How to create a money-making Black Friday deal

Black Friday is one of the biggest promotional opportunities of the year for online businesses. And if you sell digital products, online courses, templates, workshops, or coaching, it’s worth considering how you can use this period to attract new customers and generate more sales. So let’s talk about how to create a money-making Black Friday deal!

 

Here’s the thing: preparing for Black Friday doesn’t have to mean creating a dozen new offers, discounting everything in your business, or spending the entire month glued to your laptop.

You can keep your Black Friday marketing strategy simple, focus on one or two great offers, and create a promotional campaign that actually makes sense for your business.

In this post, I’m sharing how to prepare your digital product business for Black Friday, including what kind of deals to offer, how to approach discounts and bundles, when to start promoting, and how long your Black Friday sale should last.

 

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Why your digital product business should consider Black Friday

Let’s start with the obvious question: should you even participate in Black Friday?

If you don’t want to, you absolutely don’t have to. Not every business needs to run a Black Friday promotion, and you shouldn’t create one simply because everyone else is doing it.

However, there’s one important reason to consider it.

Your potential customers might be waiting for it.

People know that Black Friday is a period when businesses offer discounts and special deals. They might already have a course, masterclass, template package, or coaching program in mind, but they’re hesitant to purchase it because they expect a better offer to come along.

Think about someone who has been following your business for a while. They’ve watched your Instagram stories, listened to your podcast, read your emails, and considered purchasing one of your products.

They might not be actively engaging with your content or asking questions, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t interested.

They could simply be waiting until Black Friday to make their purchase.

This is why choosing not to participate might mean missing out on customers who were already considering buying from you.

Black Friday is also a time when people are actively looking for deals. While I’m not particularly fond of the consumerism surrounding this period, a discounted digital product or online course can be a genuinely valuable opportunity for someone who has been wanting to learn something new or invest in their business.

So, if you’ve been considering running a Black Friday sale, here are a few things to keep in mind.

Focus on one or two Black Friday offers

My first recommendation is to avoid discounting everything you sell.

Instead, choose one or two products or offers you want to promote during Black Friday.

There is already going to be a lot of noise online. Your audience will be seeing promotions from countless businesses, all competing for their attention.

You don’t need to add to that confusion by presenting them with ten different offers of your own.

When you focus on one main offer, you can repeatedly talk about it, explain what it includes, highlight its benefits, and help your audience understand exactly what they’re getting.

This also makes your Black Friday marketing campaign much easier to manage.

You have one clear message to communicate, one main product to feature in your emails, and one offer to consistently promote across your social media channels.

Remember that your audience is already making decisions about what to buy. The easier you make that decision, the better.

Consider creating a Black Friday bundle

If you want to offer more value without discounting your entire product range, a Black Friday bundle can be a great alternative.

A bundle allows you to combine two, three, or even five products into one special package at a single price.

For example, you could combine:

• An online course and a workbook.
• A masterclass and a collection of templates.
• Several resources that help someone complete different steps of a process.
• A course, a practical guide, and an additional implementation resource.

One of the things I particularly like about Black Friday bundles is that they can be exclusive to this promotional period.

You might not normally sell these products together, and your audience might not have another opportunity to purchase the complete package at that price.

That gives you a reason to create something special without necessarily developing an entirely new product.

Make sure your bundle makes sense for your audience

One important thing to consider when creating a digital product bundle is whether all the products actually belong together.

For example, imagine you have three courses covering beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels of a particular topic.

If someone is already at an intermediate level, they might not be interested in purchasing a bundle that includes a beginner course they don’t need.

Instead, think about how your products can complement each other.

You could combine resources that cover different steps of the same journey, allowing customers to access everything they need in one package.

You can also increase the value of an existing offer by adding something extra.

For example, if you’re selling a course, you could include a workbook, templates, checklists, or another practical resource that helps customers implement what they’re learning.

This can make your Black Friday offer more attractive without simply combining several existing courses.

Don’t manufacture a fake deal

While creating a special bundle or adding bonuses can be a great strategy, make sure the deal is actually a deal.

Don’t take products you already sell together, change the packaging, and present them as an exclusive Black Friday opportunity if nothing has really changed.

