Cyber Monday isn’t all fun and games for social media marketers. It’s one of the most critical (and stressful) days of the year for small business owners, marketing teams, and agencies alike — meaning you’ll be on your toes for the next few weeks.
58% of shoppers will be looking to social media for holiday-buying inspiration.
And with $33.9 billion in sales between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday in 2021 — at its peak, shoppers were spending $12 million every minute — you can bet your second helping of pumpkin pie that every single brand on the internet will be vying for their attention with outrageous offers.
So, we’ve put together ten winning holiday social media marketing strategies to help you put your brand on the nice list this year.
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What is Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday is when your customers decompress from Thanksgiving dinner with some digital retail therapy.
Essentially, Cyber Monday is a digital extension of Black Friday. Unlike the traditional in-person shopping experience the day after Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday is an online event. It allows consumers to marinate in the deals, products, and promotions for a few days and then begin shopping after the long weekend.
Regardless of how you define the event, you should start planning for Cyber Monday now because the success of this strategic holiday can be astronomical.
Last year, Cyber Monday saw a record-breaking $11.3 billion in online sales.
The numbers don’t lie. Cyber Monday — much like Thanksgiving dinner — can tip the scales overnight. The day serves as your opportunity to start the holiday shopping season with a bang.
Most shoppers are interested in participating in the digital holiday. A reported 80% of consumers in 2022 planned to shop at either Black Friday or Cyber Monday events.
This overwhelming interest in online commerce doesn’t exist at any other time of year. So, capitalizing on this targeted attention can significantly boost a company’s annual revenue over a long weekend. Plus, enterprising social media teams can leverage the spike in brand interest during this time of year to attract new customers.
When is Cyber Monday in 2023?
Cyber Monday always falls on the Monday after Thanksgiving in the United States. In 2023, this places the event on November 27th.
The big day isn’t far off at this point, and considering the notable sales potential for the event, you might already be preparing. If not, you still have time to strategize and plan a creative social media campaign for Cyber Monday.
Since the event can significantly impact your sales metrics for the year, now’s the time to secure your Christmas bonus by prepping your social media strategies for Cyber Monday.
Why is social media marketing important for Cyber Monday?
A single day with so much sales potential is a huge opportunity for any business. What you’re up against is grabbing customers’ attention. Social media platforms will be inundated with branded content around that time, so customers may ignore all but the best offers and most interesting posts.
The question is, how do you cut through an oversaturated advertising market? First, choose a suitable communication medium for your target audience.
As you know, a digital shopping holiday is geared toward online advertising. Reports indicate that 53% of consumers find Cyber Monday deals through social media. So, all you need to do is dominate your customers’ news feeds, right?
Sounds simple enough — but as a seasoned professional, you know this is easier said than done. You’re up against every other social media team. So, driving up conversion rates with a holiday shopping season social media campaign will take a little extra spice.
With this in mind, here are ten ways to turn up the heat on your Cyber Monday social media marketing ideas.
1. Plan ahead
Starting your social media holiday marketing efforts early has two key benefits. First, it allows you to generate buzz. Second, it gives you a head start.
Users’ social media feeds will get more cluttered the closer you get to the big day. So, by announcing your holiday offers ahead of time, you’ll lower your chances of getting lost in the shuffle.
In 2021, Bath and Bodyworks built excitement and anticipation by announcing their special Black Friday deal a week in advance:
But there’s no reason you couldn’t do this earlier.
According to the National Retail Federation, shoppers increasingly want to beat the crowds, to the point where, in 2021, 49% started browsing for holiday gift ideas before November. So, you can get away with posting as soon as mid-October.
The trick is to be subtle.
For example, instead of posting about your Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or holiday offers, you could create a gift guide customers can browse for inspiration, like this one from Zara Home:
2. Take an edgier approach
Causing a bit of controversy is one of the best ways to cut through the crowded social media landscape. Just think of all the biggest stories that dominated everyone’s social media feeds this year — most captured collective interest by containing an element of conflict or some topic of debate users could weigh in on.
Remember when team Selena and team Hailey were squaring off for a few weeks?
The underlying principle here is that controversy garners attention because it’s perceived as more “real.”
Users are accustomed to bubbly, sunny, and positive posts that show a brand’s or person’s best side. The overwhelmingly positive presentation of everything on social media is so ubiquitous that most users are highly skeptical that what they see on their feed reflects reality. Put simply, it all seems fake.
