Crafting The Perfect Black Friday Marketing Strategy for 2026

Happy start of November fellow business owners 🍂

The holiday season is rolling around soon and I’m sure we’re all in the middle of making our Thanksgiving plans.

But between us, it might not be a terrible idea to start thinking about planning ahead for our Black Friday sales.

Here’s what we know;

Mobile sales accounted for 69% of Black Friday sales globally last year. According to Adobe Analytics, shoppers spent a record $10.8 billion online on Friday alone!

To put that into perspective, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m, online shoppers were ready to dish out $11.3 million per. minute.

I mean, with numbers like that, thinking about how to stand out in the midst of all the other Black Friday deals online seems just as if not more important than perfecting that yearly Halloween post. Lucky for you, we’re here to take at least one of those things off your plate. 

Here are some Black Friday sale ideas for you to incorporate in your own Black Friday marketing strategies and that go beyond just slashing prices, so you can be sure to make a real splash when turkey season rolls around. 

Wanna know a secret? It’s not always about the discounts themselves. It’s about creating excitement, urgency, and exclusivity.

1. Funky Discounts Come In All Shapes And Sizes

• Weird percentages

Tell us if this sounds familiar.

You go online and look up an item that you need soon. Not a super expensive house appliance or anything, but a small trinket you anticipate might be cheaper online than it would be at a local store.

In the search results, right above the brands you recognize and trust, you spot sponsored ads for the same item you want, but being offered at half the price. The ad on Google reads: “Was 99.95$, now 45.99$” 

You notice it’s from Temu or AliExpress, so you know that the quality of the product if you ordered it would be completely unpredictable. 

You start to wonder if you need something that high quality anyway. The curiosity gets to you, and now suddenly, you’re on the Temu website. 

You’re being asked to spin a wheel. “Congrats, you won a -92% discount on an item of your choosing! Make a purchase over 50$ in the next 10 minutes to unlock this offer.” A timer begins counting down in the corner of the website as you skim over the page of the item you searched for. “Spending 5 more dollars can’t hurt, right?” You begin to think. Next thing you know, you’re checking out a cart filled with 20$ worth of things you don’t need.

We’ve all been there! Temu and AliExpress are the masters of weird discounts. Something about numbers like 69 or 57 are huge attention grabbers. They get at a particular part of our brain that craves order and patterns, and spark curiosity on a biological level.

The way to implement this in your own strategy is instead of simply offering the typical “50% off,” play with the percentage.

The weirder the number, the more it will stand out among all the usual Black Friday brand deals. Bonus points if you leave what the price of the item was before the discount!

• Conditional promotions

Another way to play with discounts is to not make them available across the board.

BOGOs on UberEats drain your bank account for a reason. While you give a free item away, you get customers through the door that otherwise would not have gone through at all.

Simply getting them through the door increases the likelihood that they’ll buy things they would not have had they not stopped to look.

• Get more for the same value.

Instead of making things cheaper, you could choose to have deals where a customer gets more for the same value. You see this a lot with subscription services where instead of taking 50% off their most popular plan, it's the same price but the promotion allows customers to get upgraded to premium for 6 months. 

This does 2 things. 

1. It gives your customers an incredible deal.

And 2. It incentivizes them to get dependent on more of what your software offers so by the time their "trial" expires, they might upgrade!

So, remember folks. Weird numbers, conditional discounts, and giving more for less. Create something that makes visitors of your website stop to take a second look, but also want to come back.

2. Urgency Tactics

Speaking of stores like Temu, AliExpress, and Amazon, you ever notice how when you're shopping online there’s that little icon below the product you're purchasing that says "limited quantity" or "5 other people are viewing this product”? These scarcity tactics make it so that people are more inclined to purchase faster rather than just leaving things in their cart. 

Now, Black Friday really only lasts one day, but typically brands will extend this into Cyber Monday. So how can we bring scarcity into something that we all know lasts 3-4 days?"

• User-capped discounts.

