It’s that time of year again; the year’s biggest online shopping days are just around the corner.
As an ecommerce retailer, maximizing your sales over the Thanksgiving weekend can be the difference between a mediocre year and an outstanding one regarding profits.
But with online competition at an all-time high, how can you secure your share of the trade?
This article will explore why a Cyber Monday marketing strategy is crucial to ecommerce businesses.
Plus, we’ll share seven top marketing ideas, guaranteed to boost sales over the holiday season.
Why is Cyber Monday Important for Businesses?
Cyber Monday sees the highest revenue from online holiday spending.
It makes it significant for ecommerce retailers, but you must get your Cyber Monday marketing right to capitalize on the spending frenzy.
Image sourced from adobe.com
Consumers have had nearly 20 years to get used to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With it, they’ve come to expect incredible discounts. Many customers even hold off on holiday shopping until they see what bargains they can handle.
As an ecommerce business, Cyber Monday presents the perfect opportunity to increase profits, win back previous customers, and ensure existing customers stay loyal.
It’s also a great time to build long-lasting relationships with new customers. With so many shoppers actively looking for compelling deals and comparing prices, online visibility is at an all-time high.
Drawing new customers in with eye-catching marketing and providing them with a smooth shopping experience allows you to extend the holiday boost to your yearly profits.
While Cyber Monday is one of the busiest shopping days for customers, it’s also fiercely competitive for business owners.
Every ecommerce brand out there will be desperately trying to get a piece of the action.
With so many online stores vying for business, how visible you are to customers will come down to how effective your Cyber Monday marketing is.
With that in mind, let’s look at some digital marketing strategies you can use to improve sales on Cyber Monday.
7 Marketing Ideas to Boost Sales on Cyber Monday
- Create discounts, seasonal deals, or other types of promos
- Introduce limited-time deals to create a sense of urgency
- Generate excitement and anticipation using emails
- Promote your deals on social media platforms using relevant hashtags
- Provide payment term options to ease interest
- Ensure customer support staff for quick service availability
- Offer various payment options for added convenience
Custom image created in Canva
Getting your Cyber Monday marketing right is essential for success. With every ecommerce business fighting it out to secure the biggest chunk of sales, you can’t afford to lose an inch.
Here are seven fantastic Cyber Monday marketing ideas and best practices you can apply leading up to Cyber Monday to boost your sales.
1. Create discounts, seasonal deals, or other types of promos
With customers flocking online for the best discounts, you must ensure you don’t fall behind your competitors.
Make your platform a must-visit destination for online shoppers by offering seasonal deals, discounts, and other promotions. These can take various forms, including:
- Gifts with purchase: Offering an exclusive item as a gift with purchase can help you attract customers and give you an edge over competitors. After all, who doesn’t love a freebie?
- Product bundles and package deals: Draw in customers with promises of great value. It’s a great way to practice upselling and significantly increase your average order value.
- Free delivery: This is a factor many shoppers look for when deciding which brand to shop with, so offering it during Cyber Monday will help you edge out your competitors and secure a sale.
Image sourced from Insider Intelligence
2. Introduce limited-time deals to create a sense of urgency
Creating a sense of urgency around your products and offers is a great way to encourage shoppers to complete their online purchases.
With so many retailers offering discounts, many potential customers may add items to their cart and shop around to see if they can get a better deal elsewhere.
It can lead to high cart abandonment rates, the opposite of what you want on the biggest shopping day of the year.
Adding a countdown timer to the experience can persuade shoppers to complete their purchase before they miss out on the deal. They’ll be aware that if they shop around elsewhere, they might miss out on your deal and end up empty-handed.
Start by introducing limited-time discounts and flash sales on different products.
It has the added benefit of guaranteeing that you spread sales across your entire inventory and keeps shoppers returning to check out new deals throughout the event.
3. Generate excitement and anticipation using emails
Email marketing is still one of the most effective channels for driving ecommerce sales.
