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Join me, Dolly DeLong, along with my biz besties Mara K. and Bekah R., as we reveal the key trends you NEED to know for Black Friday 2024. With an unpredictable election year and a shifting economy, we’ve got the insider tips to help you stand out and drive sales like never before!
 
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151: Black Friday Trends 2024 (part 2) featuring Mara Kucirek and Rebekah Read

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Black Friday Trends 2024 are here, and business owners everywhere are gearing up for one of the year’s biggest shopping event—both online and in-person. If you feel pressured to plan your sale, you’re not alone! In this post and podcast episode, I share expert advice from a recent episode of the Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast, where I teamed up with my business friends, Mara Kucirek and Bekah Read, to discuss the top strategies for a successful Black Friday in 2024.

We’ll cover why early planning is essential, key tips to make your sale stand out, common mistakes to avoid, and the trends you must watch this year. You can listen to the full episode below or scroll down to read the blog post that goes with it!

Meet Mara

You’ve envisioned passive income, and designing a course seemed like the ideal way to achieve it. But once you dive in, the process can become overwhelmingly fast. From choosing the right platform to navigating the tech, selecting the best topic, outlining lessons, and launching and selling, it can feel too much to handle. That’That’se Mara Kucirek comes in. As an expert in online courses, Mara excels at simplifying the entire process, turning chaos into clarity. Her passion is helping overwhelmed entrepreneurs create profitable, polished courses they proudly sell. If you’re trying to transform your course dream into reality, Mara is here to guide you every step of the way.

Meet Bekah

Bekah is a small business web designer, Squarespace educator, and a mom of two under three. With a passion for helping entrepreneurs, she thrives on being their biggest cheerleader, guiding them in getting their websites live and ranking on Google. Bekah is dedicated to teaching you the essential tricks for building your brand online while avoiding the marketing rat race on Instagram.

Expert Tips for Planning a Successful Black Friday Sale in 2024

Why You Need to Start Planning Your Black Friday Sale Now

If you’re thinking about waiting until the last minute to set up your Black Friday sale, think again. Mara shared a personal story about her first year in business when she didn’t realize how vital Black Friday was for online entrepreneurs:

“The night of Thanksgiving, I got flooded with emails from clients asking for help with their Black Friday sales. I had to scramble and work late to set up emails and promotions for them. Ever since then, I’ve been on a mission to prevent that from happening to others—plan your Black Friday sale now, so you’re not throwing something together at the last minute.”Mara Kucirek

Planning early will save you stress and give you time to perfect your offer, marketing strategy, and customer experience. So, get started now to avoid unnecessary chaos later!

🔑Key Tips for a Successful Black Friday Sale

When it comes to Black Friday, a successful sale is all about strategy. Here are three essential tips to ensure your sale stands out:

1. Focus on One Thing to Promote

It might be tempting to offer discounts on all your products or services, but this is a surefire way to confuse your customers. Instead, focus on one specific product or service for your Black Friday sale.

“Pick one thing to put on sale, and promote that consistently. Don’t overwhelm your customers by offering too many discounts.”Mara Kucirek

If you run two different types of businesses, like my photography and education services, you might consider running two separate promotions for your distinct audiences. But overall, keep it simple.

2. Time Your Sale Wisely

The timing of your sale is crucial. Many big brands like Amazon start their promotions early, meaning your customers may have already made big-ticket purchases by the time Black Friday arrives.

“Last year, I slapped a 20% discount on my SEO course two days before Black Friday, and guess what? It didn’t sell. People had already made their big purchases by then.”Bekah Read

To avoid this, promote your offer early. Let your audience know about your offer well in advance so that they can factor it into their shopping plans.

3. Keep Your Sales Page Short and Simple

Long-form sales pages were popular in the past, but these days, shoppers don’t have time to scroll through pages of information. They’re busy juggling personal and business purchases during the holiday season.

“People don’t have time to consume a long sales page. Keep it concise and get straight to the point.”Bekah Read

If you’re selling a high-ticket item, consider adding a short video (around 3-5 minutes) to explain the details rather than overwhelming your customers with a long-winded sales page.

Common Mistakes to Avoid During Black Friday

As you’re planning your Black Friday sale, here are a couple of mistakes to avoid:

1. Avoid Changing Your Offer Last-Minute

It can be tempting to tweak your offer at the last minute if you see another business doing something flashy. However, changing your offer too late in the game can lead to confusion and technical problems.

“Stick with your original plan. If you try to change your offer at the last minute, you’ll end up confusing your audience and potentially breaking your sales page.”Mara Kucirek

Instead of making last-minute changes, take notes for next time. Black Friday comes around every year, so there will always be another opportunity to test new ideas.

