Hey y’all,
Beneath the sweltering, humid heat, the wiggly air, and the oppressive sepia-filtered summer that those of us in the Northern hemisphere are experiencing, something rustles.
Something is awakening.
She crawls out from her cave, summoned forth by the first dried leaves crunching underfoot. It matters not that they’ve wilted from scorching heat. She is brought forth all the same.
And with a shrill cry, she heralds the coming of the dark times.
And they say you can’t hear GIFs
As you experience the sweltering July heat, there’s absolutely no way you want to be thinking about Black Friday. Trust me – I’d rather not, too.
But we have to, because consumers are thinking about it long before you think they are.
Black Friday isn’t just November 27th
We say Black Friday. But we don’t mean Black Friday.
We mean Cyber Monday. We mean Small Business Saturday. Then there’s Giving Tuesday, and Green Monday – the list goes on.
Black Friday isn’t just a one-day event in November. It’s an entire era.
According to a 2024 survey by Bankrate, US consumers spread out their holiday shopping starting in August (12%), with two peaks: October (24%) and November (37%).
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are tentpole days in a much larger holiday shopping season, which spans from about September to December.
And larger retailers have already begun capitalizing on this. But they don’t call it Black Friday, or Pre-Black Friday. They call it “Fall Sale,” or I don’t know “Big Deal Days.”
We should workshop “Prime Big Deal Days.” Perhaps “Totally not Black Friday?”
They dial back the holiday imagery, call it a seasonal sale, or focus on fall/winter themes. But you won’t see a single Christmas tree, menorah, or anything else holiday-focused until November 1st.
So when you think about BFCM or Black Friday, don’t think about it as a day, a weekend, or even a week. Think of it as four full months to capture people.
And to do that, we need to understand how shoppers buy during BFCM.
Black Friday is not the time to capture new customers
Think about Black Friday and the way you shop.
During the week of BFCM itself, you’re heading to your inbox, and you’re checking the brands you already know and love, looking for discounts.
You’ve already got products in mind. You’ve already got brands in mind. You just wanna see how good the deals are gonna get.
And you’re not alone.
The hard truth for marketers to hear is that if you haven’t captured people by the time BFCM rolls around, you probably aren’t going to. It doesn’t matter how good your sales are.
October and November are already so noisy. Every brand is vying for our attention all the time – that means you need to cut through the noise earlier so you’ll be top-of-mind later.
And the time to capture people is – you guessed it – August and September.
In fact, 40% of the influencer marketers we polled said they run Black Friday “prep campaigns” throughout late summer and early fall.
This is the time to get on people’s radars, push brand awareness, test creators you haven’t yet tried out, and shore them up to keep those messages going deep into Q4.
I call it the “Black Friday Funnel.”
How to make a Black Friday Funnel work for you
Remember, you start early because you want to either remind people you exist or introduce yourself to new people so that your biggest shopping days of the year actually become your biggest shopping days of the year.
To do that, you need months of lead time. So here’s a quick and dirty game plan:
August: Recruiting, testing, & awareness
Start recruiting new creators, testing different messaging, and focusing on brand awareness.
Activate your long-term partners for even more awareness.
Start sending products out to creators – plenty of time to start campaigns in September.
September: Run creator-led giveaways and contests
You want to pull as many people into your orbit as possible – contests, giveaways, games. You want anything that gets people on your email list and following your brand's socials.
October: Double down on messaging & keep that audience warm
Run smaller promotions on your site and use your creators to promote it – but save your biggest, baddest sales for November. Reminder: keep it focused on fall. Don’t refer to BFCM at all. Trust me on this one.
Re-up with your creators and solidify your BFCM plan with them. You’ve had them on payroll for 2+ months now, so getting them on board for BFCM will be much easier than approaching entirely new creators in October.
November: Full speed ahead
Repurpose content from September/October campaigns in ads/whitelisting (with permish, of course), and integrate them into your email campaigns.
Discount and promote from the start of the month – customers will be well-primed to purchase.
Plan for chaos – it’s going to happen. Better to be prepared for it with understudy creators waiting in the wings. It can’t hurt to have a few extra creators on call and end up using them for even more sponsored posts.
This is easier said than done, and mileage may vary depending on your budget and team size. So here’s a more detailed look at prepping for a Black Friday funnel campaign.
Starting early is stale advice.
But the reason we shout it at the clouds is that it’s not just about all the moving parts involved in running BFCM creator campaigns. It’s not just about making sure everything is set up and ready to go.
It’s because your best shot at cutting through the noise starts right now.
Today.
Yes, while we’re all still in the summer lull of vacations, dismal sales, and lazy days.
Today is your best opportunity to be the brand a customer discovers in time for the holidays.
🩷A good influence
Huge shoutout to a new Modashian and reigning bingo-champion, Bri-Anne, who introduced me to @itsniane on TikTok and Instagram.
Who they are: Niane! Model, singer, hilarious skit maker, overall terribly entertaining.
Why he’s worth a follow: He’s gone viral for his portrayal of super judgy French women in luxury stores, bakeries, public parks – you name it (And frankly, spot on). It’s the up-down look for me.
While looking further into Niane as a person, I also came across his YouTube channel, which, while smaller, is where he’s posted quite a bit of singing too. Man’s got a killer voice.
Dream collab: So I’ve already seen him collab with a sneaker brand to recreate his skit of a judgy French saleswoman in a shoe store – and it was hilarious. This could apply to so many brands: Gallerie Lafayette, Sephora, a cashier at Monoprix, literally any restaurant – just anywhere where we find judgy French ladies. As a judgy French lady, we’re kind of everywhere.
And it’s not limited to service-style brands either. I think he’s creative enough to make it work – especially since he turned his scoliosis back-brace into a high-fashion haute couture moment.
I once took out retail-worker trauma in a rage room against a Mariah Carey CD,
Whitney 🦇
Content R&D at Modash. Send hate mail to LinkedIn
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