Jeremy Miller's Blog, page 14

What Is the Right Marketing?

Peter Drucker famously wrote, “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” But what are the “right things?”

Many companies are doing “marketing” right. They’ve got killer content. They’re active on social media. They blog. They podcast. They sponsor events. They execute their marketing tactics well.

It’s not hard to see. Companies of all sizes are posting quality content for their customers. They have talented marketers that are working hard to create and share relevant content in a constantly changing digital marketing landscape.

For example, you can see this with the exponential growth of video on social platforms in 2019.

According to Preview, 86.6% of Instagrammers post on Instagram Stories. Brands are following suit. According to Socialinsider, 51.1% of brands posted Instagram stories in 2019. And a good chunk of that content was videos.

Companies are adopting and mastering digital marketing: video, social, email, automation, analytics. You name it, companies are doing it.

But is it the right marketing? That is the ultimate question.

When all marketers are doing the same things, the results are predictable:

Progressively declining engagement rates
Lower ROI on marketing and ad spend
Less sales!

According to Moz, 50% of articles being published have no likes, shares, comments, and probably no views. Organic reach on Facebook is near zero, and Instagram and LinkedIn reach are rapidly deteriorating.

When all of our media channels are oversaturated, is pumping out one more article or posting one more video going to make a difference? The stats would say no.

Doing the same things over and over again (no matter how well you’re doing them) is not going to improve sales performance!

Does that mean your marketing team is failing? Unequivocally, no!

I am willing to bet that your marketing team is doing a good job! They are creating relevant content; keeping your channels full; sharing videos; and doing what they are expected to do.

But when we’re dealing with this level of saturation, doing digital marketing right does not necessarily mean you are doing the right marketing.

So that begs the question, “What should my marketing team work on?”

Ironically, the answer is old school: Focus on building and nurturing long term customer relationships. Keep doing digital marketing, but emphasize relationship building.

Using your marketing to create relationships is core to Sticky Branding. Sticky Brands create a “First Choice Advantage.” They build relationships so their customers know the brand, like it, and trust it — and ultimately, choose it first when they’re ready to buy.

In an oversaturated market there are three principles of Sticky Branding (the book) that rise to the top:

Simple Clarity: Get your brand messaging razor sharp so everyone gets it, fast. Strong core messaging is the foundation of your brand, and how you will cut through the clutter in a noisy market.
Be Everywhere: Instead of “publish and pray,” choose a few key markets to focus your marketing on so that you create the impression your brand is everywhere. That way you can focus your marketing dollars and generate clear, tangible ROI from your efforts.
First Call Advantage: Focus on the relationships. Get your prospects, customers, and centers of influence to know your brand, like it, and trust it so they choose it first. That doesn’t mean post more, it means being strategic. Use your marketing to spark engagement and create conversations. Create exclusive content for your biggest fans, and get them to add your brand to “Close Friends” on their Instagram accounts.

The most effective way to ensure that you are doing the right marketing is to focus on your brand. Create a brand strategy that clearly articulates where you play, how you win, and how you want to be known. And then you can choose the tactics and tools that will help you do the right marketing.

Learn How!

Want to go deeper on this topic and learn the tactics on how to stand in an oversaturated market? Join me on January 15th at 12pm EST for a free webinar. I will be examining the rapidly changing digital marketing landscape and what it takes to grow a Sticky Brand. Sign-up today!

You're reading What Is the Right Marketing? by Jeremy Miller, originally posted on Sticky Branding. Did you enjoy this article? If so, sign-up for more of Jeremy's articles at Sticky Branding.

New Year, New Brand

It’s rather surreal. We’re not only closing out the year, we’re closing out the decade. Tomorrow, January 1st, is a brand new opportunity!

Whether you’re a one-person-herd or part of a global corporation, growing a Sticky Brand is a choice:

It’s a choice to stand out and be remarkable.
It’s a choice to build meaningful customer relationships.
It’s a choice to innovate and cut your own path in your industry.
It’s a choice to attract customers and drive sales.

That’s the opportunity that lies before you in 2020: Grow a Sticky Brand.

It’s no accident that some companies grow better brands than others. This was evident in the research I conducted for my first book, Sticky Branding.