2. Don’t Overcomplicate Your Offer

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, start small. You don’t need to discount your entire inventory—pick one area of your business that has worked well and offer that.

“You don’t need to overcomplicate things or offer 10 different products. Find that one thing that will help your customers the most and focus on that.”

Dolly DeLong

Simplicity is critical when planning an effective Black Friday sale.

Black Friday Trends to Watch for in 2024

One of the key trends we’re seeing this year is the popularity of low-ticket offers. Offering affordable products increases conversions and helps you grow your audience.

“Offering lower-priced items during Black Friday is doing really well right now. Even though it might not result in huge profits immediately, it’s a great way to get your name out there and get more customers in your ecosystem.” – Bekah Read

If you don’t want to sell something completely new, consider repurposing something you already use in your business, like a template, checklist, or framework. This could be a great entry-level offer to draw in new customers.

What to Expect in Our Free Black Friday Masterclass

We’re excited to offer you a free Black Friday Trends Masterclass on October 2nd at 11 AM Central Time (yes, there will be an on-demand replay you can watch, too). Join Mara, Bekah, and me as we break down the key trends you need to know to plan your most strategic Black Friday sale yet.

In this masterclass, we’ll cover:

  • 2024 Trends: How to stand out in an oversaturated market with low-ticket offers and value-packed promotions.
  • Long-Term Success: Position your offer as a solution to help your customers succeed in 2025 and beyond.

“People probably won’t use your products before Christmas. But if you can frame your offer as something that will make 2025 better for them, they’ll be more likely to invest.”Mara Kucirek

Wrapping Up

Planning your Black Friday sale doesn’t have to be stressful. By focusing on one key offer, promoting it early, and keeping your messaging clear and concise, you can create a Black Friday campaign that stands out in 2024.

Remember to sign up for our free masterclass on October 2nd. In it, we’ll explore these strategies even further and answer your questions live.

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🗒️Review the Show Notes & Quick Links From Episode 151

Connect With Mara

Connect With Dolly

Connect With Bekah 

🔗Links mentioned in the Show

More Black Friday Related Podcast Episodes 🎙️

150: Key trends for Black Friday 2024

 

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Read The Show Transcript Here:

Dolly DeLong: Hi, and welcome back to another episode of the Systems and Workflow Magic podcast. I am your Systems workflow and launching BFF and guide, Dolly DeLong, and today; I have two guests on the podcast. I’m so excited about this little mini-series. I have been co-hosting with Mara and now Becca. And before we jump into episode two, as a quick reminder, if you want to listen to episode one, that was last week. Mara and I went over how to plan a successful black Friday sale because we are facing or planning out black Friday sales in our season. A lot of business owners are doing that. So we want to encourage you to be proactive, think strategically, not do everything the night before, before black Friday, and plan and launch a good business. A campaign that feels good for you and your business. So we shared critical strategies for standing out, avoiding that last-minute chaos, and making the most of your existing products. You’re not putting something together at the last minute. And we also gave you a little sneak peek.

Peek of our free Black Friday trends masterclass, which is coming up October 2nd, will be available until the end of this year. So it will be a free class for you to watch. So we strongly encourage you to sign up for it. Okay. Long introduction short, I wanted to let Mara and Becca introduce themselves to you all, the listeners, just in case you’re brand new to the podcast. I’ve had Mara and Becca on many times, and now it’s so much fun to have us all three together. So I guess Becca, I will have you go first.

Bekah Read: My name is Rebecca Reed, and my business is website design. I design a lot of websites in a day. I have two little kids, which has worked well with my schedule. Then, I have a couple of Squarespace courses and an SEO course. It’s a great way to get more information about your products.

Mara Kucirek: Hi everyone. I’m so excited to be back. So, I am Mara Kucirek, and I work in online courses. So when someone wants to set up an online course or, honestly, in full transparency, it’s also a workshop, a digital product, or an ebook, They come to me, and I help them set up the product and then figure out how to sell it, like telling people it’s out in the world. And so I’m super excited. They discussed this because I have done many Black Friday sales. I did not know this was a thing my first year in business. And then, the night of Thanksgiving, all of these clients and everyone who knew my name or like had gotten it started texting and emailing me because they wanted to set up a Black Friday email or a Black Friday sale. The next day. So I’m on a mission not to do that. Please set up your sale now so that you don’t have FOMO, see everyone else doing it, and then spend the night of Thanksgiving trying to throw something together.

Dolly DeLong: Oh man, all of your stories, Mara, have genuinely stressed me out because I’ve, everyone, um, should know this. Mara has done over 100 Black Friday launches, and I looked at your stats.

