Cyber Monday Marketing Ideas to Drive Traffic to Your Store in 2023

Cyber Monday is one of the biggest shopping events of the year, especially for eCommerce brands. In 2020, eCommerce retailers earned over $10.8 billion on Cyber Monday, growing 4% year-over-year. And this year, as always, customers will expect even more deals, and you will have to deliver.

So what do you do to take advantage of the year's busiest shopping days? How do you indulge your customers on their shopping weekend binge in the right way?

We've put together this guide to help you prepare for Cyber Monday and get the most out of the holiday. Here are the top Cyber Monday marketing trends and examples from leading brands to help you rock out.

What is Cyber Monday?

Cyber Monday is the second-biggest shopping day and the biggest day of the year for eCommerce retailers. It happens on the Monday after Thanksgiving every year. The National Retail Federation created Cyber Monday in 2005 to encourage more people to shop online and to extend the Black Friday euphoria.

The day is also significant for the smaller retailer. It allows them to compete with bigger stores and get more revenue without spending more on paid advertising. It’s one of their biggest opportunities to increase brand awareness and conversion rates. It’s also a great way to improve customer experience with special offers and boost online sales long-term.

Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday

Black Friday has long been the biggest shopping day for brick-and-mortar stores. Cyber Monday emerged as a Black Friday equivalent for eCommerce stores, and it is on the road to becoming more popular than Black Friday.

Black Friday is celebrated the day after US Thanksgiving (which occurs on the fourth Thursday of November) while Cyber Monday is celebrated the following Monday. So a lot of stores often combine the two holidays to create an extended holiday shopping weekend. Because Black Friday is no longer limited only to brick-and-mortar stores, it has even become expected of retailers to let customers fill their shopping carts for four days.

Therefore, Cyber Monday and Black Friday are often one long shopping event. Sales sometimes even last after Cyber Monday if online retailers decide to offer an additional sale as the day ends.

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What will be different for Cyber Monday 2022?

Look, Cyber Monday changes every year, and this year is going to be even bigger. New technologies have come out, mobile shoppers are on the rise, and you will have to really nail your marketing strategy to carve your way into the market.

Here are a few trends that we’ve noticed in the past year, that you should capitalize on.

Shift to omnichannel

Mobile shopping is on the rise and the old email campaign you used to send every year is not going to cut it. Stats show that over 61% of shoppers’ online purchases were made on a smartphone last year, which is an increase of 27% YOY. Combine your promotional email with a campaign to your SMS list, a chat message on Facebook/Whatsapp, and an ad on social media.

Go all in on customer service

Online shopping got a huge boost during the pandemic and with it came a lot more options and increased competition in the market. Consumers have gotten really picky about who they work with.

Just look at these stats:

• 86% of shoppers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience
• 49% of shoppers have made impulse purchases after receiving a more personalized experience
• Two-thirds of companies compete primarily on the basis of customer experience

Increased focus on personalization

An effective strategy for Cyber Monday has to include a hyper-focus on personalization and providing a positive brand experience for every customer.

Personalization can include a lot of things. From sending personalized product suggestions to your email list, to personalizing your confirmation email, promotional emails, email popups, and coupon codes, and optimizing every touchpoint along the customer journey.

Cyber Monday marketing ideas

Cyber Monday is a great way to attract potential customers, increase customer retention rates, and boost customer engagement. You need to use effective marketing tactics to get the most out of the shopping day. Let’s examine some ideas you can use to create the perfect advertising campaign this Cyber Monday.

1. Sell in bundles

One of the best ways to get the attention of Cyber Monday customers who are looking for special deals is to bundle up your products. You can create gift sets, which are great for the holiday season, or just group similar items and put a discount on them.

Bundles help to increase your average order value and help get your customers to buy more than they usually would.

You can also create gift guides for your customers. A gift guide is particularly effective during the holiday season, as it helps holiday shoppers figure out what to buy for their loved ones. You can even start a gift guide series.

