Today is Black Friday! Hopefully you have a very successful day with increased profits. However, what’s next? Christmas, right? Before you jump head first into the festive season, pull your brakes. Don’t be so focused on Black Friday and then Christmas without taking a breath.

Here are two things you must do first:

Analysis (sales data) – Don’t be fooled, the value of your sale is not just the price; it’s also the lessons learnt during the Black Friday frenzy- the hardcore data that informs future decisions. Superficially, your Black Friday sales data highlights your best sellers but sometimes depending on the offer or promotion, you may have a surprise in the mix. Hence the reason for always keeping an eye on your data. You should look at which products or services made the most money; the number of items sold is just as important as your overall revenue e.g., you may have generated a hefty number of sales today Black Friday, but which products did you advertise?

How many of the advertised products did you sell? Do comparisons because an item may have sold well only because it was well promoted, but you may have held back a popular item. Did holding back the popular item influence its sales? In practical terms, if product or service C and D sold equally but product/service D had more promotion than product/service C, then that means that product/service C is the better or more superior product/service in the eyes of the customer. So, imagine the outcome if more promotion was invested in promoting product/service C; this type of analysis will lead you to invest additional promotion into said product which would generate additional revenue as opposed to thinking that you shouldn’t advertise it because it’s already popular- a mistake that’s often made.

Your data can also give you insight into improvements, e.g. have you ever had a lot of enquiries about a product/service, but the sales just haven’t matched up? How about lots of people browsing but not buying ? Have you investigated why that’s the case? It could be that something is holding back sales. Look into that!
Analyze promotion/campaign data – Equally, you should analyze your marketing efforts. What worked best? Compare what tactics you used this year versus last year and the results. Where did the sales from this year’s sales come from? Was it referral? Was it radio? Tik Tok? Was it a combined approach? Its not easy counting the amount of traffic a particular platform or channel brought to you, but you can look at which channels sent traffic even if it didn’t result in an immediate sale.

Look at how you can use various channels to convert visitors into buyers, in other words, certain activities may generate interest or awareness whilst others will move the customer to the next stage of converting them into buyers. It doesn’t mean you do one or the other though, it all depends on your objectives.

Candice Sealey is the Founder & Principal Consultant at Ignite! a Full-service Marketing & PR Consultancy that helps businesses/brands to stand out and communicate the right message to the right people at the right time through Strategy, Marketing, Media services and Design solutions. She is also a freelance content writer, advertising copywriter, voice-over talent, media personality. Follow us on FB & IG @igniteresults Phone:784-432-2223. Email:igniteresults@gmail.com