Diving into success: Inside Dive Kauai’s $14k+ Black Friday campaign
Explore how this operator made waves with their Black Friday promotion, crafting a sale tailored to their unique business needs and generating over $14k in new business in just 21 days.
“Since the trend of Black Friday has taken off in the consumer marketplace, we didn’t have to waste time promoting a sale. We just needed to have the sale available, and put it in front of people.”
Kevin Abernathy
Director of Sales and Marketing
Although typically hesitant to run promotions, Kevin Abernathy of Dive Kauai decided to take the plunge during Black Friday in 2023 and offer a deal to new customers. His marketing and logistical expertise paired with top-notch experiences made this campaign a huge success — their promotion brought in upwards of $14k in only 21 days.
Read on to learn more about their promotion — and to unlock ideas for your next Black Friday marketing campaign.
The business
Dive Kauai is a top-rated scuba school located on the beautiful island of Kauai in Hawaii. Customers can choose beginner or advanced scuba diving sessions to explore the island’s enchanting waters. Guests embark on an unforgettable experience, spotting sea turtles, eels, tropical fish and more.
Dive Kauai is also associated with three other businesses in the area, Kauai Sea Rider Adventures, Kauai Zodiac Tours and Hawaiian Style Surfing. These four operations work symbiotically, cross-promoting their different activities to maximize sales and give customers a well-rounded experience on the island.
The backstory
Dive Kauai was originally using a “pen and paper” system to take and manage bookings — a method that can easily lead to overbooking and other human error. In 2016, after research and exploration, the company chose FareHarbor as their booking software which drastically streamlined their operations.
All four businesses run on FareHarbor, making it simple for employees to learn and providing an easy way to encourage cross selling.
Since joining FareHarbor, Dive Kauai’s customers now book an average of two tours per person, up from just one.
In the eight years since joining FareHarbor, Dive Kauai has optimized their Dashboard to fit their business needs, mastering the functionality and utilizing our product’s innovations.
Dive Kauai’s Black Friday sale
Kevin of Dive Kauai is not keen on running promotions, especially in excess. He believes that running too many sales throughout the year discredits your company’s value which can lead to lost sales.
With this in mind, Kevin did not have the idea to run a Black Friday promo until an Account Manager at FareHarbor suggested it. They worked together to create a promotion that made sense for the business and catered to his opinions on running promotions in general.
Dive Kauai offered 20% off select scuba diving tours. The sale ran for 21 days and customers could only book during certain date ranges, excluding popular times such as Christmas.
Kevin’s goal was to attract new customers versus those who were already coming to the website, so the promo was not front and center on the Dive Kauai site. Instead, he focused on creating optimal Google Ads with his 3rd party team which ran over the 21 day period.
He knew that Black Friday sales were already so popular, he did not have to put too much time and energy into the marketing; customers are already very aware of the Black Friday concept and know they have to act quickly.
Results
Ultimately, the Black Friday promotion raked in $14k+ in bookings over the 21 day campaign, which was mainly new business. This not only boosted their year-end revenue, but also attracted a bigger custom base.
Kevin notes that “there are companies that do just a one day Cyber Monday promotion. But, by allowing it to be a ten day period, we were able to really find success. If we ran it for just one day, we probably wouldn’t have experienced the same thing, since we are in such a small market.”
Furthermore, Dive Kauai had bookings from this promotion well into August of 2024 and beyond. This helped establish trust and encourage other customers to choose their business over competition throughout the next season which boosted profits even more.
He wondered “how much indirect revenue was also collected [from the Black Friday promotion] because it gave people the confidence to book, thinking, ‘Oh! This company has bookings this far out, this is the one I want to go with.”
3 tips to maximize promotion success
To get the results you want from your Black Friday promotion, you must know your business and plan the sale accordingly. Here are a few tips from Kevin on how to run a valuable promo.
1. There is no one-size-fits-all sale
How long you run your campaign, what the discount is, and where you promote the deal will all depend on your specific operation.
For example, Kevin chose to have a higher discount and a longer sale period. He chose this because he knows not everyone can participate in his adventurous scuba diving tours. Whereas, if you run a Luau, you could lessen the discount or shorten the sale period since there are no restrictions on who can book.
Need some inspiration for your own campaign? Check out a few of these Black Friday promo ideas.
2. Utilize blackout dates and other restrictions
If you know you will sell out over the holidays or during school breaks, don’t allow your customers to book with the promotion during that time. Kevin did not let customers book over Christmas to New Years since that week typically brings in as many people as during his high July season.
It’s easy to block off dates for your promo code campaign using FareHarbor’s software — and it takes only minutes to get set up!
3. Make it quick and easy for customers to book
As he learned from FareHarbor, the less clicks you have during your checkout, the more conversions you will get. Dive Kauai took questions out of their book form that could be answered later and instead added it to their waiver.
This shortened up the booking process, leaving less time for guests to back out of their purchase, which is especially helpful during a promotion. Kevin says that once you have credit card details, people are usually locked in. After that, you can ask them for more information like height, weight, and other non-essential booking elements.
To learn more about how FareHarbor can help your business thrive, request a demo today.
