Black Friday is coming, but we know you’re not trying to compete with Amazon or flood your feed with “50% OFF!” graphics that make people cringe. But regardless of how you feel about this consumption-focused-buying-weekend if you’re a small business owner, Black Friday, Shop Small Saturday, and Cyber Monday are still major opportunities—not only to make sales, but to get seen, stay top-of-mind, and warm up your audience before the year wraps.

But how do you compete with the big box stores that are shouting as loud as they can? With intention, friends. It sounds cheesy, but in this article, we’re walking you through how to do just that. And better yet, we’re recommending some Enji campaign templates to help!

In this post, we’re sharing our marketing advice about:

• How to get started planning for Black Friday
• Black Friday promotion ideas (that aren’t discounts!)
• What a full-funnel Black Friday marketing strategy looks like
• The best marketing tools to bring your Black Friday plans to life

Planning For The Black Friday Season as a Small Business

In a perfect world, you'll start planning for the Black Friday season in September or October so that as the Black Friday season approaches, you don't feel like you're rushing (or worse... like you're behind). But before you dive into batching posts or stressing over your offer, pause for a second and ask:

What’s your actual goal this season?

Because spoiler alert: not every campaign needs to scream “SALE!”

Maybe you want to…

• Book out December with client work
• Launch something new (big or small)
• Grow your email list so your next promo hits warmer inboxes

Whatever your focus, start there, and let your content strategy follow.

Enji Tip: Log in and open up your Marketing Strategy to gut-check your goals. Then use one of the marketing campaign templates that aligns. For this case, the Holiday Sale Season template  is great. But if sales isn’t your goal, opt for the Email List Building or Social Media Growth Campaign if visibility is your main play this Black Friday season.

Not Into Slashing Prices? Cool, Here Are Black Friday Promotions That Don’t Involve Discounting

You don’t need to cut your prices in half to stay competitive this season. Visibility and value go hand-in-hand. And there are smarter, more strategic ways to show up without underpricing your work. Here’s how:

Create a Bundle of Your Popular Products

Bundle your popular services or products into themed packages. Think: a “Design + Strategy Session” combo or a “Holiday Gift Set” that includes 2–3 curated items. Bundles increase your average order value without deeply discounting your rates. They also make decision-making easier for buyers who might feel overwhelmed during peak season.

Offer VIP Days for a Limited Time

If you’re a small business, chances are you do have limits to your time! Why not create urgency by offering limited-availability spots with bonus perks? This could look like: “Only 5 VIP engraving spots left for December” or “Book your Q1 strategy session now and get early access to our 2026 planning toolkit.” The key here is exclusivity and adding value for fast movers.

Keep Customers Aware of Shipping Deadlines

Lean into natural urgency by communicating your holiday cut-off dates early and often. This isn’t fake scarcity and it’s actually helpful for your customers. After all, shipping cut offs are a real deadline that helps your customers plan ahead and avoid disappointment. Post clear reminders about final order dates, holiday delivery timelines, and rush options if you offer them. You can even pin your deadline post or add it to your bio link to make it easy to find.

Bonus: This strategy builds trust. It shows you're thinking ahead, you care about your customer experience, and you're running a buttoned-up biz.

Ramp Up Your Storytelling

The holidays are a great time to focus on connection! Share the why behind your offer, not just the what. Instead of a static “Now Booking” post, tell the story: What inspired this service? What transformation can clients expect? Why is it a smart buy right now? How is it made? Show behind-the-scenes of your process or share how your product solves a real problem.

Collaborate With Other Small Businesses

Team up with peers, vendors, or past clients to expand your reach. Examples could include joint giveaways, co-hosted Lives, or pop-up events (virtual or IRL). Collaboration content works double-time—it introduces you to a new audience and reinforces your credibility through shared trust. Plus, it’s just more fun than marketing solo all the time.

Black Friday Isn’t One Post—It’s a Content Funnel (Don’t Panic, We’ll Explain)

Black Friday promotions work best when they follow a natural flow, not after a one-and-done post.

But that doesn’t mean you need to start building a complex sales funnel with upsells, trip wires, and landing pages (unless that’s your jam). But you do need to think about how you can start showing up at every stage of the customer journey so people actually have time to notice, care, and click.

Think of it like this:

• First, you need to get on people’s radar.
• Next, you build interest. Answer their questions. Show them why this offer matters.
• Then, when they’re ready—you make it easy to buy.

This is true all the time but especially during high-sales seasons like Black Friday. We’ve broken it down for you with examples of content below so you can see exactly what kind of content to share at each step of your Black Friday visibility funnel.

Use the Marketing Tools You’re Paying for (So You’re Not Scrambling)

With Enji, you already have the tools to plan ahead, stay visible, and actually enjoy that second slice of pie. So as you start planning and bringing your Black Friday content to life, here’s a reminder that you have the best marketing tools in your toolkit already!

Use the AI Copywriter

We gave you a ton of content ideas above, so now it’s time to use the AI copywriter to bring them to life in your social media captions.

Drag-and-Drop Social Media Scheduler

Map out your Black Friday content across Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Threads—all in with the Social Media Scheduler. No more toggling between apps or forgetting what you already planned to post. Just batch it, drop it into the calendar, and move on with your life.

Campaign Performance Tracking

Every Enji marketing campaign includes built-in performance tracking so you can track how things are going. Track your sales, leads, sign ups, etc. so you have the data you need to understand what worked this time (and what to repeat next year).

Ready to Make Your Black Friday Campaign Actually Happen?

At the end of the day, you don’t need a viral reel or a complicated funnel to make Black Friday work for your small business. You just need a clear goal, a simple plan, and the right tools to bring it to life.

The good news? You already have everything you need inside your Enji account. So don’t wait any longer. Just log into Enji, pick your campaign and go. We’ve got you!

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Tayler Cusick Hollman

Enji Founder and Small Business Marketing Expert

Tayler is one of the Founders of Enji (marketing tools for small business owners who need to plan, do, and review it themselves). With over a decade of marketing experience, she has helped thousands of small business owners create simple marketing plans that help them get results. When she isn't thinking about how to solve the "I do my own marketing" problem, you'll find her skiing, mountain biking, or climbing rocks somewhere.

Try Enji's marketing tools for small business owners for free at enji.co

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