Smart Black Friday marketing ideas you’re not using yet

Black Friday/Cyber Monday marketing ideas

The key to a successful BFCM isn't what you do during the weekend – it's what you build in the weeks leading up to it. Start implementing these strategies now, and you'll have a primed, engaged audience ready to buy when the sales go live.

Turn wishlists into a pre-sale funnel

You can encourage customers to think about their purchases and subscribe to your mailing list well before BFCM by:

• utilizing plug-ins/apps like Swish (for Shopify) or WooCommerce Wishlists to create a wishlist feature. Wishlists have been proven to increase sales and AOV by up to 20%.  
• reminding shoppers to create their wishlist with an in-store pop-up using a tool like  Klaviyo
• incentivising customers to create a wishlist prior to BFCM (and better yet post about it) to go into the draw to win their wishlist for free or at least at a heavily discounted price. 

Activewear brand Popflex is living proof that this technique works. By running a ‘win your wishlist’ competition on social media before BFCM, they saw a rise in new followers. Their final step to convert these clicks into sales was to send personalized product recommendations and deals to users.

Build anticipation creatively 

You probably already know to remind customers about upcoming sales with frequent posts and emails in the lead up to BFCM. But with every store using this strategy, customers quickly tire of the messaging and tune it out. So, to make a real impression you need to get creative and offer real value or entertainment. Here’s how:

Add a prominent countdown to your website

‍If you do this well before BFCM, your offers will have a better chance of standing out come the sales period, as they won’t be competing with hundreds of others. We’d recommend adding an email capture CTA around the countdown to start building your BFCM audience. Clothing brand Monsoon nailed this by running a non-salesy, on-brand countdown page that ran all year round, allowing them to prime their audience for the big event.

Launch a digital advent calendar

‍Beauty advent calendars have exploded over the last few years - Google searches for advent calendars have grown by 103% since 2015. The reason? They tap into anticipation psychology, turning the wait into part of the experience.

Fragrance brand Diptyque harnessed this by partnering with graphic designer Pierre Marie to create 25 original videos released on Instagram Stories each day in December, turning their customers' daily scroll into a moment of discovery.

You can apply the same formula to BFCM without manufacturing physical products: reveal one product discount each day for the 12 days leading up to Black Friday on a dedicated landing page, release daily behind-the-scenes videos or styling tips via Stories and Reels, or send email subscribers a daily exclusive code or sneak peek.

The key is consistency. When customers know they'll discover something worthwhile every day, checking your content becomes part of their routine, putting your brand top-of-mind when BFCM actually arrives.

Tell a story through your promotional materials

‍You can achieve this by posting sneak peeks of your store’s creation process or teasing exclusive product drops through newsletters or social media. It also doesn’t hurt to show some personality on Instagram and TikTok by using trending formats and memes. But the key here is to keep your messaging and brand story consistent across channels. 

Differentiate your store by doing something unique

Take beauty retailer Deciem for example. Rather than running BFCM flash sales like every other store, they host ‘Slowvember’ – a month-long period of sales designed to let customers think through their purchase. This basically throws out the entire BFCM rulebook and it won’t work for every store. But the point here is they’re doing things differently and staying true to their ethos in order to stand out. 

Consider partnering with (the right) influencers

‍This only works if it’s genuine, thoughtful and provides real value to viewers. A gold standard for this technique is when skincare brand  Liz Earle partnered with beauty influencer Zoe Sugg. For about a decade Sugg had been sharing her love for the brand on social media, so the collaboration felt natural. Sugg shared an exclusive discount code for the product to her millions of YouTube subscribers, providing value to everyone involved.

Double your reach with collaborative sales 

This is our favorite strategy that most stores overlook: partnering with complementary brands to create something neither of you could do alone.

Each year, instead of a traditional BFCM sale, olive oil brand Graza partners with multiple complementary brands to offer Friendsgiving sales and content. They’ve teamed up with keto cereal brand Magic Spoon, herbal seltzer brand Aura Bora, sustainable food container brand Inka, and others to create recipes and hosting tips. As their strategist explained, the idea was simple: "Why not add another megaphone to this?".

