Behind an Association’s Black Friday Sale

Your local big-box store is planning a Black Friday sale. Why isn’t your association?

Associations aren’t in the retail business, and a discount on a webinar recording doesn’t have quite the same sizzle as one for a big-screen TV. But association members and customers look for good deals too, and the International Society of Automation has enjoyed remarkable success with a dedicated Black Friday sale since ISA piloted it in 2019. The first year’s sale brought in less than $50,000, but in 2023 it earned nearly $900,000 and anticipates crossing the $1 million mark this year.

ISA does it by borrowing retail strategies from the corporate world and paying constant attention to data. In its first iteration, says ISA Growth Marketing Manager Christina Ayala Velasquez, the association ran the sale over the course of a weekend, promoted it through ISA channels, and kept discounts modest, around 15 or 20 percent. “We started off with a smaller selection of our most popular training courses and our certification courses,” she says. “We weren’t really expecting much. We just thought, what the heck, let’s see how it goes.”

Now, though, the discounts are more eye-catching—30 percent off events and courses, which appeals more to current ISA members who already receive 20 percent discounts. The sale now runs for a week for greater impact. And last year ISA began using Google Ads to better promote the sale, as well as target and track purchasing habits, which gave ISA meaningful insights about what works. 

Google Ads helped specifically with nonmember outreach, says ISA Director of Marketing Emily Canaday. “The majority of our purchases are actually coming from nonmembers, the larger customer base within the automation community,” she says. “We’ve been able to tap into a much larger audience across a larger geography as well, so we’re continuing to refine that targeting.”

That experience speaks to another insight ISA had: Though “Black Friday” is generally understood to be an American phenomenon, the term is well-known around the world. And everybody likes a sale, especially in parts of the world where ISA products and services are proportionately more expensive. 

“Black Friday is a great opportunity for people in countries such as India, Brazil, and Mexico,” says Canaday. “We’ve seen a huge increase in where the salaries tend to be a little bit lower, and revenues tend to be a little bit lower.”

The sale has converted many of those customers into members. “We usually have between 100 or 200 new members just for that sale, and tracking those purchases, we are seeing it’s usually not just a one-time purchase,” says Canaday. “So we are seeing a huge conversion of customers where they’ll make a purchase Black Friday, some of those are first time purchases, and then they’re continuing to make additional purchases. So it’s been a great entryway into what we offer.”

Velasquez and Canady both recommend that associations looking to launch a sale of their own be open to testing ideas, and be prepared to spend a lot of time looking at purchasing behavior.

“Look at data before you do any campaign, during the campaign and after the campaign, and constantly tweak and refine to make sure that you understand who your audience is, what they want, and what behaviors they have surrounding certain topics or products,” Canaday says. “Make data-driven decisions, and don’t be afraid to try things.”

[Maksym Belchenko/iStock]