Big shopping days like Black Friday are extremely popular and email marketing busiest time of the year! I asked 65+ email marketing experts and designers to give their best tips and strategy for email marketing during BIG shopping days.
Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas and the whole holiday shopping season are great excuses to delight your email subscribers and clients. Giving discount and exclusive offers while keeping your Brand intact. And with new events like Prime Day, Giving Tuesday, and Singles Day, there seems to be no end in sight. Customers know they can get a good deal, so what are the best this year’s Shopping events will sure be bigger and a bit different…
Turning browsers into buyers and clicks to cash
Keep Sales KPI #1 Look at your sales figures people. Opens are nice (but unreliable), clicks are better (but increasingly unreliable as well), but the cash register doesn’t lie. Go for sales, average order value.
My point is that this should be your main focus during the period. Measure sales. Lower opens and clicks don’t mean lower sales. Sales is KPI #1, the rest is nice to know and can be used for optimization.
Margins and BFCM are not a happy marriage… Unless you are one of those cheecky raccoons that hugely increase their prices in the months before BFCM and then bring ‘deals’ as if they are absolutely amazing. Shame on you! Nice to know: in The Netherlands tech platform Tweakers.net checks deals and tells if a deal is a real deal by showing price evolution of a product in the past months. Great!
And then two words Jordie: Decreasing Discounts. And be honest about it. Early bird catches the worm. Say it up front and do it. Instead of customers delaying purchases in hope for higher discounts, you encourage them to buy straight away.
JR: There is so much to do about the pricing strategy around BlackFriday. Obviously there should be some kind of offer unless we are doing an anti-BlackFriday campaign. Decreasing discounts, IDK. How would you comunicate that (so it has meaning)? Of course at the very end there is going to be the post-blackfriday last minute, deals are going away.
Ruben: Totally agreed Jordie: you need an offer for sure. That’s the whole BFCM party, right?
I would communicate it beforehand: “Announcement! You are a loyal customer, therefore we will show you big deals upfront, starting on day X. You get an extra discount as a reward for your loyalty. And because we want to reward loyal _fast_ decision makers as well, the first day you get an extra (eg) 10% discount, on day 3 you get 8%, on day 5 it will drop to 6%, etc. So a discount on top of the regular pricing. See it as a loyalty reward program combined with the BFCM shebang.
PS: I don’t agree on the “keep the message concise” tip others may give. Not too much text, but not too little either. Just use much 😆. Test what works for your audience, some like it crammed with deals, some don’t. Go figure it out.
1. Keep your offer really simple. 30% off. Free shipping. Don’t get crazy here coming up with a creative offer – make it easy for people.
2. Simple emails! The most effective BFCM emails are stupidly simple. Graphic, text, button.
3. Build up the hype. Stop doing promos right now so BFCM can be a big deal.
4. Black Friday might not be your best-selling day. Early November can be awesome as well as early December. Think outside the box!
5. Have fun with your emails!! I don’t know a single person who doesn’t like to laugh.
Emily Ryan. Co-Founder & Digital Strategist at Westfield Creative
In B2B the sales process takes time, so inform early If you’re a software or some other B2B product, let people know about your special ahead of time! Regardless of price, often they need to clear said purchase with a Manager or above due to budgets so make sure you’re giving them the appropriate notice so they can clear the purchase in time. JR: Good point. Always keep the buying process in mind. Another thing you can do is give the deal now, but they can use it later. You’ll see that for instance with companies buying trainings, coaching, consulting, etc.
You know what stands out for me? People who lead with creativity and have a genuine message…or a genuinely good deal I can’t get the rest of the year.
I know creativity and “value” are subjective, so what I mean is don’t just email me (or text!) every single day with a different message saying “The same lukewarm sale we run every other week of the year is happening again!” as if it’s a special and fleeting Black Friday sale. It’s not. You know it, I know it. Don’t waste peoples’ time.
Lauren Meyer. Chief Marketing Officer at SocketLabs
As I start to see the thousands of ads on social platforms, I urge business to have a strategy to take likes and followers to actual email subscribers. Remember, you don’t own anything on social networks. You have much more control over email.
Giveaways are an excellent way to promote your products to new potential buyers while attracting hundreds of signps to your email list for under $0.50 a subscriber.
Facebook even offers integrated lead forms that connect directly into your email marketing service provider (ESP). Most ESPs offer an integration to add a signup form tab to your Facebook page.
For Instagram, use your profile URL wiseley. Point the URL in your Instagram account to a dedicated landing page. People who land on this page should ONLY come from your Instagram profile. Make sure to place a signup form on this page.
When you achieve the number of followers needed to do the “swipe up” actions, use this to promote your emails by asking subscribers to signup.
