Small businesses, including children’s activity businesses, can make great revenue before the end of the year by taking advantage of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. Consumers are primed to buy on these days and business owners are missing out on these sales if they do not take advantage of the opportunities presented by these pre-holiday shopping days.

At Sawyer, our mission is to help children’s activity businesses run and grow with ease. One of the ways we do this is by providing business owners with easy-to-use features like discounts, gift cards, and free trials that they can utilize to find and retain customers. 

To help you prepare for the upcoming rush of the holiday season, we’ve outlined tactics you can add to your Black Friday marketing strategy and included valuable information about the benefits of offering discounts, gift cards, and more.  

• Black Friday marketing strategy
• ~Black Friday offers
• ~Black Friday marketing channels
• Benefits of offering discounts
• Benefits of gift cards

Black Friday marketing strategy

As a small business, you can, and should, expand your Black Friday marketing strategy to include Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. While consumers might be primed and ready to spend money the weekend after Thanksgiving, they are also expecting great deals. 

“Great deals” might make you think that you need to slash your prices and offer your classes at an unreasonably low price. However, that is not necessarily the case. While there are benefits of offering discounts, which will be covered in the next section, small businesses do not have the same ability to offer large discounts like big box stores do. That is ok! Instead, small businesses should focus their Black Friday marketing strategy on creating an incredible offer that makes the consumer feel like they are getting a lot of value for less money.

Black Friday offers

1. Build a bundle. Consumers are looking for deals and bundles are a great way to offer a deal without hurting your bottom line. You can bundle classes and offer a small discount, like 5 classes for the price of 3 or 4, or you can bundle a class with related materials like paints or even branded swag to make the offer more exciting to consumers.
2. Increase value. If you are trying to avoid discounts all together, you can instead keep your pricing the same and include more value in the regular purchase. For example, if you usually offer a drop-in in-person art class for $20, you can keep that pricing and then add access to a pre-recorded online drop-in art class as part of the deal. That way, your consumer feels like they are getting an additional bang for their buck and you are just providing access to an already existing class.
3. Lean into urgency. One of the reasons why Black Friday deals are so successful is the urgency created. When you announce your offers, make sure that you remind your consumers that these deals will not last past Cyber Monday. You can even create a “super deal” for the first 10, 25, 50, or 100 customers to encourage early purchases.

Black Friday marketing channels

Once you have established the Black Friday deal(s) you are going to offer, you need to announce these to your customers and build the buzz. According to the National Retail Federation, more than half of consumers start doing research for holiday gifts before October and November is the biggest month for purchases. Therefore, we recommend announcing your Black Friday deals at the end of October or beginning of November. Use these Black Friday marketing channels to get the word out.

1. Email. Email is a great marketing channel to announce your Black Friday deals to existing customers because you already have their email addresses. Email marketing should be simple and to the point. Write an enticing subject line to encourage customers to open the email and then jump right into the deal. Highlight the urgency and get them excited!
2. Social media. Social media is a useful tool for reaching new customers. Pew Research found that 33% of parents under 40 are on Instagram, which makes Instagram a useful social media platform for children’s activity businesses. Announce and continue to market your Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday deals in your Instagram Stories and feed posts. Repurpose those images and information for your company’s Facebook marketing as well so you hit both major social media platforms. Check out our guide with social media tips for businesses for even more information.
3. Print. Create flyers and other print marketing materials to hand out to families when they come in for your activities. Clearly state the deals that you are offering for Black Friday and how the consumer can take advantage of them. Want help making marketing materials that are sure to grab your customers’ attention? Use our free Canva design templates.

Benefits of offering discounts

Not sure if discounts are right for your business? It might seem counterintuitive, but offering discounts can often increase your revenue. Here are some of the benefits of offering discounts that might convince you to add discounts to your Black Friday marketing strategy.

1. Attract new customers and increase sales. Discounts give customers who were otherwise on the fence a reason to make the purchase. Once they have made the purchase, then it is up to you to give them a great experience in your class and then they are sure to return for another one!
2. Keep customers coming back. If you have a group of loyal customers, offering seasonal discounts is a great way to say thank you for their support and encourage them to continue to return.
3. Compete with peers. Adding discounts to your Black Friday marketing strategy is an important way to compete with your peers in the space. As we went over, discounts are not the only way to create an offer on Black Friday, but they are somewhat expected by consumers. Adding discounts, even if they are on the smaller side, to your Black Friday offer can help you stay in the running if new customers are comparing your business with another.

Benefits of gift cards

Gift cards are a very useful tool for Black Friday because they make great holiday presents and they can be easily bundled or offered as a value add-on to your Black Friday deal. The best part is that children’s activity businesses that use Sawyer can easily offer and accept gift cards right on the platform. Check out some other benefits of gift cards to see if they are right for your business.

1. Gifting experiences. Millennials are joining the ranks as parents and they are more interested in gifting (and receiving) experiences rather than things, according to an article in Salon about millennial parents. Offering gift cards is a great way to give that option to family members looking for gifts for children.
2. Boost revenue. Cardsource reports that 2 out of 3 consumers will spend 38% more than the gift card's value when purchasing gift cards because they view it as “free money.”
3. Income during slower months. Gift cards are great because you get the income immediately, which can make a huge difference during lighter financial months.

We hope that this guide has provided inspiration for your Black Friday marketing strategy so you can make the most of the holiday season. Raising money for your business does not need to be difficult. If you are a children’s activity business and you are looking for guidance on managing and running your business, the team at Sawyer is here to help. Use our resources for more support as well.

With our suite of tools, like custom forms to record allergies and t-shirt sizes, flexible payment options like gift cards and installment plans, and seamless scheduling and registration on any device, Sawyer saves business owners 28 hours per month. If you are ready to spend less time on admin and more time doing more of what you love, see how Sawyer can help with a free trial or demo.