Your Comprehensive 2024 Guide To Black Friday, Cyber Monday and ‘Q5’

Holiday Marketing Guide

Your Comprehensive Guide To Black Friday, Cyber Monday and ‘Q5’

Name: TriMark Digital
Brand: TriMark Digital
Rating: 5 (13 reviews)

Table of Contents

Marketing Tips To Elevate Your Business This Holiday Season and Next Year

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) ad spending set to skyrocket, your marketing ROI becomes more critical than ever. How will your business successfully stand out?

In this guide, we’ve gathered insights and strategies from TriMark Digital’s marketing experts to help you navigate shifts in technology, consumer behavior and more. With these tactics, your brand can better drive engagement, conversions and customer loyalty through the rest of 2024 and into 2025.

Stay ahead of the curve and maximize your marketing with these insider strategies.

Consumer Behavior Insights

1. Increased Use of AI for Personalization

AI is playing a bigger role in optimizing content, product recommendations and timing. For example, hyper-targeted dynamic emails powered by AI are becoming more of the standard for boosting consumer engagement.

2. Greater Focus on Sustainability

Consumer demand for eco-friendly practices has continued to grow, with more emphasis than ever on offering and promoting sustainable products and services.

3. Evolving Payment Options

The popularity of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) has continued to rise, with more prominent options needed to accommodate budget-conscious shoppers.

4. Election-Driven Spending Changes

The 2024 election may affect how consumers view the health of the economy, causing them to adjust their spending habits in anticipation of change. Some might feel optimistic and spend more, while others could become cautious and hold back.

“Advertisers should be prepared to address post-election sentiment in their ad copy to try to become more relatable and thus more likable as a brand.”

— Dani Roberts, VP of Key Accounts

“I think the wide adoption of AI has made consumers expect a high level of personalization.”

— Jordan Nowlin, Director of Paid Social

Loyalty Shopper Data According to Salesforce

40^% of holiday purchases are predicted to come from repeat buyers.

46^% of shoppers say earning and redeeming loyalty points is the second-biggest factor influencing where they shop (after price).

63^% of shoppers are making more purchases from stores where they can earn and redeem loyalty points.

Email & SMS

Make Your Brand Inbox-Worthy

BFCM is the perfect time to grow your email list and drive SMS engagement.

Market Exclusive Email Offers

Use website pop-ups and social media promotions offering discounts or early access perks to entice email sign-ups.

Leverage SMS and Push Notifications

Send alerts with discount codes and abandoned cart reminders to ensure your customers never miss a deal.

EXPLORE OUR FULL BFCM EMAIL MARKETING GUIDE

Paid Media

Be Agile With Ad Spend

1. Paid Search Will Be a Highly Effective Tactic

With price-conscious consumers, achieving conversions at a low cost-per-lead (CPL) will be key to proving ROI. If average order values decline, profit margins will be tighter, making efficient ad spending more important than ever.

2. Consider the Competitive Landscape the Election Creates

Some advertisers reduced their spending during the election season to avoid involvement or to sidestep competition, resulting in additional funds available for a strong holiday push. Lower-funnel lead generation and ecommerce sales tactics will likely receive the majority of their investment.

3. Creatively Engage In-Person Shoppers

While online shopping has exploded in recent years, people still prefer the in-person shopping experience during the holiday season. eMarketer reports that:

In-person sales made up the majority (81.1%) of total holiday retail sales in 2023
Over a third of U.S. adults will research products on a retailer’s website but wait to buy them in a physical store

Take advantage of increased foot traffic in malls and shopping centers with thoughtful digital out-of-home placements and geofenced programmatic campaigns that stretch branding dollars further.

“Brands should explore experiential, event-based marketing campaigns to reach shoppers in memorable ways.”

— Seth Davis, Senior Media Planner

4. Influencers and Content Creators Will Be a Driving Force

Adobe predicts influencers and content creators will convert shoppers 10X more than social media this BFCM. Given the saturated and competitive advertising landscape, investing in influencers may be a more efficient use of your brand’s dollars than traditional paid social campaigns.