Daniel Miller, Co-Founder of goGet Into It Marketing Agency
The biggest area of opportunity I see during this period is to make the most of the increased traffic that’s coming to your site. Focus on the conversions, for sure, but don’t forget that consumers are looking around for the best deals, so they’re visiting lots of sites before making a purchase. The chances of making a conversion immediately from an unknown are not high, so use ALL touchpoints on the site to get permission to market to them.
Exit popovers work a treat here and also (it may be a bit late to do this for BFCM this year, but will be good for the Holidays in December) – Abandon Basket popovers to unknowns (like the one here) also work a treat – they enable you to gain permission whilst also working towards achieving a conversion.
Kath Pay, CEO & Founder of Holistic Email Marketing
Design your emails for impact
Mix up your emails with a few personal, plain-text email offers
A super underutilised tip, especially during BFCM. – This doesn’t only work well in the B2B space, but sending an email that looks like it’s coming from a team member at your organisation with a link to a special offer, mentioning the person by name and having a face in the “signature” takes the personal outreach effect to a new level.
It’s a strategy that could work well for customers who are already active buyers, or potential clients who are yet to transact, but always keep that unsubscribe link in there and ensure the sender name relates to a person, even if that person is fictitious.
PS: This can also be a great way to entice feedback – I use the Parcel Mailto Generator to add a quirky response or subject line to make it easy for folks to mail back – This sticks quite well 😃
Get ready on time. Be different this year. Upgrade your designs to reflect BFCM. Create an “early access” sign up form. Do a “Guess a discount” campaign. After BFCM do a “Thank you” camapign.
Stefan Boskovic, Email Marketing Specialist at Digital Rocket
We are always gung-ho about the Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Thanksgiving season.
We start at least a month early with teasers to build excitement, send out emails about a week before with catchy subject lines to get our audience buzzed up. We usually use those countdown timers in our emails and social posts – to add that sprinkle of FOMO.
Speaking of offers, this is the time we go BIG with our discounts. We do sitewide sales, bundle deals (not always though, optional for us), and yes, we do promote others’ deals too, even if they are in direct competition with us. I strongly believe it is a season to give back and if any software business, irrespective of size or age, wishes to get listed on our popular seasonal listicle (see our blog), we are happy to include them for free!
When it comes to design, we keep our roundup list and emails simple but bold. We use colorful elements such as GIFs and CTAs, but we don’t clutter the emails or landing pages.
One last thing though, as a suggestion – while it’s tempting to send loads of emails during this busy season, let’s try to avoid being too spammy.
Cheers!
JR: What I like (and we also have a list of BlackFriday Saas deals at emailvendorselection ) is the promotion of all the saas brands that are doing an BlackFriday offer. And so you can point to your page and offer a lot more than your own products. 👏👏👏. But it is a looooootttttt of work all that coordination. 😅
I’ll shoot you over our form soon – as Mór Mester and I are getting started on the BFCMforSAAS campaign.
Singh: Tell me about the lot of work part.. BFCM days are insane.. 😅 And thanks yes, of course, we will share our offer right away once Mór Mester shares me the deets!
I’d suggest gamifying your campaigns. You need some excitement to stand out in a crowded inbox. Add elements like scratch-off discounts or spinning wheels. Not only does this make your emails more fun, but it also taps into the human desire for excitement and reward.
Black Friday should be definitely Mobile First. It might be useful to keep in mind that BF and CM, in many countries are normal working days. People are busy and they are trying to get their deals while they are doing stuff, working, doing housework, etc.
That’s why an accurate mobile version of your campaign could be key, especially during Black Week.
Nando: A partner of ours created an email template based on an advent calendar. Every day leading up to an event (such as BF) you unlock a door with a specific deal. One of the most awesome/playful things I have seen so far. And perfect to spread the email load around BF.
JR: BF calendar is a great idea – especially if you can fill up all the dates with something valuable. There was an example from DSW that did 30 days of BlackFriday that has a cool design and callbacks / look forward. Yes!!! Found it ? 😀 What do you think about that? And add a video as well.
First tip (and this applies to email marketing in general but is especially important during a time when you’re competing for attention in the inbox more than ever): Make sure your emails are responsive and display well across a variety of devices. Special events and holidays are times to get creative and flashy with email design and because of this, sometimes responsiveness is forgotten.
Second: Find something to make your promotions stand out. This is especially great if you can find a way to give back and not make Black Friday all about sales (that truly would be unique!). For example, supporting a special cause with each sale. I’ve also seen some cool examples where companies turn the whole thing into a game or challenge, which adds fun to the campaign.
Amy El, Content Writer at The Remote Company
From a design point of view one of the most important aspects are the product images.
These should match with the existing brand guidelines and further enhance the visual identity and brand personality.
