Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is a shopping event that usually lasts for 24 hours and is created to encourage customers to shop online. It falls on the first Monday after Thanksgiving. Customers can purchase the necessary products with great discounts, get special offers, and receive bonuses and gifts online.

In this article, we’ll discuss the history of Cyber Monday and make the difference between Cyber Monday and Black Friday clear. Next, we’ll review seven great ideas and examples of successful Cyber Monday campaigns.

The History of Cyber Monday

The term first appeared in 2005 and was used by Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation. It highlighted that, for several years in a row, online purchases reached their peaks on the first Monday after the famous US holiday, Thanksgiving. The organization had two main theories that explain this phenomenon.

According to the first theory, customers search for products in retail stores and malls on weekends to buy them online later. Since people didn’t have access to smartphones, tablets, and high-speed internet in those days, they had to wait for the beginning of their working week to use office computers to shop online.

Another theory suggested that the phenomenon occurred due to the unpleasant experiences people had during the weekends after Thanksgiving when everybody wanted to grab a huge discount and the best deals. Cyber Monday was an alternative to the general chaos happening on Friday and the upcoming weekends. It provided an opportunity to avoid long queues to get some goods at a discount and purchase useful items via the internet while sipping a cup of coffee.

Now that you know the history of this busy shopping day, let’s move to the next section to make the difference between Cyber Monday and Black Friday clear.

Cyber Monday vs. Black Friday

Cyber Monday usually lasts 24 hours and falls on the first Monday after Thanksgiving. It offers huge discounts, great deals, and promo codes to encourage people to buy online.

Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days in the US and is conducted on the day after Thanksgiving. On this day, retailers provide customers with huge discounts, best deals, bonuses, gifts, and promo codes to encourage people to purchase both in stores and online.

In a nutshell, the main difference between Cyber Monday and Black Friday is in their dates and the fact that customers can find appropriate items online and in stores on Black Friday, whereas Cyber Monday welcomes online shopping only.

Let’s grab some great ideas for your Cyber Monday campaign.

Companies come up with many unique ideas to surprise their customers and provide them with the best online shopping experience at the same time. We’ve prepared the best of them to satisfy customers and lure them into coming back soon.

Run a campaign on social media

Since the majority of people prefer to scroll feed on social media to find out about sales, best deals, discounts, gifts, and bonuses, there’s a point in running campaigns across the most popular platforms of communication. You can also leverage influencer marketing and ask opinion leaders for help.

Let’s take Karen Millen, for example. The brand of women’s apparel promoted its sale in an Instagram post and mentioned a 70% discount to let followers use it and buy goods at low prices.

Make use of email marketing

4.03 billion users worldwide make email marketing the most popular and reliable channel. Brands have been using email campaigns to inform subscribers about great sales for years. Don’t miss your chance to leverage the most effective marketing channel to reach your customers and increase sales on this year’s Cyber Monday.

For example, Steve Madden used an email newsletter to popularize the brand’s Cyber Monday campaign and provide customers with more details about its 40% discount and promo code.

With SendPulse, you can send Cyber Monday email campaigns to your customer base for free. Make use of our ready-to-use free email templates or design your own from scratch by using our drag-and-drop editor, and update customers on your Cyber Monday sale on time.

Check out our article to learn how to create email campaigns with our service.

Improve your website

When people come to your site to shop from different channels, you should be ready with several things:

• make sure that your website is responsive to let customers purchase from smartphones and tablets;
• test and optimize your website speed so that visitors can load your website in two seconds;
• check if your website is ready to handle high traffic to avoid any errors emerging on users’ screens.

Invest in paid advertising

Paid ads bring a lot of benefits to your business. They target specific audience segments, broadcast your Cyber Monday sale through the most popular mediums, increase website traffic, and bring measurable results. Many brands successfully implement paid advertising and obtain significant changes in Cyber Monday campaigns’ performance.

Send SMS campaigns

Although SMS might sound old school, they are effective. According to TechJury, SMS campaigns’ open rate is 98%. Moreover, 60% of clients read these short text messages within 1-5 minutes after receiving them. That’s why you should think of sending SMS campaigns to your customers.

SendPulse allows you to create and send SMS campaigns to your customers within minutes. Add sender name, enter your text, add the list of recipients, and set up SMS send-out.

Check out our article to learn how to create SMS messages step-by-step.

Ensure you have enough stock to meet the demand

If you want to increase customer satisfaction with your brand and provide a seamless experience, make sure you have enough inventory to meet the demand of many consumers. Bear in mind that there might be more shoppers than you expect. Get ready to meet the demand and make your clients happy.

Team up with another company

Consider partnering with another company to get extra exposure and reach more followers. If a brand is popular and has a lot of subscribers, it will help you promote your business and your Cyber Monday deals.

For instance, Bliss, a famous brand that focuses on producing skincare products, offered its subscribers a 30% discount on its products if they buy online from another brand, Ulta Beauty.

Let’s see how these Cyber Monday ideas work in real life.

Examples of Successful Cyber Monday Campaigns

We see hundreds of effective campaigns that drive organic traffic, boost sales and revenue, reach new consumers, and prosper every year. Now let’s take a look at some of these campaigns.

Ulta Beauty

The chain of beauty stores that provides its clients with skincare, fragrances, and cosmetics popularized its upcoming sale on the most popular marketing channels, including Instagram. Customers can find a link in Ulta Beauty’s bio to shop its products online.

Udemy

The famous American online course company uses an effective way to distribute information about its Cyber Monday — with an email campaign. Since this online shopping day usually lasts only 24 hours, it motivates customers to hurry up and grab an attractive offer. That’s why Udemy used a countdown timer to draw the attention of subscribers and evoke the fear of missing out.

If you are interested in tools that help create a countdown timer for your campaign, check out our article.

To conclude, Cyber Monday is one of the busiest online shopping events and the most appropriate time to grow your business, increasing your sales volume and revenues. Get ready for the next Cyber Monday with our best ideas!

Resources:

1. This article defines the term and suggests several great Cyber Monday ideas.
2. In this article, you’ll find the definition and history of one of the busiest online shopping events.
3. This article defines the term, unveils its origins, and explores its importance for business.

Last Updated: 22.03.2023