Black Friday Without the Discount: What to Post Instead
Most small businesses feel they ought to do something for Black Friday, even when a 20% discount could wipe out most of their profit on the job. Here's how to use the week without cutting your prices, including the one post that reassures every customer who paid full price.
Dave Smith
# Black Friday Without the Discount: What to Post Instead
Here's the thing about Black Friday if you run a small business: it was never built for you.
It was built for companies with warehouses full of stock, margins to burn and a marketing department that starts planning in June. This year it lands on 27 November, and for the fortnight before it your customers' inboxes and feeds will fill up with percentages, countdown clocks and the word "unmissable".
So every November, a lot of small business owners end up in the same place. You work out what 20% off would actually cost you, wince, and either run a half-hearted offer you resent or say nothing at all and feel vaguely guilty about it.
There's a third option, and it's the one most people miss. You can stay out of the discounting altogether and still use the week properly, because it's one of the few times of year when everybody is thinking about buying things.
Do the sums before you do anything
If you're going to discount, do it with your eyes open. Take your last ordinary job or your best-selling product, knock 20% off the price, then take off your costs. What's left is your actual pay for that work, and on a tight margin a fifth off the price can take a lot more than a fifth of your profit. If you make 25p in the pound, a 20% discount leaves you doing the job for about 5p.
Then ask who the offer brings in. A deal attracts people who like deals, and they're the least likely to come back at full price next month. Your regulars, meanwhile, will happily take the discount on something they would have bought anyway.
A shop clearing last season's stock has a good reason to discount. "Everyone else is doing it" isn't one, and you're allowed to sit this out.
One warning if you do run an offer: the saving has to be real. Bumping a price up in October so you can knock it down in November is the sort of thing consumer protection law takes a dim view of, and customers notice too.
Say you're not doing it, and say why
The most useful post you can write this month might be the one explaining that you're not having a sale.
Done badly, this turns into a lecture about consumerism, and nobody wants that from their plumber. Done well, it's a calm statement of how you run your business:
"We don't do Black Friday. Our prices are the same in November as they are in March, because that's what the work costs. If you booked with us last month, you didn't miss out on anything."
That last line is doing the heavy lifting. It tells every customer who paid full price that they made the right decision, and it tells new ones that they won't get stung for buying on the wrong day. Keep the tone light and leave out any dig at businesses who do run sales. Sniping makes you look bitter rather than principled.
Add something instead of taking something off
If you want to mark the week without touching your prices, give people more rather than charging them less.
That could be a free extra that costs you time but not much money: a mini consultation, a free check-up booked alongside a job, gift wrapping, delivery thrown in. A garage might do a free winter check with any service.
Your prices stay where they are, your regulars don't learn to wait for November, and you've got something concrete to post about that doesn't start with a percentage sign.
Use the week to be useful
While everyone else is shouting about deals, people are also quietly trying not to waste their money. That's your opening.
Think about what you know that a nervous buyer would want to hear. What should someone check before buying a cheap version of what you sell? Which "bargain" in your trade tends to cost more in the long run? A bike shop could explain what to look for in a discounted bike. A flooring fitter could cover what the price per square metre doesn't include.
You're not trying to talk anyone out of a bargain, just showing that you know this stuff. When they need the job done properly next spring, yours is the name they'll remember.
Move your energy to the following week
Small Business Saturday UK falls on 5 December this year, a week after the Black Friday noise, and it's made for you. People are actively looking for independents to support, so have something worth seeing on your page.
Use the run-up to introduce yourself properly. Who runs the place, how long you've been doing it, what you've got on for Christmas, when your last order or booking dates are. Tag the neighbours you rate, too, because independents who share each other's posts get in front of people who already like buying local.
A simple plan from now until December
- This week: decide whether you're discounting at all, based on the sums rather than the mood.
- Week of 16 November: post one useful "what to check before you buy" tip.
- Week of 23 November: post your "we don't do Black Friday" note, or your added extra if you're offering one.
- Week of 30 November: introduce yourself, share your Christmas dates and shout about Small Business Saturday.
That's three posts and one decision, and none of it costs you a penny of margin. If even that feels like a stretch this close to Christmas, this is the sort of thing Aunty Social can keep ticking along for you, in your own voice, while you get on with the actual work.
Black Friday will come and go. The customers who trust your prices will still be around in February, and they're the ones who pay the bills.