137: Make Your Black Friday Offer So Good Fans Feel Stupid Saying No

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are no longer about slashing prices — they’re about stacking value. In this episode, Jeremy Neisser breaks down how sports teams can create irresistible, high-perceived-value bundles that fans can’t resist. Using Alex Hormozi’s “Value Equation” as a foundation, Jeremy shows you exactly how to build, time, and promote a Black Friday offer that feels too good to pass up — without cheapening your brand.

Key Topics Covered

• Why Black Friday isn’t a clearance sale — and how to stop competing on price
• The Value Equation for sports teams: dream outcome, effort, and likelihood of success
• How to “stack value, not slash price” when building your ticket bundle
• The secret power of abundance framing (“Buy 3, Get 1 Free” beats “25% off”)
• Adding risk reversal and scarcity to drive urgency and trust
• A three-phase launch plan (Tease → Reveal → Drop) for maximum conversion
• The Five Ad Apocalypse strategy to warm up your audience before launch
• Copy, email, and landing page templates that make your offer a no-brainer
• Common conversion killers to avoid — and how to track what really worked

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro: Why most Black Friday offers flop
 01:20 – The “Value Equation” for ticket sales
 03:40 – Stack value, don’t slash price
 06:05 – Competing on experience, not discounts
 08:20 – The 3-phase launch plan (Tease → Reveal → Drop)
 10:50 – The Five Ad Apocalypse for Meta ads
 14:00 – Landing page & email copy that converts
 16:20 – Measuring success & analyzing what worked
 18:40 – Common pitfalls that kill conversions
 21:00 – Final takeaways & challenge to listeners

Main Takeaways

1. Stack value. Bonuses beat discounts every time.
2. Follow the three-phase plan: tease, reveal, and drop.
3. Warm your audience with five ad types to build anticipation.
4. Show the math and the deadline in every message.
5. Document your results to double down next year.

Call to Action

If you create a killer Black Friday bundle, send it to Jeremy on LinkedIn
or via his website — he’ll be featuring standout examples in December. And don’t forget to rate and review the show to help more teams turn their marketing into ticket sales.

Alex Hormozi's - 100M Launch Book (AMAZON LINK)

Showpage - LINK

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Transcript

Jeremy Neisser (00:00.406)
Welcome to episode 137 of the Sports Marketing Machine podcast the show that helps you sell more tickets and grow your fan base I'm your host Jeremy Neistat today We're tackling every marketers second favorite weekend and most frantic weekend of the year Black Friday and Cyber Monday the first of course being well opening weekend

This isn't going to be another run a 25 % off sale episode. No, we're going to talk about building an irresistible offer using the same playbook by Alex Hermosity that he used to sell out his $100 million launch book, but we've just translated it for ticket bundles. So if you ever watched another team and see how their deal, their Cyber Monday Black Friday deal just took off like a rocket and maybe yours didn't hit on.

how you were kind of hoping this episode is for you. We're gonna talk about today how to package your offer, when to reveal the details, and what kind of content you should create so fans feel stupid saying no. Let's get to it.

Jeremy Neisser (01:20.556)
love Black Friday Cyber Monday, but most teams treat Black Friday Cyber Monday like a clearance sale. Our job as marketing directors isn't just to lower the price, it's to increase the perceived value and reduce friction. Let other people make it seem as if it's a clearance sale.

You should be increasing the perceived value and reducing the friction in that book that I mentioned in the intro Alex Ramozzi I'll put a link in the show notes. He calls it value equation and if we translate that to sports teams It's three things a dream outcome a stress-free Memory-making night at the arena at the ballpark at the pitch at the ice whatever it may be He also says the likelihood fans think the likelihood of this event is going to be awesome

So this value equation includes the likelihood and time delay in effort. How easy does it feel to buy and attend? The big takeaway though, Black Friday isn't about discounts anymore. So don't make it cheaper. Make it feel bigger, faster, and easier. So how do you do that? You build your Black Friday bundle. So stack value, don't slash price. And I'm saying it to everyone.

in the sports marketing ticket sales world, you stack the value, don't slash the price. And I see this all the time with so many teams, you need to stack value, don't slash price. So number one, as you're building your package, start with the core, a ticket experience, whatever that may look like, and then add some sort of low cost, high perceived value bonus. This could be free parking. This could be merchandise. This could be concessions.

some sort of experiential upgrade, then show the math. $560 value, $249 this weekend. And how you would be able to also create the package in here, don't use the percentage off. So this is what's called abundance framing. Buy three, get one free. Buy three, you get one free. That beats 25 % off because people have to think 25 % off.

