Is Black Friday the Next Frontier for B2B? My learnings from IT Services

When you hear "Black Friday," images of frantic shoppers and consumer products likely come to mind. In B2C it works as we (consumers) are driven to take action based on FOMO (fear of missing out), even if the ‘exclusive’ Black Friday deals are not actually any better value than during sales the rest of the year. But in recent years, this retail-driven event has quietly made its way into the B2B world. While the strategies differ significantly from their B2C counterparts, B2B companies, particularly those in IT services, have a great opportunity to leverage Black Friday to drive growth, engagement, and loyalty.

While looking for offers to host a website last week I have observed how Black Friday practice has become a common practice across most B2B Services providers especially for commoditized services like Web hosting, domains etc. So here are a few thoughts from my observations as a marketer.

Why Black Friday Works for B2B

B2B decision-makers are no strangers to Black Friday—they're consumers in their personal lives. Studies show that 73% of B2B buyers aere millennials, a demographic that expects seamless, engaging, and personalized experiences similar to those in B2C. Black Friday provides a unique moment to meet these expectations, but instead of just discounts, businesses can focus on value.

The benefits of a sound "black friday strategy" are mainly 3

• Pipeline Growth: Black Friday offers designed to collect leads (e.g., free audits or whitepapers) help IT companies build a strong pipeline for the upcoming months or quarters, depending on the length of their lead - to -sale cycle.
• Customer Engagement: Targeted offers can in fact create new touchpoints that re-engage inactive or dormant customers.
• Upselling Opportunities: Existing clients can be rewarded and incentivized to try premium services with limited-time offers, enhancing lifetime value.

On the other side, as individuals (yes, the actual decision makers!) are bombarded by messages around black Friday in their "B2C consumer" role, there is. a lot of competition in the promotion and advertising cost might go sky high for an effective B2B campaign.

So what kind of campaigns can resonate with their sales cycle? B2B services like managed IT support, cloud hosting, or cybersecurity thrive on value-driven offers.

For instance, a managed IT provider could offer 3 months of free monitoring services for contracts signed during Black Friday week. Such offers don't undercut the value of the service but can captivate prospects with tangible benefits and offer an unsolicited service that might be renewed at the end of the period.

As IT services often involve significant trust - which takes time to build - offering free trials, security audits, or system optimization assessments can be an effective way to use Black Friday as a relationship-building opportunity. According to Hokodo, B2B buyers respond best to campaigns that enhance long-term value. Instead of discounts, prioritize offers like free trials, bundled services, or extended contracts that build trust and demonstrate expertise.

4 strategic approaches to Black Friday

Although the possible combinations to differentiate are infinite, where could you as a B2B marketer start with when developing your Black Friday strategy?  Depending on the services and strengths of your organization I personally combinations of these 4 paths:

Create Packages: Combine your main product with extra benefits like training or support. When customers get more value, they are more likely to buy. For example offering webinars or whitepapers during Black Friday on topics like "Maximizing IT infrastructure ROI" can position your brand as a thought leader.

Different Offers for Different Customers: Make special offers based on who your customers are. For example new customers might want longer test periods, while current customers might prefer early access to new features.

Support Good Causes: Connect your sales to charity or environmental projects. This shows your company cares about more than just making money. IBM’s Tech for Good Black Friday sale, Accenture’s pro bono Tech development Drive and Cisco’s Integration of Black Friday in the Donation program are 3 examples of how Black Friday doesn't have to be purely transactional, but can be a platform for meaningful impact.

Make it Interesting: Create offers that engage your customers. For example, give bigger benefits to customers who buy more. This helps build better business relationships. Especially for small companies or new freelancer customers, this can bring to opt for larger scale purchases enabling cross sell or upsell.

How AI enabled more B2B companies to jump in the Black Friday bandwagon?

Remember those pre-AI Black Friday campaigns? Marketing teams spent weeks analyzing customer data, buried in endless spreadsheets, trying to predict which deals would work. Teams could only use basic data and their experience to design B2B promotions.

A recent article from EY highlights the increasing use of AI to personalize campaigns and streamline decision-making during Black Friday. AI can analyze customer data to create targeted offers, optimize pricing strategies, and even predict demand. For example, a managed IT service provider could use AI to identify businesses likely to benefit from cybersecurity upgrades, offering them tailored discounts during the campaign

For Service providers providing IAAS / SaaS to organizations running their own Black Friday campaigns  learning from machine learning algorithms, predict customer behavior and peak demand times, helps them adjusting  their server capacity and support staff levels during Black Friday promotions.

Moreover AI-powered chatbots and automated support systems handle the surge in Black Friday inquiries, qualifying leads and answering basic questions about promotional packages, letting sales teams focus on closing complex enterprise deals. Just a dream? Not quite, but there is a lot of preparation to make this possible.

Think Twice Before Jumping Into Black Friday

Now that the opportunity is clear should your marketing teams all embark in this exercise? Before you rush into creating Black Friday deals, take a step back. Here are four things you need to think about:

1. Does Black Friday fit with your bigger business plans? Sure, extra sales are great, but check if they match what your business really needs right now. If you're trying to focus on something else, like keeping long-term customers happy, Black Friday might pull you off track.
2. Can your business handle giving discounts? As costs and margins are very important factors to  consider for many companies lately, do the math first - if giving discounts will hurt your long term positioning and sustainability, it's probably not worth it.
3. What else could you offer besides discounts? The good news about B2B is that you have options. If you can't lower prices, think about offering something else valuable, like extra support time, special training, or early access to new features.
4. Can you handle a peak of traffic and operationally are you able to process new orders? Think about the effects in your organization: Do you have enough resources? Enough people to help customers? Will your website stay up if lots of people visit at once? Being ready is vital. A failure in delivery is a boomerang and you will pay it 3 times as you also are likely to deliver poorly, provide those services at discounted price, and negatively impact on your image and customer satisfaction (Madness!).

Remember, just because other companies are doing Black Friday doesn't mean you have to. It's better to skip it than to do it poorly.

Summarizing:

Black Friday presents a unique opportunity for B2B companies, especially in IT services, to engage customers, drive pipeline growth, and enhance long-term relationships.

Focus on value rather than discounts, leverage AI for personalization, and align your campaigns with your business goals, so that the effect goes beyond the short term uplift in sales. Assess whether the strategy fits within your operational capacity before diving in as Black Friday is a chance to learn a lot, build trust and create lasting connections with your customers.

If you are a B2B Marketer how do you approach the BlackFriday opportunity? Tell me more in the comments.