Mara Kucirek: Yeah. So when we were talking about this Black Friday masterclass that the three of us are hosting, which started from an Instagram voice message of us just being like, what is everyone doing? Because the election is stressful. The economy is stressful. And then, we turned our Instagram voice message into a masterclass. And so Dolly was asking me about my experience with Black Friday. So I returned and had a Google of emails I’ve written for people. And I have a lot of clients for whom I’ve done their Black Friday sale for five years now. And then I have a lot of other clients. And so I tried to count it up and was like, this is over a hundred sales. This is ridiculous. I didn’t realize it was that many.

Dolly DeLong: That is incredible. So, you have a lot of experience with Black Friday in general. Like the many different, good, bad, and ugly stories of Black Friday, I’m so excited to have this conversation, continue this conversation, and then bring in Becca because I know Becca has a lot of experience working one-on-one with clients. So we are; I’m excited to share a little about how to put together a Black Friday offer. So, Mara, do you mind diving into the mechanics of creating and executing a Black Friday offer?

Mara Kucirek: Yeah. So, you must first figure out what you’re selling for Black Friday. And notice I’m saying one thing you’re selling. A lot of people are like, Oh, a Black Friday sale. I can be like Target, and I’ll just put everything 10 percent off, and people will buy it. That’s not how it works. Unless you’re like some magical unicorn, cause you’ll confuse people. You’ll put, you know, you’ll have the little banner at the top of your website. And when you don’t decide for people, they choose to choose. I’ve seen that happen over and over again. So, pick something specific that’s on sale. There might be an opportunity if you genuinely have different audience segments. For example, Dolly does photography and has a beautiful business around photography, and then you have your education. So maybe those are two different black Friday sales for two particular audiences, right? We’re not just throwing everything on sale. So I always recommend picking one thing that will be on sale so you can talk about it consistently and not confuse people because there’s enough noise. They don’t need to scroll through your website, try to figure out your products, and decide what to buy. Tell them the most impactful thing they can buy today to help set them up for success in 2025.

Dolly DeLong: Got it. And this is like me throwing this out to both of you. I did not send this to you. So, full disclosure, this might be like, sorry, this derails your thoughts, both of you, but you’re used to being your DMS, derailing you with all my thoughts. But what are you both planning on selling this or are you planning on selling anything this Black Friday?

Mara Kucirek: I can go first because I do have an idea. I was messaging Dolly about this the other day, saying that I think I’m going to break my rules for Black Friday, and one of my golden rules that I usually don’t let clients do unless they start talking to me about it in July. Don’t create anything new for Black Friday. Put something that’s already on sale. But I have a workshop that people have been asking for, and it’s about 80 percent done. And I need accountability to get it done. So, I think Black Friday is going to be my accountability. So, technically, it’s not something that has ever been for sale. But I’ve talked about it. People have asked for it. There’s a waitlist for it. So people know it’s coming. I think coming and getting it done and ready to sell it in 2025 will be the most impactful thing for me. So I’m breaking my own rules. I don’t recommend, unless you have done several Black Friday sales, don’t sell something new. It’s just not the time to tell people about something new in your business because you have minimal time for them to read your email. So you can’t like to explain your whole life story about why you made this new product.

Dolly DeLong: I love it. What about you, Becca?

Bekah Read: A little bit later in the episode, we’ll discuss avoiding mistakes. And so here’s my mistake that I did that you guys can learn from last year. I, you know, like two days before Black Friday, I was like, Oh yeah, I’m going to participate in this. So I put my SEO course on sale, like 20 percent slap to take it, like what Mario was talking about, and it didn’t sell. And I think if you look at the big box stores right now in Amazon like they are doing, they’re starting their black Friday sales weeks in advance. And so that’s something to consider, as many people have made their own. Big ticket purchases four days before Black Friday even starts. So it’s something to think about, especially if you have a higher ticket. And so, for my SEO course, it didn’t do well last year. I am doing two launches in the next two weeks for things. And so I will be sleeping during Black Friday and not launching a thing.

Dolly DeLong: Okay, what about affiliates? Are you two going to promote anything affiliate-wise?

Bekah Read: I am not. I have a big affiliate launch at the end of October, so I’m pounding my audience a lot. When I was planning everything out, I just needed them to be able to rest. So, I will create valuable content and deliver free content throughout November and December.

Dolly DeLong: I love that.