All this is to say that highly positive posts are expected — and perhaps not well-received — by a portion of your audience.
To combat this, focus on creating an authentic tone in your campaign, which may mean shifting to more realistic messaging for Cyber Monday.
A word of caution — you don’t want your branded messaging to be too negative just to make your social media feed feel raw or authentic. The key is balancing self-promotion and acknowledging the customer’s perception of your brand.
One of the best illustrations of this principle is Ryanair’s Instagram page, which highlights the brand’s bargain prices while joking about common customer complaints. Check out this viral post that exemplifies the Ryanair social media team’s strategy:
Younger demographics are highly responsive to edgy messaging. Because they spend a lot of time in the commercialized online environment, they’re tired of sleek branded content. Instead, they want edgy content like Ryanair’s approach that appears to tell you precisely what you’re getting in a humorous and self-aware way.
3. Create a sense of urgency
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are all about FOMO, so leverage this in your marketing.
There are several tried-and-true ways you can create a sense of urgency, including the use of one or more — or all three — of these techniques:
- Convey scarcity
For instance, Walmart’s 2021 Black Friday Instagram Reel says ‘while supplies last’ on every offer. However, using this tactic too frequently can cause you to lose its impact over time (we all know Walmart has plenty of supplies).
Be genuine about your offering, and try to take things further by making Black Friday your only sale of the year, as Glossier did:
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Set a deadline
Of course, the whole point of Black Friday and Cyber Monday — and other holiday sales — is that the offers are only for a limited time.
While you might think this will be obvious to your customers, don’t underestimate the power of reminding them. If they’re still on the fence about buying, words like “Hurry,” “Last Chance,” or “Before it’s Gone” can still help compel them to take action.
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Offer a discount
Whether it’s a freebie — free shipping or a surprise gift, for instance — or loyalty rewards, discounts or bonuses can help you seal the deal.
To boost sales even further, link your freebie to a minimum spend. For example, you could offer free shipping on orders over $50. Or you could give your customers a bigger discount as they spend more, like makeup brand Kosas did:
4. Run a giveaway
Nothing screams holiday cheer like a giveaway. The season is all about giving, after all!
Giveaways can excite your current customers and put your brand in front of a whole new segment of customers who might not have heard of you before at the same time. For example, email sign-up conversion rates across account sizes average 40% for giveaways. If you can encourage your current customers and brand champions to share on their channels, it’s a huge engagement opportunity.
A giveaway can be as simple as asking your followers to tag a friend for a chance to win, like this one from health supplement brand Bulk:
You can always get creative and lean more into the holiday theme. In 2018, luxury brand The White Company did a 12 Days of Christmas giveaway, named after the iconic Christmas carol.
5. Update your returns policy for the big day
Your Cyber Monday social media goals don’t need to end on November 28th. The day isn’t just about generating a single spike in sales. You want to retain as many customers as possible from the social media users who are interacting with your brand for the first time on Cyber Monday.
To this end, your brand’s return policy is a key factor in customers’ long-term loyalty.
If your Cyber Monday messaging highlights a customer-friendly returns process, you’ll be perceived as more trustworthy. This may mitigate any underlying psychological discomfort with your messaging to convince customers your brand is safe to engage with.
A reported 78% of online shoppers in the US are less likely to make another purchase from a store after they’ve had a bad return experience. So, if you want to retain the Cyber Monday customers you convert, you might consider updating your returns policy for the shopping holiday weekend.
For instance, offering free returns for Cyber Monday sales shows that purchasing from your brand is risk-free. Plus, it indicates you stand by the quality of your product and believe customers will be satisfied with their purchases.
This way, you position your brand as reliable. As a result, you’ll be able to increase total customer retention rates following Cyber Monday, further boosting the ROI of your Cyber Monday social media campaign.
6. Use special hashtags
You should add hashtags to every one of your social media posts (you are, aren’t you?). But they’re essential during peak times like the holidays.
Hashtags group related posts together by topic. So, by adding relevant ones to your holiday-themed posts, you make it easier for potential customers to discover your offers and your brand.
On TikTok, for instance, #blackfridayshopping has 82.6 million views. Similarly, #blackfridaydeals are popular with bargain hunters on Instagram.
With Loomly, using the right hashtags is quick and easy. Hashtag Suggestions recommends trending hashtags, as well as hashtags that are related to the topic of your post.
While at it, why not take things to the next level and run a hashtag campaign?
