How to create a Black Friday social media marketing strategy

Black Friday is almost here. Don’t expect busy shopping malls and crowded parking lots. Your customers will be looking for deals online and on social.

Now that Black Friday is a months-long event, many brands are already in holiday marketing planning mode. According to Sprout’s Advanced Listening tool, from August 9 to September 8, 2023, there were 23,000 Posts on X about holiday deals, holiday shopping and the holiday season.

Black Friday has evolved. And if you want to make the most of the holiday shopping surge this year, your marketing strategy must transform, too. In this guide, we walk through how to build Black Friday social media campaigns to boost your overall strategy this Q4.

Types of Black Friday social media campaigns (+ examples)

Spurred by the growth of online shopping and social commerce, Black Friday has become a five-day event, including Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. Some retailers start their promotions as early as October. According to the National Retail Federation, consumers spent $38 billion online over five days (Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday in 2023), a 7.8% increase from the previous year.

Shoppers will most likely focus on retail segments with the most enticing offers. Companies known for featuring the best Black Friday deals include:

• Clothing retailers
• Electronics retailers
• Department stores
• Small businesses
• E-commerce brands
• Skincare and makeup companies
• Furniture and home improvement retailers
• Toy makers

Create a winning Black Friday marketing strategy by tapping into the power of social. Here are some proven Black Friday marketing strategy examples that have worked for other brands to inspire your campaign planning.

Influencer campaigns

Partner with influencers to create tailored content for specific demographics. From fashion lovers to tech enthusiasts, influencers usually have niche audiences. If your Black Friday deals are perfect for a particular type of customer, working with influencers who already speak to that crowd is a no-brainer.

For example, last Black Friday, Macy’s partnered with Robin Brown (@mystylemuse), a California digital creator and stylist specializing in fashion content to highlight the woman-owned and Black-owned brands that customers could shop during the sale.

Giveaways and contests

Grab consumer attention by giving away free merchandise. Create a social media giveaway or contest to improve your engagement and supercharge the buzz around your brand.

Giveaways and contests boost your follower count, convert leads, amplify brand awareness and increase loyalty.

Best Buy ran a giveaway for their followers to win a Theragun massage gun and a $100 Best Buy gift card as a pre-Black Friday offer. People followed the Best Buy and Therabody accounts, saved and liked the post and tagged two friends in the comments to enter the contest.

Running this contest in early November helps Best Buy grow its following, increase engagement and boost brand awareness, all in time for the Black Friday sales season.

Loyalty programs

Want to incentivize your audience to return to your website or shop with you after Black Friday ends? Promote your rewards or loyalty program. These programs typically offer discounts, coupons or early access to repeat shoppers.

Brands that give their repeat customers extra perks can encourage brand loyalty, especially if they provide an experience that people enjoy.

Yogurtland offered their Real Rewards members double the rewards points last Black Friday. The campaign framed the offer as a “shopping break,” letting them tap into the Black Friday hype without offering steep discounts, which can be challenging for restaurants and service-based businesses.

Omnichannel campaigns

Consumers are discerning. When they are looking to buy, the average consumer will now consult ten or more brand channels before making a purchasing decision.

During Black Friday, tap into omnichannel marketing by creating a seamless customer experience—from your social platforms and chatbots to email strategy and customer care. Meet your customers exactly where they are in every stage of their journey.

Share your promotions across channels and use different social platform tools to captivate your audience. During makeup brand Charlotte Tilbury’s Black Friday 2023 campaign, they promoted a 30% off their Eyes To Mesmerise eyeshadows deal on both Instagram and TikTok.

Both posts convey the same information, but they tailored the visuals to ensure each post aligns with the platform and their brand.

Community-inspired campaigns

A brand community comprises people who have an emotional connection to your brand. When you reach your community effectively, you will increase brand loyalty and even encourage customers to become brand evangelists.

Take a cue from your community when creating your Black Friday content. Get to know their other favorite brands, favorite social media aesthetics and how they spend their holidays. Use your insights to guide your social content development.

For example, following their Black Friday sales, pet supply retailer Chewy shared on Giving Tuesday (the day after Cyber Monday) that they’ll donate up to $1 million a week in pet food and supplies to local charities.

Highlighting a charitable giving campaign after Black Friday shows that your brand cares about more than just sales. It builds a positive, feel-good connection with customers, which is apparent from the comments on the post.

Black Friday marketing strategy tips

When developing a Black Friday marketing strategy for social, you need to plan ahead. Now is the time to get your content calendar in order, take stock of what’s been successful for you this year (metrics-wise) and think about how you will stand out in a swarm of other Black Friday social media campaigns.

Follow these tips to execute your Black Friday marketing strategy successfully.

Encourage opt-ins and new followers

Start building awareness for your brand by engaging new potential followers and email subscribers. Use an early-bird special to entice customers to follow your social accounts or to opt-in to your email newsletter for a unique Black Friday discount code.

Focus on growing your customer base long before Black Friday so your content can reach a wider audience.

A/B test different creative strategies

Kick off your Black Friday campaigns early to A/B test your different creative options. For example, analyze how a short-form video performs compared to an infographic with the same message.