Mara Kucirek: I am going to do an affiliate round. It’s not all going to be affiliates, too. I know some things will be a good deal on Black Friday, and they don’t have an affiliate program. I’m going to promote it anyway. I usually do a roundup of what I spent money on in my business this last year. And then what was good and what was wrong? Then I share that, and I usually do it around Black Friday. So, because people have deals, it’s a good time. If you need software, it’s also a perfect time. To look at the software you already subscribe to, by the way, this is a hack. Adobe does this, by the way. And they’ll have a Black Friday deal, but if you’re already a subscriber, they won’t give it to you. Email them and say, “Hey, I want the black Friday deal. I’m already a loyal subscriber. I do that.

Dolly DeLong: I’m writing that down right now. Cause I am like one of them, I always pay them for everything. Email.

Mara Kucirek: There are so many companies that’ll have a black Friday deal or, you know, the thing where you like to cancel, and then they give you an excellent deal. And it isn’t enjoyable. Cause you’re like, Hey, I was paying her this for this for a year, and you didn’t give me the good deal. So, black is an excellent time for your business budget. What do you not need to spend money on at all? You’re probably going to find that I just saw a business subscription I don’t use and canceled it the other day. And then things that you do use, can you get a little bit of a better deal? Can you pay for the year now that you know you like the software? Usually, there are a lot of good sales around this time that can save you money going into 2025.

Dolly DeLong: I love that. I love that this episode will also merge into a financial talk to you for your launch. That’s a good reminder to us all to assess our overhead for our business. I will say this about my business: many payments go out; what’s it called in November or December? Because I’m making those yearly, I wouldn’t say I like making monthly payments. I like doing the subscription; the yearly annual fees, whatever they’re called, have a percentage discount. So, Mara, I will be emailing Adobe on Black Friday. That’s an excellent little hack right there.

Bekah Read: Another thing to think about that I struggle with is. And I hope this doesn’t come off scammy, but when I am thinking about the pricing, like giving a discount off of something I offer, whatever, I’m always thinking about, okay, what have past people purchased this for? I can’t go below that. Like I can’t devalue, you know, my item. And I agree with that but look at the big stores. They’re offering sales on the pants that you bought at a total price two weeks ago. Like, why can they do it? And so, of course, do not devalue your product. Of course, be an honest person. But, that being said, there, like, there have been times when I’ve launched something at, you know, let’s say it’s at 150 that I launched it at, and I offered them a Facebook group and a free Checklist, let’s say, well, now it’s 200. I can still offer it for 150. Like those people still got value at that price. Now, if I promoted it by saying this will be the lowest price, of course, don’t do that, but just something to think about, you know, and I, it’s something to think about. And if they have an issue, if someone in the past has a problem, they can always email you, and you can clarify for them, you know, or you can give them a little discount or whatever.

Dolly DeLong: Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that too. That’s a perfect point, Becca. I should answer the question that I asked you too. I think I was sharing this with Mara the other day. I will promote my working process with my launch clients, like its skeleton, which can be changed based on the strategy. A person decides to implement for their launch. So, this is something that I’ve shared with each of my launch clients. Then, we would like to change it to their personality and plan, and I’ve shared it with Mara. I’ve shared it with you, too, Becca. I think so. And so it’s been something helpful for me. So I don’t have to, I don’t know, make the process live in my brain, and I’ve never sold it before. So I feel like I’m breaking a rule of, Oh, I’m selling something brand new, but it’s always been somehow in the services I’ve given to my one-to-one clients. So, I think I will be selling it for an introductory price. And then I’ll raise the price at the end of the year. That is my plan. We’ll see what happens.

Mara Kucirek: Dolly, that launch template that you’re talking about is so good, by the way. I have personally used it. But I also want to highlight that we said don’t sell something new, but technically, this is not new. You have been using it. All year, and I know you’ve had versions of it in the past as well, and I think that’s a perfect hack because sometimes I see people saying, “Well, okay, you said I couldn’t create anything new, so I can’t sell anything for Black Friday. I don’t think that’s the case I think it’s a perfect time to sell if there’s an email script you use all the time to respond to clients or a Trello board or an Asana board that you use that’s not something new I don’t want you to create a product from scratch. Because probably what will happen is you will never finish it. And then you won’t have a Black Friday sale. But if you can give someone access to a Google Doc you already use, that is so powerful. And it also feels exclusive to say, ” Hey, this is the literal thing I use in my business. Do you want to buy it?

Dolly DeLong: Yeah. It also helps save people time, as they do not have to figure out how to do things alone.

Mara Kucirek: Yeah, and anything, if you’re stuck on what to sell for Black Friday, any software that has like a one-click copy button, so like Google Docs, Trello, you can copy the board into your account, EarTable, Asana, ClickUp, anything like that is so powerful because people know it’s like basically done for them. They click a button, and they get access to it. People see how that works, so I always encourage people to click one click, one click. Can you give that to people? And so many software have that. For example, Dubsado has different templates, and Honey and Book have templates. When you start digging into specific software, there are so many options for things you can just let people copy into their accounts.

