Happy Cyber Monday.
While you’re reading this, roughly 420 million promotional emails are hitting inboxes every single hour. Klaviyo’s servers are sweating. Gmail’s spam filters are working overtime. And somewhere, a marketing automation platform just achieved sentience out of pure exhaustion.
I know this because I spent the last month researching what’s actually happened to Black Friday and Cyber Monday over the past 20 years. The findings are fascinating. The implications for service businesses like mine are even more interesting.
Spoiler: I’m still not participating. But now I can bore you with data about why. 😅
The Origin Story of Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Quick quiz: Where did “Black Friday” come from?
If you said, “retailers going into the black after operating in the red all year,” congratulations.
You’ve been successfully marketed to since 1981. 🤪
The real story is way better.
In the 1960s, Philadelphia police coined the term to describe the absolute chaos of post-Thanksgiving shopping crowds combined with the Army-Navy football game traffic. Think less “joyful profit celebration” and more “someone please send backup to the Wanamaker’s department store before we lose control of Broad Street.” 😬
The earliest verified usage comes from a 1966 stamp dealer magazine advertisement that explicitly credited the Philadelphia Police Department. By the early 1980s, retailers realised calling their biggest shopping weekend “that nightmare day the cops hate” wasn’t ideal branding. So they invented the profit story.
We built a $13.3 billion single-day shopping phenomenon on a marketing rebrand of police frustration.
I find this unreasonably funny. 😂
When Services Started Cosplaying as SaaS Companies
Here’s where it gets interesting for those of us who sell time and expertise rather than widgets.
Cyber Monday didn’t exist until 2005. The National Retail Federation noticed online shopping spiked on the Monday after Thanksgiving (people returning to work with faster internet than home dial-up, remember those days?). They created a press release coining “Cyber Monday” after rejecting “Black Monday” (stock market crash associations) and “Blue Monday” (too depressing).
First year sales: $484 million.
Last year: $13.3 billion. 😎
Somewhere in that 27-fold growth, service agencies looked at SaaS companies making money and thought, “we should do that too.”
Except we missed a critical detail.
SaaS companies can discount because their marginal cost per customer rounds to zero. Serving customer 101 costs basically the same as serving customer 100. Software scales beautifully. Discounts drive volume. Volume drives lifetime value. The math works.
My agency? Our “manufacturing capacity” is literally the hours my team has available.
Our “inventory” is expertise built over decades that doesn’t magically double because we have a sale.
When I discount 30% off our services, I’m essentially announcing to the market: “Hey, remember that price I quoted you last month? Turns out I was having a laugh. This is what I actually think it’s worth.”
Not the positioning I’m going for.
The Efficiency Paradox (or Why I Don’t Give Away My Margin)
“But Rui,” I can hear you thinking, “you’re always going on about process optimisation and AI automation. Doesn’t efficiency create capacity?”
Yes. Absolutely.
I’ve spent 30 years systematising sendXmail, ZOPPLY, and HOT Leads. We can handle more volume per person than most agencies of our size. The AI tools we’ve built genuinely create leverage.
And here’s my radical thought: I’m keeping that margin.
Efficiency should make my business more profitable, more resilient, and able to pay my team better. Why would I immediately convert that into discounted services during a manufactured shopping event?
This is where the math gets uncomfortable for agencies playing the discount game.
To maintain the same revenue at 30% off, you need 43% more clients. Unless you’ve been hiding a team expansion in your back pocket, you’re now choosing between turning away full-price work or delivering rushed results to bargain hunters.
I’ve watched agencies do this dance for years. The music always stops eventually.
What the Data Actually Shows (and it’s weird)
The research from 2024 reveals something paradoxical.
68% of consumers found Black Friday and Cyber Monday “not compelling,” up from 54% the year before. Yet 197 million shoppers still participated, spending an average of £235 per person.
Think about that. People are increasingly annoyed by the whole spectacle whilst simultaneously participating in record numbers.
The fatigue is real. The spending is also real. We’re all trapped in some bizarre retail Stockholm syndrome. 🤷♂️
But here’s the bit most agencies miss: the successful brands during BFCM aren’t winning on deepest discounts.
Automated, personalised messages convert 15 times better than broadcast discount emails.
