In the Loupe
In the Loupe
Mastering Black Friday: Elevate Your Store's Success ft. Hope Bellair
Prepare to transform your online presence into a powerhouse of holiday cheer. We discuss how to maintain an omni-channel experience that seamlessly connects your digital and physical storefronts especially around the time of year where it matters most!
Don't let outdated information be the Grinch that steals your holiday sales—tune in as we share the essential steps to ensure your business shines brightly in the bustling retail landscape.
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Welcome back everybody to In the Loop. A couple of easy to do things that you should be touching up for your website ahead of Black Friday, and some of them are important to do sooner rather than later so that way your website reflects on the web what your store hours are, what your store offerings are, and also to try to drive as much traffic as you possibly can. It's a fun conversation, nice and snack size. I hope you enjoy us talking about Black Friday. Good luck this year, Cheers.
Speaker 2:This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the jewelry industry's favorite website platform and digital growth agency. Our mission reaches way beyond technology. With decades of experience and long-lasting industry relationships, punchmark enables jewelry businesses to flourish in any marketplace. We consider our clients our friends, as many of them have been friends way before becoming clients. Punchmark's own success comes from the fact that we have a much deeper need and obligation to help our friends succeed. Whether you're looking for better e-commerce performance, business growth or campaigns that drive traffic and sales, punchmark's website and marketing services were made just for you. It's never too late to transform your business and stitch together your digital and physical worlds in a way that achieves tremendous growth and results. Schedule a guided demo today at punchmarkcom. Slash go and now back to the show.
Speaker 1:What is up everybody? My name is Michael Burpo. I am joined by Hope Belair, the digital marketing manager at Punchmark. How do you do today, hope?
Speaker 3:I'm doing so well, how about you, mike?
Speaker 1:I'm good. So we're talking about Black Friday prep. I want to do like a little bit of a shorter episode. I feel like I've done the full gambit of holiday prep episodes this year. We did one that was like after the trade shows but before the holidays and that was like a retailer roundtable and that was like what do you do between the months? And then I did one that was like the pre-marathon stretch, which was with you. And then I did a prep one with Ray Lance from the Diamond Center and that one was like getting excited for it. This one is going to be about actually what is the checklist or what are the actual things you should be doing to prep for the holidays, and you talk with our jewelers all the time. What would be like the first step in prepping for Black Friday?
Speaker 3:The first step is, of course, having a plan. So the easiest thing to do and I know we're a little late in the game, right, it's November already, we're doing the things but having a solid plan back in August or September for what is going to happen on Black Friday is really the key here. From there, don't worry, you're not behind schedule. If you haven't planned like that already, there's still time. If you find out what your promo is, if you find out what you're going to offer, first step is getting the word out there right, whether that be a website banner, facebook event, social posts, google ads all the things to let your client base and more know what you're doing for Black Friday. That would be step number one for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, what's interesting is a couple of the businesses in my town are starting to do Facebook events again and it's they're actually kind of really well put together and they also use them to post photographs from the night before and it's kind of like almost like a community sort of thing community around their business, and I've actually started to really like that. I think it's so funny. Facebook the big blue app it'll never die. It seems like, oh my gosh, we were Facebook the big blue app it'll never die. It seems like, oh my gosh. We were using Facebook for one purpose back in the day and then another one and it's gone through like seven lifespans at this point. But now look at it, we're using like these old tools again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's ever changing. I mean they just want to stay relevant, so they're going to constantly keep changing and pivoting to make sure know everybody's still good. I mean I remember when I was 12 years old, 13 years old, playing like a farmer's game on there.
Speaker 1:you know, now we're doing, we're talking business now, right, so they want to stay relevant throughout the years oh gosh, side note, if you ever open up, uh, if you ever want some scaries, you just got to open up your Facebook time hop, and I open them every single day and I'm like, wow, that was my status back in 2007.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, can't believe they let me on this app. So now let's just say they have a plan already. One of the things that we've been talking a lot increasingly about is promotions and having just a sale, and one of the things I think it was with Vincent. I was talking with him and or maybe it was Lee, and he was saying you know, I think that we just like to have a sale, because when people call ahead of time, they're like, hey, is there any sales going on? And it's just nice to have something to say as opposed to not, and whether that's like you know whether they take advantage of it by actually buying the thing that's on sale, I sometimes think that that's almost doesn't super matter. Have you heard, when you've been speaking with your jewelers, any interesting sales that are going to be happening this year, or promotions, I guess?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the most interesting one that I found year over year is with one of our top clients here. He has two stores here in the North Carolina region and they do a first 20 people to show up at the door get a certain gift card that allows a different percentage off, and it's really cool because one it entices people to come into the store and line up before the store opens, whatever time that is, and you have an incentive to. Maybe you're getting, you know, 15, 20% off on certain things. Maybe you're getting a dollar amount off. That would be really stellar going towards a diamond tennis bracelet or something bigger. Right, you might get that bigger ticket item out the door with something like that. So that's one of the most interesting things that I think I've seen, as well, as there's another with when you're checking out, you do scratch-offs and you can scratch off a certain percentage of something like that.
