It might not feel like it, but the holiday season is right around the corner. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, etc… Your leads and customers would be expecting something special. And a flash sale is just the thing to go for.
A new product…
Promo…
Extra bonuses…
You name it, they want it!
If you don’t have an annual promotional calendar, you are probably planning and executing everything in the last moment…
Which means stress, anxiety and lost sales.
I’ve seen it.
So this is why I’m urging you to start thinking about those special days and what you could offer on sale.
Why are Flash Sales a great idea for the holiday season?
⓵ Flash sales are a great way to sell more of your product faster. You limit the purchase window to 24 or 48 hours and you do a big promotional campaign to your list, social media, website, and all other channels. You can get rid of inventory or, in the case of digital products, get traction and a lot of new customers.
⓶ Flash sales are a great way to turn lurkers into buyers. Those people on your list that like the benefits of your product but are just not ready to dive in yet. A flash sale will help you activate that audience and gain new customers. And we all know existing customers buy more afterwards.
⓷ Flash sales are SUPER easy to set in any marketing automation system. They require less new elements to be build, which is always an upside. You’ll need to write between 3 and 6 emails in total to get it going.
⓸ Flash sales don’t lose you money. You already know how low can you go. Your prospects are expecting something from you and they’re just waiting for that special offer. They have their wallet out and just need a small encouragement.
⓹ Flash sales don’t cost you too much time. Yes, you need to prepare. Yes, you’ll need to write some emails, prepare 3-5 landing pages, schedule the campaign, etc. But the amount of time that would take is less than a normal launch. If a normal launch requires up to 90 days of planning, the flash sales could be ready in less than 24 hours (given you’re ready to do the work).
What types of emails to include in your Flash Sale promotion?
The contents of these emails depends a lot on your audience, product, level of engagement, and the persona that you’ve created for yourself.
BUT there is a structure that you can follow.
NUMBER OF EMAILS:
The industry experts have agreed on 3 emails as the recommended number for a 48 hour promotion. It’s considered just enough without being too much.
Remember – during popular promotional periods it’s not just you emailing your audience. Everyone in the market is! So if they get 10 emails in 48 hours you’re sure to be marked as SPAM.
TYPES OF EMAILS:
- Intro email where you introduce the offer, tell them about the deadline, the discount, bonuses, etc. You introduce the product, tell them about the benefits, a case study if you have it. This is your main sales email.
- Next day reminder. This is usually a short and sweet email that you use to get to the point, remind them that the offer is ending tomorrow and they need to take action.
- Last reminder! This is your last chance to answer objections. Add testimonials from customers, answer their questions. Even record a video if you can/want. No need to write a long sales letter type of email.
This is the formula of a successful flash sale used by us and many of the top marketers.
If you are interested in templates, check out the DripScripts template for a flash sale. It’s free to customize and download and could be use as a great starting point for your first flash sale promo.
Other Flash Sale funnel elements
A flash sale does not only contain emails. There are other funnel elements you’ll need for this promotion type.
Apart from setting the campaign inside of your marketing automation software, you need a couple of landing pages! Yup, that’s it.
NUMBER OF LANDING PAGES:
You will need between 2 to 5 pages, depending on your strategy decisions. Here is the breakdown of what and why you need to create:
TYPES OF LANDING PAGES:
1. Waitlist page – you could create a waitlist page to share with your audience before the promo. Ask them to sign up and get access to the limited offer before everyone else. This is a simple optin page – just get their email and tag them to be able to send the intro offer first. //YOU CAN SKIP THIS IF YOU WANT – this is one of the optional elements of the flash sale.
2. Sales page – on this page you introduce the offer, preferably with a countdown timer for the expiration date. This page is a must. You can’t skip it. Make sure the countdown timer redirects to a CLOSED Promo page or your standard sales page after the expiration date.
3. Order form page – now, this page could be considered optional, if you decide to have the order form on the sales page. Both work. BUT if you’re planning to run FB ads to get people on the promotion, you need this page. It would allow you to target people that visited the order page with emails for cart abandonment and ads to complete their order. In addition, having this page in the funnel will give you valuable stats – were your leads interested enough?
4. Thank you page – This is self-explanatory. You can’t skip this page whatever you’re doing. Customize it for the product and occasion – or just use your standard thank you page.
5. Offer expired page – If you’re serious about it, I strongly recommend you use this type of simple page to redirect people interested in the offer that clicked too late for the party. It would include a short message that the offer expired and ideally, a link to your standard sales page for the same product at the full price.
Putting it all together
Once you’ve created all of the above elements, you just need to connect them into your system. There are still some details I would like you to take into account:
- Segmentation – make sure the offer is send to your whole list, except for people that already purchased that product (if it’s a once-off purchase, like an online course).
- Schedule it at the right time – make sure all the elements will show the right time and date, all emails will be sent out accordingly.
- Check your provider’s tips for reaching better deliverability – you want to get to those inboxes, so keep an eye on all the tips, spam scores and red flags that might put you in the SPAM folder. Check at least 2 weeks ahead if your IP is blacklisted and work with your provider to fix issues you’ve identified. It’s a good rule to check with your marketing automation provider before any big launch in order to make sure your emails are compliant and they can take the surge in traffic.
What’s next?
Congratulations, now you have a flash sale campaign ready to go and bring new clients and revenue.
In addition, make sure you review the results, take notes and ideas on what to improve next time. If you’re happy with the results, schedule your next flash sale. You could easily duplicate the elements and update based on the new settings, offerings, and dates.
If you’re ready to start working on your holiday promotions, let’s talk! We can help you identify the right type of promotion, integrate it with all your tools and run it.
