The holidays are among us, the cold is here and the money is starting to be spent for our friends and loved ones. This time period brings joy and cherished memories that we carry with us forever.

To us business owners, this is the time period when all we think about is... Quarter four. The time period where if capitalized properly, your business will skyrocket in revenue.

By targeting holiday and Black Friday shoppers will be the best thing you will ever do for your business.

Fun fact:

Black Friday 2018 continues to gradually increase every year, with 74% of Americans planning to shop and spend their hard-earned money on Black Friday.

The average adult is expected to drop $483.18 on Black Friday, which equates to $90.14 billion — up to $30.57 billion from 2017’s projected spend of $59.57 billion. - according to Finder

Now for the tips...

Using artificial intelligence to create personalized marketing

Using AI to your advantage will grow your business exponentially. Back in the day, writing a letter, sending emails one by one, putting your business in the yellow books... you get where this is going. These tactics will leave you in the dust when you are facing heavy competition.

One way by using AI is scaling personalized holiday-themed messages to antagonize shoppers that have already been searching for holiday present ideas and or purchases. Amazon’s “might also like” feature, for instance, is one widely recognized example of machine learning in action, using pattern recognition to determine what a customer has done in the past to predict what they might do in the future.

AI runs on pure data and works to target customers with messages and offers specific to each individual. AI can even recognize your target customer's origin of birth, income and most interested objects they wish to obtain. You can also leverage AI technology to organize the best ways to personalize customer experiences with your business.

AI helps to recognize abandoned carts, helps with re-targeting potential customers. Discounts and sales are synonymous with holiday shopping; Black Friday alone adversities some of the most well-known discounts of the year.

However, a traditional abundance approach to incentives creates problems for B2C business, problems they might not even be able to identify without using AI intelligence. An AI will be your best friend along the road to having a successful business.

Mobile optimization

According to Mobify, 70% of e-commerce traffic by the end of 2018 will be accounted to mobile devices. To boost conversions and revenues through mobile, e-commerce, retailers, wholesalers, etc., can start with improving web page navigation, website speed and offering one-click purchases through mobiles.

You can boost impulse purchases by reducing the amount of effort it takes to buy something. The best way to do this is to make your site stress free and easy to navigate in order to produce that purchase.

You can definitely name a few people you know that are addicted to their mobile devices and can not get their eyes off of them. Even that friend that loves to shop on their favorite app or website.

These should be key viewpoints that can be targeted. If you run a B2C company, preferably e-commerce you can tap into that market. With the right social media targeting and the right platforms that your product is on will be a recipe for success.

Customer service & live chat

With so many impatient shoppers waiting to get their hands on your products and take advantage of your Black Friday deals, you will come across many of your customers eager to ask you questions about your offer.

Which if you don’t have live support year-round as a smaller online business, you should certainly consider it for the busy holiday season due to the enormous potential of heightened revenue due to added customer service with fast response.

While fast responses and interaction is an important factor in ensuring great customer service, businesses need to create a positive overall shopping experience to capitalize on your potential shoppers.

Holiday sales and promotions attract a greater number of new customers, and you don’t want to miss out on an opportunity to convert one-time shoppers into long term customers. Developing a relationship with your targeted audience will surely increase sales and ensure a better reputation for your company.

Business decision-makers already see AI marketing as a revolutionary engine. Leveraging your data you have collected from your audience and utilizing your AI system, you can make leaps and bounds to your business goals. While maintaining a superb customer relationship will dramatically boost your Thanksgiving and Black Friday sale aspirations for your business.

Boost results by teaming up with other businesses

Connect with other businesses with Black Friday or Cyber Monday initiatives and see if you can help each other out. You might consider doing cross-promotions or sharing the costs to market your offerings.

These types of team-ups can be very effective. Just ask the businesses that participated in Little Boxes, a “Shop Local” movement in Portland. According to Oregon Live, Little Boxes is “the small-business answer to big-box Black Friday.”

Make your store festive for Black Friday

If you are a business with a physical location, it’s important to have your shop in top shape, decorated and ready. These venues see an uptick in foot traffic around Thanksgiving, and some of those shoppers will end up in your shop. 

According to Retail Touchpoints, foot traffic to big box stores is expected to increase by 34%, this year! Having your physical store ready for Black Friday is becoming more important than before.

Here are some steps you’d want to take to capitalize on the additional traffic:

• Decorate your window displays and add-ons.

• Bring out your best and newest merchandise.

• Remember that people are in the mood to buy, so implement sales tactics that would get them to do so. These may include impulse buys, upsells/cross-sells, and suggestive selling.

• Prepare your staff. Ensure that they are ready and know what to expect.

• Make a Black Friday promotion a walk-in can not resist. For example 50% off, or BOGO deals.