Black Friday and Cyber Monday have both become huge Christmas retail events. Shoppers are already queuing in America outside Best Buy for Black Friday deals. Although Thanksgiving America is the dominant market, UK and European retailers can get in on the act too.
To get into the holiday mood, we thought we’d pull together our Black Friday and Cyber Monday video marketing top 10 tips…
1. Go back to school – learn from your own data
Brands must track and analyse every marketing campaign in order to ensure ROI and make improvements in subsequent activity. Test your Black Friday or Cyber Monday videos from last year and then edit them accordingly. Were there trends on drop-off rate of video content? Did certain videos work more effectively than others?
2. Black Friday and Cyber Monday – time to socialise
Cyber Monday accounted for 1.4% of all social media chatter on that day in 2013 (Social Media Today). That’s a lot of socialising. One of out of six people on Facebook mentioned a brand on Black Friday. Just think of the potential reach.
We say it every time, but social sharing is critical to your video marketing success. There are a number of elements to social media and video. Your content needs to be sharable through owned media, as well as seeded via paid and earned media.
3. A reminder to go mobile
With the Hummingbird update, mobile is becoming even more important for SEO. But it’s also where your users are interacting with your brand. You’ve probably seen your mobile audience growing at a rapid rate.
On Cyber Monday in 2012, according to the Smarter Commerce Report by IBM, more than 18% of consumers used mobile devices to visit retailer sites. In 2012, mobile sales reached 13%, which is a 96% increase over the previous year, and we’ll surely see increases this year.
4. Personalisation
Toys R Us – a Black Friday favourite – is maximising its personalised video advertising. The brand is using Eyeview, and we’ll be watching to see the success of the campaign. It’s certainly worth looking into opportunities for targeted personalised advertising, and depending on your budget, you can create video ad campaigns to drive traffic as part of your integrated campaign.
5. Go all out on the experience
Video marketing isn’t just about the products, it’s about building brand stories. Take the example of Hollister, which has created an experience for its Black Friday events. In keeping with its brand values and target audience, they’ve opted for a beach party.
6. Point of sale videos
E-commerce is the focus of much of these huge retail events, but the store is still a critical space for the consumer, and point of sale videos are an effective way to create a brand atmosphere in store. For instance we created videos for Tiff Needell’s autobiography to be used in-store as well online.
7. Clear call to action on your videos
It may seem obvious, but make sure you have a clear call to action on your YouTube videos. Your video shows people why customers should buy your product, so now use your call to action to tell them where and how they can make the purchase.
8. Video landing pages
Don’t forget to create search engine optimised landing pages for your products and use the videos to sell. You can add editorial content, gift guides, such as top gifts for him or her, and video customer reviews. A countdown on the page can give a sense of urgency to then encourage a sale.
9. Video email marketing
Video usage in email marketing campaigns is becoming increasingly popular with marketers. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you can use trigger emails to engage with users who have dropped out before completing a purchase.
Why not send them a coupon or exclusive video content to re-engage them? It’s also an effective time for data capture, as you have opportunities to encourage customers and potential customers to sign up for special offers.
10. Compete on your strengths
Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers are on the lookout for bargains. So use the opportunity to highlight any discounts in video content. However, if you are a smaller business and cannot afford to compete on price, use video to emphasise other selling points such as customer service or quality.
Want to create videos with impact?
If you want to talk about ways we can help your brand use video to inspire your audience, contact us for a chat.
Give us a ring: 01179 240773
Drop us a line: info@hurricanemedia.co.uk