The essential BFCM campaign accelerator: boost Cyber Week sales with branded links and QR codes
The time has come. Thanksgiving is less than 10 days away, and you have inventory to clear and Q4 numbers to make. Most of all, you need to take advantage of the influx of shopping activity and make every click count.
Last year, global BFCM (Black Friday Cyber Monday) spending hit a staggering $298 billion, making the five days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday a make-or-break opportunity for retailers of all sizes.
These critical shopping days represent immense opportunities and unique challenges for retailers: website traffic spikes, special offers or promo codes that go viral, multiple promotional campaigns running simultaneously, and customers engaging across numerous channels.
With BFCM 2024 around the corner, it’s not too late to prepare and maximize the opportunity to drive immediate revenue. A well-designed BFCM strategy will help you acquire new customers and build loyalty with your existing ones.
Effective link management is foundational to ensuring a smooth customer experience. It can also be a force multiplier–an underutilized component of an agile marketing tech stack that helps busy teams handle the complexity of managing multiple promotions while minimizing disruptions to the shopping experience.
You might be sweating now, but read and learn about seven ways to implement branded short links and QR codes to bolster your BFCM promotions and fortify your holiday campaigns.
1) Implement time-based campaign management
Drive better BFCM results with strategic preparation. Bridget Fahrland, AI Consultant for the digital agency DEPT, explains: “BFCM can be the most wonderful time of the year as your sales and visits go up. But ultimately, big sales events are an investment in building a valuable customer base.”
Maximize your holiday sales by planning your BFCM campaigns in distinct phases, each with clear goals.
Before BFCM
If you plan a big BFCM promotion, start promoting upcoming deals to your customers using social media, emails, and even physical mailers BEFORE those promotions are available.
In the week leading up to the event, send out branded links and QR codes to collect wait-list sign-ups. Once the promotion is available, change the destination URL on those pre-event links to go directly to your promotional landing page or product page.
Fahrland recommends discounting merchandise strategically, “The biggest mistake brands make is giving the wrong deal to the wrong person. Are you discounting items uniformly and losing potential margin unnecessarily? It is better to select a set of items and mark them down individually vs. having some kind of 25% off site-wide sale that impacts merchandise at different rates.”
So, while running those pre-promotions, use UTM tracking to gather data on which products generate the most early buzz and inform your merchandising decisions. If you are seeing much more interest for a particular SKU or category than you expected, you can adjust your discount percentage, plan for product swaps, and even re-order inventory to meet anticipated demand.
During BFCM
When Cyber Week kicks off, the second phase of your campaign swings into action. Carefully coordinate when and how you release discounts across channels.
Flash sales can drive significant results, but only if customers can easily find and access them. Use QR codes and short links to direct customers to your hottest sales. For an omnichannel experience, add QR codes to product displays, shelves, and store windows to help consumers purchase items from online channels if the product is unavailable or they are shopping outside of retail store hours.
The best part? With a branded link, you can update the destination URL instantly without changing the customer-facing link–perfect for when deals change throughout the day or a popular item sells out.
Watch your link analytics throughout the week to see what’s working, and quickly adjust your strategy based on customer behavior.
After BFCM
Utilize retargeting links to capture additional sales even after Cyber Week ends. Adding a retargeting script for a platform like Google Ads or Facebook to your promotional links gives you the ability to retarget customers and prospects regardless of which channel they engaged with–the script follows the link, not the platform.
Then, post-BFCM, run retargeting campaigns to shoppers who left items in their cart and create special missed deals” for those who didn’t complete their purchase or for products that sold out quickly and are now back in stock.
2) Map the customer journey
With so much at stake during Cyber Week, even the most discerning companies can fall into the trap of bombarding customers with ads and emails. That means your special offer is at high risk of getting lost in a sea of social media promos or buried in a crowded inbox. Sidestep the chaos by thinking more strategically about how and where to target your likely customers.
Optimize your brand’s discovery phase ahead of time. Create branded links in bio (try our new and improved Link Gallery feature) across social media profiles, and add QR codes to discovery pages.
AI can also play a role in optimizing discovery. “We have worked with brands to leverage AI for ‘smarter promotions’ in 3 key areas: targeting the right person with the right offer, analyzing past customer buying patterns to better allocate ad spend for promotion campaigns, and predicting overall product value,” says Fahrland.
Make the research process seamless for shoppers who are comparing their buying options. Dedicated short links leading to comparison pages and reviews help potential customers find the information they need to make decisions quickly. As Fahrland notes, AI can help “personalize at scale by producing the sheer number of assets needed for targeting the right person with the right offer,” making it possible to create customized shopping experiences even during high-traffic periods.
Use Rebrandly AI to determine the optimal time to publish offers on social media. When you boost your link, Rebrandly’s machine learning and neural network algorithms determine the optimal time to schedule your social post for maximum engagement and conversions.
Once customers are ready to buy, remove any friction in the purchase process. Direct checkout links and QR codes for flash sales take customers straight to the point of purchase, while bundle deal shortcuts make it easy to capture larger orders.
After purchase, keep momentum with easy-to-access order tracking links and quick paths to your loyalty program. These post-purchase touchpoints build trust during the hectic BFCM period and provide valuable data for future campaign optimization.