Creating bundle deals and giving one-plus-one offers also increase engagement and leads to better conversion rates. Create special bundles for your regular customers based on their search history. This is a great way to keep them close and retain them as loyal customers.

In 2021, Nintendo bundled a console, a carrying case, two games, and three months of their online service for all people looking to catch up on some gaming during the holiday season.

2. Stay open longer

Unlike brick-and-mortar stores, online shops are open 24/7 and that can be quite a challenge during the busy holiday season. You’ll likely experience a lot more activity during the holiday — many more questions from customers, possibly even more shipping or card issues to resolve than normal. Stores tend to get more customer inquiries at odd hours so it’s a good idea to extend the working hours of your customer support during Cyber Monday.

It might even be necessary to hire and train new people or extend the hours of your existing team. Alternatively, you could even consider temporarily outsourcing your customer service. You could even have an on-call team of engineers and marketers ready to detect and fix any errors with the site, update it, manage the inventory, or put out any other fires.

3. Partner with influencers

Cyber Monday always creates a storm of ads. Your potential customers might get bored of seeing the same old ads and start to ignore them. That’s why it’s important to find a creative way to advertise your special offers during the holiday shopping season.

One great way to do this is to partner with an influencer. They can record a video in which they unbox and review the products you offer or do a live stream. You can also send them a promo discount code to share with their audience. Customers like using promo codes and helping their favorite influencers earn some money.

Take a look at Amazon. They’ve partnered with TikTok influencers and creators to promote their Cyber Monday deals to a broader audience.

Pro tip: want to find the right influencers? Use one of these influencer marketing tools.

4. Offer free shipping

Free shipping is a great way to incentivize online shoppers to buy your products. In fact, studies show that 66% of consumers expect free shipping on all online orders.

You can offer free shipping for all products or set a minimum order value that your customers have to hit to get free shipping. Either way, this is a great way to clear out your stock, draw attention to underperforming products, and give something extra to your customers.

For example, here’s an email from the online retailer Baggu from 2021. In the email they offered a lot of different discounts plus free shipping for US orders over $30, incentivizing a broader group of shoppers.

5. Prepare your email marketing campaigns

You should prepare all of your email marketing campaigns, way before the holiday season starts. All the emails should have personalized, catchy email subject lines. Use up to five words and choose them carefully because this can make or break your email campaign.

Educate your customers and present your special offers directly and clearly.

Start sending a series of emails a few weeks before to build hype, and get your customers ready. It's also important to have a series of abandoned cart emails. It will remind the customers of the products in their shopping cart and reduce the shopping cart abandonment rate.

Huckberry created this nostalgia-evoking email marketing campaign to get shoppers to spend more.

6. Launch a loyalty or rewards program

Cyber Monday is a great time to offer the members of your loyalty or rewards program exclusive, holiday-themed, rewards. This can be in the form of additional discounts or a gift with purchase. You can also set a few tiers and offer more expensive gifts for each tier.

You should also incentivize big spenders. You can offer them similar gifts you offer to your VIP online shoppers and a better return policy.

Last year, Lego hooked up their VIP members with a discount on vouchers exclusively for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

7. Create urgency

Another marketing strategy is to display a countdown timer on your website before and during Cyber Monday. It’s a great way to display your special offers and build a sense of urgency.

You can also point out that your stocks are limited. This boosts the sense of urgency even further and creates customer engagement and additional motivators for shopping.

For example, you can use Privy or Sumo to set up urgency notifications for your Shopify store. Another great solution you can look at is the HurryTime plugin for WordPress, which allows you to show a unique countdown timer for each store visitor.

Here’s an example from Doc Martens:

Pro tip: check out our Ultimate Guide to eCommerce Marketing Tools, we have the most comprehensive lists of the best eCommerce tools to use for your store.

