Have you ever played Jenga? The game where you remove one wooden block from a tower and stack it on the top, carefully taking turns until the whole thing comes crashing down?
Sometimes running an online business feels like a toppling tower, where every single item on your to do list feels like a precariously balanced wooden block and you carefully tackle one task at a time, hoping the rest doesn't come tumbling apart before you can get to it.
There are so many things to keep up with when you're running a business: creating new offers, updating current products, email marketing, social media, data analysis, networking, customer service, and so on. And that's just the list of business tasks. When you add on all the responsibilities from the rest of your life, it's easy for it to feel like way too much.
I've got more to say about that, but first I'm breaking the routine for this newsletter and stepping outside of my regular Ready, Set, Connect format to bring you behind the scenes in the marketing strategy for my business during this Black Friday season.
The Backstory
pssst....if you don't care about the backstory, feel free to scroll past this section and skip to the good part in The Last Minute Pivot. But if you do want to know all the details, keep reading.
The story starts in the airport about 7 weeks ago. I was stuck on a long layover Washington DC and I was putting the final touches on my Black Friday promotion plans: wrapping up a sales page, scheduling emails, and tweaking a few products.
Just before I boarded my flight, I hit the "schedule" button on my last piece of content and voila! Black Friday was ready to go.
Except for this one nagging thought in the back of my mind.
But before I get to that part of the story, let me give you a bit more context.
There's a popular format for Black Friday sales. It is called a lot of names, like the ladder method, the progressive sale, or the 5 day build up.
The way this format works is that during each day of the week there is one limited time offer. For example, your offer on Monday is only available on Monday, your Tuesday offer is only available on Tuesday, and so on.
The key to this type of sale is to lean into urgency marketing, saying things like: this offer is limited time, it's expiring, this is your last chance, etc.
And this is not a criticism of any one who uses that model - I've used it for my own promotions in previous years. But even though I've seen the ladder method work for sales I've done in the past, it just wasn't feeling like a good fit for me this year.
I had this whole thing planned, but I just kept thinking - does this really match the kind of energy I want to have in my brand?
Spoiler: it did not.
The more time passed, the more I just knew in my gut that the promotion I had already scheduled needed to change.
Which brings me to The Last Minute Pivot.
The Last Minute Pivot
pssst...if you don't care about the story and you just want the strategy, scroll right on past this section to The Reveal.
Even thought urgency marketing works. Even though my original Black Friday plans were strategic and kinda trendy. Even though everything was already scheduled. Even though I could have just ignored my inner voice and moved forward with the things I'd already planned...
It wasn't the right fit.
After weeks of reflecting, I woke up this weekend full of ideas and I decided to take the plunge, make the tweaks, and pivot the whole sale in a new direction.
I don't want to throw a sale entirely focused on urging you to make a decision because there's already enough pressure from the never ending Jenga of to-do's that you're trying to balance.
Instead, I want to give you solutions that will support you in navigating and managing your toppling tower.
I rewrote the sales page, drafted new emails, tweaked my tags and automations, made some more updates to my products, and posted about it on Threads to keep myself accountable.
And now I'm just typing this email to you and I'm just thrilled to say - I have something exciting and fresh planned for Black Friday and I can hardly wait to tell you all about it (literally in the next paragraph of this email).
The Reveal
For Black Friday 2025, I'm keeping things super simple: two main offers, plenty of time to decide, and some extra bonuses.
You'll get another email from me before the sale begins telling you all the details, but here are the broad strokes:
- 40% off your first payment for group coaching
- 40% off 1:1 strategy calls
- A collection of bonus offers, like the Caption Playbook, Reels Playbook and Simple Funnel Planner for $10 each
Each bonus can give you an additional $10 credit toward coaching support, up to $50.
And the best part? Both offers and all the bonuses will be available from Monday, November 24 until Cyber Monday (December 1) so you can take your time and decide which options work for you.
So what's the strategy here? And how can you steal this strategy for your own business?
I'll sum it up in a few steps:
- Get really clear about the main messages and feelings you want your brand to communicate
- When you plan new things for your business, use your brand foundation to check if your new thing is a good fit
- Don't be afraid to pivot - you're the business owner so you make the rules
P.S. If you skipped to the end of the email, let me recap:
- I had a whole plan for Black Friday, but I scrapped it all this weekend and pivoted to a different approach
- My Black Friday promo will run from November 24 to December 1 and I'll have all the details in my next email
If you want to snoop on my strategy, stay tuned! I'll send an email when the sale ends breaking it all down.
And an important P.P.S.
If Black Friday shopping isn't in your plans for your business this year and you'd rather not receive additional emails about my Black Friday promotion, you can click here to pause receiving emails from me the next few weeks. My usual Ready, Set, Connect newsletter will return after Cyber Monday.
Whatever is in your plans during this season of sales, Iām cheering for you!
Jamie
