Hey thieves!
As part of a new Steal Club series, we will start diving deeper into specific topics to help you grow your audience and monetize your content.
This week: Black Friday for creators
Let's dive in!
Or, if you prefer, read the deep dive on Twitter or our blog 👇
Reading time: 5 minutes, 25 seconds
We are less than 2 months away from one of the most anticipated days of the year for online businesses: Black Friday.
Black Friday is notoriously famous for big commerce. It’s the day when everyone and their mothers are doing a discount.
How about smaller creators like us? Is Black Friday just as effective?
And the answer is: absolutely YES.
Black Friday is an absolute must-have on your calendar if you sell any digital product.
The problem?
It’s REALLY HARD to stand out.
So, how do you get your product noticed on Black Friday?
Let us help you with these 5+1 stolen tactics to make a killing this Black Friday.
Why Black Friday
I get it. It feels icky to sell stuff on Black Friday.
Giving away heavy discounts feels like you are devaluing your products. But let’s try to consider the situation from a different perspective:
Offering a big discount is not to devalue your products but rather to provide new customers with a chance to try them out.
If they like what they bought on Black Friday, these customers will be more likely to buy from you again.
This is the mindset shift we need to make as creators around Black Friday: It’s more than just a way to get more revenue.
It’s about creating more customers for your business.
The Tactics
Now that we have that out of the way let's get to the tactics. What can you do to stand out on Black Friday? Here are 5 tactics to steal 👇
#1 - The Countdown
Jack Butcher ran a brilliant Black Friday campaign a few years back.
Rather than waiting until Black Friday to release discounts on his digital products, Jack gave a discount a few days earlier, but with a twist: the discount amount decreased daily until it reached zero on Black Friday.
Why was this so effective? Two reasons:
- Less competition
- And generates a sense of urgency and FOMO
"I need to buy today because tomorrow the discount will be lower."
Something else that makes this tactic effective is that it gives you an excuse to communicate continually about the discounts 👇
It’s a fun, different way to sell a digital product on social media.
🕵️♂️ How to steal it?
Imagine your product’s target release date is August 6. You could plan your discounts like the following 👇
- August 1 → 50%
- August 2 → 40%
- August 3 → 30%
- August 4 → 20%
- August 5 → 10%
- August 6 → 0%
Jack used this tactic specifically for Black Friday, but it could also apply to other dates. You only need a target release date and think about the discount amount you want to give each day.
Would you be trying this one?
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#2 - The Price Hike
Black Friday has scarcity baked in, ending in Cyber Monday. If that’s not enough for you, there’s a way to add an extra element of urgency to the sale: a Price Hike.
Steph Smith did it when she released her Doing Content Right book 👇
The way it works is simple: Steph started selling the product at a low price, but the price increased as more units she sold.
This generates a nice loop because the more sales you get, the more social proof you build for the product + the sense of urgency.
Pair that with the Black Friday buying frenzy and sales are a guarantee!
In Steph’s own words, this price hike tactic generates that “I must get this before the current price tier disappears." 👇
Someone else who applied this tactic successfully was Justin Moore. And he also used it as a communication excuse (like we’ve seen in tactic #1)!
🕵️♂️ How to steal it?
Set an initial price and the number of units you want for each price. Pick a lower price to get the first sales fast. If you want to set a limit, it's better to limit it per unit rather than per price.
The goal is to generate that sense of FOMO and urgency.
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#3 - Announce a price change
This one is pretty simple:
- Tell people you'll increase prices on one of your products
- Add a time constraint related to Black Friday (for example, the day after Cyber Monday)
- Watch your sales skyrocket
FOMO (fear of missing out) is one of the most powerful sales tactics. Here’s how Corey announced the price hike for his membership using Black Friday as an excuse 👇
This is a very effective tactic. Danny Postma claims that he got an extra $8k for one of his products (not on Black Friday) 👇
The only thing you need to remember with this tactic is to stay true to your claim.
You risk losing your credibility if you say the price for one of your products changes and then it immediately reverts to the original price after the promotion ends.
🕵️♂️ How to steal it?
If you have been thinking about changing the price of one of your products, using Black Friday as an excuse could be a very wise move.
You don’t even need to offer a discount, just the claim that the price will go up will be enough for most people.
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#4 - Plug when there are opportunities
Black Friday is also a field day for curators. A bunch of creators take the opportunity to become the go-to place to see offers 👇
This means opportunity.
Be on the lookout for these opportunities, as they can quickly drive a few extra sales.
Nothing to sell? Then become one of these curators instead. These posts can bring a ton of brand awareness and traffic to your direction.
Maybe you can even talk to some of these creators and take a % of sales? Just an idea 👀
🕵️♂️ How to steal it?
During Black Friday, be on the lookout for this type of post.
Use advanced search to look for the term “Black Friday deals,” “offers,” or “discounts.” Have a few plug posts ready, so it’s just a matter of copy-pasting.
This is a very manual process, but effective if done well.
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#5 - Bundle your products
This tactic might be a bit more obvious than the ones above, but it still seems to be very effective for creators on Black Friday: Bundle your products 👇
If you have a suite of products related to each other, why not bundle them together? The result should be a cheaper price than if people buy them separately.
Even so, doing this increases the perceived value of the bundle, leading to more sales for more money than just discounting the products separately.
Another example 👇
🕵️♂️ How to steal it?
Bundle all your products together. If you can, give it some storytelling like Jay above, who called it the Sovereign Bundle.
That will make it feel more like a standalone product and increase its perceived value.
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Bonus: Christmas Bundle
I absolutely loved this when Sara from Systms showed me. Instead of Black Friday, she waits a few more days and creates the “12 Days of Giveaways”.
How it works: she does a giveaway each day for 12 days in December. Some are free templates, others discounts on her products…👇
I know this is not strictly Black Friday. Still, it’s another way to piggyback on the consumerism that affects all of us around those dates.
If you are curious, sign up for this year’s 12 Days of Giveaways!
Other ideas
These are smaller ideas that didn’t fit into a full tactic, but I still wanted to share them with you 👇
→ Offer one-off products just for Black Friday
I couldn’t find any examples of this, but my gut tells me that if you offer a one-off product just available for Black Friday (like a live workshop or masterclass), it could do well. Again, playing with extreme scarcity and FOMO.
→ Do it for charity
If you are anti-black Friday but still want to take something good out of this day, you could do like Kieran Drew did last year. He did a Black Friday sale for one of his products but donated all profits to charity👇
Make this Black Friday your best one yet
Remember, Black Friday is all about creating more customers for your business.
Embracing it can be a pivotal moment for your business. Don’t let it slide!
If you enjoyed this write ip, would you mind engaging with the Twitter version or sharing the web version?
This would help me spread the word about The Steal Club!
Thanks! And see you in two days with our regular thefts
Alex Llull, Chief Thief
The Steal Club
PS: What do you think of this deep dive?
👍 Steal Worthy
😄 It was Ok
👎 Do better
What topics would you like me to write more about? Any type of feedback is appreciated.
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