8. Create a custom landing page

Don’t expect your site visitors to find your special deals. Make a landing page with all your Cyber Monday offers, and add CTAs that lead to it throughout your site. Make sure that it has minimal distractions and very clear CTAs.

Take a look at this landing page from Jamie Dana. She promoted her course through a landing page that featured a special offer for Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers.

9. Power up retargeting ads

Retargeting ads are paid ads that you use to engage potential customers who have visited your website or social media profiles. It’s a great way to make them return to your store and browse your Cyber Monday special offers.

You could also combine retargeting ads with retargeting email campaigns to remind existing customers about their favorite products. And depending on the industry you’re in, it might be a good idea to increase your advertising budget for the fee weeks before and after Cyber Monday.

Here’s an example from Alohas:

10. Partner with nonprofits and charities

Attract conscientious shoppers by partnering with a nonprofit or a charity. You can pledge to donate a part of your Cyber Monday earnings to a good cause, or you can start a special charity project locally.

It can improve your brand reputation and helps draw more online shoppers who love to support charitable causes. Use the project as a long-term brand play and reap the benefits in the long term.

Just look at what Weglot did. They decided to donate 50% of all revenue made on Black Friday and Cyber Monday to several different charities, and they were able to raise over $20,000.

11. Use social media ads

Social media ads are a very powerful way to retarget your site users and loyal customers. You can display Facebook + Instagram ads to potential customers that have abandoned their shopping cart. You could also target your top of the funnel through a YouTube video ad.

Here’s an example of a TikTok ad from Walmart.

12. Create an exclusive deal for subscribers

You should always work on building a strong subscriber base for your newsletter. As Cyber Monday draws near, offer your loyal customers an exclusive deal. It can be an additional discount, a flash sale, or free shipping.

You can also use this to attract new subscribers. Offer exclusive offers to people that subscribe to your newsletter as Cyber Monday approaches. This can turn one-time customers into life-long customers.

P.F. Candle Co. did just that. They held an exclusive sale for newsletter subscribers during Cyber Monday. Their twist was not mentioning Cyber Monday at all and just saying that there’s a sale going on.

13. Upsell and cross-sell

Cross-selling and upselling are key to maximizing your Cyber Monday revenue. You should cross-sell customers by offering them complementary products along with their initial purchase. If they’re buying a phone, offer them a case when they look at their shopping cart.

14. Use SMS campaigns

SMS marketing is all the rage these days, and you should definitely use it for your Cyber Monday campaign. Launch a short SMS marketing campaign to inform your customers about your offers, coupon codes, and return policies.

For example, an apparel brand Brotherly Sole promoted limited quantities in their range by giving online shoppers a free item with every purchase made during Cyber Monday in 2021. Their message included a link that led directly to the sales page.

Pro tip: use an exit popup or a lead form to collect phone numbers and add subscribers to your SMS list.

Takeaways

Creating an effective marketing campaign is one of the most important things you should do before Cyber Monday. This will help you ensure that you’re reaping the benefits of the big shopping day. An effective advertising campaign also improves your brand reputation, attracts new customers, and increases conversion rates. All of this leads to greater profits.

Here’s a summary of everything you can do to make the most out of Cyber Monday:

• Launch a well-timed email campaign as it will help educate online shoppers about your special Cyber Monday offers.
• Establish a strong online media presence and reach out to your target audience directly.
• Partner with an influencer to reach your audience in a fun and creative way.
• Create bundles of your products and pamper your loyal customers.
• Offer additional discounts and special offers to your subscribers and VIP customers.

Need help creating an effective Cyber Monday campaign?

Are you looking to create a captivating campaign for this Cyber Monday? Do you want to attract new customers and reach out to your regulars, but you don’t know how?

Try Mayple! We have more than 600 marketers and agencies from different niches ready to help you. We can easily partner you with the right marketer with vast experience in your niche so you can execute your Cyber Monday campaign the right way. Get started now!