The Green Sheet Online Edition
October 27, 2025 • 25:10:02
A BFCM marketing playbook for your business
Black Friday, Cyber Monday (BFCM) is not just a singular sales event. For small business merchants (SMBs), both in-store and online, it is the biggest revenue season of the year. But with inflation, waning consumer confidence and tariffs, navigating the holidays has become even more challenging for merchants.
Statistics show that three in 10 U.S. consumers already started their holiday shopping before October. But with 25 percent of ecommerce sales happening in November and December, merchants still have plenty of opportunities to make the most of their sales using the cost-effective, robust and mobile-first solutions and services ISOs, merchant level salespeople (MLSs) and other merchant services professionals provide.
As an ISO or payments professional in 2025, your strategic advantage lies in velocity, flexibility and partnership. As a trusted partner, your goal should be to provide SMBs with turnkey strategies, tools and support that maximize conversions without overwhelming them.
And since time is of the essence (and really nobody has time to read), here is a high-level breakdown of the BFCM marketing strategies specifically designed for you to help your SMB merchants succeed in 2025.
Prep SMBs with 'BFCM-in-a-Box' campaign kits
Studies show that 77 percent of shoppers use three to four channels to purchase non-essential items. As an ISO/reseller, create ready-to-use, Omnichannel content marketing campaigns for merchants to help them meet consumer demands through:
- Email and SMS templates, rich with urgency-driven copy and messaging;
- Social media graphics and captions sized for all platforms that promote visual storytelling and live selling;
- In-store signage files for brick & mortars to incorporate QR codes, mobile checkouts, and contactless promotions;
- Landing page templates that are optimized for flash sales.
Benefits: Your merchant saves time and money, maintains consistent branding, and has professional resources at their fingertips. In return, you position your organization as a full-service partner, not just a payments provider.
Tiered promotions to boost average order value
Encourage SMBs to use progressive discounts and bundling like "Spend $50 and receive 10 percent off" by integrating automated discount capabilities into their POS system and/or loyalty programs. Benefits: Offering bundled and tiered promotions allows SMBs to increase their basket size, as well as clear out excess inventory, and it demonstrates your organization’s ability to offer payment tech flexibility.
Incentivize gift card and prepaid sales
As an experienced adviser, encourage SMBs to sell bonus gift cards (for example, "Buy $100, get $20 extra"); promote digital gift cards for last-minute shoppers; and cross-promote gift card redemption in January during the post-holiday slump.
Benefits: Merchants see an increase in cash flow now and the guarantee of return customers in the future; your office sees an increase in transactions.
Reinforce loyalty and VIP-only perks
Using the CRM and POS data management tools you offer, you can help your SMBs segment their customer base more effectively by offering incentives like:
- Early-access shopping windows;
- Exclusive bundles or “hidden” online offers;
- Double loyalty points during BFCM.
Benefits: Loyalty programs help turn seasonal sales into repeat business. By offering CRM solutions and guidance on loyalty outreach, you help strengthen a merchant's customer retention, which equates to a more consistent volume for you.
Build a sense of urgency with personalized, real-time tools
BFCM shoppers are spending this season, but only with merchants who “know” them. With over 58 percent of consumers saying they will stay loyal to businesses offering low prices or value, it is urgent that SMBs have the plug and play solutions needed to support their sales. Encourage SMBs to:
- Use purchase history to recommend add-ons at checkout;
- Segment customers (new vs. repeat) for different promotions;
- Use AI chatbots for FAQs, order tracking, and upsells;
- Integrate countdown timers on their websites;
- Embed “Low Inventory” alerts into their online ordering system;
- Implement push notifications / SMS alerts for flash sales.
Benefits: As a trusted partner, highlight your ability to integrate tech upgrades and trends quickly, which will help your merchants offer the personalized experience needed to instill loyalty in their customers. And by providing real-time analytics and coaching, you become their growth consultant, not just their processor.
Offer strategies for extended BFCM and post-holidays
As a trusted partner, offering strategies past the fall holidays can help position you and your merchants as a stand-out of the season, helping to turn holiday traffic into lasting growth. You can:
- Encourage SMBs to start deals prior to the Black Friday weekend to get ahead of the competition, both large and small;
- Offer a “Shop Small Cyber Monday” campaign, leaning into Small Business Saturday and Giving Tuesday messaging;
- Set up bounce-back coupons like “Buy during BFCM, get 15 percent off in January."
Benefits: Having a long-term strategy allows your merchants to maintain a consistent level of traffic online and in-store and avoid competing solely on price. Your organization benefits by keeping transactions flowing long past the holiday season.
For 2025, the winning play for ISOs, MLSs and other merchant services professionals is not just offering SMBs payment tools; it is offering done-for-you marketing playbooks, automation and data insights that let them compete with big box retailers. You will stand out by making BFCM simple, profitable and sustainable for your merchants now, and into the New Year. 
As a seasoned marketing professional, Jaki Kackert has contributed to the success of organizations within the payments space and financial services sector and has helped brands, both big and small, create awareness and drive results through effective marketing strategies. Contact her at jbkackert@gmail.com.
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