3) Optimize Multi-Channel Product Drops
Successful BFCM campaigns require a sophisticated approach to multi-channel promotion. To maintain your brand identity while making tracking performance across different channels easy, create consistent, branded short links for each product category.
Rather than using generic URLs, customize your links for each marketing channel to better target specific audiences and measure their engagement. For example, a URL like blowoutsale.store/cyber-monday is more impactful and illustrative than a generic link like [yourstore].com/ewrwe%32f.
Channel-specific optimization is crucial for maximizing impact:
- Instagram. Create a branded bio link that directs followers to your “Early Bird” deals page.
- Email campaigns. Implement personalized links with UTM parameters that track different customer segments.
- SMS marketing. Deploy ultra-short branded links that maintain brand recognition while meeting character constraints and bridge the physical-digital gap with custom
- Print materials. Use QR codes that direct customers to channel-specific landing pages.
Don’t be afraid to get creative with your marketing tactics. Marketers are continuing to lean further into alternative communication channels beyond just emails. In 2023, messages sent via push notifications, SMS, and streaming services grew 37% compared to email marketing’s 9%.
The secret weapon behind a multi-channel approach is data. Use distinct, trackable links for each channel to collect insights into where traffic and conversions are coming from. Make quick, data-backed decisions about strategy adjustments and resource allocation.
4) Deploy Location-Based Marketing
Implement geo-targeted, branded short links and region-specific QR codes to make your BFCM campaigns resonate locally. A more targeted approach empowers you to create customized experiences for different markets, such as promoting specific store locations, highlighting regional deals, or adapting content for local preferences.
Create store-specific landing pages that showcase relevant inventory, local store hours, and specific in-store promotions.
Over half of U.S. holiday shoppers research products online while shopping in stores, checking reviews and inventory before buying. To enhance the shopping experience, use short links and QR codes on in-store materials. Strategically place QR codes on in-store digital displays to provide instant access to detailed product information or exclusive deals.
5) Leverage social proof
Personal recommendations significantly impact consumer decision-making more than any other kind of marketing. Consumers are 69% more likely to trust influencers, friends, and family recommendations than direct brand messaging.
You’ve probably already lined up your influencer promotion deals. Get more mileage from these partnerships by creating unique branded links for each influencer to use in their content.
Branded links reinforce your brand identity and build trust with consumers, who are 40% more likely to click on a branded link than a generic one. Unique links for each partnership help you track the impact on your holiday sales.
Don’t stop there. Turn all your customers into brand advocates by making it simple to spread the word about your BCFM sales. When customers have a great experience, make it simple for them to share it with branded referral links. These links track performance and give their followers a seamless path to purchase.
6) Prepare an emergency response plan
Even the best-planned BFCM campaigns can face unexpected challenges. A robust backup strategy is essential. Before the chaos of Cyber Week hits, take a moment to ensure you’re ready for anything:
- Prepare for traffic spikes. During BFCM, every minute of downtime directly impacts your bottom line. Work with your technical team to ensure your server infrastructure can handle increased Cyber Week shopper volume.
- Implement redundant link routing systems and alternative QR code sets that can be swiftly deployed if issues arise.
- Create clear processes for your team to quickly update link redirects and replace problematic QR codes without disrupting the customer experience. Have pre-approved customer communication templates ready to go, and establish a chain of command for making quick decisions during the high-stakes shopping period.
7) Collect performance metrics
In the fast-paced world of BFCM sales, data tells the real story of campaign success.
With Rebrandly, you can track essential PPC metrics like click-through rates, conversion rates, and QR code scans in real time to understand how customers interact with your promotional content. Monitor traffic sources, device types, and peak timing patterns to optimize ongoing campaigns and future BFCM strategies.
Cyber Week ends, but e-commerce continues, so digging into analytics will help you make better decisions for future initiatives. “There is some talk in the industry about BFCM becoming less of an ‘event’ over time with sales extending for weeks and brands having their own special sale days, like Amazon Prime Day or REI member days,” notes Fahrland.
With this evolving campaign calendar in mind, tracking metrics becomes crucial for immediate insights and future planning. As Fahrland advises, brands should “spend January diving into their customer data from the year and holiday to determine where they can optimize for future campaigns.”
Use Rebrandly Analytics to look closely at:
- Link performance. See which links generated the best click-through rates.
- Geographic Insights. Tailor strategies to regions with the most clicks, down to the city and state.
- Device and Platform Data. Optimize content for popular devices and browsers.
- Peak Click Times. Schedule campaigns during high-activity hours.
- Referrer Analysis. Focus efforts on effective traffic sources.
- UTM Tagging. Identify the best-performing marketing channels.
Make Rebrandly your partner for BFCM success
With Black Friday just days away, you’re likely feeling the pressure of last-minute campaign adjustments, channel coordination, and promotional planning. The complexity of managing multiple touchpoints–from time-sensitive promotions to multi-channel campaigns and influencer partnerships–can feel overwhelming during retail’s busiest season.
Take a deep breath. Rebrandly’s comprehensive link management platform can streamline your BFCM execution, handling the technical heavy lifting so you can focus on strategy. Our intuitive tools for creating branded short links, customizing QR codes, and tracking real-time performance make adjusting campaigns on the fly simple and ensure smooth customer experiences across all channels.
Don’t let link management add to your BFCM stress. Get started with Rebrandly today and transform your holiday campaign coordination from chaos to confidence.
