything

Offer a bundle for your digital or physical products. By bundling your goods, you can still offer a discount but charge a higher amount for the bundle and make more money per customer by offering more value at a higher price point than a smaller, one-off discounted purchase.

Boom, you’re a pro.

4. Offer a doorbuster

Swipe the traditional brick and mortar “doorbuster” strategy by offering the first purchasers a special value add for purchasing first. The great news is since you own an online business, you don’t have to worry about getting trampled all over!

You can tell your email list in advance that you’re offering a doorbuster and what time the “doors” open so they can mark their calendar…

Or ask your social media followers to turn on post notifications and tell them the first one who responds gets a special code sent by DM…

Ex: “Make sure you turn on your post notifications for my awesome Black Friday sale this week! The entire site is 20% off but the first one who comments gets an additional 20% off their purchase!”

Example 2: “Turn on those post notifications because this Friday the first person to respond to my post will get a FREE _______” 

By getting them to turn on post notifications, you not only help with your Black Friday Sale, but you also help ensure your content gets seen when you post in the future. #winning

5. Run an early bird sale

This is perfect if you don’t feel like worrying about all the Black Friday sale responsibilities during actual black Friday and have plans that don’t allow for you to be tied to your computer during that time frame-.

By hosting an “early bird” sale you can run your sale before Black Friday to get ahead of the competition, and if you’re using a smart email service provider, you can even segment those who are interested OR purchase your offering with a special email to follow up with them for something like Cyber Monday or Small Business Saturday.

6. Upsell your current customer database

Don’t want to deal with any Black Friday sales or promo work? Cool, you still have a chance to capitalize on your November goals by privately messaging your existing customer base with a special offering instead.

Maybe you’re a photographer and you want to offer a free disc with all photos instead of X amount….

Or maybe you’re a shop owner and you want to email your list to tell them about your exclusive offer that’s only available to existing customers…

This type of strategy will eliminate all the social media tasks if you’re not feeling up for it.

7. Host a sitewide Black Friday sale.

I know this one sounds so obvious, but hear me out. Some of you guys are getting discouraged and overwhelmed by all the 9 zillion discount codes for all your 9 zillion offerings and are wanting to ditch Black Friday all together….but GIRL, YOU DON’T HAVE TO!

IF you still wanna stay in the Black Friday sale game, offer a sitewide sale instead or free shipping so you can avoid all the headaches of separate sales.

And hey all 7 of these Black Friday ideas are also good for Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday— so guess what? If you miss Black Friday– who cares!? Just run a Small Biz Saturday or Cyber Monday deal instead,

Just whatever you do, just promise me you won’t NOT show up because you think marketing a Black Friday sale or campaign has to be so dang hard, K?? K 😉

Keep it bold.

PS. Are you a she is bold member yet? It’s 100% free and when you sign up you can get access to all our weekly trainings and private facebook community of like-minded women. #yourwelcome