When it grows closer to Black Friday, go with the creative format that will bring the most engagement, awareness and positive sentiment.

Partner with creators and influencers

Creators and influencers can help you generate more engagement, reach new audiences and strengthen your community on social this Black Friday. Start reaching out to them as soon as possible.

Find creators and influencers that resonate with your audience and have experience with your products to build the most impactful campaigns. Remember: the best content is educational and entertaining.

Prepare your profiles

One of the easiest things you need to do to prepare for Black Friday is to get your profiles ready. An up-to-date profile is essential to converting viewers and followers into buyers and brand superfans.

People will first notice your profile photos (both headers and profile pics). Consider updating your pictures with a holiday-inspired theme.

Consider also adding links to your profile bios (Instagram, X, TikTok) or the About sections (Facebook, LinkedIn) to your Black Friday promos.

Automate elements of your social strategy

Expect to ramp up your customer care strategy and content production as you enter the holiday season. Using automation and AI marketing resources will help you scale smoothly and prevent burnout during this busy season.

Use a social media management platform like Sprout to:

• Schedule posts in advance at the best time of day
• Program chatbots to handle the influx of messages
• Track the performance of different post types
• Use social listening to monitor brand sentiment and conversations around your brand/industry
• Use AI to draft more engaging and personal customer service responses
• Determine the best times to post automatically
• Automate your social media approval workflow
• Automate alt text generation with AI
• Use sentiment detection to identify high-priority inbound messages
• Schedule report deliveries

These tools will help you seamlessly and effectively execute in advance and during the big sale.

Create different promotions for different audiences

If you serve one specific, hyper-niche audience, skip to the next section. But, if you have several audience types, you should create different Black Friday social posts for each market segment.

For example, department stores should create posts highlighting holiday deals geared toward different audiences, whether it’s a customer interested in home decor and electronics or looking for clothing and outdoor gear.

Measure your campaign’s impact

Creating a reporting strategy for your Black Friday campaign is key to knowing what worked and what needs tweaking. A campaign performance report should provide insights on reach, engagement and conversions to see if your marketing efforts hit the mark.

A campaign report also lets you show leaders the direct impact your campaign had on revenue, helping you prove its value. These insights will help you make smarter, data-driven decisions to optimize your budget and resources for next year.

Black Friday social media campaigns to inspire you

Take a look at these successful Black Friday social media campaigns to help get the ball rolling as you plan yours.

REI

REI believes a life outdoors is a life well-lived. This Black Friday (and every Black Friday in the future), they are closing their doors to give their employees a paid holiday and a chance to recharge (presumably outdoors).

While the #OptOutside campaign might seem unorthodox, it aligns with the brand’s story, mission and values.

REI also encourages their customers to donate to their Cooperative Action Fund on Giving Tuesday to support grassroots organizations that are working toward their mission to, “create an equitable outdoors for everyone.”

If a mission-based campaign seems like it could be a good fit for your brand, make sure there’s brand authenticity. The last thing you need during Black Friday is a PR stunt gone wrong. Stay true to your brand.

Mejuri

Jewelry brand Mejuri went all out for Black Friday 2023, with deals for general customers and exclusive drops and discounts for Mejuri+ members.

Mejuri posted frequently throughout the sale, to the point that a Threads user joked about it. The brand responded by using the post as inspiration for a funny Reel.

Mejuri is a key example of how to have fun with your Black Friday campaign. The high volume of promotional posts over a short time can feel overwhelming for brands and consumers. But it’s also an opportunity to poke fun at yourself and relate to your audience.

Google

Google isn’t the typical brand you would think of for a Black Friday campaign, but we love their take on it.

Since people use Google to look up local retailers, the company used the holiday to highlight black-owned businesses and bring awareness to their black-owned business search function.

They launched the #BlackOwnedFriday campaign with a song and music video featuring actress Keke Palmer. Subsequent posts showed Keke visiting Black-owned businesses across the United States and talking to the owners.

Use this Google campaign to inspire you to think outside the typical Black Friday discount box. Consider using the hype around the shopping period to bring attention to your new offers or features or highlight your customers.

Amazon

Throughout November 2023, Amazon highlighted small businesses on their Instagram page with the hashtag #SupportSmallWithAmazon.

What works well about this campaign is the timing. Posting these videos well before the Black Friday shopping period signals to their audience that they care about the small businesses selling on their platform—not just on Small Business Saturday. The high production value of the videos underscores this sentiment.

The key takeaway is that if you want to take advantage of less sales-focused days like Small Business Saturday or Giving Tuesday, consider how the campaign fits into your long-term marketing and social media strategy. A one-off campaign may come off as performative and insincere.

Plan (and schedule) your Black Friday social media posts

To prepare for the retail holiday, make sure your Black Friday social media campaign and customer care strategy are in place well before the end of November.

As you build your campaign, remember to reinforce your mission, align with your organization’s goals, make your creative count and schedule your content ahead of time.

For more resources to help you plan your holiday strategy, check out our insights about holiday retail social media data.