Learn How the Little Guys Can Earn Big with Black Friday & Cyber Monday

black friday and cyber monday

The numbers for Black Friday and Cyber Monday tell a compelling story for any entrepreneur or small business. 2013 total online sales since Thanksgiving were up 26 percent.

PayPal saw a 91 percent increase in sales from PayPal mobile worldwide. eBay Enterprise saw usage and orders grow just under 150 percent. Even if their businesses are not retail, entrepreneurs can capitalize on these retail holidays with a marketing strategy that builds on these seasonal shopping days.

Why Join the Hype?

Steve Strauss, writing for Bank of America Small Business Community, says that all the hype around Black Friday and Cyber Monday means opportunity for small businesses. He says promotion for these two big sales and marketing opportunities is key. Businesses should plan to promote their offers, consider special offers for this time of year, and prepare their websites and mobile sites for increased Black Friday marketing and traffic.

Promote Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers in every avenue currently used and consider adding more, including e-newsletters, blogging, social media contests, and promotions. Strauss recommends planning as far in advance as possible for these promotions.

Some large retailers like Walmart capitalize on these retail dates all year long. According to Deal News, large retailers use Black Friday branding in summer and fall to get customer attention without all the marketing “noise” that happens in November. Retailers don’t offer the same kind of attention-grabbing deals as the doorbusters in November when running Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals at other times of the year. They just re-brand their seasonal sales as major shopping events and benefit from the additional interest and traffic that it generates.

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How to Get in on the Hype Even if You’re Not in Retail

Entrepreneurs and small businesses that aren’t in retail still benefit in a big way from the shopping and sales hype leading up to and surrounding Black Friday and Cyber Monday. As Chris Guthrie explains in Entrepreneur Boost, there are more ways to make money from holiday shoppers than just selling them a toy or a gadget.

Making money from websites with the traffic garnered from affiliate programs, Google Adsense, and associate programs are not difficult to do heading into the second half of the year. Monetizing content with Google Adsense, Linkshare, and Commission Junction, heavily promoting large retailers, and linking to products on sale that are related to your business or niche gets dollars flowing your way from increased online activity, especially with the right keywords. Guthrie targets Cyber Monday and Black Friday as keywords in posts to grab seasonal traffic for his websites.

You Need a Strategy

You can capitalize on the shopping frenzy that starts the day after Thanksgiving even if you just let your customers know you’ll give them a break on whatever your business does during that time, but you’ll have a head start and be able to benefit even more with a strategy. For that strategy to be the most effective, and pull in the most customers and revenues, it must include mobile conversions and social media.

The IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark reports that mobile traffic made up almost 30 percent of total Cyber Monday traffic for 2013, an almost 60 percent increase from the year before, and converted to 17 percent of online sales. And the Adobe Digital Index reports that the 2013 shopping season reached into the billions of dollars in record-breaking days from online and mobile sales. That means you need to have your online offering optimized for an attractive mobile experience.

To take advantage of social referrals for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday offerings, you need to put them on Facebook and Pinterest. Shares and likes this time of year mean traffic and conversion sales. Entrepreneurs and small businesses can get traffic and sales just like the big retailers with posts that preview their offers, promote a “Cyber Week” to sell all week instead of just one day, offer real-time deals, and target the specific demographics that use their products and services.