14 Latest Checklist To Do Before November For A Profitable Black Friday 2024

It’s that time of year again. To maximize your sales during Black Friday 2024, it’s important to prepare in advance.

According to the Adobe Report, Online retail spending is expected to hit new highs this holiday season, up 8.4% from 2023.

Here’s a 14-point checklist to work through before November.

The list is by no means exhaustive, but it can help you prepare for a profitable Black Friday 2024.

Let’s get started!

Black Friday 2024 Checklist: 14 Must-Do’s to Boost Sales

Mark your dates
Plan and Set Your Marketing Campaigns
Offer Exclusive Deals and Promotions
Prepare your referral/affiliate campaigns
Test Your Website and Systems
Improve your checkout process
Make sure your product descriptions sell
Create a big sale Atmosphere
Combination Sales
Email marketing campaigns
Optimize Your Inventory
Prepare for increased customer enquiries
App push and SMS marketing
Stay Updated on Industry Trends

1. Mark your dates

The biggest shopping day（Black Friday 2024） of the year is known to be on Friday, November 29, 2024.

However, many retailers start their sales at the beginning of November and continue until the end of the first week of December.

Here are the key dates for Black Friday 2024 you can focus on:

Early Black Friday sales start: November 1st
Thanksgiving: November 28th
Black Friday: November 29th
Cyber Monday: December 2nd
End of extended BFCM sales: December 8th

2. Plan and Set Your Marketing Campaigns

Don’t plan your advertising campaigns until the last minute.

A well-planned and executed marketing campaign is crucial to increasing sales and achieving your business goals.

Create a detailed marketing calendar that lists your promotional activities.

There are a few things you need to keep in mind：

When considering promotions at Peak, you should always try to balance value, profit, and competitive activity.
Now more than ever, consumers are looking for added value to their purchases. This can take the form of an exceptional customer experience, a free gift, discounts on future purchases, and much more.
It’s best to look at what your competitors have done in the last year and monitor their website and social channels in the run-up to Peak so you’re not caught off guard.
You can also use sites like Really Good Emails to learn from other brands running Black Friday marketing campaigns.

3. Offer Exclusive Deals and Promotions

Here is a start for you!

More than half of consumers, 55%, say they switch brands to take advantage of discounts.

Start Black Friday 2024 sales with Offer Exclusive Deals.

Offer your loyal customers or email subscribers early access to new products or sales.

Create a sense of urgency with limited-time offers.

Offer exclusive discounts and customized offers based on customer preferences, purchase history, or demographics.

Create attractive packages that combine multiple products at a discounted price.

Offer exclusive discounts for members of your loyalty program or VIP customers.

Tips for Creating Effective Exclusive Deals:

Limit availability: Make your offers truly exclusive by limiting their availability to a certain period or quantity.
Create a sense of urgency: Use countdown timers, limited quantity notifications or scarcity tactics to encourage immediate action.
Personalize offers: Tailor your offers to individual customers based on their preferences and purchase history.
Advertise effectively: Use email marketing, social media, and other channels to promote your exclusive offers.

4. Prepare your referral campaigns

Referral programs are a great way to get existing customers to share your BFCM sales. By incentivizing referrals, you can expand your customer base, increase brand awareness, and drive sales.

Tips for Creating a Successful Referral Program:

Offer Attractive Incentives: Ensure the rewards are valuable enough to motivate customers to refer their friends and family.
Make It Easy to Refer: Simplify the referral process by providing clear instructions and a user-friendly link.
Track and Reward Promptly: Ensure that referrals are tracked accurately and rewards are delivered promptly.
Promote Your Program: Tell your customers about your referral program through your website, email marketing, and social media.

Further reading: How You Reach More Customers Online

5. Test Your Website and Systems

Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and loads quickly.

It’s especially important during Peak.

E-commerce sites that load within a second convert 2.5x more visitors than those that load in five seconds.

With more traffic coming to your website, there’s a significant increase in opportunity costs. And, there’s a greater risk of your website becoming overloaded, resulting in a crash.

You want to make sure that doesn’t happen on your website.

There are several free tools you can use to test your website speed. One of them is Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

6. Improve your checkout process

Especially during Black Friday 2024 and Cyber Monday 2024, shoppers are fickle.

A complex or slow checkout process is one of the top reasons for cart abandonment.

Taking a day to improve your checkout process could pay off for you on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Optimizing the checkout is the best Black Friday marketing strategy to reduce cart abandonment.

How to do it?

Enable guest checkout
Minimize form fields
Offer multiple payment options
Show a clear progress indicator

Website components to optimize before Peak 2024 include:

User journey and navigation
Product page
Imagery
Shipping and returns policy
Button placement
Multi-Payment options

7. Make sure your product descriptions sell

Effective product descriptions are essential for converting website visitors into paying customers.

They should not only provide accurate information but also entice buyers and highlight the unique benefits of your products.

Here are some tips to help you write compelling product descriptions:

Limited number: A product has a limited supply and won’t be available once it runs out‍
Deadline (Limited time): The item is only available during a specific period.

8. Create a big sale Atmosphere

Decorate your website with holiday-themed elements to create a festive atmosphere.

Consider using countdown stickers. Create a sense of urgency by visually showing how much time is left before an event, sale, or special offer to encourage impulse purchases.

Show Discounts Clearly.

When showcasing discounts on your products or services, it’s essential to present the information clearly and prominently to attract customers and maximize sales.

9. Combination Sales

Bundling products encourages customers to buy more than they originally planned.

The best Black Friday marketing strategy is to offer a deal that makes multiple items cheaper together than they would be individually.

If you have a customer who is making a purchase, you should refer them to something that will naturally fit together.

Think of simple cross-selling examples, like:

Socks + shoes
Paper + pencils
Earrings + necklaces

10. Email marketing campaigns

These Black Friday emails saw the highest numbers of opens and links clicked compared to other days of the year.

Black Friday emails allow you to connect with your loyal customers and provide them with a special discount.

Start your email marketing campaign at least a week before Black Friday to whet your customers’ appetite.

The successful Black Friday email marketing strategy is to segment your email list – based on their behavior, purchase history, preferences, or geographic location instead of blasting one-size-fits-all messages.

Moreover,

You’ll want to be as personalized as possible. People are more likely to open something that they can tell is pertinent to them.

Be as descriptive as you can in your headline to catch the reader’s attention.

Too many emails get ignored because they are copies of the industry.

11. Optimize Your Inventory

Forecast demand and ensure you have sufficient inventory levels to meet expected sales.

While difficult to do if you’re a new business without a Peak under your belt, businesses that have been trading for over a year should use data collected from their previous Peak period to inform this year’s forecast.

With accurate forecasts, you can ensure that you don’t have any stockouts during Peak.

On the other hand, good forecasting means you can avoid excess inventory.

12. Prepare for increased customer inquiries

More eyes on your brand will naturally lead to more customer inquiries.

If you’re to make a good impression, you must be able to offer a high standard of customer service through Black Friday 2024.

Train your customer service team to handle increased inquiries and provide exceptional service.

Offer multiple channels of communication, such as live chat, email, and phone support.

13. App push and SMS marketing

Mobile spending momentarily overtook desktop spending during the 2023 holidays and will be even more prominent in 2024.

App push and SMS marketing as an avenue to promote any Black Friday 2024 sales

Black Friday is the first big moment of the holidays to connect with potential customers.

If you have subscribers who are opting in to receive promotions, you need to make use of App push and SMS marketing as an avenue to promote any Black Friday sales.

If your business isn’t utilizing SMS marketing as part of your Black Friday strategy, you’re missing out on one of the most effective channels to drive sales.