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Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are just around the corner, and now is the time to act. With our 30-day checklist, you’ll launch high-impact ad campaigns, roll out targeted retargeting, and fire up your email sequences to drive conversions. Follow these must-do steps to ensure your store is ready to capture every sale and outpace the competition this season.
Key Deadlines for a successful BFCM
✅ October 1st: Finish 60-Day Plan
✅ October 20th: Launch Initial Campaigns Start Filling that Funnel
✅ November 1st: 30 Day plan, time to launch
✅ November 10th: VIP and Exclusive Sales
30-Day Black Friday Checklist
By November 1st
Your Top Priorities:
1. Deploy Full Ad Campaigns ⭐ - by November 10th
If you haven’t launched your Black Friday ad campaigns across all channels - do it now. Monitor performance closely.
2. Roll Out Retargeting Ads ⭐
Go live with aggressive retargeting for visitors who haven’t converted. Use personalised offers to nudge them back to your site. Blend AI offers one easy platform for ad management and optimisation.
3. Activate Your Email Drip Campaigns ⭐
Schedule and send your Black Friday email sequences. Make them value-packed and time-sensitive. Use clear CTAs and emphasise urgency.
4. Activate Abandoned Cart Emails ⭐
Ensure your abandoned cart sequence is ready and optimised. Personalise these emails and include urgency-inducing language and incentives like discounts using Pulse. Remember Abandoned carts are different (and earlier in the funnel) to Abandoned checkouts!
Don’t Forget These Essentials:
✅ Confirm Product Stock Levels
Triple-check inventory. Update your website to reflect any stock changes. Highlight low-stock items to create urgency.
✅ Test Checkout Process Again
Simulate a purchase on your site. Fix any issues immediately. Ensure the process is smooth on both desktop and mobile.
✅ Prepare for Increased Traffic
Ramp up server capacity. You cannot afford downtime. Work with your hosting provider to ensure your site can handle a traffic surge.
✅ Push Early Bird Offers
Drive traffic with limited-time early bird offers to catch early shoppers. Use email and social media to spread the word quickly.
✅ Update Ads Based on Performance
Review data from ongoing campaigns to refine your ad creative and targeting. Focus on what’s working and scale those efforts. Blend AI makes manual ad campaign optimisation a thing of the past.
✅ Prepare for a Surge in Returns
Ready your team and systems to handle an increase in returns after Black Friday. Make the process easy and transparent for customers.
✅ Go Live with Black Friday Content
Ensure all your Black Friday-specific content is live and visible to your audience. Double-check links, images, and CTAs to ensure everything is working perfectly.
Social media marketing is the promotion of items or services for eCommerce stores via social media. Stores can use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube etc, to platform their store and products globally.
‘Organic’ social media simply refers to the free content and opportunities, like posting, creating stories, polls, videos etc, that are available to everyone, including businesses and brands. Stores can use social media to promote themselves in a number of different ways.
Actively listing your products for sale on social media, creating posts promoting the sale of your products or advertising any discounts or giveaways are all successful ways in which businesses promote themselves online.
Creating a page or account for your store on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok is one of the fastest ways to advertise your store. According to Kepios, 4.74 billion people use social media globally, amounting to 59.3% of the world’s population.
Social media marketing is by far the most effective way of spreading awareness of your store. The use of social media is also on the rise, meaning there’s never been a better time to platform yourself online. This form of marketing is particularly important for small businesses that struggle to make sales. A lot of small businesses don’t have actual stores, and so they rely on online platforming and advertising for all of their sales.
If you have a small business or work for a larger company whose social media marketing strategies could improve, be sure to keep reading for tips, statistics, and real success stories.
Social media marketing can come in two forms:
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Posting your own content in an attempt to receive more customers and sales.
- If you have the money and your business is a little more high-profile, you can pay social media platforms to advertise your business for you.
The Importance of Social Media Marketing For eCommerce
Social media marketing can help your store reach the global market. People from all across the globe spend hours scrolling on social media every day, so marketing your products and services on these platforms is more likely to reach a wide range of people than if you were to simply advertise your eCommerce store through local leaflets or word of mouth.
Don’t just take our word for it. Here are some statistics to prove it:
- 78% of sellers that use social selling methods are outselling their competitors who don’t. Social sellers come in all ages, but the majority of those maximising sales through social media are Gen Z or millennials. 63% of sellers claim that social media marketing is crucial for the survival of their businesses.
- In 2020, Instagram earned approximately $17.4 billion annually through mobile ad revenue, and social networks are forecasted to earn $130.2 billion from advertising.