Likewise, don’t advertise a special bundle that customers can still purchase at exactly the same price and with exactly the same benefits after the promotion ends.

You want to stay honest with your audience.

If you’re offering something exclusive, make sure it’s genuinely exclusive. If you’re offering a discount, make sure the regular price is a real price you consistently charge.

Your customers should feel that they’re getting a valuable opportunity, not that you’re trying to trick them into making a purchase.

How much should you discount your products for Black Friday?

Discounting is probably one of the biggest decisions you’ll need to make when planning your Black Friday promotion.

And while the right discount will depend on your product, audience, regular price, and business model, I generally wouldn’t recommend going for just 10% or 20% off.

Black Friday is one of those promotional periods when people expect to see more substantial deals.

If you can comfortably offer a larger discount while still making the sale worthwhile for your business, it might be worth considering.

For example, if you normally sell a course for $400, offering it for $200 gives your audience a clear 50% discount.

That’s a much more noticeable deal than taking $20 off the original price.

As a general starting point, I’d consider discounts of around 30% or more if they make financial sense for your business.

Of course, this isn’t a rule you need to follow blindly.

A 50% discount might work perfectly for one digital product but be completely unrealistic for another.

You need to consider your costs, profit margins, the value of your offer, and what you’re comfortable charging.

Make sure your Black Friday discount is genuine

There’s one thing I really want to emphasize: don’t create fake discounts.

If you normally sell a product for $200, don’t suddenly claim that its original price is $400 just so you can advertise a 50% Black Friday discount.

Likewise, don’t keep your product at a permanently discounted price and then pretend that Black Friday is a special opportunity to save money.

Choose an offer that has a stable, regular price throughout the year. Then, when Black Friday comes around, introduce a genuine discount that your audience wouldn’t normally have access to.

Your customers should be able to trust your pricing.

And that trust is worth much more than a temporary boost in sales.

Also, remember that you don’t always have to communicate your deal through percentages.

You can highlight the actual savings, explain what’s included, or focus on the additional value customers receive through a special bundle.

The important thing is that the offer feels worthwhile.

Start promoting your Black Friday deal before the sale begins

This is probably one of the most important parts of your Black Friday marketing strategy, and it’s also something many business owners overlook.

You need to promote your offer before Black Friday arrives.

Don’t wait until the day your sale starts to tell everyone about it.

By that point, your audience should already know that something is coming.

Think about how you would approach a regular product launch.

You wouldn’t necessarily introduce a new product and expect everyone to purchase it immediately without any preparation. You would talk about the problem it solves, introduce the product, explain its benefits, and build interest before opening the cart.

Your Black Friday campaign should work in a similar way.

Announce your Black Friday offer in advance

I would start mentioning your upcoming promotion at least a week before Black Friday.

You can begin with a simple announcement in your email newsletter or on social media.

You don’t have to reveal every detail immediately. The goal is to let your audience know that a special offer is coming and give them a reason to pay attention.

As Black Friday gets closer, increase your communication.

For example, during the week before the sale, you could:

• Send an email announcing that a Black Friday deal is coming.
• Share social media posts introducing the product you’ll be promoting.
• Remind your audience when the offer will become available.
• Explain who the product is for and what they can expect to learn or achieve.
• Answer common questions about the product.

The idea is that when the deal actually goes live, your audience already knows what you’re offering.

They don’t have to spend the first day figuring out what the product is, whether it’s relevant to them, or why they should consider buying it.

They can focus on making a decision.

Prepare and schedule your Black Friday marketing campaign

If there’s one thing I’d strongly recommend doing in advance, it’s preparing your promotional content and scheduling as much of it as possible.

Black Friday can get busy.

You’ll be seeing other businesses promoting their offers, receiving promotional emails, comparing deals, and potentially second-guessing your own campaign.

It’s very easy to start feeling like your offer isn’t good enough or that you should be doing something completely different.

You might suddenly feel less motivated to show up and promote the deal.

This is exactly why I would prepare everything ahead of time.

Start by setting your offer and finalizing the price. Then prepare your marketing materials.

Your Black Friday campaign might include:

• Announcement emails.
• Promotional emails.
• Social media posts.
• Instagram stories.
• Sales page updates.
• Product graphics.
• Checkout page updates.
• Reminder emails.
• Last-chance promotional content.