VIP early access programs generate 35-40% of BFCM revenue at higher margins than public sales.
When REI closed all their stores on Black Friday in 2015 and told everyone to go outside instead, their web sales spiked 26% that weekend. Patagonia’s “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign drove revenue from $400 million to $543 million the following year.
Standing for something clear beats shouting discounts at everyone.
The Hidden Costs Nobody Mentions at Agency Happy Hour
Let me tell you what actually happens when service agencies play the Black Friday game.
Positioning erosion. Every discount trains your clients to wait for the next one. You’re teaching people that your pricing is negotiable, seasonal, and probably inflated to begin with.
Team morale. Your people know what their time is worth. Watching the company mark it down 30% every quarter because “everyone else is doing it” isn’t exactly motivating. Especially when they’re the ones delivering the work.
Client quality degradation. Discount shoppers optimise for price. They churn faster, negotiate harder, and refer other discount shoppers. You’re building a client base that fundamentally doesn’t value what you do at the price you need to charge.
The e-commerce research shows return rates spike 40-50% higher during promotional periods. For physical products, each return costs €20-30 to process.
For service businesses, the equivalent is churned clients, scope creep battles, and endless revisions from people who never properly valued the work. The real cost is higher.
I’d rather have ten clients who pay full price and appreciate what we do than manage thirty who constantly hunt for deals.
This might be controversial, but I’m comfortable with that.
Three Alternatives (if you absolutely must participate)
Look, I get it. Sometimes the pressure to do something during BFCM is real.
Your competitors are emailing.
Your clients are expecting offers.
Your boss is asking what the plan is.
Here are three options that won’t destroy your positioning:
Sit it out completely.
This is my choice. No emails. No promotions. No participation.
My clients know what we charge and why.
That doesn’t change because it’s Monday.
The fear is losing out. The reality is if your positioning and value are solid, nobody’s waiting for a Black Friday discount to work with you. They either see the value or they don’t.
Five years of opting out: revenue didn’t drop, client quality improved, and team retention went up.
Add value without cutting price.
If you must do something, don’t discount. Add extras that cost you little but help clients.
Expedited timelines for December starts. Additional strategy sessions. Bonus deliverables that genuinely move the needle. Access to tools or training you’ve already built.
The margin impact is controlled. You’re competing on value, and the message to the market is “more” rather than “we admit we overcharged you before.”
Radical transparency.
A friend who runs a development agency sends what he calls his “Anti-Black Friday Reality Check” every November. He breaks down exactly what his team costs, why his pricing reflects actual value delivered, and why discounts would require cutting corners clients wouldn’t accept.
His response rates beat his normal campaigns. Conversions are comparable, and positioning is infinitely stronger.
Turns out people respect honesty more than they value manufactured urgency.
What I’m Seeing for The Future (and why I’m oddly optimistic)
Mobile drove 57% of Cyber Monday sales last year. Apple’s privacy changes in 2021 broke email open tracking, forcing actual behavioural metrics. Google and Yahoo’s 2024 authentication requirements raised the technical bar for legitimate senders.
The platforms are cleaning house.
The noise will keep growing, and the race to the bottom accelerates.
I’m also weirdly optimistic about this.
When everyone else is screaming about discounts, steady pricing signals confidence. When competitors train clients to wait for sales, consistency builds trust. When agencies chase volume, focus on quality compounds.
The brands that are thriving are starting to be the clearest, rather than the loudest.
My Actual Advice for Next Year (you’re welcome to ignore it 😅)
If you run a service business, consider sitting out BFCM entirely.
Instead of spending October planning discount campaigns, spend it documenting your value properly. Build case studies that prove ROI. Reach out to best-fit prospects with relevant insights. Improve your delivery so clients can’t imagine working with anyone else.
I stopped participating five years ago. The world didn’t end and revenue didn’t collapse. We stopped attracting tyre-kickers and started working with people who actually value what we do.
Your mileage may vary, and your market might be different, which means that your positioning might require different choices.
But I haven’t looked back.
Because fundamentally, I’d rather charge what my work is worth year-round than teach clients to wait for the moment I admit I’ve been having them on.
Enjoy your Cyber Monday.
I’ll be over here, not checking my spam folder. 😎
🤔 What’s your take?
Are you participating, sitting out, or doing something completely different?
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