If you've been listening to this podcast for a little while, you will know that at this point of year, I start talking about building your customer database. Get people onto your email list before Q4. Don't wait until November to start an audience. So you have probably already have the pop-up updated on your website. You might be running some lead ads or doing a giveaway. You've got your welcome sequence doing its thing, and you are watching that subscriber number creep up and you are thinking, I'm listening, Sal, I'm doing my thing.

And by the fly time fli and by the time Black Friday arrives, you're watching that subscriber number creep up and you are thinking, Sal, look at me, I'm doing the thing. And by the time Black Friday arrives, I'm gonna have all these people I can sell to.

Now I'm saying gold star to you. I want you to be building your customer database. I absolutely want you attracting people right now. Because trying to find customers for the first time when every retailer on the planet is trying to get their attention in Q4 is a much harder job. But this year, I want you to look at that database number a little bit differently. Because there is a fairly important difference between someone who has been sitting on your email list for the last couple of months and someone

Who has already given you their money? And what if one of the best things that you could do for your Black Friday campaign this year was to turn more of those people who are joining your list right now into customers before Black Friday ever arrives. Hey there, I'm Selena Knight and welcome to the Bringing Business to Retail podcast, where we talk all about the strategies and solutions to make more money and grow your retail or e-commerce business. Alrighty, let's imagine we have two businesses.

They are selling very similar products, they're a similar size, they have the same customer, and both of those are owners taking Q4 very seriously this year. They've started early. Business A has spent September and October focused very heavily on building their customer database. They have thousands of new customers in their database. They have lots of people seeing the brand. People are clicking through to their website, they're following on Instagram, they're opening emails, they might be saving products in a wish list.

They might have visited the website three, four, or even five times. And the owner is looking at that database thinking, this is fantastic. 500, 1,000, 2,000 new people. Black Friday is going to be huge. Except most of those people still haven't bought anything. Now that starts to matter as Black Friday gets closer.

Because if someone has been following you for six, eight, twelve weeks, they've opened your emails, they've seen the product, they've been to the website and they know who you are, and they still haven't found a reason to hand over their money. What you are now relying on to get them over the line during Black Friday is, well, for a lot of businesses, the answer is going to be a discount. And it's probably going to have to be a hefty discount. 20, 25, maybe 30%. Now

It's those kinds of discounts that make them get out their credit cards and buy. Now, think about what has happened in your business as a commercial enterprise. You paid to acquire that person. It doesn't matter whether it was through organic channels or through meta-ads or Google Ads, every single customer on your list comes with a cost. You've got to pay for your email platform. You spend time creating the content, you've written the emails, you've nurtured these customers for weeks.

And the first transaction that you get from that customer could be the one that makes you the least amount of money. And that is worth paying attention to. Because I know that there will be people thinking, so well, it's Black Friday. People expect a discount. Well, yeah, some people do. And for some products and for some businesses, a strong Black Friday offer with discounts attached makes complete commercial sense. You know what I think about discounting? I don't think they're evil. I believe that they're a tool.

There is a difference between choosing a discount because it helps you achieve your goals and needing the discount because you haven't given somebody else a good enough reason to buy at any point in these last two or three months. Now, those are very different positions to be in. So that's business A. Let's take business B. They also listen to the podcast, they also listen to what Sal says, and they've been building up their database. People have been discovering their brand and clicking through.

join the email list. But during September and October, many of those people actually start buying.

Maybe they walked into your physical store, maybe they picked up a gift, maybe they bought the candle for somebody's birthday, and then two days later that parcel arrived on their doorstep. Whatever it is, they've crossed that line from knowing about your business into actually buying from it. They've turned from a potential customer into a customer. And now when Black Friday comes around, your campaign has a very different job. Those customers already know what happens after they press the buy button. They've seen how quickly you ship.

They've opened the package, they know what the sizing looks like, they've used the product, they've maybe dealt with your customer service, and they know if your candles smell as good as they looked on Instagram. And maybe they've already got their eye on what they want next. That is a very different customer to someone who has spent the last 10 weeks watching from the sidelines or potentially ignoring you altogether. For the potential customers that you're attracting right now, maybe Black Friday should be their second purchase.

