Shopping is more social than ever.
During the 2022 Black Friday & Cyber Monday season, shoppers spent $9.1 billion online.
73% of those purchases, were made on mobile with 46% of consumers reporting they’ve discovered Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) promotions on social platforms - proving a holistic approach, with social media at its core, is essential for brands to drive sales this season.
While strategically planning for the busiest quarter of the year, the savviest marketers are leaning into influencers and creators to amplify their BFCM campaigns.
If Creator Marketing isn’t a part of your strategy, it’s not too late to build awareness of your BFCM offers, increase your reach and drive further sales in more ways than simply having creators post organically to their feeds. Let’s dive into some tips, creative strategies and examples of how brands are approaching Black Friday and Cyber Monday with their creator community.
3 tips for an elite BFCM Creator Marketing Strategy
1. CALL ON YOUR EXISTING COMMUNITY
Been working with creators throughout the year? Great! You’ll already know who your top performers are. Long-term partnerships with creators (who already know your brand and are proven to perform) will get your campaign to market faster. Plus, their content will resonate more as it’s not the first time their audiences will see your brand.
With TRIBE, you can identify these creators instantly, add them to a Brand-Fans group and exclusively invite them to your BFCM campaign.
2. REPURPOSE YOUR CONTENT ORGANICALLY
Give your Social Media manager the gift of ready-to-post content. Paid Partnerships with creators don’t have to end once you’ve reached their audience, you can re-post their content and reach yours. Anyone following your account is either already a customer, or very warm to being one and the more content mentioning your BFCM promotions the higher your chances of converting them.
3. AMPLIFY WINNING ORGANIC CONTENT
While organic social media is essential during BFCM, it’s far from your only channel.
64% of consumers hear about BFCM promos from online ads. There are two ways to supercharge your paid advertising with authentic UGC from your organic campaigns.
1 . Boost top-performing content as Creator Ads (Spark Ads on TikTok or Partnership Ads on Meta). Creator Ads combine social proof from relatable creator content with the sophisticated ad-targeting tech of TikTok and Meta.
Proven to drive 2.4x conversion lift and 3.9% lower cost-per-purchase, Creator Ads are most effective when combined with your existing brand-generated ad activity and add the variety and diversity of creative your performance marketing team can only dream of.
2. License your top organic content to fuel your brand ads. The same relatable content, but coming from you.
Gaining the rights to your fave content can also fuel your website, eComm store, EDM’s, OOH and even in-store signage with a goldmine of different voices all talking about your products.
TikTok Tips for Black Friday Creator Marketing
TIKTOK SHOP
69% of TikTok users expect to spend most of their time on the platform during the holiday season and they’re 1.4x more likely to buy a product they’ve seen while doing so.
TikTok Shop is designed to help marketers maximise sales and combined with engaging TikTok creator content you’re in an incredible position to have new customers adding to cart.
SOCIAL SEO
15% of all product discoveries begin on TikTok and BFCM is an ideal time to introduce your brand to new customers. TikTok is a search engine, especially for Gen Z. When working with creators, ensure they’re adding keywords to their captions and voiceovers and go a step further by adding trending hashtags like #BFCM #BlackFriday #TikTokMadeMeGiftIt #GiftIdeas and #HolidayHaul.
CREATIVE VARIETY
63% of TikTok users say they would purchase from a brand after two exposures to branded content. Creators are key to unlocking a volume of different creative ideas that appeal to diverse audiences. Plus, micro-creators are a budget-friendly way to do so at scale while avoiding creative fatigue.
Instagram Insights to consider this Black Friday
LEAN INTO SHORT-FORM VIDEO WITH REELS
We know short-form video is the highest-performing format across all channels, and Creator Marketing is no exception.
1.6x more people want short-form video that is authentic vs beautifully produced when scrolling Instagram. Creators are the perfect way to tap into that unfiltered style with Reels that bring your product to life in ways static imagery can’t.
Reels aren’t just the most viewed format, they’re the most shared. 93% of people surveyed by Meta reported they have shared Reels with family and friends creating a golden opportunity for your BFCM creator content to be shared to an even wider audience.
DIVERSIFY
Like TikTok, Meta are big believers in variety and diversity, as we all are. As marketers you know different people have very different reasons for purchasing the same product so it’s vital to have diverse creative that meets those reasons.
By running a TRIBE campaign, you’ll have dozens of creators pitching their ideas to your brief in no time. Our 100% opt-in community are diverse and compelling storytellers who can powerfully communicate your message to their highly engaged audiences - and beyond.
Tried and tested creative strategies from Black Friday TRIBE campaigns
Creativity is the name of the game during BFCM and it’s a time many brands come to life offering great discounts, offers and giveaways.
The opportunities to collaborate with creators to shoot content that aligns with your brand are almost endless. Think countdowns in the leadup to Black Friday, product reviews, unboxing videos, product hauls, testimonials, personal stories and gifting videos or get inspired by xx brands nailing their BFCM campaign strategy with TRIBE.
WILLOW BY THE SEA: TRACK WITH UNIQUE DISCOUNT CODES
Discount codes are a staple when running sales and offers, but by equipping your creators with their unique code you’re strengthening your relationship with them and increasing the sentiment amongst their audience that they’re getting something that extra bit special. You also have the bonus of tracking which creators converted the most customers giving you first-hand insight into who you should develop longer term partnerships with.
That’s exactly what Willow by the Sea did with their “20% off Black Friday Sale” campaign. Dozens of creators pitched their ideas to celebrate their organic skincare products before their fave 9 published their content with their unique discount code in their captions.
OLD SPICE: FOCUS ON GIFT-GIVING
While we all love spoiling ourselves a little, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the perfect opportunity to organise gifts for loved ones for the holidays. Instead of the ‘buy me’ messaging, why not try ‘buy for.’
While this is a sound strategy for any brand or product it was especially clever for Old Spice. They collaborated with creators with predominantly female audiences who are most likely to purchase their products for the men in their lives.
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BRITBOX: GO BIG WITH MICROS
Influencer Marketing’s evolution into Creator Marketing has changed the game, and while we’ve always believed in the power of micro-creators, it couldn’t be more true at this time of year.
Instead of working with a small number of large creators, work with a large number of smaller creators. You’ll reach a more diverse audience who will be more engaged because these creators are more relatable, and their content is more authentic.
To achieve their objective of driving traffic to their website, BritBox partnered with 55 unique creators who published 94 Instagram Posts and Stories - with links to sign up for a free trial of their streaming service. The Christmas-themed content resonated bringing in almost 300k impressions, an average reach of 7.12% and 30k engagements.
If you're ready to create stunning seasonal content and reach audiences who'll deliver the most sales, reach out to your Customer Success Manager to kick-start your Black Friday campaign.
New to TRIBE? Get in touch and our expert team will reach out to discover how we can help transform your company’s bottom line throughout the holiday season, and beyond.
