How to Create and Share Video On Social Media during Black Friday

You need to pull all the stops when marketing your Black Friday sale. From reaching out to past customers to acquiring new ones, your marketing greatly affects how well you sell.

When promoting on social media, you must adapt to what audiences would respond to. More and more brands are heavily investing in video marketing, creating content consistently to engage, educate, and turn their following on social media into a community.

During Black Friday, it’s essential for brands to leverage video to get the word out about their sale faster and nudge shoppers from scrolling through social to clicking and buying from their Shopify store.

But, planning your video strategy to promote your BFCM sale on social media does take time. This playbook will help you figure out what kind of videos to create, how to perfect your video, and best practices for sharing.

Creating BFCM Videos For Social Media

Creating videos from scratch does take time. But, with some guidance, you’ll be able to identify what kind of videos to create and make videos that are sure to delight and engage viewers on social media.

Here’s how you can start planning your videos and creating them to promote your sale on social media:

1. Be upfront about your offer

When promoting your sale, it’s crucial to let viewers know about your offer as soon as possible. Your shoppers shouldn’t have to search for these details.

Instead, use text on your video to show the discount and the last day for the sale.

2. Hook your viewers with an enticing beginning

If you can’t hook your visitors as soon as they start watching the video, chances are that they’ll swipe away. You need to make the first 3 seconds of your video exciting.

Many brands use voiceovers to speak to the shopper directly. Starting with phrases like “Are you looking for…” is a great way to reel them in. You can also use fast cuts to show your products, unique color and light effects to catch shoppers’ eye, or even humor to grab and sustain their attention.

When planning, it’s always helpful to think of your unique brand voice and how to use it to build the hook for your videos.

3. Keep it 45 seconds or shorter

Short attention spans require shorter videos. Viewers will swipe away from your video if it’s too long. Share all the information you want to convey in 45 seconds or less.

4. Get creative to make it share-worthy

If your audience shares your video, you’ll be able to reach more people and acquire new customers. So, what would make a follower want to share your brand’s video?

You can make the video funny, build a narrative around a relatable problem that your products solve, or even get creative with the style of the video. Create a telethon-style video, use nostalgic ad styles, or even give a native experience with a vlog-style video. The possibilities are endless!

Gymshark is always on point with its marketing. For their last Black Friday sale, they created an exaggerated ad to promote the sale. It was high energy, mimicking game shows, video games, telethons, and everything that excites people.

The easiest and fastest way to use video to promote your sale is with a generic announcement video that shares the sale dates and discount. But, that’s just not enough. You still don’t build a compelling case for why your sale is the one they need to shop from.

By sharing different kinds of videos, take shoppers through a journey with your brand, and nurture them into customers.

Here are the different kinds of videos you can use through your sale to fulfill different objectives:

Inform viewers and build excitement with a teaser video

Build some anticipation for your viewers and even let other users know with a video teasing your upcoming sale, what they can expect, and sharing when it’ll be live.

Alphalete was able to drive interest for their sale ahead of time. They posted a Reel a week before the sale, teasing the discounts and sharing when the sale will be live.

Announce the sale to drive shoppers to your site

Once your sale is live, you need a video that re-engages your audience and informs them that it’s time to head to your store! Your announcement video must include a few details:

• How long the sale is for
• What discounts and offers they can expect
• A glimpse at your products to show them what they can shop
• A direct link to your store for easy access
  
  

How-to and benefit videos to reinforce your brand’s value

If the only marketing you’re doing is promoting the sale, you’re doing it wrong. Your videos would definitely be timely, but how are your products relevant to your audience?

That’s why you must lead with value. Create and share videos about the problem you solve with your products.

For instance, a haircare brand could share a haircare routine, showing the slashed prices during the sale, and linking all the products to the video so that people can shop.

This way, you wouldn’t just promote the sale. You’ll also remind shoppers why they need your product.

Highlight a specific product

Is there a specific product that is overstocked, or do you have a product being featured this sale period? Create a video highlighting this product and its benefits to give it more visibility and drive more purchases.

Ava Estell created a video highlighting their newly launched products and showing how to use them.

Build urgency with a last-chance video

Towards the end of your sale, you can share a video that is purely intended to create urgency around your sale. You can share this video 5-8 hours before the sale ends, letting shoppers know that they may miss the biggest deal of the year.

When creating this video, mention when the sale ends— the day, time, and even time zone.