- 90% of marketers have claimed that social media has helped the exposure, custom and sales of their businesses, so there’s no doubt that social media marketing is an effective tool to help your business succeed.
- Moreover, 49% of social media users aged 18-29 have claimed to have bought items after seeing them advertised on social media, so nearly half of social media members use these platforms to buy products.
Most social media platforms use an algorithmic system, meaning that the adverts that pop up while they’re using Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc, will depend on their previous searches and other, similar stores, accounts and posts they’ve interacted with. Therefore, the people receiving your adverts or posts on their feeds are the ones most likely to be interested in your store and products. This is another reason why social media is a fantastic choice for marketing.
While social media marketing can be a brilliant way to platform your business globally and receive more annual sales, your success will depend on how you use social media to market yourself. Social media is home to millions of business accounts, all of which are most likely using the frequent usage of social media to their advantage. Finding online stores that promote their products successfully is a brilliant source of inspiration, especially if you’re new to all this. Let’s take a look at some of the brands who are successful in their use of social media as a marketing tool.
Brands That Use Social Media Efficiently
Boohoo
Despite receiving severe backlash for their fast-fashion approach to production, Boohoo has consistently received fantastic sales rates, partially due to how they utilise social media. They have been accused of breaching human rights laws within their manufacturing systems, as many of their products are made by desperate and poor employees for labour purposes. Investigations proved that these employees were significantly underpaid and working in unsafe conditions.
Despite all this, Boohoo’s sales have actually increased since the pandemic in 2020. This effectively demonstrates the power of social media marketing.
Boohoo creates partnerships with popular influencers and engages their audiences with entertaining, relatable and friendly content to help boost their sales. Boohoo’s Instagram account currently has 13.1 million followers, and some of their content is completely unrelated to Boohoo products.
Some of the reels and posts they’ve uploaded are just funny videos or memes referencing pop culture and celebrity news. For example, Boohoo posted this picture (left) of Kylie Jenner and her new son, captioned “Can’t cope with how big Baby Webster is already”, appealing to the wide Kardashian fanbase.
Similarly, they posted a meme of Stormzy (right) with humorous text to attract customers to their sale. By creating content like this, Boohoo attracts users to their accounts through humour and relatability.
After the customer is on the account, they’re more likely to buy products and invest somehow. Many of their posts are targeted at young women. They use predominantly popular female models like Hailey Bieber to sell their products and market relatability. This is an example of a company tailoring their marketing campaigns to their target audience.
Amazon
As the biggest eCommerce on the planet, there are a number of things Amazon does better than any other eCommerce business. Every day, they have millions of users shopping across the globe.
Amazon is a household name and has pretty much anything you could want on offer for a reasonable price, but one of the ways in which the company has combated these damaging revelations is through its digital marketing techniques.
On Instagram, Amazon partners with popular public figures, such as famous TikToker, Charli D’Amelio (left) and Sonya (@activecactus) (right), as pictured below. These figures receive products from Amazon, film themselves using them and get paid to promote their products.
On Twitter, Amazon takes a more humorous approach, using their iconic ‘smile’ boxes as the basis for memes and funny tweets like the ones below:
Like Boohoo, Amazon uses humour to attract as many customers as possible. The company aims to create relatable content and uses all social media platforms in order to do this.
How to Determine Your Brand Voice on Social Media
Thinking about what tone you want your business to be associated with is the first step. Whether you take the comedic approach like Boohoo or more sentimental methods like Dove, finding a vibe that suits your business is a great first step. By undertaking customer surveys and competitor analysis, you can find out what your customers respond best to and what type of people you’re targeting.
Additionally, you can use a user persona, which is a fictional character created to represent the type of customer you’re looking to attract. This should be generated based on your target audience, which will help you identify how and where to upload customized adverts and posts.
Put simply, your target audience will be the group of people that are most likely to buy your products. These people tend to be interested in similar things and will be attracted to stores in similar ways. Your target audience will tell you where you should be advertising your products and using what methods.
For example, if you make and sell children’s toys, your target audience will be parents with small children, who usually fall between the ages of 25 and 40.
Whereas, if your business specializes in men’s clothing, you’ll want to advertise your products to appeal to men. Using funny videos may appeal more to younger people or parents with children watching, whereas using simple photos and basic text may be more attractive to older users who aren’t interested in video promotion.
Your target audience should be your first port of call when deciding how and where to promote your business. Learning where your target audience spends their screen time is a great starting point. Most social media sites will give you a breakdown of the age and gender identification of your customers, so you can make your future promotions more customized.