Dolly DeLong: I love that so much. And if you want to get even, I know that when we’re sharing, Mari, you shared like creating a one-click template, then there might be like the, the word I’m looking for is being paralyzed about where to start. I would encourage listeners to begin with one little area. That’s it—just one area. Of the business that has helped you, I hate using the word scale. So, I will say grow because I think scaling is overused in our online industry. So, what has helped you grow, like truly grow? And take that one thing and sell it for black Friday and see what happens; it 10 20 30 different things because I can fall into that trap I’d like, and I know Becca and Mara know that about me. I Give, over give, give the kitchen sink, and then give the kitchen sink again. So, I would encourage listeners to look for that one thing and test it out.

Bekah Read: Yeah, and I think in this day and age, which I know we’re going to go into in our free masterclass, I’m not going to dive too head-deep. I’m first into it, but offering things that are low ticket is, I think, doing well. And I’m seeing that a lot, like people just, even things that are like 350, like that’s not depending on where I don’t want to say that’s not much. Cause that can be a lot for some of the newer business owners, but start to think about some of those low. To get items. And even if you’re like, that won’t give you a huge black Friday sale. It’s a way to get in people’s heads and grow your audience. And so that’s something I think Dolly’s you’re good at, which is offering those lower tickets. And I was even thinking about, like, for you, Dolly has a bookkeeping template that both Mara and I use. And somebody asked me yesterday what you use for your bookkeeper or accountant. And I was like, this template: I’m six years into my business and don’t have an account. I’m not saying don’t do like you run your business however you want, but that’s what I use. And so think about the items, like you said, that are. Maybe a lower ticket, and yeah, you use a lot. I guess you like your own, and that’s the thing with your bookkeeping template. Isn’t that something that you use your husband made for you?

Dolly DeLong: My husband made it. Ty made it for me a year over five years ago. And just so I could manage the numbers behind my business, and because I have two sides to my bust,  it helped me have a system for the numbers behind my business. And then I decided, Hey, I’m just going to share this with others. Becca and I were in a mastermind together, and I shared it with Becca. And she was like, Dolly, this is amazing. I was like blown away. And then, of course, I always love sharing that type of news with my husband, Ty, because he’s the creator of it. So it was just like seeing his face light up. Wow. Something I made is. I was impacting other people. And so it’s been, it has been a bestseller in my shop, but I just, here I am, you all, I don’t talk about it that much.

Bekah Read: No, you don’t.

Dolly DeLong: It’s not launching-related, which stinks! 

Bekah Read: I talk about it more than you do.

Dolly DeLong: I should do something. I should have an affiliate program. I know I have an affiliate program, but I don’t talk about it enough because it has nothing to do with launching. I like this product but don’t want to confuse people regarding the launch.

Mara Kucirek: Yeah. Sometimes, selling things that aren’t the main thing in your business is challenging. So, like Dolly, you’re not a bookkeeper, but I like the template cause I have gotten stuff like accountants and bookkeepers. It is just so over my head, or they don’t understand that I don’t have time to have a click party every day and do all this stuff with my numbers cause I also use Dolly’s template; by the way, we should link to it, and I made over six figures in my business last year. And this saved me from paying—a bookkeeper. Someday, I’m sure I’ll have a bookkeeper. They’re amazing. But this template is also unique. And I value that you made it not as a bookkeeper but as a busy business owner who needs to update their numbers quickly in five minutes.

Dolly DeLong: Yeah. It’s all tight. You all, it’s all tied along. So thank you. It’s tied along, and he works right behind me. His office is right behind me. So I hope he’s smiling to himself, but I, and total disclosure listeners, still use this bookkeeping template. For example, I make a copy for myself every year and share it with my bookkeeper. And now I do have a bookkeeper because I have two different businesses. It was to a point two years ago because I hired her two years ago, and I could not keep my head straight like I was. This number is coming from photography. Still, this number comes from a bundle I just led, and I was pregnant with Jack. I couldn’t think anymore. Like, I believe I couldn’t think anymore. I wouldn’t bite the bullet, so I hired a bookkeeper and let her know. Hey, I still really want to use this bookkeeping spreadsheet. So This is what we’re going to do. And so she was so lovely. She uses it with her tools, and she likes it, too. So I should put it on the sales page. This has been bookkeeper approved by how you should, but anyway, I was just curious. Returning to the conversation about your plans for this black Friday is interesting. So just everybody can know what our plans are, what we’re thinking, and where our heads are with it. So. Let’s say a listener has a small idea of what they want to promote. Then how would we organize this launch? Like, I know how I would manage it. I would go straight to my Trello board and start planning out like a prime and all that stuff. Like you all know me, I love an excellent prelaunch. I love good content marketing and priming my audience, but people are not as intense as I am. Mara, how do you handle this with your clients?

