287: How Sephora, Target, Starbucks, Amazon and Apple Plan Their Holiday Season

Send us Fan Mail Most creators plan Black Friday as one week. They pick the offer, pick the discount and count the emails between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, and then October is quiet, December is empty and January starts from zero. In this episode I walk through how Sephora, Target, Starbucks, Amazon and Apple ran their holiday season last year and what a digital product business can borrow from each one. None of them focus on just Black Friday week. They plan the whole season and Black Friday is one moment inside it. In this episode: - How Sephora ran its biggest sale of the season for members only and finished it before Black Friday even started - Why Target opened its October sale two days ahead of Amazon and Walmart and used it to sign people up for its paid membership - How Starbucks turned one season into five reasons to pay attention without running a single discount - What Amazon's made-up shopping holiday tells you about creating your own event in a slow month - How Apple sells at full price with a gift card, and the HobbyScool Black Friday promo that got more clicks than our 50% and 40% off deals - What a full holiday season looks like for a digital product business, from an October warmup through a January wait list Key takeaways: - Start in October with something that warms up your list and brings new people in, like a free challenge, a workshop or a lead magnet push - Let your members and past buyers in first, and give your highest tier the biggest bonus - Give people more than one reason to open your emails, like a new bonus revealed each day, and keep selling after Cyber Monday with gift memberships, an annual plan push or a next step for your Black Friday buyers Chapters: 00:00 Why a one-week Black Friday plan leaves money on the table 01:50 Sephora: early access for members, finished before Black Friday 04:25 Target: Circle Week, Deal of the Day and a free paid membership 06:20 Starbucks: five moments in one season with no discount 09:05 Amazon: inventing your own shopping holiday 11:50 Apple: full price plus a gift card, and our HobbyScool results 13:50 The pattern all five retailers follow 15:55 What a holiday season looks like for a digital product business 17:35 The Black Friday Profit Party 19:55 What to take away from today Resources mentioned: - Black Friday Profit Party: https://lab.destinicopp.com/black-friday-profit Plan your whole holiday season with me inside the Black Friday Profit Party. It's a self-paced program with a 10-station Claude skill vault that plans your season from November 1 into the new year, with a menu of 62 campaign types, and it writes your emails, social posts and sales pages with you. It's $97 through October 31 and then goes back to $297. If you're in Newsletter Profit Club or the Creator's MBA Mastermind, it's already included.