Why Use Influencers For Black Friday And Cyber Monday?
Gone are the days of hoards waiting outside retail giants’ storefronts, bellies full of Thanksgiving turkey, impatiently waiting for their chance at snagging the best deals over Black Friday. These days, Black Friday comes early with many brands running early access sales the week prior while teasing promotions starting at the very beginning of November. The key is standing above increased ad pollution to reach your audience where they are; social platforms – your ticket in? The right influencer marketing guide for Black Friday and Cyber Monday! Let’s dive in.
Influencers hold a unique position of trust and authority, with the power to guide consumer behavior at pivotal moments. In fact, according to a 2023 Kaspersky survey, 58% of shoppers seek product recommendations from influencers and bloggers during Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BF/CM), emphasizing how significant these digital voices are in purchasing decisions. Additionally, research from the Consumer Specialists Association found that nearly half of all BF/CM shoppers rely on social media to discover deals, with a quarter preferring to shop directly through these channels.
Not enough? Check out these stats on the effects creators and social platforms have on consumer behavior:
Sources: Meta-Commissioned survey of 12,063 consumers | Whalar and Neuro-Insight 2019 Study | Prabhakar Raghavan, Senior Vice President, Google | Edelman 2019 Trust Barometer: In Brands We Trust? | Digital Marketing Institute, First published October 2018, Updated October 2021
Key Strategies To Drive Sales Using Influencers For BF/CM
To capture maximum value, brands need a strategic approach that leverages both influencer reach and creative activations. Here’s a toolkit to make the most of influencer marketing during BF/CM.
1. Start early and create urgency through influencers
Building anticipation can make or break a BF/CM campaign. Working with influencers to create excitement in advance can ensure your brand stays top-of-mind as BF/CM approaches.
Early teasers: Collaborate with influencers to hint at upcoming deals and products. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok Stories are ideal for such previews. Adding countdown stickers (available on IG Stories & Reels) can visually reinforce the limited-time aspect of your sale, creating a sense of urgency. Bonus points: On IG, viewers can also tap to be notified when the countdown is about to end!
Flash sales and early access: Leverage influencers to announce exclusive early-access promotions or flash sales. This strategy can make followers feel like insiders, driving them to engage with your brand before the general public.
Final countdown posts: Before the sale period ends, influencers can share a final reminder, building urgency and encouraging last-minute purchases.
2. Use a mix of influencers to boost reach and frequency
Different types of influencers offer distinct benefits. To optimize reach and engagement, consider using a mix of micro, macro, and mega influencers, depending on your goals and budget.
- Micro-influencers for targeted engagement: If your goal is to foster higher engagement, micro-influencers can offer greater audience trust and relevance. They tend to have highly engaged followers and can add a personal touch to promotions.
- Macro and mega influencers for mass attention: For brands looking to amplify visibility on a larger scale, macro-influencers with significant followings can generate widespread awareness.
- Frequency is key: Consumers are bombarded during this time of year with all sorts of promotions and sales, so repetition is your friend to make your message stick when it comes time for gifters to make a purchase. Consider Including agreements for multiple posts in your influencer contracts to ensure that your message reaches its audience multiple times, reinforcing the promotion and increasing the likelihood of conversion. Long-term partnerships can also be more effective than single-activation collaborations for this.
3. Adopt a Multi-Platform Approach
Leveraging multiple platforms can expand your reach and increase exposure. Try to collaborate with influencers that have sizable followings across multiple platforms. Alternatively, you can diversify your platform reach by selecting multiple influencers who each account for reach on a specific platform. (For example: Influencer A has 30K followers on Instagram, while Influencer B has a sizable following on TikTok.)
Each platform provides unique opportunities:
Instagram: Ideal for high-quality images, Stories, and carousel posts, Instagram is one of the most popular platforms for BF/CM marketing. With features like “link in bio” and tap links on Stories and Reels, it’s perfect for direct conversions.
TikTok: Being a rising star in influencer marketing over the last several years, TikTok is especially effective for short-form video content and real-time promotions. Collaborating with influencers for challenges, live streams, unboxing videos, and more activations of that nature can help to increase engagement and drive demand.
YouTube: For brands with a longer story to tell, long-form videos on YouTube—like product reviews or “best deals” guides—can provide audiences with more in-depth information, which is valuable for high-ticket items.
4. Utilize Diverse Content Formats
A single content format may not capture the range of shopper preferences. Incorporating various content types—such as static posts, videos, IG Reels, Stories, and feed posts—ensures your message reaches audiences in ways they’re most likely to engage with.