Mara Kucirek: My most significant thing is discussing what you will sell. Like, start super early. It’s like that JCPenney catalog thing, which Dolly and I talked about in the last episode, where when I was a kid, we would get the JCPenney catalog, and the toy section was in the back, and you would circle what you want. Black Friday is like that. So start talking about what you’re selling, and whenever I say that, sometimes people are like, that’s scary, that’s overwhelming. All you have to do is like and post on social media. I’m working on my Black Friday offer for this thing today. And just every time you write an email for me or clean up the sales page, do a little Instagram storytelling, people. Maybe send a storytelling email to your audience about what’s coming and why you chose this for Black Friday. But make sure they know what your plans are before the actual sale. Because people, like, have lists. For Black Friday. They know they don’t always know what they will buy. Some people are impulse purchasers, but many people are like, Okay, I’m going to get this thing, and I’m going to get this thing. And they’re looking for that email, so start talking about it as soon as possible. I always say that by November 1st, you should be dropping many hints about what is coming for Black Friday.

Dolly DeLong: Yeah, that makes me curious. What type of buyer are you both?

Mara Kucirekely makes a list and then waits six months until I am an underbuyer. Gretchen Rubin wrote a book about happiness. She has the Happier Podcast. She has this thing: everyone is an overbuyer or an underbuyer. This means you buy too many things or you underbuy things. I’m an underbuyer a thousand percent. I will do anything not to buy something until I need it, and this is a bad thing sometimes, you guys. I don’t spend enough money on my business, and I shoot myself in the foot so that I will make a list. I will think about it, and then I will, you know, be super strategic and have a budget set for Black Friday.

Dolly DeLong: I wish I were like you, Mara. I’m an overbuyer. I like it, and I know my husband Ty makes comments. He’s like, “Are you going to slow down with them?” It’s not like I’m always on a buying spree, but I love shopping. I love shopping, and I love buying things.

Bekah Read: Dolly, Mara, what am I?

Mara Kucirek: I think you’re an astute buyer, Becca.

Dolly DeLong: I would say you’re in the middle of us.

Mara Kucirek: Maybe you buy more things than I do. I don’t know if I do. I don’t spend money on stuff. Sometimes you post things, and I’m like, she made a brilliant investment. And you buy things that last. Just so everyone knows, I voice memoed Becca at one point, and I was like, what should I buy my daughter for her first birthday? I knew Becca would have high-quality toys, but her kids also had a super fun childhood and a bunch of quality toys. So I said, okay, she’ll give me a list that’s not a million dollars but that my daughter will play with forever. And that’s literally what you did.

Bekah Read: No, but here’s the thing. My daughter will tell me, Mommy, who bought this for me? Because I don’t buy her anything. It’s always other people. I would say I’m an underbuyer. I. I finally bought a new MacBook Pro. So, full disclosure: you guys, Dolly Mara, and I talk almost every day, not just for the launch of this product. We’re doing like, we talk all the time, but I bought a new Macbook that I’ve needed to purchase for a long. I’m a website designer, and I was designing on a 13-inch MacBook Air. So, for like the past year after my MacBook Pro died, I finally. I purchased that, but I am very frugal and have a lot of money mindset issues. I was a missionary in Honduras for a year and a half. That plays into my not understanding why my grocery bill is a hundred dollars. So, yeah, I have a lot of money, but I do try to be intentional once a year, purchasing something for my business this year; it was a massive course and my computer. Cause I had to, but usually it’s one big, like. Mastermind or course or something like that. I believe that people who are growing and scaling are investing in me, but my growth has been slow over the past six years. I don’t invest much but try to invest once a year.

Dolly DeLong: Yeah. I love that we all have very different personalities but are just DMing. They talk to each other so much and are on this journey together. I know the side note and asterisk. I’m happy to know you both. Okay. So, let’s wrap this up with what mistakes to avoid. I know that Becca alluded to this earlier in the conversation, but as we’re putting together our Black Friday offers, we’re gathering that one or two items that we’re like, okay, this is what we’re going to sell. And then we have a launch plan. Uh, here is a strategy for how we will start priming or promoting and marketing to our audience, just letting them know what’s coming. What mistakes should we avoid in this?