Less flashing and cheesy, more clean and elegant animated GIFs can add fun to almost all emails at any time.
I like the emails with a clear hierarchy and a clear main message, less-is-more is always a style or a standard that I would like to go with.
Content-wise, I anticipate most sales happen online, so there are no waiting lines and time limits for opening hours. Those are all good selling points other than low prices. BlackFriday doesn’t have to be black this season! A good message.
Email automation: start early and prepare your audience with sequences
Since Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals are often for a very limited window, I always recommend brands update their triggered abandon cart / browse emails to have shorter time windows to deploy so those who add to cart / browse know they have a limited time window to take advantage of the best deals of the year.
Instead of a 24 hour wait for the first abandoned cart email to come out, why not 12 hours? Attention is hard to capture during this time period and modifying your tactics to recognize that consumers may be in market to buy for a very short window of time helps tremendously.
JR: the abandoned cart emailings may need a different playbook during these days. One of the things I like is if we can add a “these are already / still in your cart” to normal offers and emails as dynamic content.
Chris: I love that. I’ve tried this with a few retail clients recently and the performance has been 🔥
Taking a lesson from Amazon Prime day (which is a great way of getting steal on BFCM) here’s two thoughts from me.
1. Create the buzz first, tease, warm and nurture your audience to build the awareness and anticipation (rather than simply dropping coms on the day from a cold start)
2. Use SMS to provide an early access offer. It provides both a reason to sign up and the value exchange for progressive data profiling. I did this with a large budget hotel chain in the UK. A VIP access SMS worked a treat. We almost brought the website down due to traffic overload, but that’s the good problems to have right 😉
We gave those who had registered, 24hr early access to BF offers as a VIP member by SMS (via a discount code).
Nick Crawford, Owner & Principal Consultant at Twist Consultancy Ltd
Personalized recommendations for holiday shoppers could be key to successful BFCM email campaigns that consumers find valuable. Brand new research from Sinch found 80% of consumers appreciate personalization that goes beyond using their names.
Specifically Sinch asked – Do you value receiving personalized recommendations during Cyber Week/holiday shopping?
43% – Yes. As long as it’s relevant.
37% – Yes. It’s usually helpful.
12% – No. It feels invasive.
3.5% – No. I’m shopping for others not myself.
4.5% – It doesn’t really matter
(FY – I did a little rounding of the results.)
The survey included consumers from the US, UK, major EU nations, Australia, and Brazil. More from the survey here
Kasey Steinbrinck, Sr. Content Marketing Manager at Mailgun by Sinch
A few Black Friday strategies I’ve tested and like:
1. Announce the sale early and explain what’s coming. Encourage customers to add products to their cart or wishlist in advance.
2. Keep room in your automated emails with dynamic content blocks, so you can add urgent promo messages without overriding all your rules and exclusions.
3. Curate and limit your content to be as relevant as possible through segmentation and personalization. It might seem basic, but it’s crucial not to cognitively overload your customers.
Jasper Van Laethem, Sr. Email Marketing Strategist & Co-founder of The Future Funnel
#Nonprofit organizations want a crazy Giving Tuesday idea?
Send communications but don’t ask for money or anything else.
Instead, give your supporters something on Giving Tuesday.
Send them an ebook or video, or a simple thank you note. You will have plenty of time to ask for money during the last weeks of the year. Of course, this works only if you fundraise throughout the year, not only from Giving Tuesday to Dec 31. Want an example: charity: water does this.
Start early. A lot of companies start the promotion 24-48 hours before Black Friday. At that time people’s inboxes are going crazy and it’s hard to stand out. Start early and prepare (hype?) your audience for your discounts.
We are going to start a week or even a month earlier with a simple time-based sequence, share some sneak peeks into the new features we plan to launch on Black Friday and of course, get them pumped for some exciting discounts.
I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that Black Friday and CyberMonday start way BEFORE its actual date.
Inboxes get really crowded during this special sales event, so you need to warm up and prepare your users beforehand so when the day comes, they’re ready to CONVERT. The sooner, the better. Wishing everyone luck and lots of sales in November ?
Matheus Alonso, Country Manager – Brazil and Portugal at Benchmark Email
Don’t overthink it! ? Especially if you are an early stage startup. Create your campaign and launch it!
JR: Where do you think that people mostly overthink it?
When the campaign is prepared and ready to be launched – I have often witnessed that people change their marketing copy many times and try to push it to make it the best campaign in the world. The truth is that’s probably not going to happen. And there are also other important things that you should focus on.
Black Friday SaaS deals dance break! We bundled over 45 Black Friday SaaS Deals. This will easily save you hundreds of dollars.
If that doesn’t make you dance, I don’t know what will.