Web & UX

Make Checkout Irresistible

Create Mobile-Friendly UX

With over half of all online transactions happening on mobile, it’s crucial to optimize.

Streamlined Checkout

Simplify the checkout process with one-click payments and mobile wallet options like Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Mobile-Exclusive Deals

Reward mobile users with app-only or mobile-exclusive discounts to drive quick, on-the-go purchases.

Build Urgency with Time-Limited Offers

Use time-sensitive offers to tap into BFCM FOMO and push shoppers toward faster purchasing decisions.

Flash Sales

Run short, high-impact sales using live countdown timers on landing pages.

Low Stock Alerts

Use scarcity messaging like “Only 3 left in stock!” to motivate immediate product purchases.

“Retailers should expect to see unprecedented ‘deals’ from competitors that return us to prices from five years ago. Consumers will perceive these as major discounts, sparking excitement and boosting sales.”

— Dani Roberts, VP of Key Accounts

SEO

Create Trust-Building Content

Do The Research For Them

Enhance product or service descriptions to improve user experience, empower consumer choices and boost search visibility.

Add Comprehensive Comparison Features

Google increasingly favors comparative content in search results. Create easy-to-scan tables or guides for similar products.

Include Detailed Specifications

Provide precise measurements and insights that go beyond basic product or service sizing (e.g., S/M/L).

Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC)

Use UGC to enhance search rankings, boost your brand’s credibility and attract qualified traffic.

Encourage and Showcase Authentic Reviews

Google prioritizes brands that feature honest feedback.

Foster Community Discussions

Encourage satisfied customers to share their experiences on forums.

Implement Proper Review Schema Markup

This enhances the visibility of customer reviews in search results.

Enhance Visual Search Optimization

Improve your visibility in search results by implementing imagery best practices.

Use High-Quality, Original Images

Prioritize images that clearly showcase product features or service details for easy visual comparisons.

Categorize Images Effectively

Write keyword-rich, descriptive alt text and file names.

Create Highly Visual Collections

Design layouts that display well in Google’s visual search features.

Compress Images for Faster Loading

Try to keep file sizes under 100KB while still maintaining image quality.

Structure Content for Enhanced Readability

You can cater to user preferences and search engine algorithms when you do.

Use Lists To Compare Features Of Similar Products

Google is displaying list results 42% more, so it’s a great opportunity to grow traffic.

Create Easy-To-Scan Content

This is essential for helping users make quicker purchasing decisions.

Include Data-Driven Proof Points

This enhances consumer decision-making and differentiates your offerings from competitors.

Content

Turn Your Brand Into A Resource

Emphasize Your Benefits

With inflation hitting hard, consumers are being more choosy than ever. To win their business, it’s crucial to clearly communicate the value your products or services provide. People want to feel confident that their purchase is worth it, especially when they’re already feeling squeezed by prices on necessities.

“Consumers will crave straightforward, no-nonsense messaging, especially after months of election ads filled with questionable claims. Since people are aware they’re being marketed to, authenticity will stand out.”

— Laasya Vulimiri, Associate Director, Paid Media

Develop Persona-Based Shopping Resources

Help your customers navigate the holiday rush by offering tailored shopping guides.

Budget-Conscious Shoppers

Recommend “Gifts Under $50” or “Best Deals for Savvy Shoppers.”

Luxury Shoppers

Feature premium or exclusive products for high-end deals.

Last-Minute Shoppers

Offer fast shipping or digital gift cards to cater to procrastinators.

Hobby Shoppers

Curate products based on hobbies, like “Tech Enthusiasts” or “Fitness Fanatics.”

Limit How You Advertise AI Usage

While it’s perfectly fine to be excited about AI in your business, it probably shouldn’t be a focus of your messaging (unless AI is your business). A 2024 study by Washington State University, published in the Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, found that mentioning ‘AI’ in product or service descriptions—compared to ‘high-tech’—consistently lowered consumer interest across eight categories in over 1,000 adults. The negative reaction was even stronger for ‘sensitive’ offerings, like medical services.

