Black Friday weekend is one of the biggest shopping events of the year and not just for brick and mortars! If you’re an online business owner, you can use BFCM (Black Friday Cyber Monday) as a chance to attract new customers, boost sales, and showcase your products or services.
But while the excitement of offering a killer deal is real, it’s equally important to make sure your Black Friday marketing strategies are legally compliant because a misstep here can land you in hot water with the FTC – and trust me when I say, nobody wants that.
So if you’re planning a Black Friday promotion for your online business this year, keep reading to make sure that you avoid five common Black Friday marketing mistakes and learn how to fully protect yourself with the right contracts in place!
What is FTC Compliance for Online Business Owners?
When it comes to selling anything online at any point throughout the year – but especially during BFCM – you have to make sure that your sales language and sales strategies are FTC compliant.
Butttt what does that even mean?
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates marketing and advertising to make sure consumers aren’t misled. For online business owners, this means your promotions, sales pages, and advertising need to be honest, transparent, and backed up by evidence.
The FTC’s main focus areas include:
- Truth in advertising, meaning you can’t exaggerate or make claims that your product or service can’t deliver
- Disclosure of material connections, meaning if you’re working with affiliates, influencers, or offering incentives for testimonials, it needs to be disclosed clearly
- Clear pricing and refund policies so that customers know exactly what they’re paying for, any recurring charges, and your refund terms
Failing to comply can lead to penalties, required refunds, or worse – a public warning that can damage your brand reputation. Even small missteps, like vague pricing or misleading scarcity claims, can trigger FTC scrutiny.
5 Illegal Black Friday Marketing Strategies (and What To Do Instead)
Now, you might be thinking that you’d never commit an illegal marketing strategy, but the problem is that a lot of the sales strategies and tactics that are being taught to online business owners – especially for BFCM promotions – look quite innocent and “normal.”
A lot of people do these things because they’re so common and they don’t always feel like you’re doing something inherently wrong.
But in the eyes of the FTC, they are illegal, so if you want to avoid getting yourself in any legal hot water, it’s best to avoid these Black Friday marketing strategies:
Fake Discounting
Fake discounting is something you see in marketing all the time and it’s often disguised as value stacking, which involves offering additional bonuses or products alongside a primary product to increase the overall value perceived by the customer.
Even though it feels like this is a normal and perfectly okay marketing strategy for online business owners, the Federal Trade Commission’s guidelines specify that if a product is touted as having a specific value, it must be a price at which the product has genuinely been sold or the valuation must be reasonable and supported by market evidence.
For example, if someone is selling a bundle that includes various things, such as a course as the main product, followed by a bunch of “bonuses”, such as a calendar template, an e-book, a Facebook group, a coaching session, and monthly Q+A sessions and has each item individually priced or valued, the value of each of those things must be REAL.
✅ What to Do Instead: Don’t add random value pricing just for the sake of trying to make your product or service look like a good deal. When listing a value price, make sure you can provide legitimate evidence of that sale price, use reasonable valuations, and always be transparent.
For a deeper dive into how to value stack in a LEGAL way, click here!
False Scarcity Claims
A common Black Friday marketing strategy is saying that the offer you’re promoting is for a “limited time” or “until supplies last” when really there’s no scarcity at all. This one has become increasingly popular in the online marketing world and is actually something I see being taught all. the. time.
But say it with me: lying is not a marketing tactic! 🙅🏼♀️
Creating a false sense of urgency or scarcity, such as claiming that there are only a few items left in stock or only a few spots left in your course, when that’s really not the case is not the move.
✅ What to Do Instead: Be transparent with availability. If you have limited stock or limited enrollment, disclose the real numbers or simply highlight the benefits of acting sooner without fabricating urgency.
Overstating Results or Product Benefits
We’ve all seen testimonials or reviews online for a product or service and wondered if they were legit, right? If you’ve ever had to question it, it’s because your gut is telling you something and for good reason.
False or exaggerated claims are unfortunately very common and can make you skeptical.
For example, someone selling a weight loss supplement may claim the product results in rapid weight loss within a week without providing any scientific evidence to support the statement.
It’s an exaggerated claim that’s hard to believe and can be extremely misleading to your audience!
✅ What to Do Instead: Use clear, factual language and disclaimers. For example: “Results vary depending on effort and individual circumstances.”
Hidden Fees or Unexpected Charges
You know that annoying feeling when you see a super great deal online and excitedly “add to cart” just to find out there’s actually wayyyy more fees associated with the sale than you were aware of?
Yeah, not cool. And not FTC compliant.
