Did you know 83% of all bookings happen online? (CondorFerries). Black Friday and the upcoming holiday season offer the perfect opportunity to evaluate your digital marketing strategy and capitalize on trends like this one! 

Many people associate Black Friday with a mad rush to your local super store to get the best deals. However, in tandem with the trend toward online shopping — and gifting —  experiences and activities have become much more popular! In fact, 63% of U.S. adults would rather receive an experience than a material gift (Eventbrite and Harris Interactive) – Great news for tour and activity operators!

Are you planning on offering deals to increase sales this holiday season? If so, read on to learn about our 6 Black Friday marketing strategies that will help you finish the year strong. 

How to Be Successful This Season:

Optimize your booking flow

As a tour operator, you know how important it is to have your booking flow set up correctly to maximize bookings. Before you start a Black Friday marketing plan, you want to make sure your most popular activities are highlighted. Note that these could be different than usual if you are not currently in your high season. Place seasonal or most popular activities front and center – then you’ll be ready to kickstart your Black Friday marketing plan. 

Extend your sale

There’s no need to limit yourself to a one-day sale! Consider starting your sale earlier or running it longer than just the one-day Black Friday event. This will attract more customers, especially since their holiday weekends can be hectic. More customers on your site means more conversions!

Take advantage of email marketing

Use email marketing to let your customers know about your Black Friday event and maximize your sales. To ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible, here are some extra tips for making your holiday email marketing campaign successful!

Tease your promotion 

This goes without saying, but make your copy and graphics exciting! A great way to do this is teasing the sale in the subject line without giving away the amount. Subject lines like: “Get ready…You’re about to get a discount” will be intriguing to your customers. Remember, a click on your email brings customers one step closer to a click to your website and to making the final sale.  

Make it feel exclusive

While you’re likely offering your discount to everyone, try to weave in language that makes the deal seem exclusive and personal to the customer. Send an email with a personalized subject line like “Hey Jane, your exclusive offer is inside.” With so many deals happening throughout Black Friday weekend, you want to stand out from the pack and create a connection with your customers!

Grow your email list

To reach even more potential customers, work on expanding your email list in the weeks leading up to Black Friday. One way to do this is adding a temporary pop-up or footer to your website: “Are you interested in Black Friday deals? Join our mailing list!” 

Get noticed with pop-ups

Although pop-ups should always be used sparingly, they can come in handy during a major sale since they help create urgency for customers on their shopping journey. For example, if someone has an activity in their cart but hasn’t purchased yet, a pop-up trigger that reads “You don’t have much time left in our sale!” may be that final push to score a conversion. 

Pro-tip: Only use pop-ups for a short amount of time since intrusive pop-ups can hurt your conversion rate. To learn more about designing successful pop-ups, read up on best practices in this FareHarbor Compass guide.

Spread cheer – and sales! – on social media

Advertise your promotion across all online platforms. You could also ask for feedback on social channels to encourage previous guests to leave a positive comment. Social proof is key to getting first-time customers to convert.

Create value with add-on items

To up the ante and create an even more special experience and value add for your guests, consider offering a complimentary glass of wine, equipment rental, extra hour of service, t-shirt or anything that makes sense for your business. 

We know that planning your marketing strategy for Black Friday can seem intimidating, but it truly is a great time of year to capture additional bookings and share your incredible tours and activities with new guests. Following some or all of these suggestions will help increase those conversions! 

For next steps on how to set up your promotions on your website, check out our FareHarbor help page on creating campaigns and promo codes and take full advantage of the gift-giving season with this holiday promotions checklist on FareHarbor Compass.