Video content for engagement: Video, especially in formats like Instagram Reels and TikTok, often garners higher engagement rates than static posts.
Stories for flash promotions: Ephemeral content like Stories can be a powerful tool for time-sensitive offers, as they disappear after 24 hours, adding urgency. Consider having your influencers use these to promote flash sales and link them to your site.
Evergreen content: When planning posts with your influencers, consider making the content slightly more evergreen so it can be repurposed for the remainder of the holiday season.
5. Amplify with Branded Content Ads
Here’s the real MVP of your influencer strategy–To maximize reach and have more control over your target audience, consider using branded content to amplify influencers’ organic content. With partnership ads, the influencer’s organic reach is combined with your brand’s targeting criteria and budget, allowing you to reach their audiences + specific prospecting or retargeting segments your brand needs to reach.
Want to learn more about how to run branded content on Meta and TikTok? Check out this article for a step-by-step guide!
6. Incentivize Shoppers with Discount Codes and Affiliate Marketing
Discount codes and affiliate links provide a dual benefit of driving conversions and allowing brands to measure ROI. Influencers can offer followers exclusive discount codes, increasing purchase intent by giving audiences a tangible benefit. Bonus: Most creators these days have an LFK, ShopMy, or Storefront attached to their account, which would allow for conversions during BF/CM as well as capitalizing on any post-season purchases.
Affiliate links for trackable ROI: Personalized affiliate links allow brands to track sales conversions directly from influencer promotions, providing an easy-to-measure metric for campaign success.
Exclusive codes to create urgency: Consider leveraging limited-time codes to foster a sense of urgency and exclusivity, making followers feel like they’re part of a special promotion.
Out-of-the-box Applications For BF/CM Influencer Campaigns
So you’ve decided influencer marketing is a must for your brand this holiday season. That’s great! But you’re going to need an edge to really stand out in all the noise of the season and reach your audience in a distinctive manner. Here are some unique activation ideas to get you started that can help your brand stand out during the chaos of BF/CM:
User-generated content (UGC) collaboration campaigns
Have influencers encourage followers to create and share their own content using a branded hashtag, incentivized by giveaways or contests. This approach not only broadens reach but also generates authentic content that can be repurposed across the brand’s channels. A great example is AdParlor’s recent activation with Campbell’s Soup, which successfully leveraged influencers and their followers to create and share unique recipes, fostering a community of engaged users.
Gamified promotions with influencers
Consider creating a “treasure hunt” type activation where influencers post clues across social platforms, leading followers to hidden deals or exclusive discounts. This strategy enhances engagement, encourages followers to interact with the brand over a longer time, and provides a memorable experience.
Influencer-curated gifting guides
For holiday shoppers, influencer-curated gift guides can be invaluable. Have influencers select products from your brand that they’d recommend as gifts, organized by themes (e.g., “For the Fitness Fanatic,” “For the Home Chef,” etc). This personalized approach offers a service to followers and showcases a curated selection, which may drive a higher average order value.
Connecting digital audiences with in-store experiences
For brands with retail locations, bridge online and IRL promotions to drive in-store traffic with unique influencer activations. Work with local or regional micro-influencers to promote in-store events, exclusive product promotions, or localized discounts, and amplify these efforts with geo-targeted branded content ads. Alternatively, you could have local influencers host “live shopping events,” by going live on their accounts as they “shop” the in-store deals.
Need some more inspo? Check out this influencer activation AdParlor created for a major national office retailer’s new store opening campaign.
Your BF/CM Influencer Marketing Checklist
Don’t sleep on it–Influencer marketing is a powerful tool to leverage during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Here’s a quick recap of the key points to keep in mind:
With a comprehensive, creative influencer strategy in place, your brand can harness the power of influencer marketing to not only drive sales but create a memorable, engaging shopping experience for consumers this Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Want to know more about how much working with influencers can cost and what to prepare for? Check out this complete guide on influencer pricing.
And, as always, if you’re looking for a strategic partner to help bring your influencer aspirations to life, —reach out to our team of experts who can help. From strategy and research, to management and measurement, we’ve got you covered!
About the Author
With nearly a decade of experience in the industry, Chase is a seasoned marketing professional, adept in multiple disciplines from digital media planning & buying to account and project management. For the last three years, Chase has worked with AdParlor, first on the client account side, and now on the marketing side of the business.
When he’s not planning his next big campaign for a client or researching the latest trends, you can most likely find him in his CrossFit gym or out on the mountain biking trails.