It’s no secret that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the biggest days of the year for paid advertising. But for many direct-to-consumer brands—some of which are startups that have only recently started testing paid ads—competing with larger, more established companies’ ad budgets on big shopping holidays can feel intimidating.

DTC brand marketers and experts, however, still believe there are some advantages to being small on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, such as the ability to innovate and react quickly without going through many layers of approval. 

Below, some advice on how to stand out during the shopping holidays.

Also read: How retailers are leaning into deals in their holiday ads

1. Offer a limited-edition product

“Always use your nimbleness and ability to innovate quickly as a way to compete with larger incumbents,” said Becca Millstein, CEO and co-founder of DTC tinned fish brand Fishwife, in an email. 

A few ways to do this include dropping limited-edition products, adding an option for gift notes online and generally just adding “little surprise and delight products into your holiday gifts,” she said. Fishwife plans to do all of the above this holiday season, according to Millstein.

“Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become synonymous with limited-time discounting (although we are starting to see sales start earlier and earlier),” said Michael Duda, managing partner at consumer VC firm and marketing agency Bullish, in an email. “Brands that offer a limited-edition product with only a small amount available can be incredibly effective, especially to loyalists,” he continued, adding that while driving sales volume is of course important, the power of scarcity and exclusivity are often underutilized. 

Fishwife, for instance, recently rolled out a holiday set of canned candles, creating urgency with a message on its Instagram saying that customers should “run” to scoop one up.

Discounts alone might not feel as exclusive on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to Jessica Hou, senior e-commerce manager at beauty brand Tower 28. “Everything everywhere is on sale so you can’t compete on discounts alone. Launching newness in the lead-up to BFCM [Black Friday, Cyber Monday] can help with awareness [and] build excitement through the noise,” she said. 

2. Show a look behind the curtain

Giving customers a behind-the-scenes look at all your team is doing to handle the chaos of Black Friday and Cyber Monday can make for great content—it’d be authentic, after all. 

“Use your position as a small, insurgent brand to your advantage,” Millstein suggested, adding that tend to rely on “overused and traditional marketing taglines and creative.” DTC brands have the opportunity to use their “intimate and personal connection to and knowledge of” their customers to stand out, she said. 

Watch all of the 2023 holiday ads here

One way brands can do this is with a note from the founder, which Millstein says resonates with consumers.

“Emails and social content from real team members can help humanize the brand and help you stand out amongst the commercial messaging,” Hou added.

Deux, whose products include vegan and gluten-free cookie dough and donuts, recently posted to Instagram that it wanted to drop a cookie dough with red and green sprinkles for the holidays, but the machine it uses “accidentally created a LARGE BATCH” of cookie dough with white sprinkles instead. The post says that those who get the jar with the accidental white sprinkles can contact the company to receive a “fun surprise.” 

Grace Clarke, marketing and growth consultant at Grace Clarke Consulting, pointed out that the brand has a history of claiming to make such manufacturing mistakes, and that the strategy gives the brand an excuse to “be noisy a few days before a promo period,” and offer a “behind-the-scenes glimpse at brand-building that more and more consumers want."

Asked if the latest move was a stunt, Deux CEO Sabeena Ladha said the manufacturing mistake was “very real.”

3. Make the customer experience unique 

Clarke suggested that brands “pull a Stanley,” referencing the drinkware brand’s recent response to a TikTok that showed a customer who realized the ice in her Stanley cup inside was still cold and intact, even after her car caught on fire. The brand said it would gift the customer a new car.

Read more about Stanley’s TikTok response here

“You don’t need to buy a whole new car for a customer or even do something for a customer of yours, but pay attention to your social chatter and find something unexpected, fun, weird, helpful, and human. Market it. It’s part of the game,” Clarke said. 

Kendall Dickieson, founder of Flexible Creative consultancy, also noted the importance of diligence around customer experience during this time of year, including using email and social media. “Your product may be good, but if [your customer’s] experience isn’t, you’ll have to try and win them back,” she said. 

4. Think ahead

Using this Black Friday and Cyber Monday to prepare for the 2024 holiday season might not be a bad idea, according to Clarke.

“I know you want now revenue, but if you’re building an iconic brand, this BFCM will not be your last,” Clarke said. “The foundation you lay this year sets the stage for your growth next year—we simply cannot predict how algorithms, data availability, privacy, consumer sentiment, and the economic backdrop will evolve. All we can do now is build ourselves the most solid foundation and that means establishing a fluency with our data and a segmented understanding of who our cohorts are,” she added.

That could include making note of every customer who purchased a product on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, or creating segments now that you’ll “want to understand, rely on, and communicate with next year.” That way, in the middle-to-end of next year, it will be easier to warm up those relationships with the Black Friday/Cyber Monday cohort through dedicated email newsletters, SMS, or direct mail, she said.