  
  

  Send out a post saying “First 100 buyers get an exclusive deal!”

• Timeframes within timeframes.

  
  

  We mentioned how effective a 10-minute countdown in the corner of your screen can be, but so is a countdown of how much stock is remaining of a certain item. Can you roll for a bigger discount every day? Maybe there's a 25% discount applied but you can "roll the dice" once a day to put even more on top? Reaaally turn up the pressure by using smaller and smaller timeframes.

As obnoxious as Black Friday marketing slogans like “Hurry—while supplies last!” or “Don’t miss out!” are, don’t forget that urgency drives sales more effectively than the discount itself.

3. Vertical Video Is Your Best Friend

I’m sure you’re sick of hearing that short-form content is the future. Unfortunately, it remains true even here.

Vertical videos are user-friendly, designed for quick scrolling, and fit perfectly into social media feeds, which means you’re more likely to catch the attention of potential customers. You’d be surprised, but a simple, dynamic vertical video showcasing your Black Friday sale ideas for small businesses can be a game-changer. This applies to any type of content really, even outside of Black Friday.

4. Interactive & Shareable Content

If you haven’t already started, social media is your biggest weapon. A 2025 Black Friday marketing plan cannot be complete without interactive content to engage your audience. 

Quizzes, polls, or challenges encourage customers to participate and share with their networks. Come up with a fun or cute Black Friday sale idea tailored to your specific brand voice where users can enter for a chance to win a special prize or exclusive deal.

Think of companies like Starbucks and Duolingo who make successful branded content customers are excited to share. Trust us, it’s the best way to mobilize your social media following. Not only does it allow your content to reach beyond your direct followers, but it helps build brand awareness. These ideas not only build excitement around Black Friday this year, but boosts engagement in general. This is crucial for long-term customer retention.

5. Tease Your Offers

Buzz around your Black Friday sale ideas doesn’t just have to stop at promotions and discounts the weekend of. 

A way to build hype around it could be by showing behind-the-scenes footage of how you’re preparing for Black Friday. This kind of content humanizes your brand and makes customers feel like they’re in the know.

Maybe even tease your upcoming deals with short snippets or sneak peeks of new products, making your audience feel exclusive and connected.

What we’d do is maybe pair these videos with text like “Coming Soon!” or “Big Reveal on Tuesday!” to build anticipation for the days, or even weeks leading up to Black Friday.

6. Tailor Your Campaigns for Local Audiences

As a company based in Montreal and Toronto, we’re keenly aware of how factoring our location into sales matters. Where ever your business is, take time to tailor your campaigns for local consumers. Tap into some patriotism and understand your local market to craft Black Friday marketing strategies that speak directly to their interests and preferences. For example, highlight products that are popular in specific regions or offer exclusive deals for customers within certain cities or provinces.

Especially with cities with such distinct identities like Toronto and Montreal, it’s super easy to create custom marketing content, including city-specific slogans or offers that resonate with your target audience.

7. Plan Ahead

Maybe even, like, tomorrow!

Look, we know how easy it is to get wrapped up in the festivities and lose track of a plan. But while your competition plans for Halloween, get ahead of them and build your marketing plan for holidays down the pipeline. 

Final Thoughts

Phew, that was a lot of ground to cover. Let’s go over our main points.

Make sure your Black Friday sale ideas for small businesses go beyond just offering the lowest price. 

• Focus on urgency, creativity, and engagement to stand out from the competition. 

• Use unique Black Friday marketing slogans, eye-catching vertical video, and interactive content to spark excitement and drive traffic to your site or store.

Guys, remember, Black Friday 2026 is not just about Black Friday discounts. It’s about knowing how to craft a memorable experience for your customers at any time of year.

Don’t hold back! Build excitement on social media, send out email teasers, and start creating content that will engage your customers. You’ll be so glad you didn’t wait until the week before the sale to start promoting your deals.

Anyway, that’s all we have for you today. Feel free to reach out if you need help with your own Black Friday marketing strategy.