Jeremy Neisser (03:40.984)
But if you say, hey, you buy three, you get one free. We've seen this all the time in ads, people promoting tires at car lots and Midas and all these different places that sell tires. The reason why they frame it this way, because it's simple. You don't have to think. So same exact thing. Buy three tickets or buy three of these packages, you get another one free. Buy two tickets plus hoodie, get VIP parking for free. You see how simple that is? That's a

abundance framing and it beats the ability for people to have to think about whatever that package is. So when you say 25 % off people have to do math in their head. You don't want them to do that. So be sure to include what's called risk reversal. If you can't make it, you can get credit for another game. A lot of teams have that flexible exchange policy. Include that in there.

Hey, if you can't make it to this game, we'll give you credit to another game. And then the last piece of this here is add some scarcity. Only 200 bundles available and Cyber Monday at 11 PM. Something like that creates the urgency and the scarcity. Showing fans how the bundle works also would be very important for you to be able to do this. So on your landing page, it talks about the package or in your emails, click pick fund.

three steps. Keep it simple. You click, you pick, you have fun. Super simple. So if your email explains, hey, here's the package. It gets all of these things. It's normally a value of $560. It's $249 this weekend. You buy three of them, you get one free. If you can't make it, you'll get credit for another game. Better hurry because there's only 200 of these available and it ends Cyber Monday at 11 PM. And then you have the image and it says click.

Pick have fun step by step like our brains don't have to think what we have to do We know we click we know we pick and we know we're gonna have fun the simpler you make it the less You have to allow them to think through it the more you're going to sell So what does that mean for your black Friday plan? If your deal still reads 20 % off tickets, you're competing on price and that's not a war you want to fight

Jeremy Neisser (06:05.578)
If your deal reads like a family night, you don't have to plan you're competing on Experience i'm going to say that again if your deal reads 20 off tickets 30 off of this You're competing on price on all of these other things that the people are thinking about doing but if your deal reads a family night You don't have to plan dinner and dinner is included. You're competing on experience and you're in a

Completely different world than some of these other organizations in your community that are trying to move things based on discount So my dig takeaway to you is don't make it cheaper Make it feel bigger faster and easier. That's what turns a promotion into a no-brainer Purchase and in fact lead with the gains not the discounts. All right next segment here. We're going to talk about timing and

and transparency. So when do you start marketing it to build anticipation? So if I'm in your shoes and I'm the marketing director for you name a team, we've got our package together. We feel like it's a high perceived value. We've got our messaging looks pretty good. I would start November 10th through the 20th teasing what it is. Something big is coming, tickets plus merchandise plus bonus, try to collect early access emails.

but don't share the price or the specific shit. Then, phase two, November 21st to the 26th, show what's in the bundle. Lower both seats, we get a hoodie, you get a free parking, and then hold the price until Friday. You're not telling anyone what the price is, but I would also include the social proof if this is true. Last year we sold out in 36 hours. Whatever you can add for social proof, I would include that, but don't share the price until Friday.

And then phase three is the launch, Black Friday through Cyber Monday. So that weekend, drop everything. mean, share everything, not drop it, but like share everything, the price, the value, the quantity, the deadline. Share all of that information in emails, your posts on social media, your website, all of those things. Email early access, the list one hour early. So...

Jeremy Neisser (08:28.556)
You've got an email list and you can say, hey, you're in the early access list. We're going to give you access to this before anyone else. And then you send it to them before you send it to everyone else. And then here's a cyber Monday twist here. You can even add one additional thing on cyber Monday, final 24 hours of black Friday, cyber Monday, add in something of high perceived value. So it could be if you're in soccer and free scarf.

or a $20 gift card to our team store or if you've got a sponsor like Chick-fil-A and they're gonna give four free family meals as part of it like add in something in the last 24 hours that increases the perceived value because you're gonna get one last push in the last 24 hours. So reveal the what early so fans can plan and reveal the price late so that they can act.

