Before You Plan That Black Friday Sale

Welcome to the wonderful world of marketing calendars, where Halloween kicks off in October, Christmas moves in before you’ve finished the candy, and if you’re just starting to think about Black Friday marketing, you’re already late. Yes, we are apparently doing Black Friday in October now. Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days took place on October 6 and 7, kicking off its holiday shopping season while the rest of us were still figuring out Halloween costumes.

Alas, this article was written to save you some stress, not add to it. So if you haven’t started thinking about Black Friday yet, I have some great news for you: You probably don’t need to. I know it might be weird hearing this from a marketing strategist, but stay with me.

Are you discounting your brand’s value?

I once worked with a founder who launched a jewelry line in November but insisted on running discounts of 30% to 40% for Black Friday and the upcoming holidays. Brand-new business, brand-new jewelry, immediately on sale. Trust me, I tried to warn her.

The result? She got a ton of sales, but she also trained her customers to wait until she was having a sale to buy. That highly discounted launch continues to haunt the brand to this day. Before customers had even gotten to know the pieces, the maker, or why the jewelry was worth investing in, they’d learned that they could get it for considerably less if they waited.

This is the part that rarely makes it into the “we had our biggest sales weekend ever” conversation. What happens when the promotion ends, and you need people to buy at full price? A discount might get you the first sale, but it can also create an expectation you’ll be dealing with long after the holiday decorations come down.

You can sell without having a sale

People often shop small for the very reason that you’re not Amazon. They appreciate the maker behind the brand and genuinely want to be more intentional about where they spend their money. They want the handmade piece, the thoughtful detail, the thing they’re not going to see in everybody else’s house. Give them a chance to appreciate that before you start slashing the price.

If you’re using exceptional materials, making things by hand, or offering something they can’t get elsewhere, that deserves more attention than the discount code. So if you’re feeling pressure to run a flashy sale just to keep up, here are some other ways to own the holiday season:

1. Small Business Saturday

Small Business Saturday is a moment built for you, and it doesn’t require putting your entire inventory on clearance. Use it to tell your story and show people what goes into the products they’re buying. Introduce the maker, show your process, and share the detail you obsessed over that most people would never notice.

If you have a physical location, give people a reason to stop by. Think cider, live demos, gift wrapping, or a chance to meet the person behind the products. Online, take them behind the scenes or put together a gift guide with your personal picks.

And tag-team with other small businesses. Your handmade candles plus someone else’s luxe blankets could become an irresistible “Cozy Night In” kit. You get introduced to their customers, they get introduced to yours, and shoppers get a thoughtful gift without doing all the work themselves. Just figure out the pricing and fulfillment first, because nobody needs a shipping crisis as their bonus holiday activity.

2. GivingTuesday

GivingTuesday gives you another way to participate in the season without announcing yet another sale. Pick a cause that makes sense for your business. If you sell eco-friendly products, an environmental organization could be a natural fit. If you run a bakery, consider a local food bank.

People can smell a disingenuous “we care” campaign from a mile away, so start with something you actually care about. You could contribute a set amount from each purchase, match donations within a budget, or organize a collection. Be specific about what you’re committing to and where it’s going. And if customers participated, let them see what their purchases or contributions made possible.

3. The roundup

Customers are drowning in their promotional inboxes this time of year and need someone to help them navigate the chaos. Enter you, their savvy guide to the good stuff. You can curate products and offers from your niche without discounting a single thing you sell.

Make the roundup specific enough to be useful, like gifts for the friend who takes hosting very seriously or the person who insists they don’t want anything but absolutely does. Include your own products where they fit, and tell readers why you picked each item. Bonus: if you have affiliate relationships, this can also be an opportunity to earn commissions from those recommendations.

4. The Black Friday hangover

By the end of the weekend, shoppers are exhausted, questioning a few purchases, and still missing half the gifts they actually needed. Enter the Black Friday Hangover offer, where you make the rest of their shopping a little bit easier.

Keep your pricing intact but sweeten the purchase with something useful: gift wrapping, a bonus item, a ready-to-give bundle, or free shipping above an order threshold that works for your margins. Someone buying a gift may care a lot more about whether it arrives wrapped and on time than whether they saved another $7.

Make the holidays work for your business

You don’t have to boycott Black Friday, and you don’t have to go all in. If you have inventory to clear, an offer that makes sense, and the margins to support it, a sale can absolutely work. But “everyone else is doing it” is a pretty expensive reason to discount your products. Black Friday will survive without your 30% off code, and you’ll probably have a much better holiday sales season because of it.

Related article by Jacinta Gandy:

The Marketing Trap Founders Keep Falling Into