Developing a Winning Black Friday and Cyber Monday Strategy

There’s much to consider while building your upcoming Black Friday/Cyber Monday campaign. Allow us to help point you in the right direction.

As we approach one of the busiest shopping seasons of the year, crafting a well-thought-out Black Friday and Cyber Monday strategy is crucial for maximizing your sales potential. These shopping holidays not only present an opportunity to boost revenue but also to enhance your brand's visibility in a competitive market.

Why Run a Black Friday and Cyber Monday Campaign

Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales offer an unparalleled chance to engage customers and increase sales. During this period, consumers are actively looking for deals and discounts, making it the perfect time to capture their attention. A well-executed campaign can lead to significant revenue growth, increased customer loyalty, and improved brand awareness. In addition to these, participating in Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns can help you stand out among competitors.

When to Start if You’ve Never Run One Before

Short answer, early September.

Long answer: While this sounds early, depending on your resources it may take some time to outline, create, revise, approve, and roll out the assets needed to promote your campaign. It is also highly dependent on how much promoting you want to do. If you’re only focusing on email marketing, you could probably get away with starting in mid-October. But if you are looking for a robust, well-rounded strategy to reach the far ends of the earth, we could be talking about August! If this is your first Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaign, the earlier you start, the better. Begin by setting clear objectives for what you want to achieve. We are aiming for proactive planning, not reactive defense.

Review Last Year's Performance

For those who have run campaigns before, take the time to review your post-campaign reports. Analyze what worked and what didn’t. This will allow you to repurpose last year’s successful elements while optimizing for better performance in areas where you might not have seen the turnout you’d hoped for or omit that part of the campaign completely.

Now let’s talk about how to set it up

Consider Online Travel Agency Campaigns

While this might not be ideal for some hotels, Online Travel Agencies, or OTAs, are a great resource this time of year for those who are still working on developing a strong book-direct strategy — like newly established hotels or hotels that are still trying to find the right channel mix. Partnering with OTAs can provide additional exposure and attract a wider audience that may not have known your hotel existed. If you’re truly stuck on whether participating in OTA Black Friday/Cyber Monday campaigns are right for your hotel, try to find out if your competitors are hopping on the bandwagon. If they are, you’ll want to join as their campaign would be featured before your hotel shows up organically. To help you in this decision process check out our post, Cyber Sales: Yay or Nay. It’s about the benefits of participating, what some of our clients’ dilemmas are, and more tips to help weigh what’s right for your hotel.

Outline Your Channels

Website

SEO Optimization: Update your meta titles and descriptions to align with your sale messaging.
Content Creation: Develop a blog post or a dedicated landing page to highlight the upcoming sale and its perks.
Homepage Takeover: Consider a temporary redesign of your homepage to feature the Black Friday/ Cyber Monday sale prominently.
Third-party Sites: Update your profiles such as Trip Advisor and Yelp. You can add promotions or simply update your hotel sections to mention the sale.

Social Media

Utilize platforms like Instagram and Facebook, and explore TikTok if it aligns with your audience. Create engaging posts and stories that drive excitement around your offering.

Email Marketing

Plan a series of email blasts and to take it a step further, you can segment your list to target VIPs for a special first look or exclusive value-add just for them. Consider at least 3 different emails to go out:

Launch Email: Announce the beginning of your campaign. Be sure to include all the details like book dates, stay dates, amenities included, when the sale ends and any T&Cs.
Resend to Non-openers: Give another chance to those who missed your initial email but be sure to update your Subject Line and try a different date and time to get those opens.
Last Chance Reminder: Create urgency as the campaign nears its end. We all procrastinate or get distracted. Send a friendly reminder and be sure to exclude anyone who’s already booked to avoid cancellations or messaging fatigue.

Paid Media

Talk it out with your digital agency. Chances are your budget for the month was planned, signed, and delivered 10 months ago but there could be an opportunity to pull unspent budget from previous months. If not, make a note to add a little extra this time of year for the following year so you can stay competitive in the marketplace. Some areas you can add your sale details are:

Site Links: Direct users to relevant pages easily from your pay-per-click ad.
Promotions: This will not only help with your ad’s real estate on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) but also highlight key offers that will entice customers to click and learn more.

Partnerships

Think about who you can team up with for more outreach. Partnerships are a great way to spread the word about your Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaign. Seeing if they can help promote through their channels and/or provide a value-add for VIPs like tickets to a special showing or a discount on goods or services can help firm up your relationship and community.

Travel Influencers and Bloggers: If they’ve stayed at your hotel and loved it, reach out to see what opportunities you have to leverage their audiences for greater reach. A special blog post or social post can go a long way.
Local Shops: Create value for VIPs and loyal customers by partnering with local businesses for a more experiential offering.

Map Out Your Timeline

We’ve all done the backward math to figure out when is the best time to leave the house to be at “x” by a certain time, right? Same thing applies when building out your timeline. Start from your campaign run dates (in the below example: November 21 - December 3) and work backward to establish a clear timeline for content creation and approvals:

Schedule Drafts: Complete drafts by November 18

Content and Images Due: Have these finalized by November 11

Creative Briefs: Submit by October 21

Create Marketing Strategy: Finalize by October 7

Submit Rate Loading Form: Submit by September 30

Last Year’s Performance/Strategy: Analyze by September 16

It’s helpful to remember that agencies generally need a week's turnaround time for creative development. Review and revisions could take a week to two. Build in some extra time to give yourself some leeway as it’s a busy time of year for all parties involved.

After the Sale

Once the campaign concludes, it’s important to update your meta titles, meta descriptions, and hotel profiles back to their original state. During your strategy planning mode, create a spreadsheet of all the channels and areas you plan to update so you can make sure everything is reverted. Collaborate with your revenue team to review the overall production and gather insights. Conduct a small brainstorming session to note successes and areas for improvement, setting the stage for next year’s strategy.

By following this comprehensive approach, you can create a Black Friday/Cyber Monday campaign that not only drives sales but also enhances customer engagement and brand loyalty. At Premiere Advisory Group, we support our client's business goals by offering thoughtful solutions including distribution optimization, revenue management, and digital marketing. Consider us an extension of your team with over 100 years of combined service and a love for hospitality. To learn more about how we can be of service, contact us here or check out our blog for more tips and thought-starters.

Interested in related content? If you liked this post, we suggest:
Cyber Sales: YAY or NAY?
Hotel Budget Season Do's & Don'ts From The Experts
RFP Season – Setting yourself up for a successful 2025