Speaker 3:So it's kind of like hitting both sides of the aisle enticing people to come in because you're going to want to be the first 20 people there, and enticing people to see what kind of discount they get on the back end, having already figured out what they're going to be purchasing in the store. So I think that's really creative, I think it's really cool and I think it's beneficial for both jewelers and their clients to have something like that. It's awesome.
Speaker 1:Is there? There must be a company that does custom scratch-offs like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I wonder how they make those you know, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3:I wonder if there's a, maybe just like a company that I don't. I don't know, because it's just one singular scratch off. It's not like you're, you know, lottery ticket scratch offs where you're trying to get three in a row, or whatever it is. Yeah it's just the one, so it's good. But yeah, I don't know. That's very cool, it's a good thought.
Speaker 1:I definitely. I find that you're right, though, with the mix of by now reasoning, so like reasons to come into the door, but then also that spontaneous kind of I mean, it's gambling, it's dopamine, that's what we're kind of looking for, at least a little bit, and that's in the short term, and I do think that there's a lot of studies that show that having you know dopamine and also just like positive feelings at the time of a purchase, can make you more likely to be a repeat purchaser, and, you know, think of a couple of different business models that leverage that. So, at the same time, I think that you're onto something. One of the things I've always wondered about, though, is when it comes to repeat buyers, so like having people come back, and what can you do with that?
Speaker 1:I think that offering coupons that are good for a time period, so being like hey, um, you know, if you, like you just bought this expensive piece, uh, we're going to give you a coupon that is good until Christmas, and it's almost like a reason for them to come back and do more shopping with you. Um, I think that what we're just basically doing is taking, like the, the principles of. For me, just basically doing is taking like the principles of for me it's user experience but the principles of shopping and kind of taking that nugget and applying them to a promotion. Because what I've kind of started to learn is if you have a promotion that's just like a general discount and you don't even promote it, what you're doing is you're basically just like kind of washing away whatever that promotion amount is 10 or 10% or 5% or whatever that value is if you're not actually leveraging it for the buy now reasoning, I guess.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I agree, buying now and having that promotional sale is important, but there is one thing too you know when you were talking about that, and really it's the psychology of you know marketing for one, but also to your client and brand relationship. So who they interacted with on the sales floor, you know who sold them the product, who is their kind of rep per se. I think that has a lot to do with it as well. Now it made me think of actually this one time I did a random review on a gi for for jujitsu Kings kimonos and I loved the gi so I went and I did a review and now they're one of my top brands.
Speaker 3:because when I did that review, they emailed me after that and said hey, thank you so much for the review. I really appreciate it. Here's 10% off your next order, whenever you order next.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I think there's a lot of different ways that a brand can really nurture those repeat customers to come back into the store, whether it be an unexpirable coupon code for them to use, because you know they're just a great customer and you want them to come back, or, you know, again being like hey, I noticed you bought something last year, looking for something again, type of thing. I think that's that's a really good, important process.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I uh, I spoke with Ray Lance from the Diamond Center a few weeks ago, and one of the things he was talking about was they did an event with their VIPs and they had like a golf center and it was like a really, you know, kind of a fancy, kind of let's get ready for the holidays, and they had them in.
Speaker 1:They had these goodie bags, that, and one of them was they had like gift cards for them to use and they expired on Christmas day.
Speaker 1:But it's really interesting though, because definitely there is some validity to the point of having a motivated hyper-in-tune customer being worth three or five or whatever the number is general clients or customers I mean at Punchmark even, we have this select of I mean the term in user experience is power users you know these shoppers or customers that are so into your product that they are willing to vouch for you. They're willing to limit, test and like, try new things and explore and push the boundaries of it and just like with that. I think that shoppers could be that same way, where, if you can nurture and build up a selection of these, these shoppers, those ones are actually like relatively worth more than just prospects that might be from out of town might come into your shop once, buy and never return. I mean the money is still green, but at the same time I think that having those repeat customers is especially valuable, right, yeah, absolutely, because I mean we're talking lifetime value.
Speaker 3:Now, basically, what you want to do, I mean from the prospecting stage, get them in the door, get them something small and then nurture that relationship from there on so that they are your $20,000, $30,000, you know, five-year client or what have you, whatever their you know budgets are. Ultimately, having those relationships is going to be fruitful on both ends for the client and for you, because you're building that trust, you're building that client-jeweler relationship and really able to pull out all the stops for them and say, hey, you're our VIP, now come to this event and you get special pricing because you are so great. Or hey, I saw this really beautiful, rare gemstone come in today. I would love to do a custom piece for you. Are you in the market? And because you already have that relationship, it's more a shoo-in than, let's say, someone just walking down the street didn't know your name.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally with you. We're going to take a quick break and hear a word from our sponsor.