Mara Kucirek: I have a big one: we’re all about to do this. Okay. We’re going to think about this. On. Black Friday. We’re going to go to email some excellent entrepreneurs. I don’t know who it is. But they will have fantastic Black Friday offers we’ve never heard of. They’ll be a tremendous bonus. It will go through your head to change your offer and do something similar or add something. Please don’t do it. , don’t do it. You can take notes. You can do it in the future. And this is like an endless cycle in online business. Once you start giving in to that, you’ll forever do it. And then what’ll happen is you’ll confuse your customers. It’s like you’re editing your sales emails on Friday, and then you change your mind.

You’ll say a bunch of stuff that doesn’t make sense. You’re going to break your sales page. I have seen this with many clients, and they’ll voice memo me. They’ll be like, Hey, I know. You’re off because it’s Black Friday, but I changed the sales page and broke the checkout button. So, don’t just stick with your original plan. That’s my best advice. And you can always do a fantastic, fancy sale in the future, right? There are always more flash sales. There are more Black Fridays, but someone blacktop will tempt you to want to change your sale.

Dolly DeLong: If you see something that listeners are like, Oh, It’s this for my black Friday. I save that idea for 12 days of the Christmas sale, as you can do for your audience. In that way, the idea is still fresh in your mind. Then you can take that and do your spin on it. Without. Like sacrificing your sanity over Black, thanksgiving, Black Day, and Saturday, that whole weekend. Take that idea and carve it out specifically for the 12 days of Christmas or whatever you want to do over the holidays. Don’t sacrifice your sanity like, um, Mara is sharing.

Mara Kucirek: Yeah, it’ll ruin your holiday, too, and you’ll get bitter about your business. This is so silly, but so many business owners do this, and I have done this, not necessarily with Black Friday, but with other things, where, like, you’re the one that created the problem, and you broke your own sales page, and then you’re bitter that you’re like up in the middle of the night fixing it. And so, given it is, Black Friday is such a weird time in online business. No one wants to work on Black Friday, right? One of my first jobs was working at a movie theater, and they required that you work on Black Friday because people see movies on Black Friday. Yeah. And I wouldn’t say I liked this. You hated this. Like, no one wants to work the day after Thanksgiving. So, online business is the same way. Set up your sales so that you can take some time off.  Maybe you post a couple of times on Instagram. But set it up so that you can still have a holiday and you don’t go into the rest of the year just feeling bitter, resentful, and angry that you had to do a bunch of extra work when you should have been taking time off.

Dolly DeLong: That’s good. What about you, Becca?

Bekah Read: So this goes into the next episode that we’re going to do when it comes to design, but obviously, my mind goes to the sales page, and when you’re When it comes to any offer, so Black Friday in this case, think about the copy before the design. If you’re DIYing it, that’s okay. I know a lot of people might want to bring in a sales page template, all good things, but keep copy top of mind, make the value and who it’s for, the who, what, where, when, and why the situation at the top of it’s the first thing they see. And then, it’s a trend I’m noticing in 2024 for shorter web pages, especially sales pages. I think in 2020, there was a lot more time on our hands, and those long, long, long page sales pages were very much a thing. And they still are, especially with time. Copywriters or people, if you have somebody writing your copy. I love long sales pages because they are an excellent opportunity to add many SEO keywords. And my SEO side is yes, this is the thing, but when it comes to, especially, black Friday, where going back to the JCPenney, like people have a lot of things that they’re going to be buying, not just in their business, but also. In just their life, right? I like to buy Christmas gifts for all of my family. And so they don’t have time to consume a long sales page. So start thinking about how you can compress that sales page. It doesn’t need to be just like a two-scroll. It can be a little bit longer than that, but d, don’t make it the, you know, ten 000-word situations. And if you have a lot, you want to say, or it’s an oversized ticket item, and they need a lot of content before purchase. Think about creating a video and having a video at the top before they even scroll that they can click on. They can learn a lot. And when I say video, like. It takes three to five minutes, making the sales page much shorter.

Dolly DeLong: I love that. It is a perfect segue or ending before we officially segue into episode three, which will air next week. But please hint as to what the masterclass is about and why a person should sign up for it, as we like the end.

Bekah Read: Well, first of all, you get to hang out with us three. So yeah, there’s that. Mara, do you want to tell me more about it?

Mara Kucirek: Yeah. So I’m excited about the Masterclass topic, 2024 Black Friday trends. This is something online business owners talk about every year. What are you doing for your Black Friday sale? Because there’s always this Air of you wanting to do something MS, magical, or different. So we will be talking about things you could do this year that will feel real and exciting to your audience and then also how to talk about Their success in 2025 because I see a lot of really successful Black Friday sales. They don’t focus on, Hey, buy this thing. And then you’re going to use it before Christmas. People probably, honestly, aren’t going to use your products before Christmas, but if you can give them something, you can say, Hey. This is going to make next year better for you. That is so powerful. That’s why I buy things. Imagine that in 2025, Mara will be using this product, and it will fix all of her problems.