Breakdown of Key Social Media Channels for Organic Social
With 2.934 billion users (as of July 2022), Facebook is the most used social network site across the board. However, the way in which these demographics are broken down will tell you whether you should be using Facebook as a predominant marketing platform or not. Here is a chart illustrating the demographic breakdown of Facebook’s users:
Members within the 25-34 age bracket are the most frequent users of Facebook but compared to other social media platforms like Instagram or Snapchat, Facebook has a higher percentage of users over the age of 45. If you’ve identified your target audience as men over 50, for example, Facebook may be a better site to platform your business.
Although Instagram has a lower amount of active monthly users at 1.22 billion, it is more frequently used by young adults than Facebook, so if your target audience fits in this bracket, you may want to choose Instagram as the site to do that.
Here’s a demographic breakdown of Instagram users:
By using Instagram to market on social media, you’ll be targeting 18–34-year-olds most effectively. Additionally, Instagram is a social media platform that has a growing rate of users, meaning the usership is likely to grow over time. This makes it more attractive as a marketing platform – the more users, the more potential buyers. Other platforms such as Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube are also great choices but require different types of marketing.
TikTok is a less popular social media site, with only approximately 755 million users globally. However, if you’re aiming to reach the younger population, for example, those below the age of 25, it’s a good choice.
Although finding the appropriate site to post on is a considerable factor in social media marketing, what is perhaps more important is the type of content each of these sites supports.
Types of Content for Each Social Platform
Facebook and Instagram support the same forms of content:
- Posts (although to post on Instagram, a photo is required)
- Stories
- Reels
TikTok and YouTube are video supporting services, with YouTube allowing longer video uploads and TikTok accommodating video uploads of up to 3 minutes.
Software to Make Social Media Marketing Easier
Research sites such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Zoho and Buffer. These sites are packed full of useful information to help you use social marketing techniques in more effective ways.
Additional services such as Brandwatch tracks usage and collects data across social media platforms. They can determine customer behaviours and trends to help businesses and influencers stay on top of the ever-changing popularity of videos, sounds, trends and products.
Benefits of Social Media Marketing for Ecommerce Businesses
Social media marketing has a bunch of benefits to help get your business noticed. Regardless of what you sell or where you’re based, social media is a free platform that can reach places all across the globe for maximum custom and sales.
These are the most important benefits of social media marketing that can help your business thrive:
- Business awareness – providing a global stage for your promotion
- Helps you add personal touches to the advertisement of your product
- Provokes conversation about your brand
- Helps you connect with your customers on a more personal level
- Helps you collect data about your audience so you can customize your products and advertisements to your target audience
- Easier contact between customer and provider
Effective eCommerce Tactics on Social Media
Depending on the site, you can use different tactics to get increased views. Here are a few examples:
- Using popular sounds or subscribing to trends will help you get noticed, if you’re looking to use TikTok as a marketing platform, this is an even more effective strategy. TikTok has ‘sounds’ that you can use in a video – if this sound is popular, your video is likely to get more views.
- Posting your positive reviews. Generating positive views can be achieved through fast delivery times, good quality products and responding quickly to customers.
- Giveaways and free prizes are a great way of increasing the number of users that interact with your site. You can promote competitions, using your products as a free reward. This will increase the number of people interacting with your account, and if you require users to share the post to their stories, your business will be platformed to all their friends and family too.
Final Thoughts
There are plenty of ways to use social media as a marketing tool, so make sure to do your research and find the best techniques that suit your business for maximum results.
Regardless of what you sell or who your target audience is, social media is a wide-ranging platform that can reach pretty much anyone globally. So, if you make sure to follow these tips, you’re likely to find an interested and loyal audience somewhere.
Scaling an eCommerce business is no easy feat. As with anything else, learning from leaders in the space can help you avoid costly mistakes & learn tricks to hit your goals quicker. In order to scale in a reliable and profitable manner, the Blend AI team are big believers in attending, learning & networking at conferences.
Below is a list of the top ecommerce marketing conferences that have been announced for Australia in 2023 (& a couple this side 2023!). As the list grows, we will continue to expand this list.
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iMedia B2B eCommerce Summit Australia
Dates: 24-26 October 2022
Location: Gold Coast, Australia
Whilst not technically a 2023 event, the iMedia B2B eCommerce Summit is not to be missed if you work in the B2B ecommerce space.
This is one of Australia’s biggest B2B ecommerce conferences. With the option to join over 25 keynotes & learn from business leaders behind some of Australia’s largest brands; iMedia is a great environment to immerse yourself in all things B2B ecommerce.