I profiled 150 companies from around the globe to understand how small- and mid-sized, privately-held businesses grow remarkable brands. I didn’t care how companies like Apple or Nike grew their brands. I wanted to understand how companies like yours and mine create products, services, and brands that customers truly appreciate and admire.

My definition of a “Sticky Brand” is a company that creates a “First Choice Advantage.”

Strong branding forms a bond with your customers — a bond where they choose you first. When you have a Sticky Brand your customers think of your brand first, refer it first, and come back again and again. That relationship is what makes your brand sticky.

Any company of any size can grow a Sticky Brand.

But the companies that grow the best brands — the stickiest brands — do something differently. They choose to grow a “brand.” This was a critical insight from the research.

Having lots of money and resources, or brilliantly talented marketers, wasn’t the defining factor for why some organizations stand out above their competitors. It was far simpler than that. In each case, the organizations with truly remarkable brands had made a choice to grow a brand.

That choice led them to a different mode of thinking.

Branding isn’t simply marketing. You cannot distill it to logos, taglines, colors, or campaigns. Branding is about the bond you form with your customers, and that is strategic!

Your brand is grown from the inside out, and what creates potential (that translate into remarkable customer experiences) is how everyone in your organization works together.

Every department and customer touchpoint plays a role in forming exceptional customer experiences: From the look and feel of your website and packaging; to the functionality and design of your products; to the caliber of your salespeople and customer service reps.

Branding isn’t simply the job of marketers. It’s the job of everyone.

That understanding leads CEOs and business leaders to treat their brands and branding as a critical component of the business strategy. And that again, is a choice.

As you start the next decade, make the choice: Grow a Sticky Brand.

You have the power to innovate and serve your customers brilliantly. So take this as a challenge. You have a New Year, a New Decade, and an opportunity to grow a New Brand!

Let’s kick off the year right. Join me on January 15th at 12pm EST for a free webinar. I will be examining the rapidly changing digital marketing landscape and what it takes to grow a Sticky Brand. Sign-up today!

You're reading New Year, New Brand by Jeremy Miller, originally posted on Sticky Branding. Did you enjoy this article? If so, sign-up for more of Jeremy's articles at Sticky Branding.

How to Measure Brand Awareness

Measuring brand awareness often times divides marketing teams. It is viewed by some as a pointless exercise — an accumulation of vanity metrics that bears no relation to marketing ROI.

At Sticky Branding, we believe that one of the strongest drivers in getting customers to buy is brand recall. Simply getting customers to know your brand, like it, and trust it will increase their likelihood to buy!

Increasing awareness is important. However, brand awareness has always been one of the hardest things to measure. Here is how we approach this thorny topic.

1. Monitor Website Traffic

Measuring your website traffic over time can reveal patterns and insights into your brand awareness.

By closely following Google Analytics, you can track the number of people who typed your URL into their address bar, used a browser bookmark, or clicked a link in an untracked email or offline document. These are people who are actually looking for your brand by its name. They know you, and they are looking for you.

These patterns will help focus on what your traffic is looking for and adjust as needed.

2. Look at Your Site’s Search Volume Data

It’s important to check the volume of searches for your brand name, and to track it over time to see if search volumes are increasing. If they are not increasing it may be time to come up with a new SEO or PPC strategy.

3. Use Social Media Listening

One of the most effective tactics is to look at where people are already talking about your services or products: social media, blogs, websites, and podcasts. A free tool that we use for blog and keyword monitor is TalkWalker Alerts.

Social listening takes you a step further. HootSuite or Sprout Social or other tools allow you to listen to online, organic conversations about your brand across social media and the web. Listening to these unsolicited opinions allows you to hear consumer’s thoughts in a neutral environment.

So, Which Metrics Should You Measure?

Mentions: Monitor the number of times your brand has been mentioned online, and you can discover the number of conversations involving your brand. Track the changes over time.

You can also track conversations that do not include @mentions or happen outside the official, owned channels of your brand.

Reach: Your reach is the potential number of people that your mentions will be seen by. It takes into account the number of followers of each account who mentions you.

This is one of the reasons influencers should be given extra attention during marketing campaigns; their large audience means anything shared by them has the potential to be seen by a lot of eyes.

Engagement: For some, engagement is beyond awareness. It can be important to track because it will provide an indicator of the effectiveness of awareness.

You will want to know if people are actively digesting your content rather than watching it slip by on their news feed.