Unlock the Power of ‘Q5’

The period between late December and mid-January offers a unique opportunity for cost-effective marketing with less competition.

1. Post-Holiday Follow-Up Campaigns

Build loyalty and continue driving sales past BFCM.

Thank-You Emails

Send personalized thank-you notes offering related product recommendations to drive repeat purchases.

Abandoned Cart Emails

Target customers who didn’t complete their purchases, reminding them to return and buy.

2. Cater to Gift Card Shoppers

Consumers who received gift cards for your business or general prepaid cards this holiday season are prime candidates for targeted ads and emails incentivizing them to purchase now. This is especially true if you can grab them with a post-BFCM sale.

3. New Quarter, New Me

Now is the ideal time to experiment with personalized strategies that didn’t fit into your traditional BFCM marketing campaign. You don’t need to allocate all your resources, either—simply exploring fresh ideas, like a shopper personality quiz or other unconventional approaches for your brand, can tap into the “New Year, New Me” sentiment and enhance your impact.

Key Takeaways to Stand Out in the Busiest Shopping Season and Beyond

As you prepare for BFCM, remember that a well-planned strategy can significantly boost your sales and brand visibility.Email & SMS: Grow your contact list with exclusive offers and drive conversions through reminders and abandoned cart alerts.

Paid Media: Optimize ad spend for cost-effective lead generation and consider influencer partnerships for higher returns.
Website & UX: Streamline the checkout experience with mobile optimization and time-limited offers that create urgency.
SEO: Build credibility through user-generated content (UGC), comparison features and visual search optimization.
Social Media: Increase visibility with effective hashtags, behind-the-scenes content and dedicated Instagram highlights.
Content: Clearly highlight product benefits and create persona-based shopping guides to engage specific customers.
‘Q5’: Target purchasers, abandoned cart shoppers and gift card recipients while experimenting with new campaign strategies.

With these tips, your brand can thrive this holiday season and into the new year. For year-round marketing ideas, explore our blog!

Generative AI in Marketing

Generative AI in Marketing

A Guide to the Latest AI Marketing Tools

Artwork generated by AI, MidJourney

Table of Contents

Generative AI is like an archeologist who is always digging up new artifacts from the past but has no idea what they mean.

Generative AI is like a sculptor with a block of marble, capable of creating anything you can imagine, but with no idea what to make until you give it direction.

Generative AI is like a paintbrush in the hands of a child, capable of producing both beautiful and terrible things.

— AI-generated responses from TextFX, an AI experiment by Google

Introduction

What Is AI?

If you’ve ever sat behind the wheel of a self-driving car or simply Googled “coffee shop near me,” you have seen artificial intelligence, or AI, at work.

AI is a broad term that refers to machines that can perform tasks and functions we typically associate with human minds. The concept has been around since 1950, with today’s most buzzy type of AI—generative AI—introduced in the 1960s with the world’s first computer chatbots. Since then, it’s been a favored technology in marketing, used in strategies involving bidding algorithms, programmatic and A/B testing. So why is there fresh fervor around AI today?

More recently, in 2014, advancements in machine learning have drawn acclaim—and concern—for its ability to create more humanlike text, images and videos in mere seconds. User-friendly tools like ChatGPT, which launched in 2022, can receive a short prompt, process terabytes of information instantaneously and produce impressively polished content, from witty email subject lines to travel itineraries to lengthy college papers. Other programs like Midjourney and DALL·E can create any image or video the user desires, from the surreal to the hyperrealistic. With many tech companies racing to debut their own versions of AI tools, the opportunities for marketing integrations and enhancing productivity will only continue to grow.

As new generative AI tools become more sophisticated and easier to use, many in our industry are asking if they could replace jobs currently performed by humans. It’s a fair question, but mankind can rest easy. While these machines can generate content faster than a human can, what they lack is empathy. But when generative AI is used as a tool—with a real human being at the helm—the possibilities are endless.