It also provides a great return on investment (ROI), making it a go-to option for marketers looking to hype up their Cyber Monday sales events.
Email campaigns drum up excitement in the days and weeks leading to your Cyber Monday sales event.
It helps to generate buzz and makes sure customers won’t forget to visit your site when the big day finally arrives.
Screenshot Sourced from Sundried customer email
On the day, continue sending emails to keep your brand at the forefront of customers’ minds. A personalized experience works wonders for your marketing emails.
Consider offering exclusive discount codes for your customers' favorite products or enticing deals on products they’ve shown interest in.
Emails that alert customers to products that are nearly sold out or a high percentage of available offers that have been claimed are a great way to capitalize on the scarcity principle.
Scarcity marketing is a highly effective way to increase interest in your brand and products. It revolves around the idea that customers view high-demand products as more desirable.
4. Promote your deals on social media using relevant hashtags
Social media is one of the best marketing channels for spreading the word about your Cyber Monday sales event.
It gives you a direct line to your target demographic while also helping you reach a wider audience.
Accompanying your posts with relevant hashtags boosts the chances that potential customers who aren’t already following you will see your messaging.
It’s one of the best social media marketing tactics to optimize your accounts for social search.
Screenshot sourced from Instagram
5. Provide payment term options to ease interest
Giving your customer base the option to spread the cost of their purchase over a longer term can significantly increase sales.
Offering a payment plan that allows large value purchases to be split into three or four monthly payments makes you a more attractive option for customers looking to buy big-ticket items on a budget.
Many online businesses offer payment plans with 0% interest, providing the monthly payments are made on time.
It is another excellent way to show customers that they're getting a great deal, encouraging them to make a purchase that they may otherwise have shied away from.
6. Ensure customer support staff for quick service availability
An increase in customers inevitably leads to an increase in customer service requests.
You need to ensure your customer contact center is adequately staffed on and around Black Friday and Cyber Monday to deal with increased demand.
Customers shopping during a sale should have the same experience as shoppers on any other day.
So, having staff available to answer the increased number of inquiries means you can maintain high customer satisfaction levels while protecting your brand reputation.
Employee scheduling software can help you to precisely plan your customer support teams’ schedules, even automatically alerting staff to last-minute shift changes.
It guarantees that all communication channels are adequately manned throughout your sales events.
In addition, consider using tools such as AI chatbots to support human customer service agents.
These can be programmed to answer simple or common queries, such as FAQs around delivery timescales, payment options, and return policies specific to sale items.
7. Offer various payment options for added convenience
Online shoppers have access to a variety of payment methods today.
Offering as many of these as possible is the best way to attract more customers during Cyber Monday.
Image Sourced from worldpayglobal.com
If a customer gets to the checkout and discovers their preferred payment method isn’t available, they may abandon their cart and take their money elsewhere.
The smoother you can make the checkout process for customers, and the more options you give them, the lower your cart abandonment rate will be.
Use payment solutions that allow you to easily take debit and credit card payments online wherever your customers are based, as well as alternative payment methods, such as PayPal, Stripe, or GoCardless.
Integrated solutions have the added benefit of simplifying the way you make payments to suppliers and vendors.
In addition, you can connect them to your bank, giving you complete visibility into your incoming and outgoing payments at all times.
Draw in Holiday Shoppers With the Perfect Cyber Monday Marketing Plan
Cyber Monday can be a make-or-break time for many online retailers. A good showing this holiday shopping season will boost your profits and can secure you loyal customers going forward.
Maximize your success by tuning up your Cyber Monday marketing campaigns.
When your customer’s appetites with sneak peeks on your social channels, keep them up to date with targeted emails throughout the event.
Offer robust support and flexible payment options to improve the customer experience.
Create a sense of urgency with limited-time offers, and capitalize on the scarcity principle to whip your customers into a spending frenzy. Then watch the sales roll in!
