Black Friday 2015 is quickly approaching and marketers are really starting to look closely at what types of things they can do to attract as much business as possible. Unfortunately, if prior years are any indication, the chances are that most marketers will mess it up quite significantly and lose out on a lot of potential profit.
YesMail has looked at data from the last couple years regarding email marketing, Facebook ads and Twitter ads to see what people are doing and which ones are getting the best conversion rates. The results might just surprise you. Don’t worry though, there is still time to adjust your marketing strategy for this year if you act quickly.
Email Marketing Efforts
Over the past couple years most people have been sending out emails to their lists mostly on Thanksgiving day and Black Friday itself. While this may seem to make sense, it actually isn’t going to get you the results you’re looking for. According to the study, the best days in terms of open rates are going to be the Monday and Tuesday prior to thanksgiving. The Wednesday is by far the worst performance day.
Look at the numbers for deviation from the daily average open rate during the week of Thanksgiving and you will be able to easily see just how important sending out your messages on the right day can be. This is data from 2014:
- Sunday Before Thanksgiving – 2% Greater than a Typical Sunday
- Monday Before Thanksgiving – 10% Greater than a Typical Monday
- Tuesday Before Thanksgiving – 9% Greater than a Typical Tuesday
- Wednesday Before Thanksgiving – 23% LOWER than a typical Wednesday
- Thanksgiving Day – 6% LOWER than a typical Thursday
- Black Friday – 8% Greater than a typical Friday
Facebook Posts & Ads
Similarly, you can see a significant difference in engagement with Facebook posts during the week of Thanksgiving. The report found that unlike email marketing, Facebook peaked on the Sunday before and went down significantly from there:
- Sunday Prior – 157% Increase
- Monday Prior – 24% Decrease
- Tuesday Prior – 4% Increase
- Wednesday Prior – 15% Decrease
- Thanksgiving Day – 53% Decrease
- Black Friday – 69% Decrease
It is quite clear that when discussing Black Friday sales during Thanksgiving week, you want to focus on Sunday to get the best results.
Small Changes – Big Impacts
The bottom line here is that marketers need to be taking this type of data into account when planning their Black Friday marketing campaigns. Depending on the size of your email lists or Facebook followers you can get dramatically improved results by simply making sure you are sending out your messages on the right days. Take some time to go over your marketing plans now to make sure you are maximizing your results.