You don't want them to know what the price is in advance because they're going to make the decision then. You want them to make the decision when the time is now to buy. So you tell them all about the package, what's included, you've created the value adds to it that gets people all excited and you're making your messaging super simple. So you want to reveal what the package is early so Vans can plan and you reveal the price later so they can act.

I see this all the time with teams where they share in advance, here's what the package is going to be. Well, the fans have already made the decision, thumbs up, thumbs down earlier versus during the timeframe of buying, which is Cyber Monday through Black Friday. Key takeaways here, Clarity converts, Mystery entertains, but Black Friday is all about converting. We're in the business of selling tickets and getting people to our games. So Black Friday is about selling stuff.

Be clear with your messaging and that mystery entertains and keeps people engaged. So if you're going to run paid ads, this next segment is specifically for you. A lot of teams do, some teams don't, but if you're going to run paid ads, here's the structure that I would recommend. It's called the five ad apocalypse for teams. So I just kind of made that up, five ad apocalypse. What you're going to do is you're going to warm your audience up before the drop.

Jeremy Neisser (10:52.91)
So here's kind of the five pieces here. So you're going to put together like a 15 second reel, which is really just designed for you to spend some ads on Metta to get it in front of people. So this is going to be exciting. It's going to be about the promotion that's coming on up and you're trying to get people excited. If you got the next piece of this is an engagement ad. So you want to include some sort of testimonial.

A player cameo or something like that if you can get a player to record a video it says hey our Black Friday sub or Monday deals coming Super excited to share it with you. I absolutely try to get them to record that video

Jeremy Neisser (11:38.648)
Part three of the Five Ad Apocalypse is the Traffic Ad. You're going to drive to the Bundle Preview page. Remember, not the price yet. You're driving people to that Preview Ad page just so they can check out what is in the deal, what's included, and see how simple it is in all of your messaging on that page. Number four on this Five Ad Apocalypse is the Black Friday Offer.

with the value math and the countdown. And then number five is the post sale ad. So it's the thank you and the upgrade offer. The top of the funnel feeds the bottom. So Meta will reward you on momentum. So if you are building people excited about it and they're watching the video and then you're targeting those folks who've watched the video and you're sending to your website,

and they're checking out and now you're going to run a conversion ad to people who have been to the website and then all those folks who purchased you're going to run an ad that says, thank you. Here's an upgrade offer, right? Meta is going to reward you because you're building momentum, but now you understand how to kind of put it all together if you're running the ads. So don't just start off by saying, hey, buy this now at a cold audience. My recommendation to start running ads

around the 10th so that you build momentum for Black Friday and Cyber Monday and you're running ads instead of just saying, here's my ad, I'm going to run it for 10 bucks and target people and try to see if I can get them to buy. No, man, you want to try to build some momentum here. So warm them up first. So let's talk through the copy and the creative that sells. So how do you write your Black Friday landing page that talks all about it and your emails?

So on your landing page, your Black Friday Cyber Monday page, whatever your package is, I'm just gonna make one up here. Black Friday fan bundle, four sideline tickets, two hoodies plus free parking, $560 value, $249 today. In there it would say something like instant mobile tickets, choose any home game through Friday, only 200 bundles available.

Jeremy Neisser (14:01.122)
Credit if your plans change so fans can actually move the tickets around and they would have credit in their account. So credit if your plans change. And your call to action is grab your bundle before it's gone. In your emails, they should be like this. So Thursday, PM, our 2025 bundle revealed price drops tomorrow at 8 a.m. So you're sending out an email to promote it on Thanksgiving and then Friday, on Black Friday, it's live.

$560 value $249 200 only for your social posts for seats two hoodies free parking $560 value $249 and cyber Monday at 11 p.m. The takeaway here is and I'll put all of this what I just shared with you into my show notes will be linked in the show notes to the page for this episode so that you can see and copy and paste it in a very simplistic manner

but it just gives you a framework, gives you a process to be able to put all of this onto your paper. So, the main takeaway here, show the math and the deadline. Simpler always sells faster. Why do you think Amazon kicks butt? Because it's two clicks and things are on your front porch. Now you can't control your ticketing software often in cases, but you can control the messaging on your page.

