Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the biggest shopping events of the year. The period between Thanksgiving and the Monday after it is called Cyber Week—and there’s good news and bad news about it. 

The good news? Millions of people go shopping on these days with the intent to spend. 

The bad news is that all your competitors will be just as happy as you to see those sales, making competition extra fierce.

How do you drive sales in an environment like this? Discounts. 

Of course, it’s not as simple as just slapping a percentage on a red sticker and calling it a day. And with 80% of consumers doing at least some of their shopping online, price tags and discount stickers don’t even enter into the conversation.

Why discount codes are critical for BFCM campaigns

Many retailers are selling other brands’ products, competing with other retailers selling the same exact thing, so discounts often become the sole criteria for a purchase decision. 

A Kate Spade iPhone case is the same thing whether you get it at Best Buy or Target: Price is the driving factor. 

Beyond this fundamental idea that consumers will be looking for the best price, there are a number of reasons why discount codes can actually drive revenue and profit during Cyber Week.

Increased buyer intent

During the holiday shopping season, consumer intent to purchase is at its peak—about as close to a 100% sure thing as you can get. Discount codes provide the final push that many shoppers need to make a decision.

Creator content influence

Creator content has become critical throughout the entire buyer journey, from discovery to purchase. Creators working under long term partnerships with brands have been creating desire and FOMO about products for months, and Black Friday is often when that buildup pays off. Influencers and content creators can significantly impact purchasing decisions by sharing exclusive discount codes with their followers.

Urgency and scarcity

Limited-time discount codes create a sense of urgency, encouraging shoppers to act quickly to take advantage of the deals. This urgency is baked into the idea of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as consumers know well in advance that those days might be their only chance to score some deals.

Data collection

Discount codes also make a purchase trackable, and can be used to measure the effectiveness of different marketing channels and campaigns, providing valuable insights for future strategies.

How to use discount codes when working with creators 

Remember, everyone will be offering some kind of discount during Cyber Week. It’s not enough to just hand out personal codes to influencers and hope they spread the word. When working with creators to promote your Black Friday and Cyber Monday discount codes, consider these best practices:

Make a list (of influencers) and check it twice.

You’ll want to make sure who’s naughty and nice. For Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions, a strategic approach is essential. Begin by carefully selecting influencers whose audience demographics and values align closely with your brand’s target market. This alignment ensures that your message reaches the most receptive and potentially lucrative audience. 

Each creator gets a unique discount code

Once you’ve identified suitable partners, provide each one with a unique discount code modeled after their name. These personalized codes create a sense of exclusivity for their followers; they also allow you to track the performance and impact of each influencer accurately.

Authenticity still matters

Encourage your influencer partners to integrate the discount codes naturally into their content. Authentic promotion that aligns with the influencer’s usual style and tone tends to land bigger with their audience, leading to better conversion rates. To amplify the reach of your campaign, consider cross-promoting the influencer’s content on your brand’s own social media channels. This not only expands your potential customer base but also strengthens your relationship with the influencer.

Communication is key

Clear and comprehensive communication with your collaborators is crucial. Provide them with detailed information about the products being promoted as well as the content you’d like to see (don’t be so specific that you hijack their voice, though). Be especially clear with the specifics of the discount offers and the duration of the campaign. You don’t want to find yourself on the angry end of a customer call because a creator misunderstood your instructions.

Do the math on your discounts

To maximize the effectiveness of your campaign, offer discounts that are substantial enough to motivate followers to make a purchase, and make sure you understand the impact on your bottom line. You need to consider the competitive landscape and ensure your incentives stand out during the busy holiday shopping season, but you don’t want to shoot yourself in the foot with discounts that eat up all your profit.

Timing is everything

Timing is a critical factor in the success of your influencer campaign, especially during the high-stakes Black Friday and Cyber Monday period. Work closely with your influencer partners to coordinate posting schedules that align with your overall marketing strategy. This might involve a build-up of anticipation through teaser posts, a concentrated push during the peak shopping days, and follow-up content to capture last-minute shoppers. 

By orchestrating a well-timed and cohesive campaign across multiple influencer channels, you can create a powerful buzz around your brand and offers. When the time comes for Cyber Week, shoppers might just remember your promotional push as well as they remember what they wanted to buy.

