10 Last-Minute Black Friday Marketing Ideas that Actually Work

Updated: 02 Nov 2022

Black Friday is nearly here, and ideally, you’d have already prepared your campaign and be marketing it ready for the big weekend. But as a small business owner, it’s not always that easy. If you still haven’t figured out what your business is going to do to boost your profits this year or you want some last-minute additions to help ramp up your campaign, we’ve gathered our quickest Black Friday marketing ideas here. 

1. Design a Homepage Banner

   One of the quickest ways to get the word about your Black Friday campaign out is to create a website banner for your homepage. Going with a dark theme is especially effective if you have a bright or colourful website as it creates a stark contrast. If you’re having a sitewide, deal, this is the perfect place to shout about it! If not, you can link it through to a deals page or the product you’re having a special offer on. 
   
   The example below from retail giant Debenhams uses yellow text to make the key message stand out – next day delivery on Black Friday orders. It also uses a strong call the action ‘View all offers’ to get you to click through and see more.
    
   
    

   (Debenhams)

   
   
    

2. Shout About it On Social Media

   Social media is a fantastic way to spread the news about your Black Friday deals. We love how ASOS went for an orange theme since they were posting on Thanksgiving – perfect pumpkin pie colours! 
    
   
    

   (ASOS)

   
   This year, we’re predicting lots more social media ‘story’ postings, especially on Instagram and Facebook. With 400 million people using Instagram Stories every day, they’re a huge platform for targeting potential customers. Make the most out of them by adding hashtags and interactive elements like polls and questions – the more you interact with your followers, the more successful your posts will be! 
   
    

3. Create a Landing Page

   Not only does creating a landing page specifically for all your Black Friday deals make it easier to direct customers to the right place, but it can also help you in terms of SEO. Chances are, your customers will be expecting you to put on a Black Friday sale, so they’ll be searching for it online. If you create an optimised landing page with all your deals in one place, this should be the first place they get to!
   
   We really like Argos’s Black Friday deals page from 2018. It uses the classic black colour associated with the sales weekend, but also incorporates the recognisable red from their branding. 
   
   Red is also a fantastic colour for sales because it creates a sense of urgency. You can also narrow down their offers by product type, which makes the whole experience very user-friendly – ideal for beating the stress this weekend is known for!
    
   
    

   (Argos)

   
   
    

4. Send a Countdown Email

   There’s nothing quite like a countdown for getting your customers pumped and ready for your Black Friday sale! If you’ve still got a few days to go before the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, a countdown email is a fantastic option. By sending an email out a few days before, there’s more chance of it being opened than if you send it on the day – by which point, every other company will be sending their emails out! 
   
   This example by ZAGG uses the enticing line ‘The sale event of the year is coming’, which adds extra excitement to the countdown. 
    
   
    

   (ZAGG)

   
   
    

5. Give Top Customers VIP Access

   If you don’t want to offer a Black Friday deal to all everyone, why not just offer it to the customers you know are already loyal? People love exclusivity, it makes them feel great – meaning they’re more likely to stick by your brand in the future. This = benefits that last a lot longer than one weekend in November. 
   
   7 For All Mankind gave their VIP customers early access to the sales. This means they still got all the other traffic and sales from all their customers, but they could still make their top customers feel like they were getting a better deal.
    
   
    

   (7 For All Man Kind)

   
   
    

6. Use Relevant Hashtags

   We’ve already mentioned the benefits of marketing your Black Friday deals on social media, but if you want to really get engagement, you’ll need to incorporate a strong hashtag game. Obvious ones will be #blackfriday #cybermonday #bfcm #sale – but you could narrow this down by adding the year too, e.g. #blackfriday2019.
   
   Not only did Kohl’s use relevant hashtags – they also created their own to help promote their prize draw. And since no answer is the wrong answer in the ‘competition’, it was sure to get a lot of interaction!
    
   
    

   (Khol's)

   
   
    

7. Offer Freebies

   If you’re fed up with the same old percentage discounts on Black Friday, chances are your customers are fed up too. Offering a freebie is a fresher alternative and can help you sell a new product that people might otherwise not try.  
   
   Lego’s 2019 Black Friday freebie is a free mini Batmobile when you purchase an exclusive 1989 option. By putting the price of the freebie in brackets, this makes it seem even more valuable. For example, instead of saving 20% on your order, you’re ‘saving’ an actual amount of £29.95, which is a lot easier to imagine.
    
   
    

   (Lego)

   
   
    

8. Set Your Sale Up in Store

   Designing and ordering print for your store might not seem like something you should be able to leave until the last minute, but with online printers (like instantprint!), this isn’t an issue anymore. Posters, flyers and roller banners are all available with express next day delivery. 
   
   Worried about getting your design finished in time? We’ve got a range of free Black Friday print design templates you can customise online! Click the image below to see the full collection.
    
   
   
   
    

9. Give to Charity

   If your brand isn’t suited to or doesn’t agree with, Black Friday sales, being charitable is another marketing idea that isn’t quite so commercial. Some charities and businesses are also taking part in #GivingTuesday, which is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the US and is a response to the consumerism of Black Friday.
   
   One Mama One Shed chose to donate 100% of its profits to the Alzheimer’s society as a way of supporting a charity close to its heart and to encourage customers to show their support.
    
   
    

   (One Mama One Shed)

   
   
    

10. Promote, Promote, Promote

    Like freebies, creating bargain bundles is another Black Friday marketing tactic that’s popular. One of the main reasons this works so well is because gift packs make great presents – and a lot of Black Friday shoppers will be on the hunt for cheap Christmas presents. It also means you can upsell a collection of products to a customer at a slightly higher price, rather than just selling the items individually. 
     
    
     

    (Bath & Body Works)

    
    
     

So, you didn’t start prepping your business for Black Friday early – that’s not a problem! Especially when you can order Black Friday print at the touch of your mouse. Order your print marketing materials now to make sure you get them on time for the big weekend. Remember to tag us in pictures of your print on Instagram by using @instantprintuk or #instantprintuk.