Now on with more Automation tips...
Frequency and engagement
For customers converted during BFCM, plan customized post-purchase communication. Since they’re juggling multiple purchases, give them time to engage with your product by extending onboarding and sending timely reminders. This helps prevent churn and boosts retention.
Happy Brace Yourself BFCM season, email warriors!
JR: So you are saying to change the normal post-purchase (if you already have it) to be longer / have more days? How would that look like? Or also make it different?
Anna: First off, I’d give users more room to breathe between emails. Focus on features they might normally overlook.
Second, track how quickly these users hit key milestones on the platform.
Finally, analyze performance by cohort. How does your BFCM cohort compare to your regular users?
Anna Levitin. CRM & Lifecycle Marketing Lead at DoorLoop
Don’t send during the busiest times of Black Friday and Cyber Monday if you haven’t built any buzz before. Send them before to avoid your offer being buried among hundreds of others in inboxes. Even sending after BFCM can work but people might’ve already drained their wallets.
Mor Mester. Head of Content Marketing at Email Vendors Selection
Why do you think that starting the promotion too early may impact negatively?
A blanket promotion may happen regardless of the timeframe, if I have enough datapoints I may really consider to start my promotions early in a “Early Access Advantage” fashion to the most active users.
In a fixed-size budget scenario I may win those customers from other brands and, as an added bonus, I can avoid the typical BFCM inbox clutter.
JR: Fair point. But for many brands the blackfriday discounts are big promotions. And a lot of brands will want to keep the period limited. So asking for the data first allows for more flexibility and being able to do more specific promotions using that data.
Alberto: True.
Personally I would try to catch customers that are “lurking” with an early access promotion tailored for them.
I would set a series of mailings as follows:
Day 1: Announcement of early Black Friday access.
Day 3: Reminder that deals are still live.
Day 5: Countdown to the end of early access deals (i.e., “Last chance to shop before Black Friday!”).
This could also be a sort of warm-up before the main mailing as it should be a mix between engaged and unengaged subscribers.
Each step of the series could also be re-used another day with another cluster, eg: Day 1 is today for cluster A and could be after 2 days for cluster B.
When early access promotion ends we need to transition smoothly into the main Black Friday campaign. This keeps the momentum going and allows customers who missed the early access to still participate.
Of course general best practices still apply, don’t add subscribers that are not engaging since decades and try to avoid spikes.
Well-planned series may come in handy in this case.
Alberto Miscia. Head of Deliverability & Compliance at MailUp S.p.A
Your email content shouldn’t switch from engagement to sales like going from 0 to 100.
Your subscribers still want emails that have the right messaging. Your sale/promo is just an added bonus. Try to weave it into your content instead of having it overtake it.
JR: So that is mostly for senders that do a lot of education / content. The trick then is to weave it in. On the other side, I think brands also shouldn’t be afraid to do just some promotional emails. What do you think?
Israa: Yes they definitely should have some promo emails but what ends up happening in Q4 is most brands switch to sale mode. Their templates are just big ads with no basis.
People still need to be reminded why the deal is good and why they need that certain product.
You also have to remember a lot of new customers come through Q4, so that trust factor needs to be built for them to take your deal over what they are used to.
When preparing for the BFCM sales rush, one of my favorite strategies is to involve customers directly in product selection using interactive polls or quizzes. Before the event kicks off, send out a fun quiz or poll where your audience can vote on which products should get the biggest discounts. This not only gets them excited and engaged ahead of time but also gives you valuable insight into what they’re most interested in, allowing you to tailor your offers.
Customer Involvement: People love being part of the process. By letting them have a say in the sale, they feel more connected to your brand, which makes them more likely to buy.
Pre-Sale Data Collection: You’ll gather valuable information about what your customers want most, which you can use to create personalized email campaigns during the BFCM period.
Building Buzz: Whether you run this through email or social media, it’s a great way to create excitement around your upcoming sale, leading to more sign-ups and engagement.
This approach adds an element of fun while also ensuring you optimize your discounts based on customer feedback!
JR: So the customers can vote or somehow interact through a quiz and influence which offer gets the biggest discount. Very cool, how would you structure it? Or do you know any examples of brands that have done this kind of thing?
Israa adds: We do this with our clients. We send out a poll with four of our most successful promos in the past year and let them pick.
Segment them based on their picks and give them early access (in oct) to the deal.
Then we take the most successful/converting deal and run it as a BFCM offer.
The inbox is so full and MPP is disguising real opens so don’t be afraid to do resends. Not just to unopened but to everyone. Yes you’ll increase your unsubs but those people didn’t want to hear from you anyway, measure your sales. ROI is king
JR: So you are saying, just resend the same emails.