How To Use AI

The beauty of generative AI is its multitude of applications in marketing. From data analysis to SEO to user experience and beyond, many rote tasks that used to take strategists hours or days can be completed in minutes or even seconds. A 2024 survey by HubSpot found that 75 percent of marketers who use AI and automation say it helps them spend less time on “low-impact” manual tasks, freeing up their working hours to focus on more “high-impact” work, like complex strategy and project execution. As we create full-funnel marketing strategies for clients, our teams can leverage generative AI tools to become more productive, effective and agile in our daily work—reducing administrative burden to build the meat of your marketing plans quicker.

That said, AI tools are just that: tools. They are not comprehensive solutions. While their outputs can expedite certain processes, over-reliance on AI without sufficient oversight can lead to errors or inaccuracies. Like any other software you use to streamline your work—apps, CRMs, cloud services, online banking, etc.—generative AI works best when you take its capabilities and customize them to your needs.

AI in Marketing

To improve the User Experience

Digital tools abound for optimizing the UX and accessibility of a website or landing page. Marketers frequently use heatmaps to monitor user behavior on a page and gather data on where engagement is highest and how far users scroll down a page. What used to be a manual process—watching thousands of recordings of individual sessions on a page to glean insights and make recommended improvements—has now become automated thanks to AI.

Microsoft’s behavioral analysis tool Clarity includes a feature called Copilot, which uses AI (the same used in ChatGPT) to read and summarize user interactions. With the aggregated data, Copilot delivers deeper insights with simple takeaways and customized recommendations. We can also use these session summaries to evaluate user experience across devices, operating systems and screen sizes. For example, if Copilot detects a large portion of sessions with “rage clicks” on Android mobile devices using Chrome, we can inspect the issue and work with developers to fix it. With pinpointed insights and data-backed recommendations, strategists can identify and correct costly issues in the buy-flow in close to real time.

To conduct SEO research

Many SEO-based AI tools exist to accelerate keyword research, raise SERP rankings and align web content with search intent. In a survey by Jasper, 28 percent of respondents who use generative AI tools said one of the tools’ best benefits is to “optimize content for SEO.” HubSpot reports that 54 percent of bloggers and SEO specialists use AI and automation in their work.

ChatGPT is a rich resource for generating semantically related secondary keywords based on a set of primary keywords. It can also support strategists with writing schema markup. Feeding AI the right prompts, with enough specifics or data to parse through, will maximize the tool’s effectiveness, saving SEO specialists hours spent manually culling through keywords and site performance data. From AI’s findings, SEO and content specialists can generate ideas for new content based on top-performing keywords and topics with the most opportunity for SERP ranking.

For more in-depth data analysis and faster results, a machine-learning SEO platform like BrightEdge can augment the scale and pace of an organic web strategy. BrightEdge’s AI analyzes millions of web pages, examines thousands of changes each week, and boils them down to critical findings that will improve organic performance, allowing us to build out multiple interlinking strategies simultaneously. It also prioritizes the most high-impact actions in a single feed, giving SEO teams the direction they need to implement these changes faster.

54^% of bloggers and SEO specialists use
AI and automation in their work

To Gain SERP Real Estate

Google, which relies on AI to power its search results, is experimenting with generative AI to deliver more comprehensive and helpful answers to users. Instead of producing a list of websites that best match a user’s search query, Google’s Search Generative Experience will create an AI-generated summary of the key information related to their search, with suggestions for follow-up searches. With a conversational tone and capability to respond to detailed questions like, “what’s better for a family with kids under 3 and a dog, Bryce canyon or arches?”, SGE does some of the heavy lifting of researching and organizing information.

By exploring the site pages SGE uses to generate its response to a query, marketers can learn which domains the search engine finds most authoritative and trustworthy. This insight can help marketers create content that better competes for those high-intent searches and earns higher positions in SERPs. With richer, more thorough content results, Google’s latest evolution will favor domains with an in-depth blog strategy to complement their main product or cornerstone pages. Brands that also optimize their content production with the right schema, structure and language will be vital to winning the SERP.