Dolly DeLong: I totally can relate to that, Mara. I will say, side note listeners, going along with Mara’s example, I bought an air table course because I was like, Oh, 20, it was like in 2021. And I was like, 2022, Dolly will learn all things Airtable. Did I? No. But that made me laugh and think about that, Mara.

Mara Kucirek: That is why Mara will fully discipline me. Well, it’s so true, because that’s why I buy things, though. I’ve adopted this motto recently. That future you suck, future Mara sucks. Cause I always think future Mara is going to learn everything. She’s going to have unlimited energy. She’s going to like, and you know what future Mara is like, she’s the same as current Mara.

Bekah Read: Except maybe you’ll have an extra kid or something. You’re going to be even more busy.

Mara Kucirek: Yes. Yeah. If anything, you are even more busy. So like. Give future you the gift of just doing the thing now. That’s been my motto lately. If future Mara sucks, don’t count on her to do anything.

Dolly DeLong: Oh, I love that so much. Future Mara, get coffee. Or future Becca, drink some coffee—and future Dolly. Drink two cups of coffee. That’s so great. I love it. All right, everyone. So, as we wrap up episode two of this series about getting ready for Black Friday and what to expect about Black Friday, we want to encourage you to sign up for that masterclass. Again, it’s free, and we will try to keep it under 30 minutes with a Q&A at the end. If you show up live, there will be a lot of fun. I won’t give away too much of what we will be giving, But I want to encourage you to show up live. And then also Becca, Mara, how can people find and work with you? And where are you hanging out on the interwebs?

Bekah Read: Well, we’re all on Instagram, as we have mentioned. And so you can find me on my website or Instagram, really any platform, but that’s mostly where I am, Rebecca Reed Creative. Yeah, and I’m the same way I am on Instagram.

Mara Kucirek: I’m not super amazing at social media. 2025 Mara, maybe she’ll be unique and work on social media. So, if you message me on Instagram, I’ll answer. You can; we can have some weird conversation about whatever. Um, but my website is where most of my stuff is. I publish income reports. I talk a lot about courses and course creation. So you don’t make a course that people are and don’t want to finish or don’t want to buy. So Mara at casaric. Com, I’m sure Dolly will link it. Cause my last name is impossible to spell. So click it. If you Google it and spell it wrong, I’ll still come up. I will link everything.

Dolly DeLong: I’m also going to give a little shout-out to Becca. Becca has her own YouTube channel as well. And I noticed the subscribers; you are a few numbers away from reaching that 1000 mark, Becca. So, I will put her YouTube channel link in the show notes. So I expect listeners and you all to go there and follow her. So, I put her above the 1000 mark because I. I have a lot; I have lots of goals for Becca and Mara all the time, but one of my personal goals for Becca is to get her through above the 1,000 mark, so will you guys do that for me?

Bekah Read: Mara has a podcast that Mara will post on in 2025, and Mara will post on much more than in 2024, so prepare for it.

Mara Kucirek: This is true; I’m about to hit the one-year mark of, like, I’m going to have a one-year-old, not a baby anymore. And it’s life-changing. We’re transitioning off of bottles right now. You guys! What is this thing where you don’t always have to do the dishes? I had forgotten about this amazing thing where you won’t spend all day doing bottle dishes and having to give your kid a bottle.

Dolly DeLong: I’m not going to lie; I don’t miss those days. You are constantly washing the bottles. Yes, I remember that all too well. All right, you all. We will end there until then. Have a streamlined and magical week, and hopefully, you’re not cleaning too many bottles at the kitchen sink, but if you are, we hope you’re doing it in a streamlined way, okay? You are a fantastic muggle, and we will see you all in Episode 3 next week. Bye! Thank you so much for listening to the Systems and Workflow Magic podcast. You can find the full show notes from today’s episode on www.systemsandworkflowmagic.com/podcast. If you love the podcast, I would be so honored if you could subscribe to your favorite podcast player. Leave a five-star review and share it with another business friend who needs help with systems, workflows, and SOPs. Be sure to screenshot this episode, share it with your stories, and tag me at @dollydelongeducation on Instagram. Until then, go and make some strategic workflow magic.

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a free masterclass

Join me, along with Mara Kucirek and Bekah Read, as we reveal key Black Friday 2024 trends. With an unpredictable election year and a shifting economy, we'll share insider tips to help you stand out and drive sales with strategy


the 5 black friday trends to know before you launch

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