Like what kind of send schedule are we talking about any tips or example of ones that work and the considerations there?
Mike: I’m saying standard resend procedure, change the SL and the PSL and don’t be scared of being in the inbox twice today. As Dela wrote in his book “Fear and self loathing in email marketing”
Show customers products they already love. Avoid offering too many choices, as this can lead to ‘choice overload,’ overwhelming them and resulting in no decision being made.
JR: What do you think about having some daily deals versus offers in the whole period?
Merel: It could be interesting, but the deal must align with the customer’s needs. The shorter the deal duration, the greater the sense of urgency it creates. However, this only works if the right offers reach the right people.
JR: That is always the challenge. The idea behind deal of the day is that you would go (and need to) have a look every day. And even if it isn’t the perfect product that you would buy right now, it still would work in showing that todays great deal, makes you expect a good deal tomorrow as well.
Merel G. Freelance Email- / Datamarketeer (B2B) at Plant Empowerment
There’s a lot of noise around BFCM, so my advice to people is, wait a week or two and send your offer then. Create your own Prime Day event every year and tie it with your brand, for me it could be International Ninja Day!
If you insist on sending during the busy period, then do anything you can to stand out from the crowd, don’t use the same old subject lines and black friday hero banners in your emails (yawn).
If you’re in marketing or sales and not selling products yourself, maybe do a roundup email of the top offers from others in your industry, like software or tech. Just an idea.
JR: International Ninja Day. 😀 Nice. ⚔️ And some brands / services aren’t really the black Friday type where big promotion aligns.
Because Q4 is the most busiest time of the year 🎅 , I would let subscribers, customers and prospects opt-in to a special BlackFriday communication with higher frequency (make clear when to start and when to end this communication, and act as promised). I would prepare special deals as a private BF (they only get the deals when they are joining the list). And make it easy for them to manage their subscription, maybe also to reduce frequency or switch/use another channel. (BTW: this can also be used to clean up your list – who is not interested in deals on BF?)
After BF I would reduce frequency and keep the subscribers in your regular communication
And because of all the BF buzz: I would build a refer a friend for BF. Advantage for the one who is referring: getting invited into better private deals, Advantage for the one who was invited: see above
Overall in terms of how to communicate: Clear and lean communication, easy to understand within single topic messages.
And I would not do too much personalization, because BF is always demand creation. 🚀
As Black Friday heats up, one of the key ways to boost conversions is by using engaging exit intent popups combined with time-delayed social proofing.
Exit Intent Popups: – These aren’t just about slapping a discount code on the screen—think personalized offers like free shipping or bundle upgrades that target cart abandoners. – Use embedded forms to turn hesitation into a lead—even if they don’t convert immediately, you’ve got them in the funnel for post-BF campaigns.
Social Proof with Time-Delayed Triggers: – Activate FOMO with live sales notifications or recent purchase updates. – Introduce user reviews or testimonials after a slight delay—these engage visitors before they leave, reinforcing trust and urgency.
Instead of burning through ad dollars, you’re capturing more value per visit by ensuring every interaction counts.
It’s easy to get lost in aggressive discount strategies, but smart tactics like these amplify conversions without sacrificing margin.
Wishing everyone a killer Weekend! And Jordie, as always, great content!!!
JR: Great idea, once someone is on the site it is about the conversion. And exit intent is quite effective way to propose an even stronger offer (bundle or free shipping), or something like “save your discount” can work to capture their email address and follow up after.
Hold your nerve. Don’t send campaigns out during BF. Send them just after and create your own special event. You will stay away from the inbox fight and you will create your own unique lane.
Play on emotions, not discounts Everyone’s throwing discounts left and right. Tell a story—why does your product make life easier, better, or happier? Tug at heartstrings or spark curiosity. A “Why You Deserve This” campaign can often convert better than “50% Off.”
Build urgency beyond “limited time” How about live countdown timers in your email? Or sending follow-up emails when certain products are running low? “Only 5 left in stock” is a powerful motivator that drives faster action than a ticking clock.
Micro-target VIP segment Not all customers are equal, so don’t treat them the same. Create exclusive offers for your top 5% spenders with a special VIP Black Friday preview. These loyal customers are your brand advocates, so give them the star treatment.
Rethink your send time Everyone expects those Friday morning emails. Be unpredictable. Start your sale earlier, or even at midnight the day before. Beat the competition by showing up first in the inbox, or aim for a Sunday surprise when everyone’s winding down.
JR: Love the idea of an emotional play. And I guess it can be emotion + discount as well in one go. * You deserve this * Spoil yourself * Fun to unpack
Tanel Rand. Email Marketing Expert & Partner at Smaily
2 ideas to try:
1) Social proof- People go to their network when deciding whether to purchase something. In your emails include a testimonial/positive review from someone who purchased the item you’re offering in your email (which I hope is personalized and based on the subscribers past purchases, interests etc.)