What Should You Be Measuring Against?

Benchmarks: In order to track changes in brand awareness you need to benchmark against your baseline metrics. Generally three to six months is a good amount of time to spot any natural highs and lows, as well as any discrepancies.

Shares: Benchmarking your metrics will tell you if the awareness of your brand has increased, but you will not be getting the full picture. You need to establish the proportion of conversations concerning your industry that are centered around your brand.

Increasing the number of customers that can recall your brand is integral to success.

In the past, the challenge was gaining an accurate insight into the level of your awareness, but social media listening and website analytics have simplified the process, while supplying richer data.

Need help understanding how to both monitor and grow the buzz around your brand? We’re here to help!

You're reading How to Measure Brand Awareness by Sarah Young, originally posted on Sticky Branding. Did you enjoy this article? If so, sign-up for more of Jeremy's articles at Sticky Branding.

The Making of Santa Claus’s Brand

It’s the week before Christmas, and the cubicles are bare.

Not a meeting is planned.

Marketing Plan vs. Marketing Strategy: What’s the Difference?

In order to do meaningful work, you need to know where you are going and how you will get there. In other words, you need a marketing strategy AND a marketing plan.

You’re posting on social media, blogging and content marketing, and running a ton of other campaigns, but you may not be seeing the results. Why not?

The problem isn’t what you’re doing, it’s how you’re doing it. If your marketing efforts are not backed up by a marketing strategy then that’s probably why you’re not seeing the expected results.

A marketing strategy is your approach to achieving your “unicorn status.” The marketing plan, on the other hand, contains the activities that will get you there. The strategy is the why behind the work, and the plan is the when and the what that describes the work.

What Is the Difference Between a Marketing Plan and Marketing Strategy?

Sometimes the terms are used interchangeably, but they actually mean two different things. I’ve found that the simplest way to explain the difference:

Marketing Strategy: Shaped by your business strategy, your marketing strategy should explain the problem and how you will overcome it. It’s the offering you deliver, how you will deliver it, and why your marketing efforts will help you achieve your company’s mission and strategic goals. Once you have your strategy, only then will you be able to develop an effective marketing plan.

Marketing Plan: Driven by your marketing strategy, your marketing plan is the execution. It’s the roadmap of marketing efforts that help you achieve your marketing goals. Your plan should include detailed campaigns of what you will do, where you will do it, what they will cost, how and when you will implement them, and how you will track success.

If you have your marketing strategy, are your plans working to meet those goals? If not, this may be the reason why you’re not seeing your desired results.

The difference between marketing strategy and marketing plan comes down to purpose and application.

Marketing strategy is driven by your business strategy: What do you want? Where you will play? How you will win? A marketing plan includes goal-driven activities and tactics to help you achieve the strategy.

But let’s break it down a bit further.

How to Use Your Marketing Strategy and Marketing Plan

In our experience, marketing plans means something different to everyone. Same with marketing strategy.

Which one do you need? The answer is both. You need a marketing strategy, and then a marketing plan.

A Marketing Strategy is the why and the what:

The “why” behind your company.
The “what” that defines what you deliver, how you deliver it, and the messaging and brand positioning that you will use to define your products or services.

A Marketing Plan is the how and the do:

How you are going to achieve your marketing objectives defined in the strategy.
The mapping of how you will execute your marketing campaigns, events, and other marketing tactics.

The issue is most people want to jump into the “how” or the plan, without first defining the “why” and the “what.” They can end up wasting valuable time and resources outlining a beautiful plan that is neither realistic nor effective.

Marketing strategy is the the approach. Marketing planning is the doing.

What Goes Into a Marketing Strategy

Keep in mind that when you strategize the direction of your marketing, there are a number of factors to consider. If you fail to look at the whole picture, you may end up unintentionally copying a competitor’s strategy, or worse, missing the mark with your marketing campaigns.

Work on outlining:

Goals
Analysis of the Marketing P’s: product, place, promotion, price, people, and process.
Competitor analysis
Brand personality and brand voice
Your market position
Core differentiators

Strategy Is Stable; Plans Change

Marketing trends change weekly; it’s important to keep up. But your marketing strategy should remain consistent. An effective strategy will guide behaviors for the foreseeable future.

If you’re still scratching your head, not sure of the difference between the two, that’s ok. That’s what we do! Give us a call!