For instance, Chipotle ran a branded hashtag challenge called #Boorito to raise awareness for their Halloween promotion, which encouraged TikTok users to show off their Halloween costumes.
With 4.2 billion views to date, it’s safe to say the campaign has been an enormous success.
7. Use Instagram Shop or TikTok Shop
The beauty of Instagram Shop and TikTok Shop is that they make buying quick and painless — your customers don’t even have to leave their social media feeds. And the easier the process is for them, the more likely they’ll press the big BUY NOW button.
Perfume Boss, for instance, saw a 368% increase in orders since joining TikTok Shop.
Similarly, joining Instagram Shop boosted luxury brand Barbour’s Instagram sales by 42% and increased traffic to their website from Instagram by 98%
Instagram Shop and TikTok Shop are free to join, but you must submit your storefront for review. So, plan ahead if you want to make it part of your holiday marketing.
Once you’re up and running, you can link posts and ads to your store or create special holiday collections and events.
8. Give customers a reason to come back
Customers acquired on Black Friday and Cyber Monday often buy items for others. This means they may fall outside your typical target customer demographics and, as a result, have a lower lifetime value than customers acquired at other times of the year.
However, a segment of your Black Friday and Cyber Monday customers can be converted into loyal customers. So, for your holiday marketing efforts to be truly worthwhile, you need to treat those sales as a foot in the door.
One way to keep customers engaged after the dust settles on Black Friday and Cyber Monday is to run additional special offers. For example, you could offer them a discount on products that complement what they’ve bought — like money off socks when they buy a pair of shoes.
Make sure you take steps to continue building a long-term relationship with your customers:
- Thank your new customers for buying from you with a personalized message using features like Instagram Direct
- Ask them to follow your social media accounts if they don’t do so already
- Encourage them to share their experience with family and friends. For example, you could ask them to leave a review on your Facebook page in exchange for an additional discount code
9. Get quirky
November and December aren’t just Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or other traditional marketing holidays. There are also fun social media holidays like World Television Day, National Cookie Day, and Christmas Jumper Day to take advantage of.
You don’t necessarily have to run special promotions linked to these, but they’re an opportunity to boost brand awareness, make a deeper connection with your audience, and have some fun along the way.
The San Antonio Spurs, for instance, made this hilarious video with action shots of star player Dejounte Murray. Instead of putting a basketball into the net, he’s dunking a giant cookie into a massive bowl of milk.
Celebrating #NationalCookieDay the @DejounteMurray way
pic.twitter.com/yI5xNHgVxw
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) December 4, 2021
10. Partner with a popular influencer
Brand partnerships are a staple in social media marketing for a reason — it’s because they work. Influencers already have the trust of their followers, so their product recommendations carry more credibility. After all, their title does imply a high degree of influence…
They come with a built-in audience — meaning you’re guaranteed to capture the attention of potential customers despite the competitive social media landscape of Cyber Monday.
This strategy also comes with the added benefit of diversifying the creative content you plan for the shopping holiday because you can leverage the ideas and skills of the influencer.
Why? Each influencer brings their unique style, voice, and perspective. And, because the influencer’s audience responds positively to the type of content they produce, these ideas are more likely to resonate with viewers. An influencer partnership is an opportunity to break away from the ordinary and infuse your campaign with creativity that captures the imagination of potential customers.
Perhaps the most significant benefit of influencer partnerships is the reach your branded content could potentially have. After all, the more eyeballs on your Cyber Monday messaging, the more sales you’ll likely generate.
If you’re still trying to scale up your following, the right influencer could funnel a sizable segment of their audience to your account. This could result in boosting your following, which would create revenue-generating potential that lasts far beyond Cyber Monday.
While influencer marketing might not be the most revolutionary strategy for Cyber Monday, it is highly effective. So, embrace the power of influencer partnerships to make your brand stand out from the competition.
Holiday social media marketing in a nutshell
Black Friday and Cyber Monday (and the broader holiday season) are stressful for social media managers. Your customers are more active online than at any other time of year, and competition for attention is fiercest.
For this reason, it’s critical to plan, build up anticipation, and use best practices like hashtags and urgency techniques.
More importantly, remember to measure your results so you can understand what’s working well — and what isn’t — iterate and improve. With Loomly’s Advanced Analytics, you can take an in-depth look at key metrics, including your reach, impressions, and engagement rate, with just a few clicks.
Ready to win this holiday season? Start your free trial of Loomly today!