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Speaker 1:And now back to the show. And we're back. So we've talked about having a reason to come in. We talked about the prep as well. Now, when it comes to having their website ready, let's talk about the omni-channel experience, especially around Black Friday. I know that one of the things that sometimes people have a hard time our clients have a hard time with keeping up with when it comes to the holidays is making sure that they stay on top of their website when it seems like all the action is happening on in their brick and mortar. But the thing is, I sometimes feel like we can't let that slip away because I mean, I look all the time on people's websites before I go into their store, especially around here when people have stranger hours. I want to make sure that they're either open or they're stocked with what I want before I make the trek. What are some ways that people can prep their website in order to be ready for the Black Friday and holiday season as well? In order to be ready for the Black Friday and holiday?
Speaker 3:season as well, Absolutely. So first step, and the easiest I think, is on all Punchmark websites there's an announcement bar at the top. If you need to really say hey, if for some reason, let's say you're opening at 4 am on Black Friday, that's a good place to put it right, Because it's bam right at the front, you know exactly what's happening. And then Hours definitely need to be updated there, because if people are Googling your business or going on Apple Maps to get directions, you want those hours to be synonymous with whatever hours you're holding in store.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Second point I guess a banner. That's like bare minimum. In my opinion, you need a banner saying hey, black Friday is happening here, I'm not closed, here's my hours, here's what incentives you have to come into the store, because that's going to be the big thing that people see right up front. It's you can't miss it. You click on your website, either mobile or desktop, and boom, it's right there. You literally can't miss it. And that's what really is going to prompt people to either explore more on your website and see what else you have to offer, to maybe come in for that initial buying experience, or, if it's a repeat customer, just seeing, maybe, what you had going on for Black Friday. You've informed them without necessarily needing to send them a client telling email or something like that. So, bare minimum, I'd say announcements and banner, very easy steps to go ahead and get your website ready.
Speaker 1:I'm totally with you. Yeah, I think I think that banner bar is or we call it an announcement bar or alert bar those are very, very, very effective. I look at them every single time and I think that having that little call out like hey, black Friday, opening at 9 am on this date, and having that be a thing I think I'd also encourage, I think that people really just try it out. Rip up a quick landing page and here's the sections that all you need to do Just toss a banner at the top, a section that's. That's like a little bit of text that says hey, we're excited for upcoming, you know, for Black Friday, here's some of our favorite pieces.
Speaker 1:Or you know, shop ahead of time and then embed just a handful of products on there, whether you use a product carousel, which is super easy on a Punchbox website, but I'm sure pretty much every website platform has that so nothing special there. Go, put those on there and then add your store hours and just boom, done. There you go, I think, just having it so that you have a couple select. For example, on Punchmark websites you can use slash specials, which is products that are on sale, so it automatically pulls all products that are going to be discounted and if you put them into a product carousel it allows people just to get a little excited and see what's going on, and you can link your banner right to that landing page and you'll start to get an idea of interest. And it's just kind of one of those things you can just start like using to promote a little bit more.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Yep, I think we hit all the big three.
Speaker 1:I guess now on the websites, yeah, now I think that one thing that we always kind of uh overlook is Black Friday goes right into holidays. I think you also need to have something. Put something on your calendar that tells you, hey, you need to go and either undo or unwind or update those other things that you have already just done. So put something on your calendar for the Monday after Black Friday, so I guess that will be December 2nd or 3rd, I guess at this point I'm going off memory. Put something on your calendar that reminds you to update your holiday hours at this point. So you maybe you had something custom for Black Friday, but I really recommend that you have a. You also do your holiday hours as well and make sure that they are up to date and do those things. So if you had a Black Friday banner, update that to be your holiday banner. It's time to unwind them.
Speaker 1:And it kind of makes me die a little bit inside when we go to our retailers websites and they still have like Black Friday stuff and it's December, you know, 23rd. It's like, brother, you're missing a little bit of the of the buying season at this point. You're behind. So that's it, and I know it's hard. You got to kind of keep an eye on both things while you're driving and look in two different directions, but it's definitely worth it. It's important to just add some reminders to yourself.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Yep Having. I mean, think about it when, let's say, you're switching out a banner in the store that's a physical banner, maybe a promotion for Black Friday or something like that and you're switching it to more of a Christmas thing. Think of the same thing on when you do it that day. Make sure you do it on your website too.
Speaker 1:I think that's probably all the things I had wanted to make sure that we cover. I just want to do something kind of quick and easy, because this will be coming out leading up to the Black Friday and holiday season. We want to get one more in there of like some actionable things you can do. Right now, we've really covered a lot of holiday stuff because every year people seem to really enjoy it and find it useful. We'll probably keep doing that, but everybody really hope that you have an awesome Black Friday, an awesome holiday buying season. You crush all your goals and we'll see you guys right here next Tuesday. And yeah, thanks again. Hope Really appreciate your time.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Take it easy, everybody. See you next week. Bye, all right, everybody. That's the end of the show. Thanks so much for listening. This episode was brought to you by Punchmark and produced and hosted by me, michael Burfo. My guest this week was Hope Belair, digital Marketing Manager for Punchmark, and you can learn more about Punchmark's digital marketing program by going to punchmarkcom. This episode was edited by Paul Suarez with music by Ross Cockrum. Don't forget to rate the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave us feedback on punchmarkcom slash loop. That's L-O-U-P. We'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Cheers, bye.