Once everything is ready, schedule as much as you can.

This way, you don’t have to be online every single day making sure your campaign is moving forward.

You can focus on your customers, your business, and everything else happening during this busy period.

And if you need additional support with your Black Friday preparation, consider getting help with the practical side of things, such as product setup, sales page design, email setup, workbooks, or backend systems.

You don’t have to do every single part yourself.

How long should your Black Friday sale last?

Another important decision is how long your Black Friday promotion should run.

There are different approaches you can take, but personally, I wouldn’t recommend limiting your offer to just 24 or 48 hours.

Yes, a short promotional period can create urgency. It can encourage people to make a decision faster and create a little excitement around your offer.

But you also need to consider how busy your audience is.

People are shopping, working, spending time with family, traveling, and dealing with all the other things happening around this time of year.

Someone might see your offer while they’re standing in line at the supermarket, think that it looks interesting, and then completely forget about it.

If your promotion ends 24 hours later, they might never get another opportunity to purchase.

That’s why I’d generally recommend running your Black Friday sale for three to five days.

This gives people enough time to discover the offer, consider whether it’s right for them, and actually complete their purchase.

It also gives you more opportunities to communicate with your audience throughout the campaign.

Avoid making your Black Friday promotion too long

While I wouldn’t make your sale too short, I also wouldn’t recommend extending it indefinitely.

Three to five days is a good starting point. You could stretch it to seven days if that makes sense for your campaign, but I wouldn’t go much longer.

The reason is simple: a promotional offer needs a clear beginning and end.

If you keep extending the deadline, your audience will eventually stop taking it seriously.

We’ve all seen those promotions that are supposedly ending on Monday, only to receive another email announcing that the sale has been extended for 48 hours.

And then another 24 hours.

And then another extension.

At some point, the urgency becomes meaningless.

If you tell your audience that an offer ends on Monday, let it end on Monday.

You don’t need to manufacture urgency by constantly moving the deadline.

Consider a two-stage Black Friday promotion

If you want to create a little more flexibility, you could also consider a two-stage promotional campaign.

For example, you might offer your biggest deal during Black Friday itself, with additional bonuses available for a limited period.

Then, from Saturday through Cyber Monday, you could keep the product available at a slightly different offer.

This allows you to create a stronger incentive for people who purchase early while still giving those who need a little more time an opportunity to buy.

Just make sure that the different stages of your promotion are clear from the beginning.

Follow through with your Black Friday promotion until the end

Once your Black Friday sale is live, don’t disappear after the first announcement.

This might sound obvious, but it’s surprisingly easy to do.

You announce your offer, publish a couple of social media posts, send one email, and then spend the rest of the promotional period waiting to see what happens.

But your audience needs reminders.

Not everyone will see your first post. Not everyone will open your first email. And not everyone will be ready to purchase on the first day.

Some people will only notice your promotion near the end.

Others might have seen the offer earlier but need another reminder before making their decision.

That’s why you should continue promoting your offer throughout the entire campaign.

You can remind people about what’s included, share the benefits, answer questions, highlight the savings, and communicate when the promotion is ending.

Even if you’re not seeing the results you expected immediately, keep following through with your campaign.

You planned the promotion for a specific period, so give your audience the opportunity to see it.

Final thoughts on how to create a money-making Black Friday deal

Black Friday can be a great opportunity to generate sales, introduce new customers to your digital products, and give your existing audience a reason to finally purchase something they’ve been considering.

But you don’t need to turn it into a complicated campaign.

You don’t need to discount everything you sell. You don’t need to create a dozen new products. And you don’t need to spend the entire week glued to your computer.

Focus on one great offer, make sure the deal is genuinely valuable, prepare your promotional content in advance, and give your audience enough time to make a decision.

Most importantly, don’t forget to actually promote it.

You can have the best Black Friday deal in the world, but if nobody knows about it, it’s not going to generate many sales.

So start preparing early, keep things simple, and make sure you follow through.

And remember, you don’t have to participate just because everyone else is doing it. Choose an approach that works for your business, your audience, and the way you want to run your online business.

 

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