Prep for Black Friday Now: 5 Things To Do Before Labour Day.
5 Things I'm Doing Right Now to Prep My Site for Black Friday & Cyber Monday Before Labour Day
And 3 Mistakes I See Most Online Business Owners Make
Black Friday and Cyber Monday feel far away right now, especially as we are still in the throws of Summer and I really don’t want to start thinking about the 2026 Holiday Season, but I've learned this the hard way over three years of running my own BFCM sales in the past and the hard truth is: the businesses that win big in November are the ones doing quiet, unglamorous work in the weeks before Labour Day.
So here I am sharing exactly what I'm doing on my own site right now, so you too can properly position yourself this year along with sharing the mistakes I see costing other business owners their best possible BFCM season.
1. I'm updating my SEO now, because it needs time to work
This is the one task on my list that can't wait, because SEO isn't instant. I'm going through my site copy, product or service descriptions, and blog content (aka why this blog is currently posted 😉), and working in the kind of seasonal language people will actually be searching for as the holidays get closer. I'm also making sure my meta titles and descriptions are current, and doing a pass for any broken links or old pages that need cleaning up.
The reason this has to happen now rather than in November is simple: it takes Google weeks to crawl and index changes. If I wait until the sale is live to update anything, I've already missed my window to rank for it.
2. I'm growing and segmenting my email list
Out of everything I've tested across three years of BFCM, this is the one that matters most, and it's the one most people skip. Social media reach isn't guaranteed. Algorithms shift, feeds get flooded, and you're competing for attention against everyone else in that space. Your email list is the one channel that's actually yours.
Right now, I'm focused on growing and cleaning up that list and making sure it's properly segmented. What that looks like is segments of past clients, SEO clients, Shopify store owners, Wix and Squarespace users, wellness businesses, and ecommerce brands, so that when I do send my BFCM emails, they feel relevant to who's actually reading them instead of generic.
3. I'm drafting my sale content now, but not publishing any of it yet
Banners, landing pages, teaser emails, the actual offer itself, I'm building all of it now while I have the time to do it properly. None of it goes live yet. The point of doing this early is so that when it's time to launch, I'm flipping a switch instead of building under pressure with a deadline breathing down my neck.
I learned this one from experience. My first year running BFCM, I built everything last minute, and it showed. My best year was the one where everything was ready well in advance, and all I had to do was execute.
4. I'm deciding on my offer now, and I'm not discounting before then
This is a hard one for a lot of business owners, myself included in earlier years, but if you're constantly running small discounts throughout the year, your BFCM sale stops feeling special. People get used to waiting for a deal, and by the time your actual big sale rolls around, it doesn't feel like an event anymore, it just feels like Tuesday.
Right now, I'm deciding exactly what my offer looks like and protecting it. No smaller sales between now and then. When BFCM arrives, I want it to actually mean something.
5. I'm making sure the behind-the-scenes stuff won't fail me later
This is the least exciting part of the list, and also the part that will absolutely ruin your sale if you skip it. I'm testing my site speed and checkout flow now, confirming my tech and apps are updated, and backing everything up before I make any changes. I'd rather find a problem in August, when there's no pressure, than discover it in the middle of my highest traffic weeks of the year.
Mistakes You Don't Want To Make
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Mistakes You Don't Want To Make 〰️
The 3 biggest mistakes I see online business owners make
They treat BFCM like a one-off event instead of part of a bigger relationship. A lot of businesses focus so hard on the sale itself that they forget what happens after. Someone buys during BFCM, and then... nothing. No follow-up, no next step, no attempt to turn a one-time discount shopper into a repeat customer. The sale is the beginning of a relationship, not the whole thing.
They try to make the offer work for everyone. In an attempt to appeal to their entire audience, a lot of businesses water down their BFCM offer until it doesn't really excite anyone. A sharp, specific offer, built for a specific segment of your audience, will almost always outperform a vague, broad one that's trying to be everything to everybody.
They don't have a way to measure what actually worked. Without tracking where your sales came from, which email got opens, which platform drove traffic, you're left guessing next year instead of building on what actually worked. The businesses that improve year over year are the ones paying attention to their own data, not just running the sale and moving on.
Prep now, launch later
I'll be honest, none of this is complicated. It's not flashy or clever. It's just the unglamorous groundwork that makes the difference between a BFCM sale that feels like an afterthought and one that actually performs. If you're an online business owner and you haven't started thinking about this yet, consider this your sign that now, before Labour Day, is the time.