2) A week before BFCM, send an email with 4 different designs of a product. For example, the same t-shirt but in different colors and a different picture on the front. Ask people to vote which they like best. Then on BFCM offer everyone a discount on the one that was most popular or if you know who voted for which shirt, offer them a discount on that specific design. (Again assuming you’re segmenting and sending this poll specifically to people interested in tshirts.)
I suggest double-down on making your offers more personalized, e.g., through product recommendations.
People expect to strike a good deal during BFCM and often have a list of items they’re hunting for. However, their time and focus are limited.
To maximize your chances of converting them, opt for a tailored email (items that’d go well with your last purchase, items you’ve been looking at, etc. if unsure which model to use, you can A/B test that) instead of a generic ‘storewide BF deal announcement.’
And while you’re at it, be sure to make your offer interesting. People now more often know how to compare prices and look up how they changed in the past months, so a 5 to 10% deal may not be enough to make them engaged.
Michal Leszczynski. Head of Content Marketing & Partnerships at GetResponse
Make every action you want your customers to take as frictionless as possible! They’re going to be distracted and absolutely inundated with marketing already – don’t make them work harder than they have to! Whether it’s simplifying your discounts and keeping things short, clear, and simple, be mindful of how you can facilitate a quick and easy customer experience!
JR: I agree, some shops just seem to make it a hassle and have lots of exclusions that wouldn’t count.
For instance having discount code auto apply, shouldn’t be a huge problem (although it sometimes is).
Zalando is giving discounts, but then there are only size S. That is too small for me.
Send email and SMS on weekends (Sat & Sun). Every day from Nov 12 to Dec 16 had 3B in online sales (2022). Yet, email and SMS send volume was down almost every Saturday and Sunday, even though conversion rates remained consistent.
People are still shopping and you have a chance to stand out — don’t waste it.
An oldie but a goodie is to do a re-send over the Black Friday weekend in between the promo launch and final call email. The basic idea is to create a segment of anyone who didn’t open the Black Friday sale email and re-send the exact same email to that segment of people. BUT you must change the subject line. Ideally try to create some more urgency with the subject line as well. You’ll be surprised at how much extra revenue you can generate from this one simple tactic.
JR: Just be keep in mind, that opens are never exactly reliably measured.
Sending more BFCM emails is going to get you more sales – no question. But if your normal emails are primarily content/value emails sent (eg) weekly then blasting half a dozen promotional emails over BFCM is going to lose you a lot of subscribers/goodwill from the people who aren’t ready to buy or aren’t interested in this particular offer.
The normal response is to compromise and only send one or two BFCM emails. But that’s the worst of both worlds. Still too many for the people who aren’t interested and not enough for those who are.
Instead, segment off the people who are interested with an email that teases your offer and asks them to click if they want to hear more when the offer starts. Maybe do similar in a PS in some of your normal value emails in advance of BFCM too.
Then you can send a more frequent/promotional BFCM sequence to those who are interested without p*ssing off those who aren’t.
JR:That is very interesting – you are saying mixing is the Worst of both worlds. Somehow that made me smile out load. ?
I like the idea of just talling it very up front. Like sending an email “Blatant sales pitch inside”. If people are onlythere for the content, they can still appreciate that.
And mixing the offer into the content / ps also great strategy.
The challenge with first asking is if you have a list that isn’t very responsive (or big), the extra offers won’t reach a lot of people…. Ian: I think “compromising” is the word I should have used rather than “mixing” but couldn’t remember the word!
You make a good point about not necessarily reaching a lot of people. What we do in practice is a couple of emails to everyone promoting the offer – an opening and closing one – but more to the people who ask for more.
For example we’re about to offer some “box sets” of videos this BFCM. Everyone will get told about the box sets with a sales email giving an overview of all of them and an offer closing email. The people who get on the notification list will get an email per box set with more details of each one etc.
Your competitors aren’t pulling ANY punches this year. Why should you?
“BuT iNbOxEs ArE gOiNg tO Be So CrOwDeD” ?
When everyone is yelling, sometimes you have to just yell a ?? little louder to stand out.
Your offer, content, personalization, NOTHING matters if you can’t first get seen by your audience!
David Schwab. Chief Digital Strategist at Digital Industry Group
Don’t forget or wait until the last minute to consider email / sms capture via your popups! If you’re an ecom brand – you’re about to get a ton of traffic, make sure you capitalise on getting the sale and 2nd best is to create the relationship directly with email and sms!
Makes sense to ramp up list building every single day ? – a majorly under utilised growth level, to own the relationship with your client. “Just checking the box” to turn on a free popup is a wasted opportunity that so many overlook.