The results? Each brand brought its audience to the table, exponentially expanding reach without increasing ad spend. Content partners also brought expertise in areas outside Graza's niche, allowing them to publish authoritative pieces on topics like sustainable hosting and dietary alternatives – content that resonated with their values-driven audience.

Instead of competing for the same saturated audience, team up with another store and instantly double your reach. The mechanics are straightforward:

• Cross-sell each other's products on your storefronts 
• Create limited-edition bundles featuring both brands
• Co-promote across email lists, social channels, and newsletters leading up to BFCM 

The real magic is in the pairing. A skincare brand collaborating with a wellness supplement company. A coffee roaster partnering with a ceramics studio. When the collaboration makes sense, both audiences pay attention – and you get to split the marketing effort.

Finding the right stores to partner with is easier than you think. Syncio's Marketplace connects over 2,500 Shopify stores that are actively looking to collaborate. Search by category, browse potential partners, and send an invite. It may just be the marketing move that transforms your BFCM results. 

‍

How to boost revenue during BFCM

VIP early access 

Most stores send out generic "early access" emails. The brands that actually see results treat it like an exclusive club.

The key? Send a unique link and password to your email or SMS list 2-3 days before your public sale starts. Don't just say "early access" – tell them exactly what they're getting first pick of, and why they earned this privilege. 

Make it genuinely exclusive by reserving these rewards for your most loyal customers. This not only boosts brand loyalty, it creates a sense of urgency that’s proven to increase sales. 

Gift with purchase instead of discounts

If you're a premium brand that doesn't typically discount (or if you're tired of racing to the bottom on price), there's a better way to create urgency without eroding margins.

Patrick Ta Beauty doesn't discount during BFCM. In 2024, for eight days they offered customers who spent $150 or more a complimentary gift worth $96 – an eyeshadow palette, lip crème, and mini tote. This approach drove 8x year-over-year growth in revenue while maintaining their premium positioning and introducing customers to products they might not have tried otherwise.

The psychology is powerful: customers feel like they're getting something for free rather than buying something cheaper. Plus, you're controlling exactly which products new customers discover, setting yourself up for repeat purchases down the line.

Strategic discounts

Bigger discounts don’t always produce better results during BFCM.

Data from BFCM 2024 revealed that discounts in the 10-15% and 20-25% ranges actually drove better conversion rates than steep 40-50% price cuts. The insight? Shoppers weren't just hunting for the deepest discount. They were waiting for the right message about the right product from the right brand, even if that discount was modest. 

Instead of blanket discounts, try tiered spending incentives:

• 10% off orders over $50
• 15% off orders over $100
• 20% off orders over $150

Also, keep in mind that scarcity can play a huge role in the success of BFCM discounts. Makeup brand Glossier only runs one sale per year, which creates genuine urgency during their BFCM sales as customers know they won't see these prices again until next year.

Discounted bundles that actually make sense

A good product bundling strategy can be a game-changer for increasing AOV during BFCM. The bundles that work pair items that genuinely complement each other. Our top tips:

• Focus on exposing shoppers to new product categories through bundles. This doesn’t just help sell more during BFCM, but also introduces customers to products they might return to buy outside the sales context. 
• Pair predicted best-sellers with slower moving products at a discounted price to incentivize purchases
• Partner with compatible brands to co-create a limited-time bundle
• Make it clear that this is a BFCM only limited-time-offer to increase urgency.

Pro tip: Show the math. "Buy separately: $147. Bundle price: $99. You save: $48." The clearer the savings, the more compelling the offer.

Pricing strategies 

You may feel pressured around Black Friday and Cyber Monday to run huge sales and keep up with big-box retailers. But there’s no point in running deep discounts if the returns won’t be profitable enough for your business. Instead, think strategically about what pricing structure is realistic for your store. 