To Support Content Ideation & Creation

Many tools and capabilities that serve SEO specialists as they build a web strategy are helpful for content strategists as well. Content-based AI like ChatGPT can serve as a springboard for creative brainstorming, from blog ideas for people interested in closet organization to brand names for a new deodorant. It saves content strategists time in the early stages of content creation. Instead of spending hours researching a topic, identifying the most-searched keywords and developing a content outline, AI can lay that groundwork, giving the writer more time to deliver excellent content tailored to a brand’s voice and business goals.

In seconds, generative AI tools can scrape the web for information relevant to a query and summarize and organize it for easy use. This is useful for research that would normally require culling through lengthy reports for technical writing tasks or understanding a new topic. Strategists also benefit from the personalization capabilities of AI. With a prompt that includes your target audience, AI can generate content topics or a full content strategy to nurture that segment. Marketers can A/B test faster with AI by generating different copy versions for a call to action, site page, email or social post to see which message performs better.

Image of screenshot of ChatGPT generating ideas about blogs

As content writers and strategists integrate AI-generated content into their workflows, they should treat this content as a “rough draft” and never a finished product. Always ensure the accuracy of the information used in the content and be especially wary of “spammy” content, which will negatively influence search engine rankings.

To Predict Seasonality & Demand

One of AI’s most powerful capabilities is machine learning. Machine learning is used to visualize large data sets so marketers can better understand and predict patterns and consumer behavior. Data analysts and engineers use machine learning to identify the correlation or causation of their marketing tactics and make informed decisions about where to target their marketing efforts. They can also use forecasting models to predict how changing spend will affect lead volume, allowing for better demand planning. Data engineers use machine learning tools to track performance, generate insights faster and provide better recommendations.

Marketers use machine learning to understand how one marketing tactic impacts another. For example, data engineers can perform a regression analysis—taking multiple variables and visualizing the relationship between them—to assess how a TV ad impacts branded clicks to a website. If they find the two tactics are correlated, meaning that when a brand runs TV ads, they see an uptick in website traffic from branded search, they can confidently say that their TV campaign is effective. If they want more granular insights, marketers can employ a seasonality analysis to determine when the TV ad drives the most branded clicks so media buyers can adjust placements to maximize ROI.

Graphic of machine learning with cog and brain

The large scope of digital campaigns can bog marketers down with data faster than they can analyze it. AI dashboards save strategists time by processing those data sets for enhanced reporting and predictive analytics. With historical and real-time data as their guide, machine learning empowers marketers to anticipate their customers’ needs and deliver better experiences than ever before.

To Enhance Design Assets

AI doesn’t just generate copy, write code and analyze data; new generative AI platforms can also create imagery and video from a written prompt. Popular text-to-image AI tools like Midjourney and OpenAI’s DALL·E analyze millions of images and their labels and generate a new image based on the prompt. Much like using ChatGPT for content marketing, these visual AI tools serve as a helpful starting point for designers to create fresh, striking visuals for your brand without having to book a photoshoot.

Designers utilizing professional design tools with Adobe can take advantage of its generative AI technology, Firefly, in a number of ways to enhance and expand existing imagery. For example, Adobe Photoshop offers Generative Fill, a feature that lets designers add, remove and expand elements within an image. For designers creating assets for multiple placements, such as Instagram Stories, Facebook and website header images, the AI can help adjust and fill images to accommodate different aspect ratios and dimensions, saving designers production time. These tools allow brands with limited assets and resources to create impressive visuals in less time.

