10 tips to adapt your PR strategy for Black Friday

If, like us, you’re still wondering what the F happened to September, you might need some help getting prepared for Black Friday, because it’s just around the corner.

If you’re running PR strategies for your brand or your clients, we’ve got 10 expert tips for how you can maximise reach and success during the retail sector’s craziest period.

Hint: A lot of the tips begin with being organised, get your diaries out now!

1. Start early engagement with journalists

To make the most of the increased online volume, it’s essential to be ahead of the game. Ideally, you’d be engaging with journalists from the start of November (I know, really soon!) as this is key to securing coverage during this period.

Remember that journalists also want to take advantage of the traffic, so they’ll be thankful to have their content prepped and ready to go, too.

This includes having all the necessary assets such as images, product information, deals and offers prepared well in advance. If you’re scrambling to get these ready last-minute, you could miss opportunities.

2. Remember that Black Friday is now a month-long event

Black Friday has evolved so that sales and promotions now span the entire month of November. Remember this when you’re planning campaigns and activity so you have room to be a little more flexible this month, some more creative campaigns might not get the traction you were expecting because much of the content being published is so commercially focused. Instead, you might find your team spending more time on reactive opportunities.

Live blogs are becoming increasingly popular during this period, they offer real-time updates on deals and sales, providing brands with the opportunity to be featured during this time.

Plan to be alert throughout the month for live blogs and last-minute deals, offering opportunity for additional exposure. Remember to screen grab any live blog coverage as it comes through too – as otherwise you could end up endlessly scrolling to find it again.

3. Adjust expectations for this period

In Q4, a lot of media coverage includes affiliate links, content is more commercially focused so this will affect the style of coverage.

Make sure that any stakeholders are aware that metrics could fluctuate during this period, and that measurement should be more focused towards conversions and sales.

Black Friday is a highly competitive and saturated period, with sectors like tech and fashion receiving more media attention, managing expectations ahead of time can help stakeholders focus on what matters and mitigate any difficult conversations.

It’s also worth remembering that this period is highly competitive from an offering’s perspective. Offering a sub-par discount or promotion isn’t likely to gain coverage, only stand-out offers will catch the attention of the press. Whether that’s a brand that never offer discounts, or must-have products with money off.

4. Be more flexible with mistakes

Journalists often handle huge volumes of content during Black Friday, and they shift to being much more reactive than usual, so mistakes such as incorrect links or pricing can happen.

Given the fast-paced nature of this period, it may be challenging to get these mistakes corrected as you usually would. Keeping the information, you’re sharing with journalists as clear and concise as possible can help mitigate this, but ultimately you can’t control how the offers will be portrayed. Just remember that being featured at all is still valuable, and mistakes may take a little longer to be rectified.

5. Make space in your plan for product PR

Product PR is particularly effective during Black Friday and the Christmas period, as it directly responds to what journalists are looking for. Just keep in mind that you’ll need to measure this activity against the right metrics.

There are a couple of different ways that product can be incorporated into PR strategies at this time. The first and most obvious is through inclusion within listicles and round ups, ensuring your products are featured in “the best” guides or festive gift guides.

Another great way of highlighting product deals throughout November is through use of UGC. Being able to show the real-life impact of a product resonates with audiences and ultimately builds hype and demand. Use product reviews, social media comments or influencer activity to promote a products USPs during this period.

6. Align Black Friday and Christmas messaging

Many shoppers complete their Christmas shopping during Black Friday (jealous!) so aligning your messaging towards Christmas for this period is important. Outreach should start early, ideally after Halloween, when Christmas content begins to appear across the press.

7. Don’t lose your brand integrity

Each year, there is growing fatigue around Black Friday and the notion that it promotes overconsumption. In an increasingly sustainability-focused world, make sure that you’re balancing any deals and offers you’re promoting with your brand’s ethical positioning.

This is a key time to introduce your brand to new audiences, so don’t lose your brand identity – you want to be able to retain these customers long after the seasonal period.

8. Utilise seasonal themes

The period from Halloween to Christmas has strong seasonal themes that can be used as the foundation for your campaigns. Although we’ve focused on reactive and product focused PR, remember that inspirational and creative campaigns that align strongly with seasonal trends will resonate well, too.

As we draw closer to Christmas, we often find that the light-hearted, festive-themed stories work best, as consumers grow tired of the product promotion. It’s worth taking this into consideration for any strategic plans spread across the quarter.

9. Don’t lose sight of Q1

Q4 becomes such a hectic and busy time that it can be all too easy to forget about planning for the New Year and the opportunities that this period brings, too.

Schedule planning sessions now for this quarter so you can hit the ground running in January without the added stress of catching up post-holidays.

10. Use social media to stand out

Your social media strategy for Black Friday doesn’t need to focus solely on promoting deals. Let your PR and paid media channels do the heavy lifting in terms of driving sales.

Instead, avoid getting lost in the noise of endless sales posts by focusing on brand storytelling and creative content that stands out from the competition. Aligning your social media storytelling with your creative PR campaigns ensures a cross-channel impact.