You can control the messaging in your emails and your social posts. So show the math and the deadline. The simpler the messaging, it always will sell faster than complex messaging that people have to think. And this next segment is for teams that don't do this. And I've seen this numerous times. Measure what matters. How do you know if your Black Friday plan works?

I can hear a lot of you saying right now, well Jeremy had sold tickets. Well yeah, but you also need to track by channel and your audience, right? How many people did you target in your warm audience that did this, in your cold audience that did this? What happened on your emails? What happened here where people, repeat buyers, did more of them come from people who had came in the past, like warm audiences, or did more people who had never purchased before buy them?

Jeremy Neisser (16:18.626)
Who bought what, right? Use those numbers to help you optimize next year. And this isn't just about your Black Friday campaign. It's also about your 2026 marketing playbook. So you got to know your numbers, not just how many people bought, but analyze the data. How many of those people had came out last year? How many came two years ago? How many bought this package before? How many people bought a similar package like this before in the past? What does that all look like?

And then the next thing here, which is something I always kind of think through because there's bound to be some pitfalls in all of this. So what is going to kill your conversions? What is absolutely going to kill conversions on your landing page? Well, there's some things that are out of your control. What kills your conversions oftentimes can be your ticketing software. Absolutely. Without a doubt, your ticketing software can kill your conversions because it's too many damn clicks that happens all the time. And we know it. We are so used to

One click, two click, Amazon, something shows up at the front porch. We know that your ticketing software will kill conversions. Let's put that to the side though. Leading with the discount percentage instead of the total value, that absolutely will kill your conversions. So get rid of the percentage, include what the price is, the bundle price, and what it is today. Keeping the details secret too long will also kill your package. You want to share that sooner rather than later. So next week,

the week of November 10th. Share all the details, except for the price. Share all the details of your package. Fans can also smell a mile away fake scarcity. So don't be shady about that. Just say, hey, we're only going to sell 200 of these. We're only going to sell 100 of these, whatever that is. But fans can tell when it's kind of fake and what have you.

So just be specific and sincere about however many you have because fans can really smell and fake scarcity a mile away. The biggest takeaway from this section here is confused fans don't convert. Clarity wins every time. Alright, at the end of each episode, I give you the main takeaways. For you, Black Friday Cyber Monday had looked like in the past a discount sale.

Jeremy Neisser (18:47.128)
But the main takeaways from this episode are these five. Number one, stack value. Bonuses will be discounts any day of the week. So stack the value. Follow the three phase plan. Tease it. So the week of the 10th. Tease it. Reveal it and then drop it. So the week of the 10th. Tease the promotion. We got big things coming. We're excited about this. Then reveal it and then drop it.

to get people to buy it. Use the five ad types to warm your audience and I'll put a link in the show notes to the page episode so you can see how I structured it, what it all looks like and who's there. Show the math and the deadline in every piece of copy. Of course, when you have got the details and everything together, show the math. It's normally $560. You get this package for $240. Show that math.

and the deadline in every piece of copy that you do. Email, social, and your website. All of those places. It's got to show the math and the deadline. Document results. You need to keep track of what happened, who bought what, who converted, how they all converted, the things that you did to promote and market this. How much money you spent on social media, how much money you spent on ads.

All of those things. Document your results to double down next year. Alright, so if you want to turn your Black Friday, Cyber Monday sale into a repeatable data-driven machine, start now. Write your headline, stack your two bonuses, and anchor the retail value of that. Then, feel free to send me your best version on LinkedIn or pop over to my website, send me an email.

happy to I'd love to feature a few in December of some of the ones that really stood out and how many you sold so the ones that you do you go through you kick butt send me a screenshot of what the package was how you put it together and we're just going to feature a bunch in December I think this would be awesome for teams to be able to learn from so if this episode helps spark your holiday strategy share with another marketing director someone in the ticketing department

Jeremy Neisser (21:09.602)
who's buried in promo planning right now or trying to figure out how to move more tickets. Don't forget to rate or review the show. It really helps folks who are just like you trying to sell more tickets and grow their fan base. And until next time, I'm Jeremy Nizer and this is the Sports Marketing Machine Podcast where we help you turn smart ideas and your marketing into selling more tickets. Until next time.