Here's the reality: Black Friday is 8 days away. Cyber Monday is 9 days away. And if you don't have your marketing locked in before you sit down for turkey and stuffing, you're already losing sales to competitors who did.

This isn't the time to figure things out. This is the time to execute on what you should have been planning for the last two weeks. If you're still in planning mode right now, you're behind.

The same mistakes happen every year. Businesses wait until the week before to decide their discounts. They slap together last-minute emails without strategy. They hope their website can handle the traffic. They forget to tell anyone what they're doing.

Then they watch their competitors capture holiday sales while they're scrambling to keep their site from crashing and their customer service from drowning.

Black Friday doesn't fail because of the idea. It fails because of execution. And execution happens during the off-season, not during the rush.

You've got about 8 days left to be in the execution phase. Everything else should already be decided.

Your discount strategy. Not loose ideas. Actual numbers. What's your discount percentage? What products or categories does it apply to? Is it site-wide or selective? Does it stack with other offers? These decisions affect your margins, your inventory management, and your messaging. They should be finalized, not debated, by now.

Your email campaign calendar. How many emails are you sending? When are they going out? What's the progression from "Black Friday is coming" to "Last 12 hours" to "We're sold out of X"? Your email list is your most direct customer channel. It needs a plan, not improvisation.

Your paid ads. Google Shopping, Facebook, Instagram—these platforms need time to optimize. Your ads should be built, approved, and running now so the algorithm has 8 days to learn what converts. Starting ads on Thanksgiving morning means you're paying premium prices for learning curves.

Your website. Load testing done? Checkout process smooth? Product pages ready with Black Friday copy and pricing? If you're discovering bugs on November 28th when traffic spikes, that's lost revenue. This should be tested and live now.

Your inventory and fulfillment plan. Do you know what you're actually going to run out of? How quickly will stock move? What's your backup plan if something sells out in 6 hours? Your supply chain team needs this clarity before the rush starts.

Your customer service setup. More traffic means more questions. More questions mean you either handle them fast or lose sales to frustration. Staff, FAQ updates, chat responses—this should be prepped now.

If the strategy above is locked in, these 8 days are about refinement and execution.

Test everything. Make a test purchase on your site. Go through the entire checkout. Check it on mobile. Check it on desktop. Does it work? Is the messaging clear? Fix it now.

Final promotional pushes. Send a "Black Friday is coming" email to your list 5-6 days before. Tease the deals without revealing the full discount yet. Build anticipation. Let people plan their purchases.

Queue your social content. You don't want to be creating Black Friday content on Thanksgiving. Schedule your posts now. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook—whatever channels reach your customers, have content queued and ready to go.

Brief your team. Everyone who touches customers needs to know: What are the deals? What's the message? How do they answer common questions? Your checkout person, your customer service rep, your social media manager—they all need alignment.

Set up tracking and analytics. You need to know what's working in real-time. Track email open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, average order value, traffic by source. If something underperforms, you need to spot it fast enough to adjust.

Have a backup plan for when things go wrong. And they will. Your site gets slow. An email platform glitches. Inventory sells faster than expected. You need decisions ready: Do you pause ads? Do you send an apology email? Do you extend the sale? Decide this now, not at 2 AM on Black Friday.

You've heard the phrase "turkey coma." It's real. You're going to be tired, distracted, and low on energy November 27-28. Your team will be the same way. Cranky customers will test your patience. Small fires will feel like emergencies.

If your strategy isn't finalized before that happens, you'll make reactive decisions instead of strategic ones. You'll stress-test your systems too late. You'll send emails without proper copy review. You'll leave money on the table.

The businesses winning on Black Friday aren't winging it. They're executing a plan that was built weeks in advance. They've tested it. They know what to expect. They can handle chaos because they planned for it.

By tomorrow: Finalize all discount percentages, promotional periods, and product inclusions. No more changes after this.

By Wednesday: Email calendar complete and all copy written. Emails scheduled and ready to deploy on your calendar.

By Thursday morning (before Turkey): Run a full test purchase on your website. Check mobile, desktop, checkout, everything. Fix any issues immediately.

By Thursday afternoon: Social content queued. Paid ads live and optimizing. Your team briefed. Analytics dashboard built and ready to monitor.

By Friday: Final review. Everything tested. Everything ready. Nothing launching after this point unless it's reactive and approved.

If you're not at this checklist level right now, you have a problem. Not a fatal one, but a costly one.

Black Friday is the second-biggest selling day of the year (Cyber Monday is usually #1 now, but the momentum starts with Black Friday). It's not a test run. It's not a "nice to have." For many businesses, Black Friday sales represent 10-20% of their entire November revenue. For some industries, it's even higher.

You can't afford to wing this. You can't afford to figure it out as you go. And you definitely can't afford to start planning after Thanksgiving.

If you're a Dallas business and your Black Friday marketing isn't ready—if you're still deciding discount percentages, or your website hasn't been tested, or you don't have an email plan—this is your wake-up call.

You have 8 days. Use them to execute, not plan. If you need help getting your strategy finalized and your execution locked in, that's what TexasCMO does. We help businesses get their marketing right under pressure, and we know Black Friday inside out.

Reach out. Let's make sure your Black Friday is profitable, not panicked.