For list building pre bf/cm, I like using copy like “get the BF/CM discount now by entering your email” is great to avoid saying wait until X date to come back. And definitely “Black Friday week” and “Cyber Week” to keep it going.
Oh dear, that time of year already?! I must admit, I’m not a fan. I find that my inbox gets flooded with emails and offers. I also hate clothes sales. It’s so hard to find and I hate the crowds. That said, some people LOVE them and if companies can find out from their buyers if they love them and want to be notified that would help.
Also if you have a new offer or launch avoid these days as it will get lost in the sea of noise.
JR: Always need to remember – we are not our client. As a marketer, it may be a good idea to actually sit next to a few clients as they go through the campaigns. I did buy some clothes last year and it was an immense eye opener as to the customer experience side.
Increase or decrease the number of mails sent based on engagement. Schedule daily mailings or even two mailings per day during black friday week, but…. only for highly engaged recipients.
Measure engagement based on opens and clicks of previous Black Friday content.
For less engaged audiences, slow it down and send one highly focussed mailcontaining the proposition with the highest chance of success per recipient.
JR: Cool to know is that Peter and team have been working on some AI to optimize sending times and schedule for publishers.
Peter van der Schaar, Chief of Marketing & Founder at BaseDriver (dutch ESP for publishers)
Personalised content always hits the spot!
As a preferred online shopper, I only engage with emails that are personalised to me, emails that are showing me products that I’ve looked at/clicked on and telling me what I’m missing out on (new price, or back in stock etc).
Customers want to be shown content specific to them and for me personally, I want to be able to increase the speed from seeing my product is cheaper or back in stock to clicking through and buying.
Reece Miller, Business Development Representative at Emarsys
Send one more email than you are comfortable sending (to engaged audiences). Especially at the fringe times – earlier on Thanksgiving and later at night on Cyber Monday have yielded big results.
JR: You are saying fringe times, what does that mean – and why do you think that has worked so well?
Many brands start with notions like “no way should we send 3 emails on Cyber Monday” or “we don’t want to send before 3 pm on Thanksgiving day”. By getting in the inbox earlier in the day – or staying competitive later in the day, you get a jump on competitors.
Why? People are going to shop and being at the top of the inbox gives you a greater chance. *** Engaged Audiences!
Find a standout subject line that is different to the standard ‘Black Friday deals’ type lines, try personalizing the subject line and offer.
And by the time it gets to late on Cyber Monday I’ll assume you’ve tried reaching everyone you can several times, pushing as far as possible, without damage to reputation and deliverability.
If that’s the case then 7 hours before you close out on cyber Monday, email everyone who clicked during the promotion but didn’t yet convert.
JR: Cool that is like 3 tips in one Tim. I like the follow up especially. “Did click, not convert” is a smart (and easy) way to find those that are interested.
Tim Watson, Founder at Traction Six and Zettaphere
Black Friday SaaS deals dance break! We bundled over 45 Black Friday SaaS Deals. This will easily save you hundreds of dollars.
If that doesn’t make you dance, I don’t know what will.
Now on with more Conversion tips...
Don’t forget to think ‘post click’. Yes as email marketers we’re great at getting opens and clicks (in the email) but don’t forget to consider the whole purchase/booking process.
Is there something you can tweak in your campaign to make life easier and quicker for recipients who want to get hold of your offers?
Three examples: 1. Help pre-fill forms, 2. Ensure any telephone numbers in the email are clickable. 3. Send existing subscribers down a slicker / quicker route than Joe Bloggs who may be making your website creek due to sheer volumes.
Natalie Rockall, Director & Email Marketing Consultant at eleven11 Digital and Total Email Marketing
Your process, QA, and analytics
One very simple but absolutely critical tip: If you’re going to increase discounts as the sale progresses, make sure those who purchased at a higher price are excluded! Worst CX move ever to miss this.
JR: Definitely. Worst thing is to see the thing you just bought, now cheaper.
1. Planned contingency. Be ready with the levers you need to push to be successful.
2. You’re competing with EVERYONE this time of year. If you’re not being compelling with an offer and “reasons to believe,” you’re not going to do well. Sit out or set reasonable expectations for your higher-ups.
– Don’t make any assumptions. Folks use BF/CM as gift buying opportunities. So perhaps personalizing *for* that specific person isn’t the best tactic.
– While volume and engagement can be high, and you’d think the perfect battleground for A/B testing, people engage wildly differently over BF/CM season vs. any other time.
– If you’re going to have any “limited time off” discounts, stick to your guns! Your audience will be watching your discounts like a hawk and the second you say something is extended or offer deeper discounts, you’ll start eroding your brand trust.