During BFCM 2024, Shinola ran their first-ever BFCM campaign after a decade of viewing their brand as non-promotional. Rather than copying everyone else's strategy, they spent three weeks leading up to the holiday sending daily email offers on specific products and limited-edition drops. Then during BFCM itself, they switched to a "spend-more, save-more" sitewide event aimed at their most engaged shoppers. The result? A 27% year-over-year increase in revenue and 48% growth in revenue per recipient.

The lesson: you don't need to offer a blanket 50% off everything to compete during BFCM. Find the balance between incentivizing customers and protecting your margins. Consider:

• Flash sales on select items rather than sitewide discounts
• Volume discounts for bulk purchases
• Loyalty-based pricing where your best customers get the best deals

Your BFCM strategy should reflect your brand positioning, not just what everyone else is doing.

‍

How to retain BFCM shoppers

You’ve already done the hard work of getting customers to visit your store during BFCM, so don’t lose all that momentum within the week. Here are our top strategies to keep customers coming back well after Cyber Monday has ended. 

Strategic welcome email 

Send shoppers a welcome email after their purchase that provides genuine value. This could be an instructional how-to use the product or a discount code to incentivise future purchases.

Sunglass brand Oakley did this masterfully with an email that extended their Black Friday sales into ‘weekend deals’, providing customers with extra time to consider their purchases and increasing the store’s chance of sales. 

Drink brand Rebel Rabbit got creative with their email comms, linking customers to a curated holiday playlist to listen to while sharing the beverage. Emails like this are refreshing (pardon the pun) because they aren’t another hard sell. Post-BFCM is when customers are most fatigued from the ‘buy now’ messaging. So use this as an opportunity to foster long-term loyalty rather than quick clicks.

Responsive CX 

Make sure you have solid CX systems in place, not only for Black Friday but beyond. With a larger volume of sales during this period, there will likely be more customer queries, return requests and feedback. So your store needs to be equipped to respond promptly. You can ensure this by implementing AI, making sure you’re well-staffed enough and pre-preparing scripts to respond to common questions. Makeup brand Iba Cosmetics accelerated their response time by leveraging AI support and saw their conversion rates rise from 20% to 36%.

Another approach is to slimline the volume of customer queries you receive in the first place by making the Ts and Cs crystal clear on your website - like US retailer Best Buy which has a dedicated holiday FAQs section. You may even consider widening your returns window for the holiday period. This will give your store more breathing room to handle requests and will help keep customers happy. 

These CX considerations are crucial because if customers have a positive experience with your store and get their questions answered, they are much more inclined to return beyond BFCM. 

Leverage BFCM for user generated content (UGC) 

Encourage shoppers to review or post their Black Friday/Cyber Monday purchases to go in the draw to win a prize pack. The beauty of this model is that you’ll receive genuine, relatable content which is more valuable than any expensive ad campaign. Shoppers reportedly find UGC almost 10 x more impactful than influencer marketing. And 79% of consumers say UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions. Fashion brand Ghanda for instance, encourages shoppers to post their new outfits on social media and tag the store. This model works for them because consumers want to see how the clothes look on real people, not edited models. The social media engagement also continues to remind people of the store long after the sales have passed. 

‍

Where to start

You probably can’t implement every strategy in this list. But you can see massive success by doing a few things exceptionally well. Pick 1-2 strategies from this guide that align with your brand and resources, then execute them with intention. A well-executed wishlist campaign or a strategic brand collaboration will always outperform a dozen half-baked tactics.

We would know. At Syncio, we help stores get the most value they can out of busy periods, with the least amount of stress possible. BFCM's high-volume sales period is a breeding ground for costly mistakes like overselling, manual inventory errors, and the nightmare of telling customers their order can't be fulfilled. These aren't just logistics problems; they're trust killers that undo all your marketing efforts. That’s why we created real-time inventory syncing that can be set up in a few clicks. You can set it up for free before BFCM begins. 

‍