We are at the eve of one of the greatest shopping day of the whole year. I believe some rings already rung on your mind. Yes, we are talking about that magnificent day, aka Black Friday.

Black Friday is the first Friday of the week which comes after U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, but as a citizen of the world, we grasp that day’s meaning differently. In brief, we see it as a day full of discounts and special shopping deals. Moreover, given the fact that December is filled with holidays, Black Friday could stand for the beginning of the holiday shopping season. This can be mentioned confidentially that this very season plays a crucial role for not just the economy of the country, but the whole world. The ascending interest for Black Friday is plain as a day.

Just like 2020, this year as well, coronavirus pandemic loomed over the annual shopping event. For those who think Black Friday is a tradition, restrictions became a quite vexing problem. However, when it comes to discounts who can stop the shopaholics? eCommerce sales reach its climax when many retailers put their Black Friday deals and discounts online.

Enough with shooting the breeze, let’s dive into the serious stuff. Why this day play a tremendous role in the economy and how social media effect to the efficiency of Black Friday.

The Creation and Evolvement of Black Friday

There are two occasions where the term Black Friday has been used and surprisingly they have a little connection whatsoever. First one’s history goes back to 1869, when financier Jay Gould and railway magnate James Fisk attempt to put gold market through the hoops to hike the prices. However, that plan backfired and in September 24, pass into the history as the date of financial panic. These implacable Wall Street financiers’ conspiracy unraveled on Friday and that event resulted with bankrupting everyone, from cashed up barons to penurious farmers.

Right now most commonly used Black Friday term is refer to the day after Thanksgiving, which is often considered the first day of the holiday shopping season and is known for featuring discounts from retailers. However, why choose the black color to express a quite jolly day, and is there any specific reason hides behind the selection of Friday out of all week?

The thing is retailers are the ones who kind of formed that tradition. During the year, retailers were marking their loss with red color, and black, on the other hand, was symbolized the profit they made. Moreover, supposedly on the day after Thanksgiving sales would go into the black , because holiday shoppers spent so much money on discounted products. We don’t know for a fact that retail companies used to record losses in red and profits in black when doing their accounting, this version of Black Friday’s origin is the closest version we have to the truth.

First Things First, Change

Social media plays an irreplaceable role to drive the traffic towards online shopping. Coronavirus pandemic changed the whole worlds approach towards their traditional behaviors. That has been said that, this year 62% of the customers keep themselves away from entering to the actual store on Black Friday. This a good sign, at least we can be happy that people have the awareness to protect themselves, yet is it interfere with the astounding success of Black Friday? Certainly, not, because eCommerce fill in for the physical loss.

If you want to drive referrals to eCommerce sites you need to know which one could be more beneficial for your business. Although Facebook leads the queue, Instagram and Pinterest are the ones which are the most context-specific influential social media platforms.

Here comes one more necessary detail: If your focus is young audience, more specifically, Gen Z TikTok will be the gateway towards your aim. Snapchat and Twitter can seem left behind, but when you are roll up your sleeves to prepare your social media plan for Black Friday bear them in your mind too.

Everything Changes if One Thing Changes

At least once in our life all of us have seen a footage where people are literally marching into the stores at the crack of dawn. Pushing and pulling, fighting over an item or walking all over the things which stands on your way. Seems familiar for many of us, yet that is not the worst part at all. The destruction that these so called customers leaves behind evoke the scenery from post-apocalyptic movies for salespeople.

Fortunately, more and more, consumers are choosing to shop online. When we pause a little and think who would want to wait outside for hours or have an actual fight over the last most-cherished item? These all were happening years ago, but the coronavirus pandemic pushed shoppers online more than ever in 2020.

Tomorrow will be the biggest Black Friday ever for eCommerce sellers. Thereby don’t let anything hold you back or stir your vision. Try to make the most of it with social media, email marketing and advertising. Engage with your audience and stay true to your brand, success will come to you when you take the law in your own hand.