You're reading Marketing Plan vs. Marketing Strategy: What’s the Difference? by Sarah Young, originally posted on Sticky Branding. Did you enjoy this article? If so, sign-up for more of Jeremy's articles at Sticky Branding.

Free Webinar on How to Stand Out in an Oversaturated World

We are at a crazy turning point. Digital marketing is running out of steam, and we have to rethink how we market our brands.

The data is shocking! 50% of articles being published have no likes, shares, comments, and probably no views. It’s incredibly frustrating. At Sticky Branding, we compared marketing campaigns over the last five years. Today, it is taking 10x the budget to generate 30% of the results.

Let’s dive into the data and talk about solutions: how do you make your marketing stand out in an oversaturated world?

Join Jeremy Miller — president of Sticky Branding and bestselling author — for a live webinar. (It’s free!) You won’t want to miss this conversation. Jeremy will take you through the data, and share practical insights on how to stand out in an oversaturated market. Register today.

What you’ll learn:

The epic shift of digital marketing, and what that means to promoting your brand in 2020.
How to get your brand messaging razor sharp so everyone gets it, fast.
How to create the impression your brand is everywhere, even when you’re feeling lost online.

The Details:

Date & Time: Wednesday, January 15 at 12pm EST (9am PST, 5pm GMT)

Topic: New Year, New Brand: How to Stand Out in an Oversaturated World

Host: Jeremy Miller

Register Today!

You're reading Free Webinar on How to Stand Out in an Oversaturated World by Jeremy Miller, originally posted on Sticky Branding. Did you enjoy this article? If so, sign-up for more of Jeremy's articles at Sticky Branding.

Is Your Marketing Strategy Just Fluff?

Seventeen priorities. Twelve things due yesterday. An endless task list. Does that sound familiar?

Let’s face it. Companies are doing a lot of marketing, but is it working? John Wanamaker famously said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is I don’t know which half.”

Does that sound like your firm? You can be doing a lot of “marketing,” but is it working?

The problem is that many marketing strategies are the equivalent of lofty goals and dreams held together with vanity metrics that don’t mean much. You know — big ideas, lots of money, but they don’t actually have any substance.

Richard Rumelt, author of Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, calls this type of marketing “fluff.”

“Fluff,” writes Rumelt, “is superficial restatement of the obvious combined with a generous sprinkling of buzzwords. Fluff masquerades as expertise, thought, and analysis.”

Unfortunately too many marketing strategies are just pure fluff:

Get more Likes
Get more social media followers
Post more content

The theory goes, “If we get enough people to Like us we’ll get sales.” Ha! It never works out that way!

So, how do you know if your marketing strategy is fluff? Look for these four things.

A Marketing Strategy Requires Real Insights and Data

Your marketing strategy should be grounded in data, not best guesses.

For instance, A/B testing is a useful way to figure out what’s working. Marketing is no longer a guessing game. You don’t have to gamble like John Wanamaker. Effective marketing strategies are data-driven and validated.

A Marketing Strategy Provides Clarity

The #1 warning sign of a bad marketing strategy is puffy, marketing jargon. Look out for words like customer-centric, customer-experience, and innovative solutions.

These terms may sound good, but what do you really mean? Replace the jargon with real, disciplined words that state exactly what you want, how you will get there, and how you will measure performance.

A Marketing Strategy Is Accountable to Results

The members of your sales department shouldn’t be the only ones interested in ROI. Thanks to Google Analytics, social media analytics, and sales data (most likely from your CRM system) — your entire team has the data to make smart decisions. Use the numbers to gain a better understanding of what is and is not working.

By consistently watching and analyzing how your tactics move the numbers you can continually improve performance. This helps your marketing department answer:

Why did this email outperform that email?
Why is website traffic up or down?
Which keywords are performing well?
What times of day do our social posts do best?
What types of campaigns generate the best leads?

This information can then be used to grow inbound sales leads and conversion rates. You’re not sitting on the sidelines. The data shows you clearly how your behaviors are working to achieve your marketing strategy.

An Effective Marketing Strategy Supports Iteration

No organization is born with a crystal ball. You define a strategy based on what you know today, and then you have to learn and adapt.

The most effective marketing strategies aren’t just asking the right questions — they’re filling in answers as you pivot and iterate.

