Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the biggest shopping days of the year, and even businesses in the cannabis industry can create promotions that bring in B2B sales on those two popular days. The reason is simple. People expect to find great deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and they’re actively looking for those deals.

Bottom-line, if you don’t offer Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions to your existing and prospective customers, then you’re missing an opportunity that your competitors are happy to steal from you.

In fact, the potential to drive sales through these promotions is even bigger for B2B brands operating in and with the cannabis industry for the simple reason that many companies don’t think of the two biggest shopping days of the year as B2B opportunities. They’re wrong, and that’s good news for you! Their lack of participation in Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions leaves the door wide open for you to gain significant traction and boost sales as the end of the year creeps closer.

Tips to Create a Successful Black Friday or Cyber Monday Promotion

To drive sales from a Black Friday or Cyber Monday B2B promotions, you need to have a strategy with very specific goals. The three tips below will help you create effective offers and implement your strategy successfully.

1. Start Planning Early

Don’t wait until Black Friday or Cyber Monday to plan your promotions and spread the word about them. A big part of your success with well-known, date-based promotions comes from the anticipation you create leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This anticipation piques a key emotion that directly affects buying decisions – the fear of missing out (FOMO).

Many companies start planning Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions months in advance, but don’t worry if November 1st arrives and you haven’t started yet. You just need to get focused and start spreading the word as soon as possible.

Use all of the marketing channels available to you to make sure your target audience knows about your limited-time promotions. These channels include email, social media, text messages, ads, online influencers, in-store signage and displays (if applicable), and more.

For example, businesses targeting cannabis license holders across the U.S., Canada, or international markets can start promoting their Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers using the tools available in the Cannabiz Media License Database. Consider sending a weekly email marketing campaign beginning at least three weeks prior to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Tease your special offer so recipients feel like they’ll miss a great opportunity if they don’t buy on one of these specific days.

You can also access phone numbers, social media profiles, and more using the Cannabiz Media License Database, which gives you the opportunity to directly connect with key decision makers through multiple channels to share the details about your offers. Combined, these marketing and direct outreach efforts should lead not only to increased awareness of your Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions, but also, they should lead to more sales for your business.

LEARN MORE: Black Friday and Cyber Monday B2B Email Marketing – What to Send and When

2. Design the Promotional Assets and Experience

People see a lot of Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions in November every year. This is a time when your promotional assets really need to stand out, so don’t try to cut corners or expenses when it comes to design or the customer experience. Professionally designed and written promotional assets are critical to the success of your marketing investments. I can’t stress this enough.

In addition, the entire customer experience related to your promotion needs to meet or exceed expectations. Think of the entire process a prospect goes through after seeing your promotional ad, email message, social media post, etc.

What happens when they click on the link? What if they want more information? How easy is it to get that information? How do they take advantage of the promotional offer? Is it easy or are there a number of steps they have to go through to get the discount or deal? The end-to-end experience matters more than you may realize, so think everything through from end-to-end.

For example, when an ancillary business working with the cannabis industry sends an email marketing campaign to license holders promoting its Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers, the email message should include a call-to-action link button that leads directly to a special landing page on the company’s website that is all about your special offers rather than the website’s home page or a specific product page or contact page.

It’s your job as the marketer to lead customers through the journey, and that includes the journey to take advantage of your Black Friday or Cyber Monday offers. Make it extremely obvious what the next step is, so when people click on the link in your promotional email message, they know – without a doubt – that they’ve landed in the right place.

3. Have a Follow-Up Plan

A common mistake that businesses make after investing in a Black Friday or Cyber Monday promotion is to move onto the next thing the day after each of these two huge shopping days. That’s a missed opportunity because many people who heard about your promotion may not have been convinced to contact you or buy. However, with a bit more nurturing, they could be convinced.

With that in mind, plan to offer a special extension to your Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions and have a follow-up plan in place to make sure people know it’s not too late to get the discounts or deals.

Again, use as many channels as you can (and as appropriate) to spread the word about the extension of your promotion. Don’t give people too much time though. A week maximum is adequate for an extension, so you can quickly move on to your end-of-year promotions.  

For example, share updates on your social media profiles and pages. Share details directly with online influencers and include a link to your landing page so they can quickly and easily share it with their followers. Remind your email subscribers about the offer and let them know they still have a chance to take advantage of it.

If your target audience is cannabis business license holders, send email campaigns through the Cannabiz Media License Database to expand your reach to targeted prospects. One follow-up message isn’t enough. You need to send multiple reminders. If you’re extending the special offer for a week, plan to send two to three messages telling recipients it’s not too late to get the Black Friday or Cyber Monday deal (e.g., one day after the holiday, midweek, and one day before the offer expires). For B2B offers, make sure the expiration day is a weekday, not Saturday or Sunday!

LEARN MORE: 5 Marketing Strategies to Drive Revenue Before the New Year

Types of Black Friday or Cyber Monday Promotions that Drive Sales

When you think of Black Friday or Cyber Monday promotions that drive sales, the first things that come to mind are probably deep discounts offers, but there are so many other ways to create B2B promotions for these popular shopping days.

In fact, there are creative promotions that work well for prospective customers, current customers, your most loyal customers, and even prior customers! Here is a list of 10 effective promotions cannabis and cannabis-related businesses could offer to boost sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday:

1. Percentage Discount: This is the popular 50% off (or whatever percentage you choose) discount offer.
2. Dollars Discount: Offer a specific dollar amount off purchases (e.g., $50 off).
3. Tiered Discount: The more a customer spends, the bigger the discount.
4. Free or Faster/Upgraded Shipping: You can offer free or faster/upgraded shipping on all orders or orders over a certain value.
5. BOGO: Buy one get one (BOGO) offers are very popular. You can offer true BOGOs or buy one get one 50% off (or another variant).
6. Bundled Discount: To get a discount, customers have to purchase multiple, specific products. These products should be related to each other for this offer to be successful.
7. Upsell and Cross-sell Discounts: When a customer purchases a specific product, they get related products for free or at a specific discount. You can also offer add-on services rather than tangible products.
8. Increased Rewards: For customers who are part of your loyalty program, you can offer increased rewards on all or specific purchases.
9. Time-Based: There are many types of time-based promotions, such as 1-hour flash sales and other hyper-short-term deep discounts.
10. Subscription Upgrades: For SaaS companies, subscription upgrades are a great offering for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. For example, you can offer a 12-month subscription for the price of nine months, or you can offer six months free or a higher tier subscription at the price of a lower tier.

Keep in mind, on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, both B2C and B2B customers are looking for big offers. That means you need to offer more through your promotions on these two days than you do at other times of the year. These offers need to be special and only offered during the biggest shopping days of the year.

LEARN MORE: 5 Holiday Promotions to Beat Your Year-End Revenue Goals

Key Takeaways about Black Friday and Cyber Monday Promotions for Cannabis Businesses

If you haven’t already started developing your Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions, the sooner you get started, the better. Follow the tips discussed above and develop offers that your target audience – those who are most likely to buy now – won’t want to miss. This is the time to go big!

If your target audience includes cannabis and hemp business license holders, then you can reach them through phone, email, social media, and more using the Cannabiz Media License Database. It’s packed with verified leads – many of whom are already looking for the products and services your business offers!

Schedule a demo to see how you can use the tools in the Cannabiz Media License Database to promote your Black Friday and Cyber Monday B2B offers and close more sales before the end of the year.