Image example of generative fill in Photoshop with golf course imagery

For engaging product photography, AI can create images that show your product in different settings, both surreal and hyperrealistic. It can also generate an eye-catching background for your website or a meme to share on social media. For variations on a logo or putting together a moodboard, generative AI can help visualize your ideas so a designer can spend more time building upon the concept with more creative details

AI Spotlight: Paid Media

To Optimize Ad Spend

With a seemingly infinite number of pages and ad formats across the web, maximizing ad spend across search, social and display platforms has grown increasingly challenging for marketers. Before AI, paid media strategists spent more time digging through data to identify the right audience and bidding strategies to invest their budgets. This led to nonoptimal ad spend and hours of manually researching, testing and adjusting bids and targeting. It was also very challenging to determine accurate conversion attribution. With Google’s AI-powered ad platforms, marketers gain deeper insights and drive more efficiency in their paid media strategies.

Using machine learning and automation, Google’s algorithms analyze historical audience data and ad performance to determine the best placements, bids and targeting to achieve a brand’s goal. In addition to a wealth of user behavior data, Google considers factors such as location, seasonality, day of the week and even time of day to place ads using its “automated bidding” algorithm. Paid media specialists can pair their brand expertise, including specific keywords, negative keywords and more precise geos, with Google’s data to create a campaign that maximizes efficiency and meets a brand’s goals.

Another ad solution that agencies frequently use is Responsive Search Ads. This machine learning-enabled platform creates multiple variations of headlines and descriptions to find the optimal ad copy. Advertisers also receive AI-generated recommendations from Google to optimize their campaigns. Once an ad is launched, the search engine will monitor performance and give it an optimization score. Low-scoring ads receive recommendations such as adding more unique headlines or descriptions, plus predicted ad performance with the recommended changes.

One of the most exciting insights that AI offers advertisers is data-driven attribution. Before this offering was available, conversions could only be attributed with a few conversion modeling options, usually falling back on the more simplistic first- or last-click models. But that method doesn’t tell the complete story; users likely interacted multiple times with a brand online before converting or purchasing. Data-driven attribution uses conversion data from each interaction—across web, search, YouTube, display and Discovery/Demand Gen Ads—to understand the entire purchase journey and the effectiveness of each touchpoint. It then calculates the “actual contribution” of each ad interaction throughout the journey. The paths that drive the most conversions will receive more credit in the automated bidding process, helping to drive more conversions.

The Risks of Over-Reliance

Even with exciting new developments, several limitations in the technology exist:

Inaccuracy: Without intimate knowledge of a brand’s identity, goals or target audience, AI tools can’t create content or optimize paid media spending tailored to a brand’s unique needs.
Bias: Studies have found that even AI shows bias in its results, as the content is only as good as the information its developers provide.
Creativity: AI tools can’t offer entirely new ways of thinking or create brand-new ideas. Every result has an explicit or underlying correlation to something that already exists. That means multiple brands could unintentionally use the same AI-generated content or imagery.

Accountability: AI tools don’t always use the most recent available data, nor can they conduct their own research.
Empathy: AI tools can try to emulate human emotions, but they can’t create genuine connections, consider feelings or lived experiences, remove bias or deliver sensitive solutions.
Ethics: AI tools can produce answers that don’t align with situational or holistic human values. When dealing with sensitive, controversial or political topics or matters of opinion, it’s best to avoid AI-generated content.

As marketers celebrate AI’s ability to automate repetitive work and generate ideas, they should be wary of relying too much on these tools to do their jobs. Over-reliance can inhibit creativity and originality. Relying too heavily on any tool—not just AI—reduces the opportunity for innovating new ways to do things, human intuition and critical thinking skills. So, while AI tools can complement our capabilities (in marketing and elsewhere), they shouldn’t completely replace them.

AI overreliance can lead to pitfalls across industries and applications, from self-governing vehicles that can’t make spontaneous yet necessary driving decisions to customer service chatbots proving more aggravating than helpful. Negative outcomes like societal biases can happen with humans interpreting and inputting data as well, which is why diverse teams and strategies are essential to quality work. Now and in the future, we must gauge AI’s potential through personal applications and support it with the decision-making, discretion and judgment acumen only humans can offer.

Holiday Marketing Guide Your Comprehensive Guide To Black Friday, Cyber Monday and ‘Q5’