3 reasons you should be planning to take advantage of Black Friday this year
Black Friday isn’t a day limited to buying that sweater you’ve been eyeing at a 50% discount or to perfecting your Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich. It’s also a day Teachable helps creators reach new heights of success. Creators use the day to offer their students—potential and existing—the opportunity to access their schools and courses at a discount. There are a few different ways you as a creator can approach and boost your Black Friday online course success. You might choose to add a bundle option for your students or offer a limited coupon. Whatever you do, you’re likely doing it with the hopes of seeing some upward movement when it comes to your sales and transactions.
And we’ve seen just how well creators do when they take advantage of all that Black Friday has to offer.
Black Friday by the numbers
GMV
First let’s look at a key metric: gross merchandise value. Last year creators as a whole saw a pretty significant impact from Black Friday sales. The week of Black Friday 2020 as compared to the week prior had a 100% increase in GMV. GMV doubled in just one week thanks to Black Friday. The same was true for the week of Black Friday in 2019.
The week before Black Friday 2020, GMV clocked in around $8 million. The following week, the week of Black Friday, GMV increased to $16 million.
Transactions
And it’s not just GMV that drastically increased. Other metrics indicate that creators are seeing wild Black Friday online course success. The number of transactions as a whole increased a full 65% week over week in 2020. (Note: a transaction being each time a payment was made on Teachable payments.) The week before Black Friday 2020 saw about 91,844 transactions, the following week that number jumped to 151,427.
Courses sold
Finally, let’s look at courses sold during Black Friday 2020. The week of Black Friday saw roughly 151,142 courses sold, compared to the week before when about 91,534 courses were sold. That’s again a 65 % increase.
You might be wondering how you can channel some of that retail success into your own school and courses. It’s pretty simple, and you have several options to do so. The first step to creating a strategy for your Black Friday deals is to consider your options.
Social media is a key component of your strategy when it comes to sharing your course offerings with your students, don’t overlook it.
5 ways to participate in Black Friday
There are plenty of ways you can find Black Friday online course success, but here are a few for you to consider.
1. Run a promotion or giveaway before Black Friday
Some creators find success in running a giveaway in the week or so leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Doing this and requiring those entering offer up an email to enter can help increase your email list so when you run any deals later, your list knows about it. Plus if someone has already expressed interest in winning access to your course, they might be willing to buy it at a discount during your promotion.
2. Use your email list
The previous tip brings us to our next one—using your email list to your advantage. You have an email list for a reason, and it’s not to spam your customers or potential customers with dozens of emails. Your list allows you to connect with buyers and offer them something of value, to share a coupon code, or news about a sale you’re offering.
3. Offer a coupon code on social media
If you have a big following on social media, you might have followers who don’t necessarily take your courses yet. So you could try offering a coupon code on social media and see if that might help convert new students to your school or course.
4. Offer an abbreviated course or bundle
If you don’t want to discount your current offerings, you can instead create an abbreviated mini course or bundle to allow people to try out your course without paying the full price. This could help get some users over the finish line when it comes to making the decision to buy.
5. Limit your offers or discounts
Scarcity creates a stronger incentive for customers to buy. If you create a discount code that can only be redeemed a limited number of times you could see some significant interest. Just like offering limited access to your courses can help increase success, so can limiting your discounts. The sense of urgency around limited offers helps keep the value of your course while still offering a special offer to customers.
Black Friday 2021
We hope now you can see how taking advantage of Black Friday can help benefit your course. Let us know how your Black Friday online course success goes on social or in teachable:hq so we can share your successes.