5 ideas for Cyber Monday marketing campaigns you can “steal” from brands in 2022

How would you describe Cyber Monday?

Perhaps as Black Friday’s little brother. Dr. Watson to its Sherlock Holmes. Robin to its Batman. Donkey to its Shrek. 

Or perhaps as the biggest online shopping day in US history. (More of a big sis than a little bro)

The Monday after Thanksgiving. The first day back at work after the holiday weekend. The day millions of workers regain access to computers with a high-speed internet connection for the first time since…well, they last used their smartphones. 

Gen Zers to millennials: “What’s a dial-up modem?” 🧐

Tech, life, and internet connections have moved on considerably since the National Retail Federation coined the name Cyber Monday back in 2005. 

And with so much of our shopping being done online nowadays — particularly in the wake of the pandemic — it’s not always clear where Black Friday ends and Cyber Monday begins.

Yet Cyber Monday is still a holiday in its own right, even if, more and more, it’s stretching its legs out into a Cyber Deals Week. 

But with so many retailers bombarding their customers with sales posts and discount emails, how can you make your Cyber Monday marketing stand out?

In this post, we’ll look at 5 creative approaches successful brands have taken to Cyber Monday online promotions in recent years — ideas you can use as inspiration for your own social media posts and Cyber Monday strategy.

Ready? Let’s dive in…

1. Take a limited approach

Limited editions

What do consumers love more than a good deal? 

An exclusive deal.

Take Allbirds, which is one of the fastest-growing sneaker and clothing start-ups. It’s also an industry leader when it comes to sustainability. 

But until 2021, it would never offer discounts on Cyber Monday.

Instead, it used the power of releasing limited-edition products. For example, this limited-edition sneaker it released for Cyber Monday in 2019 sold out — fast!

Time-limited offers

But it’s not just limited editions that can work wonders as a Cyber Monday online promotion.

With its own specific online shopping holiday, Amazon knows a thing or two about successful 24-hour sales days. And something it does to great effect with its Lightning Deals is create urgency by releasing time-limited offers throughout Cyber Monday.

Check out this Facebook post in which Amazon advertised upcoming deals during Cyber Monday. Notice the timetable of specific launches.

Don’t forget that an image is worth a thousand words — design your limited-time-only offers to get the message through!

Key takeaway: When you use the power of urgency and specificity to ramp up the excitement on Cyber Monday, the sky’s the limit!

2. Reinforce your brand values

Offers, sales, discounts, and deals. That’s what Cyber Monday is all about, right?

Not necessarily. Some brands choose to buck the trend and double down on their core values. 

REI even goes so far as to boycott Cyber Monday (and Black Friday), giving its employees the day off and encouraging its audience to explore the great outdoors. It serves up inspirational content with its #OptOutside campaign. 

The gift of giving

Taking an anti-BFCM (Black Friday and Cyber Monday) stance is a bold move. But you could decide to put a spin on this and reframe how people view these holidays. 

One way would be to donate part of your sales to charity, as brands such as Patagonia, Old Navy, and Braintree have done. 

Key takeaway: Adopting an anti-Cyber Monday approach can help your brand stand out. While you won’t benefit from the day’s hike in sales, there’s a chance to heighten your brand loyalty and develop a bond with your audience that pays off throughout the year.

3. Educate your audience

While some brands choose to opt out of Cyber Monday, for others it’s more of a case that flash sales don’t really apply to their offering.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t mark the day in an effective way — particularly when it comes to educating your audience.

For example, HSBC UK partnered with British TV gameshow presenter and famous number-cruncher Rachel Riley to raise awareness about how sophisticated fraudsters are becoming:

4. Make your customers happy

When it comes to Cyber Monday promotions, these don’t have to be all about sales or the start of the holiday season.

You can take the opportunity to give your audience something special. Something that will make them really happy.

For instance, Barnes & Noble traditionally kicks off its Black Friday–Cyber Monday weekend with its customer-favorite Signed Editions program.

One super-powerful way to make your customers happy is by giving them a free gift when they make a purchase. 

Chubbies are masters at this. And they’ve taken Cyber Monday marketing to new levels with “Thighber Monday” — their epic take on the day. Every hour for 12 hours, they offer a new gift with each purchase.

In this video for Klaviyo, Chubbies’ Thigbher Monday team discuss the strategy behind their day and how it has evolved:

Key takeaway: Not every business will be able to turn Cyber Monday into its own brand-related holiday like Chubbies does. But free gifts can really give your Cyber Monday sales a boost. 

For maximum effect, make sure you’re offering something really cool. Something your customers would actually pay money to have.

5. Make your customers laugh

What’s one of the best ways to grab attention?

Humor. Especially when all over the internet everyone else is shouting “Sale, sale, sale!”

With this playful tweet, Forever21 poked fun at the trials and tribulations facing every Cyber Monday shopper:

Amazon also likes to lighten things up during Cyber Monday by inserting some comical images into its tweets and posts.

Here’s its take on Cyber Monday fashion:  

Prom dress dilemma? Solved. 👗

Here are a couple of free humorous design templates you can use for Cyber Monday marketing:

Use this template

Use this template

Ideas for funny Cyber Monday Instagram captions

• “Dear Mondays, I hate you. Not you Cyber Monday. You can stay.”
• “Cyber Monday — the day you can get a great deal today on something you didn’t want yesterday.”
• “Shopping is an art. I am an artist. Respect, please.”

If any of these Instagram captions tickled your funny bone, there are plenty more where they came from. Check out this post from Starter Story.

Final thoughts

With so many discounts, promotions, and sales messages flying around cyberspace, it can be hard to make your Cyber Monday marketing stand out from the crowd. 

But in this post, we’ve seen how successful brands manage to make an impact.

Whatever approach you take — whether that’s a pro- or anti-BFCM stance — remember to couple your messaging with some eye-catching images.  

Need a hand with that? VistaCreate has thousands of attention-grabbing designs you can choose from.