5 ideas and examples for using BFCM discount codes

Tiered discounts

Offer increasing discounts based on the total purchase amount. Starting your lowest tier at the same dollar amount as your Average Order Value (AOV) can really help to increase revenue. For example, if your average order value is $40, start your tiered discount at $50 with say, 10% off. The increase the discounts as the order value increases: orders over $100 get 20% off, orders over $150 get 30%.

Beauty brand Sephora routinely holds what it calls its Beauty Pass Sales for its loyalty members. Sometimes, they tier the discounts according to membership level with no minimum spend, Gold members get 20%, while Black and White get 10%. Notice, though, that Black-level members have the opportunity to get a steeper discount with a bigger spend. Notice, also, that the Gold level members have the longest window to take advantage of the savings—five days instead of the four that the Black and White levels get. 

This stacking of discounts and times is a great strategy to use during Cyber Week. You can work with influencers to drive signups for loyalty memberships in advance of Black Friday—then start marketing directly to all the new email addresses you’ve gotten.

Last minute mystery discounts

Create an element of excitement by offering mystery discount codes on the night before—or even the day of—your sale. Creators can post content at a time of your choosing with a link to a special deal. Customers won’t know the exact discount until they follow the link and add an item to their cart. Only at checkout (but before they buy) will they see what the discount is. 

By doing it this way, you get all the mechanical work of shopping out of the way first: If they like the discount, all that’s left to do is buy. And if they don’t, an abandoned cart email might save the sale the next day. 

Loft, for example, sent these emails out on the day of the sale, giving people a limited time to find out what exactly the sale was and decide whether or not they wanted to purchase. You can see that in order to do any of that, they had to click on the link first. This could translate very well to social media with a popular creator delivering the message. 

Early bird specials

In the same vein as Sephora’s staggered sale times for members is the early bird special. Black Friday is the official start of the Christmas season, but the Black Friday season can start whenever you start promoting it. Rewarding early shoppers with exclusive discount codes—valid only for a limited time before Black Friday officially begins—is a good way to start ringing up sales early and with little competition. 

Steve Madden has tinkered with early bird promotions in the past, and to great success. For example, when they collected email addresses with the promise of keeping subscribers in the loop for Black Friday’s sales. You can take this a step further by offering early bird access to discounts (while still collecting email addresses).

Gamify your discounts

You can create interactive quizzes or mini-games on your website and social media platforms, where customers can win varying levels of discount codes based on their performance. This approach not only entertains potential buyers but also encourages them to spend more time interacting with your brand, increasing the likelihood of a purchase.

Nike has taken this approach in the past with its “Finders Keepers” scavenger hunt. Nike fans could sign up to start receiving clues that would lead them to prizes. In addition to those giveaways, participants were also able to win exclusive access to certain products as well as discount codes that were only available to players. 

Happy Hour promos

Bars and restaurants use happy hour discounts to get more people buying food and drinks during what would otherwise be slow times. Retailers can use them for the opposite effect on Black Friday. If you’re understaffed, or just overstressed by the throngs of shoppers on that day, you can incentivize them to stay home by offering more attractive discounts for shopping online. 

During the pandemic, luxury brand Lele Sadoughi—not usually prone to giving discounts—needed to goose sales a bit during the global lockdown. They started doing “virtual happy hours” on Instagram with a sale on one product each day for a limited time. Brands with brick and mortar storefronts can deploy a similar tactic to give their in-store help some slack for the day. 

Key takeaway: BFCM is a golden opportunity for retailers to boost sales and attract new customers with discount codes. 

Everyone will be competing for customers with discounts, so standing out in the crowded marketplace requires more than just offering a coupon. By leveraging creative discount code strategies and collaborating with influencers, brands can create compelling campaigns that move their target audience to action.

Remember, the key to success lies in thoughtful planning, strategic partnerships, and innovative approaches to discounting. Whether you’re implementing tiered discounts, mystery offers, early bird specials, gamified promotions, or happy hour deals, the goal is to create a sense of excitement and urgency that motivates consumers to choose your brand over competitors. Creativity and adaptability are your greatest assets. Use them wisely, and you’ll be well-positioned to make the most of the biggest shopping events of the year.

Are you ready to stake your claim in the creator economy? Discover more helpful tips and resources from the experts at GRIN: Creator Management Learning Center