Life has changed considerably over the last several weeks. Many of us are under stay-at-home orders and there are policies that are preventing us from going about our lives as usual. The impact on business has been dramatic, and professionals in the field, especially those at a digital marketing agency, are wondering how they can respond.

On one front, marketing professionals have been working from home so the functions of marketing can continue when they can’t go to the office. While this has been helpful, there is a recognition that the business landscape has changed and marketing departments will have to adjust. Plans that were on track a few months ago may no longer be relevant, so many of us will need to look into coronavirus resources for businesses and find ways to adapt to the new reality. 

Marketers are going to play a vital role in helping businesses adapt during the coronavirus pandemic. Businesses may need to make a shift in the types of products they sell or they might need to change their messaging to reach customers or clients in a way that is more likely to resonate in light of the new reality.

The following are a few of the steps and strategies for marketers and business leaders who are trying to figure out what they can do to respond to the coronavirus outbreak.

Keep Your Clients and Customers Up to Date

Whether you are a business selling products, a B2B service provider or a marketing professional, you have to stay in close contact with your customers and clients at this time. Along with that, you have to acknowledge the current circumstances. If you try to carry on like things are normal, you are going to seem out of touch and unprepared.

Let them know what you are doing to respond to the crisis and assure them that you can still meet their needs. Make sure they know you can develop plans to help their businesses during this difficult time. 

You should also stay in touch so you can learn about the challenges they are facing. Ask them about what they need from you and what you can do to better support their mission. 

This contact can be in the form of phone calls or through email, but you should also make sure to keep people informed by posting on social media and by releasing information on your website. 

Assess Your Market Position 

It is actually a great time to reassess and adjust your market position. People are staying at home and using the internet more than they normally would, so this offers the perfect opportunity to get new messaging out there. 

Start by looking at your ideal customer. Is it the same person it was a few months ago or last year? Consider how your product or service is going to benefit your customers and think of ways to demonstrate the benefits. With an understanding of who your customer is and how they can benefit from your product or service, you can create messaging that will resonate and inspire action.

Once you know your ideal customer and the value proposition you are offering, you should consider your market positioning strategy. Do you want to be a cost leader by offering the most competitive prices on the market? Maybe you want to differentiate your brand and target a segment of the market. You could also consider combining these two positioning strategies together.

Adjust Your Marketing Strategy

Now that you have established an ideal customer and you know how you want to position your brand, you can start developing a marketing strategy to meet your goals. 

Take a look at the audience you are pitching to. What is their age group? Are you selling primarily to men or women? Are you selling to businesses or consumers? Does your ideal customer fit into a specific income range? What are their interests? 

The list of questions could go on. The more specific you get, the easier it will be to target the right customers with the right messaging. It will also help you select the right marketing strategy and the marketing channels that will be most effective when trying to reach the customers you want to reach.

Prepare for the Future

Finally, this is a good time to prepare your marketing strategy for the “what ifs”. Most of us did not see the coronavirus coming, and that left us scrambling to react without much of a plan. Now is the time to try to forecast what may happen, run some tests and make plans for different possible outcomes.

Look at different timelines for the economy in your area reopening. Consider the possibility that some of these timelines might change and try to project what the impact will be on your business for different scenarios. Maybe run some market research and try to project the numbers for things like expenses and revenues. Think about how your marketing strategy will need to change to respond to different outcomes and the messaging you will need to have ready for these events.

Marketing won’t be able to solve every problem that businesses experience as the result of the coronavirus, but it should play an important part in the response. By reviewing your marketing strategy and making the necessary adjustments, you can keep your business in the minds of customers and reassure them that you can continue to meet their needs.

If  we don’t take into consideration today’s fuss about influencer marketing strategies and take a look at the history we will see that influencer marketing has even started before the creation of social media. The definition of the “influencer” is a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media. Clear message and easy to understand but is it? Can anybody be an influencer? 