Some of the key speakers that have been announced include:
- Justin King - VP B2B, Chief Evangelist , Salsify
- Mark Brohan - Global Leader in B2B eCommerce Industry Research, Digital Commerce 360
- Chris Gourvelos - Senior Sales Manager - APAC, Spryker
- Jared Thomas - Co-Founder, Raizor
- Alice Fitch - Founder, Whola
- Motti Danino - Chief Operation Officer, Oro Inc
iMedia B2B eCommerce summit is not to be missed & is one of the last big eCom conferences in 2022.
eTail Australia 2023
Dates: 14-16 Feb 2023
Location: Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park, 161 Elizabeth St
eTail Australia positions itself as “Your only opportunity to learn from and network with Australia’s leading eCommerce and digital marketing retail leaders at one time”. eTail Australia is broken into interactive roundtables, workshops & networking with some of the brightest minds in eCommerce & retail digital marketing.
Some key names on the lineup of speakers set to speak this year include:
- Malin Gaertig - Head of Marketing, Hello Molly
- Joanna Robinson - Chief Marketing Officer, Chatime
- Mal Chia - Director, Ecom Nation
- Mangala Martinus - Managing Director, Payments Consulting Network
Sessions range from partnerships to marketing personalisation - led by marketers from some of Australia’s larger ecommerce brands; this is a conference not to be missed.
Retail Fulfilment Summit 2023
Dates: 22 - 24 Feb 2023
Location: Pullman Melbourne Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia
As the name suggests, the Retail Fulfilment Summit is designed to give attendees access to the latest tools & information on the fulfilment side of ecommerce. Ensuring that you are ahead of the curve when it comes to fulfilment is essential for ecommerce businesses in 2023.
With potential wide ranging benefits from improving customer satisfaction & retention, warehouse efficiency & ultimately, bottom line earnings.
The Retail Fulfilment Summit is set over 2 days & structured around helping guests improve their ecommerce, shipping & order fulfilment processes & strategies. Speakers from previous years events have come from companies such as WooliesX, Target, Microsoft, Baby Bunting & T2 Tea.
Power Retail All Star Bash 2023
Dates: 9 March 2023
Location: TBC
Whilst not a conference as such, this one night event celebrates the biggest & best ecommerce businesses in Australia.
With last year's event hosting over 1000 attendees & some of Australia's most forward thinking online retail brands, this event is a great place to network & learn about all things ecommerce from market leaders.
Retail Fest 2023
Dates: 28 - 31 March 2023
Location: Gold Coast Conference & Exhibition Centre
From the team behind Retail Global comes an online retail conference in a brand new format. Previous, Retail Global events have taken place over 3 days however.
In a new format, Retail Fest is a week long gathering for the Australian ecommerce & online retail community. The week will include an Awards evening, Marketplace Meetups, Sponsored Parties, eCommerce workshops, Charity Gala along with the traditional 3-day Retail Global conference & exhibition.
The 2023 list of speakers is yet to be announced however previous speakers have come from names like Booktopia, Kogan, Platypus & Naked Wines; if previous speakers are anything to by, the 2023 Retail Fest is not to be missed.
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iMedia Online Retail Summit Australia 2023
Dates: 3-5 May 2023
Location: Gold Coast
Booking link: TBC
iMedia is one of the most established eCommerce conferences in Australia. The lineup & agenda for the 2023 conferences hasn’t been announced yet, however events in previous years have featured leaders from Australia’s largest ecommerce brands & software companies.
At the time of writing this post, the lineup & agenda for the Online Retail Summit Australia 2023 has not been locked in. We will be updating this post when details are shared by the iMedia team. Check back here to find out more about the 2023 agenda & list of speakers.
With opportunities to network with a range of people in the Australian online retail space, sessions around the strategy & planning of ecommerce; the iMedia Online Retail Summit Australia 2023 is not to be missed.
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Online Retailer 2023
Dates: 19 - 20 July 2023
Location: ICC Sydney
Booking link: TBC
Online Retailer is the largest ecommerce conference in Australia. From what is already Australia’s largest ecommerce conference, the 2023 Online retailer conference is set to have 6 stages & 60 speakers; making it the largest Online Retailer event to date.
Some of the features of this event shared by the team include:
- 60+ speakers over 6 stages
- 36 track presentations including the NEW! B2B, CxO and Digital Payment Innovation tracks
- 17 Tech Talks
- 130 exhibitors showcasing new tech and solutions
This two day event is set to include informative showcases, case studies from leading online brands, insights sharing sessions & panel discussions with speakers. With the speakers yet to be announced, this will be a conference to keep on your radar.
This sums up all the big ecommerce conferences in AU that have been announced so far. We will continue to add to this list with new Australian ecommerce conferences & expos in 2023. If there are any additional ecommerce conferences you would like to see on this list, let us know!
