(2024) Your Last Minute BFCM Marketing Guide For Etsy Sellers

With less than a month until Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM), are you struggling to finalise your promotion offer?

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What if I told you that there’s more than just offering a simple percentage discount?

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If you want inspirations of how to craft an irresistible offer to boost your BFCM sales, you’ll love this comprehensive guide on promotion and marketing ideas.

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Let’s dive right in.

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01 - Simple Percentage Discount

Sometimes simple is the most effective.

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And a simple percentage discount is easy to understand for customers that it remains the tried-and-true promotion method for many sellers. In order for the BFCM discount to be effective, I'd recommend running a bigger discount than other times of the year.

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For shops selling selling physical products, it’s common to offer at least 20% off during BFCM, and for digital products, 50% discount is quite common.

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Make sure to promote your offer in your listing title, shop banner, social media posts, etc.

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02 - Conditional Free shipping

As unexpected shipping cost is often a barrier to purchase, offering free shipping over a certain order amount can increase your sales during BFCM.

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This is usually combined with a simple percentage discount. For example, a 30% discount for all items, and free shipping for orders over $50.

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03 - Tiered Discount

This is one of my favourite promotion ideas for BFCM. I’ve used it multiple times and had great results.

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With a tiered discount structure, the discount percentage increases when customers spend more. This promotion method encourages customers to increase the average order value. For example:

• 10% off orders over $50
• 15% off orders over $100
• 20% off orders over $150

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Combining this with free shipping can also make a tempting offer. For example, the offer may become this:

• Free shipping orders over $50
• 15% off + free shipping orders over $100
• 20% off + free shipping orders over $150

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As this type of discount could be hard to understand from just a glance at the listing on the Etsy search page, I’d recommend sending an email to your email list to communicate this offer clearly.

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04 - Free Gift With Purchase

During BFCM, leverage a sense of urgency and exclusivity by offering your customers a free gift when they purchase from your shop. Make sure your free gift is highly relevant to your target customers. It should be valuable but not overshadow your main product.

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For example, a handmade candle shop can offer a free candle sample with purchases over $40.

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This works best when you promote this offer in one of your listing photos with a photo of the free gift and a short description.

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05 - Deeper Discounts On Discontinued Items

If you have any products that you want to get rid of for the new year, for example, discontinued product lines or product samples, then BFCM is a great time to offer an even bigger discount on them to clear out old inventory.

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If you are offering 20% BFCM discount on your standard stock, consider at least 30-40% off for your clearance items.

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Make sure you communicate the limited quantities to your customers to encourage quick purchases. State that they won’t be restocked in the future in your listing description and add the word “Clearance” in your listing title.

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06 - Special Discount For Your VIP Customers

Customers who have purchased before are more likely to purchase from you again. In fact, research shows that customer acquisition cost can be 5 times higher than customer retention cost, meaning that it’s more effective for you to promote to your existing customers than a shopper that hasn’t seen your shop before.

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To increase the chance for your customers to come back, make them feel special and give them a VIP discount during BFCM.

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As it’s not possible to show different customers different discount, the way you can do this on Etsy is to offer them an exclusive coupon code. Send out an email containing the coupon code to your customers after they’ve joined your email list.

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07 - Different Deals Each Day

Offer a different sales promotion every day during the BFCM week to encourage customers to keep checking back. For example, you can run discounts on different categories on different days.

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It’s a great idea to give customers the option to combine shipping, which means they don’t have to pay extra for shipping if they decide to purchase more on a different day. This makes them more likely to come back and add to their order.

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08 - Discounted Product Bundles

Create special discounted product bundles is a great way to increase average order value during BFCM. Because the bundle is discounted compared to buying the products separately, it incentivises customers to take advantage of the savings by purchasing the product bundle.

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Make sure that the bundled products make sense together. Think whether they satisfy the same target customer. Don’t just randomly group unrelated items together. For example, if you sell jewelry, pair a matching set of earrings, necklace and bracelet in a bundle.

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09 - Free Gift Wrapping & Gift Message

Many customers do their Christmas gift shopping during BFCM. Because of this, consider providing gift wrapping and including a gift message for free during the promotion period.

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Tell customers about this promotion in a listing photo. Make sure to include details about any limitation (e.g. message needs to be under 50 words), and steps customers need to take (e.g. send the gift message through Etsy Messages).

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10 - Lucky Draw & Giveaway

Run a giveaway where any customer who makes a purchase during BFCM is entered to win a special prize. This could be a gift box of your bestselling products, a gift card, or even a handmade product bundle featuring multiple Etsy artists.

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Communicate the draw date and prize clearly on Etsy and social media. Keep the process of drawing the winner transparent.

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Tips For Running A Successful BFCM Promotion

Don’t Over Complicate It

An easy-to-understand promotion often work better than a complicated one. Confused customers aren’t likely to buy.

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Pair With Email Marketing

As it’s hard to communicate with all your customers at once, email marketing remains the best way to entice them with your BFCM promotion.

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Although it may be too late to build your email list for this year’s BFCM, starting an email list is one of the best things to do if you want to scale your Etsy business. Here’s my free guide to help you get started.

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Value Your Craft

Although discounts are great for boosting sales, don’t over devalue your hard work, especially if you sell physical products. Make sure you’re still making a profit after offering your BFCM discount.

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