5 ways to rock your PR on Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday will see a frenzy of commercial activity online. Last year saw sales topping £650m in the UK with 267,370 logging on for on line deals by 6pm according to shopping tracker PCA . Invented in 2005 by the National Retail Federation of America to encourage on line sales after Thanksgiving Friday, it grew there year on year and within 5 years had become the biggest on line shopping day in the year. Britain followed suit though Black Friday continues to have a strong pull on sales. The long and the short of it is that as a business Cyber Monday is an event you cannot afford to ignore so we’re offering 5 tips to help you rock your PR leading up to the day. You can’t afford to miss it because your silence would be thunderous and lose the opportunity to do that which PR is for, creating relationships that translate into engagement and sales for your brand and business.

1.  Offer Value that promotes sampling.

Cyber Monday is fantastic for retail and e-commerce brands but other types of business can and should be involved. What you offer on the day should promote engagement with new and existing clients such that they sample and try your service. Price is very important, but service and utility are important too. Make an offer that gets customers who don’t use you already to sample the range of products and services you offer.

2.  Stay within your brand identity and values

Don’t become someone else on Cyber Monday. It will confuse your existing clients and make a false offer to the new ones. If quality is your unique selling point  continue to wave that flag despite the temporary price drop. Never allow clients to feel they are getting a “lite” version of your brand. It will come back to haunt you later.

3.  Tell your story loud and clear

Everyone else is making offers and presenting claims. Don’t allow your brand to be made inaudible in the din by being silent. This is the time to send press releases to the media, highlighting your brand, its values and its attributes. Think outside the box for interesting angles. Just look at how cluttered a google search is when you run one for Cyber Monday. Everyone is putting out price deals. PR is more than that, it’s a way to get your customers to understand where you’ve come from, where you are going and above all how you have evolved to meet client needs. Customers who read your news and engage with you on Cyber Monday will take it as the start of a relationship and come back after Cyber Monday.

4.  Engage with the conversation on social media

Watch the Cyber Monday hashtag  on Twitter and engage with it in interesting but unexpected ways. You might even create your own Cyber Monday hashtag. Your tweets will stand out if you’re offering more than just a thumping price cut. Share your insights and approach to cyber Monday so customers “feel” your brand identity and see it as more than just a price tag. This conversation needs to start before cyber Monday, and having built the relationships can be continued after the one day event. Think of Cyber Monday as a party where you make new friends, collect phone numbers and details, and then follow them up later.

5.  Enhance your corporate reputation

There is no doubt your staff will likely be shopping themselves for deals on cyber Monday. What is your view of that? It is officially a working day but your staff are people with mobile devices living through the day like everyone else. Share your hacks for allowing employees to participate in Cyber Monday without affecting the level of service you’re offering your clients on the big day. The point here is to show how real you are. People buy authentic, real people.

Make this Cyber Monday one that opens new doors and creates new relationships. It’s about far more than just a price cut. Your PR can make it so.

For more help with your PR contact the JournoLink Team at mailto:sales@journolink.com

Written By: Tetteh Kofi

Tet is passionate about helping startups build their relationships with the press, and with his journalistic experience, works each day towards bridging the gap between the two. If he's not speaking on the radio or at our next PR workshop, you'll find him tweeting on Twitter about marketing, business, politics and more.