5 Black Friday Content Ideas

Black Friday marks the beginning of the shopping season (or at least it use to). Many businesses begin offering sales and deals weeks before Thanksgiving, starting with Veterans Day. With so many places to shop and buy merchandise, businesses should be asking themselves, “Why should someone shop with me?”

As a small business owner and working with many small businesses on their digital marketing, there are some things to remember when creating content for Black Friday. No matter what platform you post on (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc…) you have to remember that CONTENT is king. I’ve put together some tips for you to remember when marketing on social media this Black Friday.

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1. Visually Stand Out – Take the time to use pictures, images, logos, or video to capture your audience as they scroll through their feeds. If you are going to do a paid/sponsored ad, DO NOT do one without a visual. Your ROI (Return On Investment) decreases drastically and it will not get you the results you are wanting. YES, you might get a lot of likes, shares, comments, and retweets, but without a visual people can not SEE them with the item.

2. Consistency – When you create your content, keep the branding, text, and media consistent across all the platforms you post on. You may have to adjust the text for platforms like Twitter (just increased from 140 to 280), but most users are on 2 to 3 platforms. The more they see and interact with your content (billboard effect), the more likely they are to purchase.

3. Formatting – People read left to right and in groups of 2 to 3 sentences. Use spacing to keep your audience’s attention. People will scroll past a post that they view as TOO long. In spacing out you are going to want to use emojis (I can’t believe I’m saying that) to help increase engagement and attention spans. This is for ALL ages. People make a lot of assumptions about older generations and what they like and how many are on social media. They are ALL WRONG.

4. Checkout New Social Media Features – One of the many things I love about Social Media is that it is always evolving. Unlike other media platforms, it’s rolling out new features that small businesses and organizations need to utilize. Within the past 3 months there have been many updates to Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

5. Creativity – OK, here is the COLD HARD TRUTH, the content YOU create is NOT FOR YOU. When scrolling past content (especially on Black Friday) you are going to be competing with a lot of other businesses selling their product or service. Review some of your most successful posts and generate ideas and campaigns that your audience responded the best to. Don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone. 

As we go into this Christmas Season, remember that Social Media is all about being “SOCIAL.” Interact with your customers and take the time to show them WHY they should shop with you or use your service. If you have any questions on how to make your Black Friday a successful one, please feel free to reach out to me.

Tom Harness | Twitter: @iTomHarness | Snapchat: @tharness | LinkedIN: Tom Harness | www.harnessdigitalmarketing.com