6. Showcase the best of your collection

Always show your products in these videos. The discount that you’re promoting may be enticing enough. But, without seeing what they’ll be buying, shoppers won’t be excited to click through to your store.

Use product videos or even videos created by other customers to show your products and how they work.

7. Adapt your video for the platform you are posting on

What works on YouTube will not work on Instagram. When planning your videos, think of what additional shots or different edit styles are needed to adapt the same video for different platforms.

You might create a long video (around 3 minutes) about your sale or even a styling haul for YouTube. But for Instagram and TikTok, you might edit the video down to only the best 30 seconds of the video.

Or, you might publish the same video on both Instagram and TikTok but choose trending audio from each platform rather than using the same audio on both.

8. Use trending audio and video styles

When posting on social media, you need to cater to what viewers on the platform are enjoying. Using an existing audio or playing to a trending meme can allow you to join the conversation and portray your offer in a way that viewers would relate to.

Instagram shows videos using trending audio more frequently to audiences than one with generic or custom audio. This way, your video will capture more attention and allow you to acquire new shoppers and convert them.

However, trends constantly change, so you must be quick about it. When using audios and trending references, you must create and post on the same day.

Sharing Videos Promoting Your Black Friday Sale on Social Media

Once you’ve created your videos, you need to plan your strategy to share them online. The best way to approach it is by analyzing how your social media posts have performed in the past and using these insights to design your plan for BFCM.

However, there are best practices you can’t miss to ensure that you’re smartly amplifying your sale:

1. Leverage all the platforms

Don’t just stick to one social media platform!

Different consumers use different social media platforms based on their preferences. If you only stick to one, you miss out on the opportunity to sell to new audiences who might be interested in your products but just haven’t come across you.

The best bit is that when planning your videos, you can plan how to adapt the same concept to fit different platforms and their styles.

Other resources: Everything you need to know to sell with TikTok videos

2. Link your store to the video on social media for a quick CTA

You don’t want shoppers to go around searching for your website or your product pages. With so much content on social media, shoppers are bound to get distracted and wander away in their search for your website.

When sharing your video, add product links so that shoppers can click and be taken to the product page directly.

3. Host a LIVE shopping event

During Black Friday, you want your brand to be at the top of customers' minds. LIVE shopping allows you to authentically engage with shoppers in real-time and give them an immersive experience with your brand.

Based on which platform works for you best, host LIVE shopping events on Instagram or TikTok so that people can drop into the event, see what you’re selling, and be motivated to click through to your store and start shopping.

Here are a few ideas to host a successful LIVE event:

• Partner with a relevant creator who will host the event.
• Run a challenge during the event where the creator styles your products or shows how they would use the products.
• Have someone from your team share their insights on your products.
• Invite past customers to share how they introduce your products into their daily routine.
  
  

4. Run ads targeting audiences based on interest

Once you set your videos live, you can boost them as ads and target the right users to engage with the video.

Running ads during Black Friday is expensive, but by defining your target audiences’ interests and defining a narrow audience profile, you will be able to reach shoppers who are definitely interested in your products. This means higher acquisition of new customers, higher engagement, and more conversions.

Hootsuite has a brilliant article on how to get started with social media ads.

5. On Instagram, amplify the video on your Story

As soon as you post one of the videos on Instagram, share it on your Story. This will help you gain more traction and get as many views as soon as it's shared. You’ll be able to build more momentum, show Instagram’s algorithm that your video is popular, and get a higher viewership.

Pro-tip: Add a link to your store for direct access when sharing on your Story.

6. Partner with creators to promote the sale

One of the best ways to reach new audiences and build trust for your brand is through a vetted creator. Collaborate with relevant creators by sending them your products and letting them get creative.

Based on your conversation with the creator, they might review your brand or even use your products in fun ways. Through the content they create, the influencer could subtly promote your upcoming sale and link their viewers to your store.

What’s more, you don’t need a big budget to start influencer marketing! Choose nano-creators (with smaller following) who talk about topics that align with your brand. These creators would have a more engaged and loyal following than larger creators.

Amplify your sale by promoting it using videos on social media

With videos being the most consumed form of media, brands need to leverage them to sell better this Black Friday. By following these best practices when creating and sharing videos on social media, you’ll be able to reach the right audiences faster— a must-have when you’re running such a time-sensitive sale.

Planning to use videos on-site to provide a seamless experience during the sale? Read our guide on identifying gaps and leveraging video across your site for faster conversions during Black Friday.