Sales! Bargains! Specials! The end of November heralds a shopping frenzy called Black Friday, when customers rush out for new deals and amazing discounts. For SMEs this presents growth opportunities like increased sales, and customer acquisition. However, there are some drawbacks like increased costs for marketing and staffing plus the risk of losing profit from giving discounts worthy of competing with large retailers. So, how can SMEs benefit from Black Friday?
A strategic SME approach to Black Friday
For most businesses, Black Friday (which takes place on the last Friday in November) is focused around generating sales to drive revenue – so most companies are competing to offer the biggest deals. Most customers are looking any and everywhere for the best bargains, so while you have their eyes, it’s a good time for SMEs to play the long game and rather prioritise increasing brand visibility and acquiring new customers over offering the biggest discounts.
This is also an ideal time for SMEs to take advantage of specials on business solutions that could improve their productivity, simplify their processes and ultimately help scale your business.
Using Black Friday to increase brand visibility
- Create unique offers, for instance, vouchers can attract buyers back to your store during the holiday period following Black Friday.
- Online commerce is a big part of Black Friday, so ensure you have a working, streamlined and easy-to-use e-commerce experience. New customers are probably more likely to come back if they have a good experience.
- Prepare a marketing strategy with goals, such as increasing online reviews for your store. Offer small rewards and follow-up messages, encouraging shoppers to leave positive reviews.
- First-time buyers can become loyal customers through email marketing, loyalty programmes, and exclusive post-Black Friday offers.
How Black Friday can benefit your SME
There are several advantages to tapping into Black Friday enthusiasm:
- Find bargains for business tools and materials, such as heavy discounts on annual software subscriptions, stock, training courses, operational supplies and more.
- Use the event to test marketing and ad strategies, grow mailing lists with targeted campaigns, and boost traffic to websites and social media profiles.
- Black Friday is a fantastic opportunity to move old stock, clearing space for new items and increasing working capital for the next year.
Smart SME solutions to shop this Black Friday
Investing in your business never goes out of fashion. Here’s how you can level up your business this Black Friday with better internet connectivity, security systems, productivity and collaboration solutions, smarter pay points or whatever you need.
Shop Vodacom business solutions here and get awesome Black Friday bargains.
SMEs can make Black Friday worth their while by offering unique deals and focusing on long-term customers rather than just offering bargains. Discounted deals are still important to get sales and move stock. But when SMEs think long term, particularly towards customer acquisition and securing bargains for business expenses, they will find that Black Friday is still a valuable part of the business calendar.