In fact, the most effective marketing strategies employ evolution as an overriding objective. This provides space to brainstorm new ideas, test theories, measure the results, learn and grow. This is what makes the strategy work: it’s a living, breathing document of how you will grow your business.

The most successful companies understand that their marketing strategy is a primary driver of growth. And the more clearly it articulates the what and the how, the more likely they will be able to achieve their objectives. And that doesn’t sound too fluffy, now does it?

As a leader, you can prevent a fluffy marketing strategy by encouraging your colleagues to hold your strategy to a higher standard. Fluffy strategies don’t provide direction or motivation for employees. Rather, they just create confusion and cause people to spin their tires.

This isn’t a marketing puff piece; it’s a strategy! A good strategy focuses energy on intentional goals and clearly articulates the resources and steps that are required to achieve them. Fluff does not equal growth.

You're reading Is Your Marketing Strategy Just Fluff? by Sarah Young, originally posted on Sticky Branding. Did you enjoy this article? If so, sign-up for more of Jeremy's articles at Sticky Branding.

The Hard Work Is the Real Work of Branding

The branding process is often associated with a moment:

A breakthrough idea
A new name or new brand identity
A new strategy

These moments are visceral and powerful, but they’re not brand building.

The real truth is far less magical. Brand building is a process where you lay down small incremental improvements day after day to serve your customers just a little bit better. It’s grinding.

Venture capitalist Fred Wilson — who has backed some of the hottest tech startups such as Twitter and Etsy — writes, “Grinding isn’t very satisfying. It is hard to stand up in front of everyone and say ‘we are going to fix things around here bit by bit with a lot of hard work.’ Big flashy moves are an easier sell most of the time. But they don’t work nearly as well and are prone to complete and abject failure.”

Fred’s quote really hits at the heart of what branding is all about: hard work to improve your business bit by bit.

But those bits are where you truly find competitive advantage:

Creating operational efficiencies so that you can keep up with demand to deliver your products on time and on budget.
Hiring and training great people so they can deliver exceptional customer service every single time.
Taking the time to listen, analyze and understand your customers so you can create products and services that are truly valued and distinctive in the marketplace.

Your brand is directly tied to how well your business functions. If you’re not grinding on the hard things that matter, you’re not building a strong brand.

But what matters? This is the irony of hard work: It’s strategic.

Without a clear strategy, doing the hard work of brand building is almost futile. You can be overwhelmed and busy, but not actually making the changes that advance your business.

So it’s not just grinding, it’s strategic grinding!

Strategic grinding is a nice turn of phrase, but what does that really mean?

Working with dozens of clients over the years, I have found that the traditional or conventional approaches to branding are flawed. They are too front loaded. Too much effort is placed on ideation and brand development, and not enough is focused on execution.

For instance, after a major rebrand companies will experience a sales lift for six to twelve months. Why? They are proud of their brand, and they tell everyone about it. This naturally generates brand awareness which translates into increased sales. Yay!

Why Branding Matters

One of the most common misconceptions of branding is that a “brand” is a logo or an identity.

Yes, your visual identity is the “face” of your brand. It communicates your brand personality in everything from your logo to your website. But what identifies your brand with customers is subconscious. It’s the feeling of how they know and relate to your brand.

Every aspect of your business contributes to your “brand,” but it is the emotional impact and perception of your brand that matters the most.

Most entrepreneurs go to market not with a brand, but with an idea — an idea that can be so soulful and personal that it can be challenging to present and explain to others. You think everyone should intrinsically understand it, as you do, but they don’t. And that’s why you need to develop effective brand messaging and a brand strategy.

One of the most frequent comments we hear at Sticky Branding is, “Our company is the best kept secret in our industry.” That is a red flag! Your brand is your story, and if you can’t tell it, how will anyone understand it, know it, or share it?

If you ever catch yourself making that sort of statement, take a step back. This is business, and if you cannot communicate the value of what your organization brings to market, it’s time to reevaluate your strategy.

When you’re building a brand strategy there are many elements to consider.

1) Vision and Purpose

Every brand should be built around a core foundation: a reason the brand was created, or a larger mission.

Understanding your brand strategy is essential if you want to successfully communicate who you are, what you do, and what you believe in. It includes:

Purpose: Why do we exist?
Vision: What future do we want to create?
Mission: How will we get there?
Values: Who are we? How do we work?