Failing to disclose hidden fees, charges, or subscription terms clearly and conspicuously in the sales copy can mislead consumers about the true cost of a product or service and goes against the guidelines.
✅ What to Do Instead: List all costs upfront and include them in your Terms of Purchase. Transparency builds trust and keeps you compliant.
Bait-and-Switch Tactics
Lastly, the trusty bait and switch marketing strategy is not so trusty after all. Advertising a product or service at a low price to attract customers, only to switch them to a more expensive option once they express interest, without clear disclosure of the change is not a game you want to be playing.
This is SUCH a common BFCM marketing strategy and I for one am sickkkkk of seeing it.
✅ What to Do Instead: Ensure your advertised offer is exactly what the customer receives. If there’s an upsell, disclose it clearly before the transaction!
Essential Contracts and Agreements For Legal (And Effective!) Black Friday Marketing
Now that we’ve covered the marketing side of things for your Black Friday promotions, there’s another layer of protection that you need to make sure you have in check before launching.
Terms of Purchase
Whether you’re selling digital products or physical products this Black Friday, having crystal clear terms and conditions that governs every transaction is a MUST!
This legal agreement is THE one that sets the ground rules and expectations for how your customers can use your products while simultaneously providing a safety net for you as the business owner.
Just like in a football game, when there’s a dispute of any kind, the referees refer to the rulebook for their final call. The same goes for your business – if or when you run into a problem of any kind, you can turn to your business owner “rulebook” to determine your plan of action for resolution.
Essentially, a Terms of Purchase Agreement outlines the specific terms of a transaction for either physical or digital products and covers policies that are a part of the purchase process, such as refunds, chargebacks or cancellations.
Clear Refund Policy
People tend to get a little “add to cart” happy throughout the holiday season, especially during BFCM, so to avoid an influx of refund requests (or at least avoid feeling confused on how to respond to them), make sure your refund policy is crystal clear and visible in various places throughout your Black Friday promotions.
Your refund policy is typically included in your Terms of Purchase, but it can also be wise to reiterate this policy directly on the checkout page before someone purchases so that they can’t claim they didn’t see it.
And remember, it’s perfectly legal to have a “no refund” policy, just make sure it’s crafted with these elements to be most effective!
Disclaimers
During this time of year, people get really excited to buy things that promise a specific result, whether it’s something for their personal life or for their business.
Because of this, you need to be extra careful about providing appropriate disclaimers when promoting your offers, so that your customers and clients know that you cannot guarantee results and you are not responsible for their individual outcomes when using your product or service.
Website Privacy Policy
This is something you need year round, not just during your Black Friday promotion period, but in case you haven’t implemented a Website Privacy Policy yet, here’s why you need it:
If you’re collecting any kind of information from your website visitors (like their name or email), a privacy policy outlines how your website collects, uses and manages a user’s personal information.
It’s the thing that assures your website visitors that you are not improperly using their information and that you are being up front and honest about how it’s being used.!
Additionally, having a Privacy Policy builds trust with your website users and limits your liability by showing that you’ve taken reasonable steps to protect your audience’s data and can often be the thing that saves you from a massive lawsuit.
For a deeper dive into the importance of a website privacy policy, click here!
The Ultimate Legal Contract Bundle for Online Business Owners
Overall, Black Friday is a high-stakes, high-reward time for your online business, but it’s also a time when legal missteps are most likely to happen.
Now that you know the most common Black Friday marketing strategy mistakes and what essential contracts you need, you can trust that your business will be fully protected and you can run your promotions with full confidence.
If you know your business is missing one or more of the essential contracts listed above, the Chief Legal Officer Suite was created with you in mind.
This all-in-one contract suite was designed specifically for online business owners and features 40+ attorney-drafted agreements, including Website Privacy Policy, every disclaimer you might need, Terms of Purchase, and more.
And the best part is that each template is written in plain English, is easy to customize, and comes with built-in instructions, so you aren’t guessing at how to implement them.
We’ve truly done the hard work for you (including going to law school 😉), all you’ve gotta do is grab the best contract bundle you’ll find for online business owners and follow our step-by-step guide to start using them with ease!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, AMBER GILORMO – ATTORNEY AND FOUNDER OF THE BOUTIQUE LAWYER
Amber Gilormo is the cool lawyer behind The Boutique Lawyer – a one-stop contract template shop for creative entrepreneurs, online business owners, coaches, and service providers.
From client agreements to digital product terms and everything in between, our lawyer-drafted templates take the guesswork out of staying legally protected online (no legal jargon required).
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