Hello! Happy Monday, although it feels like a Sunday. I hope you had an excellent, long weekend. Work-wise, I can't believe it's already September. But if you thought September crept up, today is 88 days from Black Friday, which is under a quarter away. If you're not already planning, this is probably your last chance to start planning. You should ideally be in the thick of it. So, today's issue is going to be all about Black Friday prep with some tips, tricks, and resources for you.

Take Notes Of This Year's Peculiarities

This year will be an interesting one. Cyber Monday is in December this year, so when you're planning your forecast and media plan for the period make sure you take this into account. November comps might be weaker compared to last year, but Q4 as a whole should look normal. There's also the election this year, which always makes things interesting. We're planning to move things up earlier to account, to both get some more shots on goal in November, but also to have more time for gifting messaging because we miss a week with Thanskgiving and Black Friday being so late in the month.

JRB's Black Friday Strategy

I was planning on going deep on our BFCM strategy here, but I did that in a few other places so I'm just going to link to them (I'm beat from the long weekend haha). If you haven't seen, we launched The Operators Newsletter with content from everyone on The Operator's Podcast and Marketing Operators. A banger issue just shipped that goes deep into the JRB's Black Friday strategy. Aaron somehow even found the exact landing pages and ads we used last year. I talk about how to fill the funnel, project MER, and much more. Last year Harley shouted us out on TV; this year the goal is more of the same. Check it out here.

Rapid Fire Black Friday Tips

I want to lay out some important strategies and tactics that almost any brand can benefit from. Not everything we do for JRB will be applicable for all brands.

1. Get your offer or offers dialed. Keep it simple, consider a few, and make it compelling. Pick your dates as well.
2. Build your forecast. Hopefully you have historical plan vs actuals for a few years in a row. It's not all smooth sailing leading up to it, so if you know that you can have some softness as consumers wait for deals and still crush it, it helps to have that historical data as you forecast this year's plan.
3. Fill your funnel. Speaking of.Most people who buy from you during BFCM will not hear of you during BFCM. Either they are repeat customers, or they are new customers who have engaged with you somehow leading up to it. Your media dollars will work the hardest leading up to it. You want to reach as many people as you can starting in September and October who will go on to buy in November and December. If you have a proper media mix, this might mean spiking upper funnel spend like TV and Youtube then. If not, you may just want to spend more overall to fill the funnel. This goes hand in hand with the forecast because it means you will not be very efficient leading up to it, and this can get really scary if it's the first time doing this strategy. But if you forecast it, it's akin to being in third place for the first few laps and then turning on the jets the final few laps.
4. Don't neglect Q5. Know your brand's shipping cutoffs for Christmas delivery and use that; demand is often really strong up to it. But for some brands, it never really dips until January and CPMS drop. Don't sleep on this Q5 period to maximize the season.

Black Friday Tips From Not Just Me

I know a thing or two about Black Friday, but not everything. So I'm very excited to both speak and attend this upcoming free virtual Black Friday event coming up hosted by Fermat. 20 amazing growth and marketing leaders like Conor Rolain from Hexclad, Bryan Porter from Simple Modern, Connor MacDonald from Ridge and many more (inclusind myself) will be speaking and sharing practical tips on how to have a super successful BFCM. Each speaker has a different background and perspective so I'm excited to see the different ways each speaker adds value. It's on September 4th and 5th, and did I mention it's free? Sign up here to get started on your Black Friday prep the right way. Sponsored.

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88 days! Still hard to believe. I am off to get some much needed rest and sleep before a short but busy week. Hope you do the same.

-Cody

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