When you know who you are and what you stand for, you can find clarity in your brand. This clarity will help others begin to form an emotional attachment to your brand.

Without understanding the core of your business, you are not going to be able to express your company’s “personality” to your customers. This provides your market tangible insights into the values and benefits of your company, and that helps them form a bond with you.

Customers are more likely to care about a brand when they understand what the direction of the company is.

2) Buyer Personas

A core component of developing a brand strategy are buyer personas.

Buyer personas help you understand your brand in relation to your customers, prospects, and users. They help you realize who you are, who your customers are, and to ensure that everything you create is relevant and of value to the people you’re trying to reach.

Whether it’s through education, entertainment, or inspiration, the content you’re creating should be true to your core values and consistently meaningful to your audience.

3) Brand Messaging

Your story is what sets you apart from the pack. Everything you create should have elements of your brand’s story — whether it’s reinforcing your messaging or promoting your values. This includes:

Positioning: What makes your brand different and unique in the market.
Value Proposition: The functional and emotional benefits of your brand.
Tagline: A one line summation of your brand’s positioning.
Storylines: The supporting reasons someone should choose your brand

Great brand stories make customers want to remain with the company and then tell others about their experience.

Customer advocates are the most valuable marketing tools your company can use to change minds and persuade leads.

4) Visual Identity

Maintaining a strong visual identity is one of the most important parts of branding. A cohesive look across all external communications and resources enhances your brand story.

A strong visual brand identity is able to express the importance of their products, mission, policies or services to their customer base with good branding. In order to form a bond with your customers, your brand needs to be transparent and authentic. Branding is essentially the combination of marketing and advertising elements that form a cohesive snapshot of a company.

Social media has made visual identity the first thing people see relating to your brand. Creating consistent imagery, stories and content themes is one of the best ways to develop and maintain relationships with your audiences.

5) Content Strategy

Too many brands have fallen into the trap of quantity over quality. They pump out content that doesn’t connect and, therefore, doesn’t help their brand perception. This is often due to a lack of brand strategy.

A good content strategy not only helps you create better content, it helps you do it more efficiently, saving time, money, and energy. However, many marketers are too busy to take the time to actually craft a strategy. Without a well-documented content strategy, it is very hard to maintain consistency, which becomes obvious to your customers.

Above All, Remember that Branding Is About the Experience

While communication tools are important, remember that your brand perception isn’t just influenced by what you say; it’s what you do.

Great branding can make it easier for your employees to do their jobs. With a clear brand messaging and personality, branding allows all employees to be proud of the company they work for and to spread the word wholeheartedly.

Creating a healthy culture, providing genuine and quality products or services, and actively contributing to your community says as much (if not more) than a sales brochure, vision statement, or e-book.

It takes a genuine commitment to your brand to create a truly great brand experience — at every touchpoint.

What do you think?

You're reading Why Branding Matters by Sarah Young, originally posted on Sticky Branding. Did you enjoy this article? If so, sign-up for more of Jeremy's articles at Sticky Branding.

Why Is It Called Black Friday? It’s Not a Happy, Shopping Story!

Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year.

I didn’t realize just how big it was until I married an American. My first Thanksgiving, some 20+ years ago, was an eyeopener. We spent the day with family and friends. We watched football, ate too much, laughed too much, and had a grand old time.

The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn… WTF? I could not understand for the life of me why we were going to the malls first thing in the morning. Was it really that big of a deal? Yep! It really was!

The deals! They were amazing. But it was bigger than that. This wasn’t just shopping, this was an experience. It was fun!

I asked, “Why is Black Friday called Black Friday?” I got the standard response, “It’s the most profitable day of the year for retailers. It’s the day they go into the black.”

Oh! That makes sense. “Going into the black” is as an accounting reference. Red means a company, or project, is losing money; black means it’s breaking even or doing well.

I didn’t give it a second thought. Retailers make a boat ton of money on Black Friday. According to CNBC, “[In 2018] Black Friday pulled in $6.22 billion in online sales, up 23.6 percent from a year ago and setting a new high.”

According to the National Retail Association, shoppers spent $1,007.24 each in 2018: $637.67 on gifts; $215.04 for food, decorations, flowers, and greeting cards; and $154.53 to take advantage of Black Friday deals and promotions.