International Women's Day occurs annually on the 8th March as a worldwide celebration of the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also largely centres on spreading the message that there is a continuous need for the advocation of gender equality and women's rights.
Show your support this International Women's Day by engaging with your audience to educate them about the cause and encourage them to purchase a gift for themselves or women in their lives as a means to acknowledge their appreciation and celebrate their achievements. Continue reading to explore some ideas on how you can embed this throughout your marketing initiatives!
Email Marketing : Gifts for International Women's Day
Send out a personalised email to your subscribers highlighting the products that are perfect for International Women's Day. Make sure you utilise visually appealing content to promote these products and encourage individuals to treat themselves and female loved ones to celebrate the day.
You can use catchphrases like "Make this International Women's Day all about self-love and self-care. Shop now and treat yourself to something special" to promote this.
Additionally, you can consider collating a special Gift Guide that displays products from your store that would be great presents for female loved ones. This does not have to be strictly limited to your email campaign as the same content can also be displayed on your website and social media pages.
Accompany the guide with phrases like "Find the perfect gift for the amazing women in your life this International Women's Day. Shop now and make their day" to encourage viewers to purchase for their loved ones.
Social Media Marketing : Celebrating International Women's Day
Utilise your social media platforms to share posts and initiatives dedicated to International Women's Day. This will allow you to show your support, whilst also gaining traction for your store and its products. Here are some ideas that will enable you to connect with your audience and showcase your products in a meaningful manner.
• Share inspiring quotes and messages from successful women on your social media channels
• Post eye-catching graphics and visuals encouraging women to celebrate International Women's Day with your product
• Run a giveaway that followers can join by sharing their stories of female empowerment
• Share user-generated content from customers who are celebrating International Women's Day with your products
You can accompany these initiatives with phrases like "Join the celebration and spread the message of female empowerment this International Women's Day" to encourage your viewers to interact with your posts and purchase from your store.
Partnering with Female-Led Businesses
Another thing you can consider is partnering with businesses led by women to further raise awareness and support for female entrepreneurship. Some initiatives you could implement could be:
• Creating discounted product bundles that feature products from both of your stores
• Showcasing a dedicated collection of their products on your store
• Hosting a joint giveaway where women can win a basket of products from your stores
Promote this collaboration with headlines like "This International Women's Day, make a difference with every purchase. Shop now and support female-led businesses".
Fundraising for Women's Rights Charities
If you want to directly support the cause through your business, consider donating a portion of your sales to an organisation advocating for women’s rights. You can do this by donating a certain percentage of profits site-wide, or even from specific products that you have selected. Make sure you promote this on your website to not only encourage people to purchase, but more importantly, educate your store’s visitors about the cause and the organisations you are supporting.
Additionally, you can consider setting up an optional donation option within your store's checkout function to encourage buyers to donate to further support the cause.
You can use phrases like "Join us in celebrating the strength of all women this International Women's Day. Shop now and contribute to a great cause" to promote your fundraising initiative.
St Patrick's day is annually observed on the 17th of March as a cultural and religious celebration that traditionally commemorates the death of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.
Though it is not recognised as a public holiday in most countries, St Patrick's Day is still widely celebrated across the world. Nowadays, this day has largely evolved into a celebration of Irish culture with celebrations often including Irish parades, food, music, dancing, drinking and the colour green.
As a result, St Patrick's Day initiatives can be implemented by e-commerce stores to drive more sales. Here are some a copy ideas that you can use to make use of this opportunity!
Lucky Sales! 🍀
With shamrocks and four leaf clovers being emblems of this celebration and linked to good luck, a "lucky sale" promotion will allow your business to engage with the celebrations whilst also incentivising potential buyers to purchase.
Incentivise potential buyers with exclusive discounts across your site and promotions on green themed products to celebrate St Patrick's Day and use catch phrases like "Get ready for the luckiest day of the year with our St. Patrick's Day Sale!" and "Good luck and great savings await you this St. Patrick's Day" to promote your sale.
Green-ify Your Brand 💚
Get into the St Patrick's Day spirit by filling your website, social media pages and ad campaigns with the colour green as well as other symbols associated with the day.
For example, you can incorporate shamrocks ☘️, four leaf clovers 🍀, rainbows 🌈, leprechauns 🎩, beer 🍻 and the Irish flag 🇮🇪. Don't forget to incorporate this spirit in your ad copies and content as well - you can use headlines like "Find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow with our amazing deals."
These small touches are not only a fun way to engage with the festivities, but will also allow your store to stand out and appeal to your potential customers!