And I think that one change in how you look at the next couple of months changes the entire job of your pre-Black Friday marketing. Because for years we have talked about building your database, getting them familiar with your brand and ready for Black Friday, and all of that has a place.

So for me, the opportunity over these next few months is to turn as many of those people on my list into customers before Black Friday arrives. Because once somebody buys from you, the relationship changes. They are no longer just an email address in clavio or mail chip, they are now a customer. And now you know things about them that you simply couldn't know when they were just sitting in your database. You know what they buy.

You know which category they bought from. You know how much they were prepared to spend and whether they were entry-level products or whether they were more expensive. You know what they browsed before they purchased.

And all of that becomes incredibly useful when Black Friday rolls around. Because now you're not sending the exact same message to somebody who has never purchased from you and somebody who bought a $300 product last week. You can sell to a very different customer. You can show them products that make sense based on what they already bought. You can bring them back to something that they looked at but didn't purchase. You can put a complimentary product in front of them.

And you can give your best customers a different reason to come back. And most importantly, you've already removed one of the biggest hurdles in any transaction. They've bought from you before. They know the product turns up. They know what it's like to deal with your business because you are not starting from zero. And that is why, for some people that you are attracting right now, you should be pushing them to make that sale before Black Friday. Because I would much rather go into Black Friday.

Knowing that more of the people on my database have already put their hand in their pocket and bought something from me, than have an enormous list of people that I am still hoping I can convince with a discount. You've removed the uncertainty before the most competitive sales period even begins. Now I know that there are no guarantees if someone will buy from you in September and they'll come back in November. But what I would much rather is have the revenue from the first sale.

And have the opportunity for another one, then just have a name in my database that I'm paying for and hoping that they will eventually convert over Black Friday or the holiday season. Whereas if you acquire a brand new customer on Black Friday with your deepest discounts of the year, what does that transaction actually look like once you account for all the costs around it? I would urge you to go and have a look. You know I love data. You probably spent more to get them because advertising costs are bigger.

You may have discounted the product. I'm guaranteeing you're probably paying more staff for peak season. You've got your payment fees, you've got your returns. Black Friday can create an enormous amount of revenue, but still give you a transaction that makes less money than the same order that someone could have placed six weeks earlier. So if the first purchase happens before Black Friday, you have created an opportunity to make money before the event and potentially earn another transaction.

During the event. And that is why I keep coming back to this idea of let's not just be building a bigger Black Friday list. Let's build more Black Friday customers. Yes, build the list, absolutely. But if hardly any of them buy until you offer 30% off, well why? What were they waiting for? What could we have done to get them to buy earlier? The opportunity is to look at the people that are spending your money on right now.

And ask how many of these people can I turn into customers before Black Friday? Most of the advice that you're going to hear is all going to be about growing your database. But yeah, that's great. Because if someone

your database, there is a cost. But remember, they haven't paid you anything yet. They haven't tested your product. They haven't interacted with your brand. They're still a prospective customer. So over the next few weeks, please keep growing your audience.

But I also want you thinking, how many new customers are we creating before Black Friday arrives? And if you're sitting there thinking, well, Sal, okay, sounds good. How do I get someone to buy now without just dragging Black Friday forward forward and discounting everything? Well, my friends, that's exactly what my free masterclass is all about. We will be deep diving into how to get more customers buying before Black Friday so that you can go into the biggest sales period of the year with more customers.

Rather than just more people on your list that are crossing their fingers and you are hoping that they will eventually buy. You can register for free over at Selena Knight.com forward slash Q3. It's on Thursday the 17th at 10 a.m. Sydney time. That is Wednesday, 5 p.m. Pacific, I think. Because this year I want Black Friday to start with as many people as possible who have already bought from you.

Remember, you can register for free www.salenaKnight.com/q3  Thank you so much for listening to the Bringing Business to Retail podcast and I hope to see you on the masterclass where I will show you how to get your customers buying before Black Friday. Thanks so much.