Fall us almost upon us yet again, which can only mean one thing – both Black Friday and Cyber Monday are right around the corner. For both brick-and-mortar stores AND online retailers, these are two of the most critical days of the year – which is why it’s important to start planning your retail marketing campaigns sooner rather than later. If you truly want to take full advantage of these essential events, there are a few key things you’ll want to keep in mind.

Seasonal Marketing Starts BEFORE Black Friday and Cyber Monday Arrive

By far, the most important thing to understand is that your Black Friday and Cyber Monday retail marketing campaigns need to begin well in advance of those days arriving on the calendar. From that perspective, the situation isn’t too dissimilar from any other seasonal marketing campaign you might be running. Your offers and other promotions can be a surprise – but your campaign itself cannot be. You simply can’t afford it.

You should start sending out your direct mail collateral well in advance, to get people excited for the big days and to raise awareness for certain types of promotions and other events you might be running. But the twist is, you can leverage direct mail marketing to begin a relationship with your prospects offline and push them onto the Internet for more information if you play your cards right.

For example, with responsive plastic postcards you could include QR codes and/or online offer codes to get someone’s attention via direct mail and then gently nudge them onto the Internet to find out even more information about what you have in store for them. Once there, they can redeem offer codes and other promotions to help take their savings even further.

Likewise, you could essentially “tease” the types of deals that you’ll have on sale to build even more excitement. Don’t necessarily give the game away – provide people with just enough information so that they know WHY they should be paying attention and WHERE they should be focused on, thus getting them to the point where they won’t be able to stay away during Black Friday, Cyber Monday and beyond.

If you’d like to find out more information about Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing for retailers, or if you have any additional questions you’d like to discuss with someone in a bit more detail, please don’t delay – contact us today.