What makes a Person an Influencer

Beautiful minds inspire others. Just think, do we like influencers just because we want to be like them?  The answer is  yes for some of us, but for the rest of us, we value the effort they put in their work. The influencers inspire us to be the best version of ourselves, do the right thing in every condition and keep pushing our boundaries.

The influencers take action deliberately. They don’t have magic sticks which make all of their dreams come true. They build their name bit by bit. No matter if we call them content creators, mentors, guides, experts or anything like that, they all serve to the same purpose. Creating the impact they were aiming for is their solemn duty.

Honesty saves everyone’s time. Indeed it does. Would you rely on someone who lies to you? Possibly there isn’t any worse thing for  an influencer to tell a lie and get caught. Because once it happens that influencer’s credibility flies out of the window and it’s unlikely to repair again. The reputation is the essence of the influencer’s ability to influence.

This is not a controversial matter, whether or not you have a great thought or actions, if you have people who think like you, in another word if they can relate with you, these people will follow you. However was this always like that? Let’s have a look at the dusty pages of history.

The Blonde Bombshell was on Duty

The Blonde Bombshell, Marilyn Monroe skyrocketed the sales of Chanel №5. In April 1952, Marilyn Monroe appeared for the first time on the cover of Life Magazine, and the article mentions her answer to the question, “What do you wear to bed?” and her reply, “a few drops of Chanel №5”.

Now when we see one or another celebrity praise a perfume it’s quite normal, but Marilyn Monroe was the first celebrity who was endorsing a perfume. Chanel №5 is the most famous and best selling perfume but the popularity of the icon escalated in the twinkling of an eye. 

After that brands discovered the way to use the power of popularity and public images of the celebrities they use it unceasingly. That was easier to entice potential customers with the personalization of celebrities’ looks and their ways of living. 

A Long Way from Down to the Top

Have you heard about Nancy Green? She was one of the first African American models in history to become the face of a popular food product. She didn’t have a beautiful body to show off, we can’t call her a scholar because she was’t. Nancy was a slave, then nanny and cook finally an influencer who fight against the racial discrimination. 

In 1889 Nancy Green was hired to promote a brand called “Aunt Jemima”. The product itself was out of ordinary for its time, self-rising pancake flour with a Black woman’s face on the box  made an instant hit across the country. If we look at the 21st century’s individual’s perspective, yes the design may seem racial and stereotypical nevertheless it was innovative for the 1880s. Green made the big chunk of money while working for the brand for 33 years until her unexpected death. Moreover she became one of the most influential advocates who spoke out against poverty and equal rights.

“Because They’re Worth It”

If you go out and ask a random person who is the second person did a revolutionary act in any case for the first time, it would be doubtful that you will find the right answer. However, we know our pioneers. In 1971, when women didn’t even have a voice over the product specifically manufactured for them, L’Oréal made something groundbreaking. Those days were special for the women’s rights movement  but still advertising controlled by men and women were completely left out.

“Because I’m Worth It” said brand ambassador Joanne Dusseau for the first time and it changed the views of women forever. Some sources claim that L’Oréal came up with this tagline because they wanted to beat their competitor Clairol and encourage women to spend more money on their product. Well, it worked. Because in the 70s almost every commercial featured male actors and showed their perspectives. If you take a look at Clairol’s ads in the 1970s you will see women with a male voiceover. However in the L’Oréal advertisement we see a woman who narrates that she  bought  a premium beauty product for the first time just for herself. The tagline slightly changed over the course of history and evolved its latest form, “ Because You’re Worth It”. Yet no matter how you comprehend it the slogan has been translated into 40 languages and it gave women confidence when they didn’t use to feel they are worth it. L’Oréal didn’t just became the pioneer in feminist advertising, more importantly it influenced the women’s outlooks about themselves.

It doesn’t matter who was the first influencer or when  exactly influencing has started. What we are making of it is the thing we need to focus on and thrive. Try to be a better influential leader to relate and impact others in a deep and sincere way.