How Black Friday can lead to valuable organic search opportunities

Black Friday can be a great commercial opportunity for brands, but how can you create a successful strategy for the big day?
Black Friday is a perfect retail opportunity, but it still requires the proper analysis of data to create a strategy that will lead to desired results.
According to Adobe Digital Index, US online sales on Black Friday increased by 14.3% in 2015, while The Guardian reports that shoppers spent £1.1bn online in the UK on Black Friday in 2015.
The Pi Datametrics Gamma report offers interesting insights on what makes a successful Black Friday strategy and how US and UK brands react to it.
What makes Black Friday so appealing and what’s the first step towards an effective strategy?
The PIRP strategy
The first step is to create an effective plan to organise your actions. Pi Datametrics introduces the PIRP strategy:

Plan early
Influence at the right time
Peak at the right time
Repeat – utilise last year’s page

Every step is important and you can’t be prepared for a seasonal event without the right strategy. Therefore, it’s important to organise the content, plan how you will use it, analyse your audience, make the necessary consumer research and reach the peak purchase with a greater certainty on how your brand can stand out and boost sales.
Your Black Friday strategy should focus on capitalising the increased traffic, using it for future campaigns (Cyber Monday, Christmas, etc.)

Identifying the most valuable organic opportunities
A valuable search term is one that may lead to the desired conversion, going beyond the traffic. This means that a brand shouldn’t always focus on the most popular choice, but rather the most useful one.
For example, the term “Black Friday” may have the highest search volume, but it’s the only the fourth most valuable search term on the day in the UK and the seventh most valuable term in the US.

On the contrary, the term “Black Friday deals” seems to be the most valuable organic opportunity, both for the UK and US searches. A closer look at the two tables indicates how longer-tail keywords with higher relevance can become more valuable, offering bigger chances of conversion. It may even help a brand beat the competition, or reach a new audience by thinking outside the box.

The rise of the term “deal”
Searches that include the word “deal” seem to be on the rise and most of them are specific enough to add value to the user.
Every year the number of searches for “deals” increases, which may help a brand understand its consumers and focus on the most useful terms.

How US brands reach UK users
It’s interesting to note that US brands dominate Google UK, especially when it comes to the term “Black Friday”. Seven out of the top 9 sites in Google UK for “Black Friday” are US-based, which shows that UK retailers need to improve their optimisation.
The top five UK performers for “Black Friday deals” are Argos, Amazon UK, Currys, Tesco, and HotUKdeals, with many of them aiming at a consistent presence throughout the year. This allows them to implement the PIPR strategy and enjoy the results during the peak period.

Argos reaches #1 on SERPs for “Black Friday deals” and it seems to be consistent during the year, with its landing page ensuring that it doesn’t miss its focus.

How can retailers benefit from Black Friday?
Black Friday may be a great retail opportunity, but not all retailers benefit from it.
Moreover, it’s not just a day that will bring to your site a traffic boost and sales, but rather a carefully planned strategy which may run throughout the entire year.
Here are the key tips to remember:

Black Friday is not just about one day (plan ahead, think of future opportunities)
Right after Black Friday, your business should use the momentum to plan for Cyber Monday, but also Christmas. How about linking them all together to your strategy?
Don’t focus on generic terms, find the best ones that work for your audience
Keep in mind how consumers prefer online and mobile purchases and plan accordingly. It might even require a shift of focus towards Cyber Monday
Not every business benefits from Black Friday, don’t be obliged to join if it’s not bringing you the planned ROI.

Source: ClickZ
Link: How Black Friday can lead to valuable organic search opportunities