How to do Black Friday 2023 in WhatsApp. 5 ideas for BFCM WhatsApp marketing campaigns.

You're WhatsApp ready, and you know the secrets of WhatsApp success? Now you need an eyeball-stopping campaign. Here are some ideas to make your audience go ? and your ROI go ? from our Chief Creative Officer, Etienne Kiefer. 

Many of us in the Charles Studios team used to work in advertising agencies. That's why we can't help adding a creative layer on everything we do here. Not just in our marketing but in places like our product, client presentations and company events.

For Black Friday and Cyber ​​Week this year, we made some ideas for clients to make this a successful day/week on WhatsApp. We do this for big shopping days like this because we don't want people to just use our WhatsApp software, but to help them make the most of WhatsApp as a channel.

Here are some of the ideas to inspire you for your very first Black Friday campaign on WhatsApp.

1. Quick quiz

A quiz with a discount at the end is a great way to get customers to join your WhatsApp channel. We call it a "Chat-in" when a subscriber joins your chat – whether through email, a chat bubble or a QR code in store/on a poster.

This works best when you offer an incentive like a discount: which makes Black Friday the perfect time to do this.

This is also a chance to record your customers' likes and dislikes. With our WhatsApp Business platform, you automatically add tags to their profile when they tap certain answers. Then you can us these tags to send very targeted campaigns either right away or in future. And of course the more personalized the messages, the higher the conversion rates.  

Send campaigns via email or social media, with a link to the quiz leading to your WhatsApp channel (generate a wa.me link here)

Start quiz on WhatsApp – ask for permission to send marketing communications first (to be GDPR compliant) and then ask customers a few questions about their preferences (style, color, interests) so they can get the discount

Send personalized deal – on our platform, we can help you set up an automated flow that pings a tailored Black Friday offer based on the answers they gave you 

2. Deal reminders

You offer to remind customers about your Black Friday deals – a helpful service that makes sure they won't miss out. They click on a chat bubble on your website, opt-in to your marketing communications on WhatsApp, and you message them the deals they want.

Conversion rates will be high because you know this audience is already interested in your offers.

Offer deal reminders on a chat bubble on your website (this can be branded with your colors)

Get your WhatsApp opt-in then you can ask customers a couple of questions in an automated flow if you'd like to personalize deals

Send reminders – this can also be automated

3. Treasure hunt

If you're a more playful brand, hide discounts across your website and product description pages (PDPs). When customers find them, they tap to get into WhatsApp and receive the discount code on WhatsApp.

4. Flash deal

The psychology of selling says we're less likely to think about risks and doubts when given a time constraint. Don't overdo the FOMO throughout the year, but for Black Friday this can work really well.

Ask customers to join you in WhatsApp to get time-limited offers throughout the day or week. Make your offers available for only 1 hour every day. When they start, you send out a WhatsApp message and a link. 

5. Deal lottery

Send a randomized deal to people who answer a question to which no-one can know the answer.

Or don't do any deals

Some of our clients don't do Black Friday or Cyber ​​Week at all. This doesn't mean you stay silent on this day, it just means you take a different approach. For example donate to a worthy cause for every order, or close your shop for the day and give the team a day off. Send customers some tips for where to go for some relaxation away from the shops.

Stay true to your brand and don't feel you have to do flashy deals. But you can still stay present in people's minds. 

Real WhatsApp Black Friday campaigns 

Short, sweet, successful: here are some WhatsApp marketing messages sent by our clients last Black Friday.

Even a year ago when WhatsApp Business wasn't so well-known as a revenue-generating channel Germany, our clients had great results, with SNOCKS alone generating €16k in revenue.