JR: That is true! The findings in A/B testing over BlackFriday period are most likely not representative for the rest of the year.
Jaina Mistry. Director, Brand and Content Marketing at Litmus
I’ll add 2 more tips:
1. Trust your own data: It’s easy to fall into the trap of following what other businesses are doing during BFCM. Sure, their strategies can be useful, but nothing beats the insights you can pull from your own tools. Your email marketing platform or CRM is packed with valuable data—USE IT!
For example; if your data shows that your customers are more active in the evenings, don’t send emails in the morning just because that’s the “norm.” Instead, schedule them for when your audience is actually paying attention. And if your marketing tech shows that a lot of people abandon their carts for a specific product, maybe that’s your signal to offer a special deal on that item. Let your data lead the way.
2. Plan your inventory carefully: As you’re preparing all those exciting BFCM campaigns, don’t forget to double-check your stock levels. There’s nothing worse than running out of a hot item right at the start! Make sure you’ve got enough of your best-sellers and, if anything does start to sell out, have some backup products that your customers are also interested in, so you’re not left empty-handed 🫠
Mariam Alli. Content Editor at Email Vendors Selection
This is the time of the season, which I refer to as ‘The Inbox Sh!t Show.’ It’s when every marketer, their brother, sister, uncle, or whoever decides to email the heck out of their mailing list, and every ISP and mailbox provider are left fending off unwanted and overstuffed inboxes full of spam and irrelevant garbage.
My suggestion is to be methodical about what you want to send between now and the end of the year and to create a content calendar that supports your email marketing efforts, with measurable outcomes.
Mailbox providers like Microsoft, Gmail, Yahoo, and others heavily rely on engagement metrics such as opens, clicks, replies, and the lack of unsubscribes or flagged as spam as the barometer to determine whether your email makes it to the inbox, the junk folder, or goes missing altogether.
There are many opportunities between now and the end of the year to email your subscribers. I would strongly suggest picking your days carefully so that you send emails during non-peak inbox rushes.
My last suggestion is this: DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
JR: Plan it out the whole oct / nov / dec for content. Jeff Ginsberg any anecdotes about end of the year email?
Jeff: I “know” a company ? that insisted on sending a Terms of Service email in December and January, not only to the unengaged but also to the unsubscribed ?.
Needless to say, the performance metrics for that campaign sucked ? , and the fallout from the deliverability backlash killed their inboxing reputation. This was especially painful ? as they had been working hard to improve it over the previous six months.
November to December can be a risky period for trigger-happy ? mailers, as well as for marketing to segments that are either unengaged or not expecting ? your email.
If your customers or subscribers haven’t responded to your emails in the last 90-120 days, chances are your Black Friday or Cyber Monday offer won’t resonate ? with these audiences. That’s why I suggest A/B testing ⚖ disengaged segments to explore potential opportunities within these groups.
If you disregard this advice ⚠ and continue sending crap ? be prepared to call your customers on the phone ☎️ and ask them to retrieve ? your email from the Junk Folder ?️ if you want them to read it ?.
Wishing EVERYONE, Happy Holidays and Safe Mailing!!!
Jeff Ginsberg, Chief eMail Officer at the eMail company
With cybercriminals constantly getting better at their craft, it’s important that you, as a brand, showcase the credibility of your email comms. One way to do this is by implementing BIMI. Not only will it show that your email is legitimate, but it also improves the chances of your email landing in the inbox. A really important requirement for Black Friday success.
JR: I wonder if it is the smartest move for people to change DNS settings around this time of year (but they are probably already too late for this season). So a good one to prepare. How long does the BIMI implementation take on average you’d say?
Karyn: Valid point, it may indeed be too late for this year. The time for VMC validation varies based on the brand’s DMARC compliance and trademark registration. If DMARC compliant with a registered trademark, it takes around 1 month. Otherwise, it may take 6 to 36 months, as they must first become DMARC compliant and then register a trademark for their logo before purchasing a Verified Mark Certificate.
When to start: Way before BFCM. Weeks before. First, for collaboration purposes. You share your special deals with each other’s contact base. And do other marketing activities together. Second, to grow your contact base. You need to learn your new contacts’ preferences to further segment them properly, so you send only relevant offers. Third, you need to announce your BF sale in advance to make your audience anticipate this sale. It is best if you build an email sequence. One single email is never enough.
Email content: We must remember that the BFCM weekend is about discounts and sales, free delivery, cashback service, courses, etc. So, you need to emphasize this visually. GIFs and timers are meant to draw users’ attention to your content.
Please note: sometimes companies run out of product items on sale, which annoys users. Use real-time content (best implemented with AMP or Nifty Images’ Dynamic Content) so that users can always see the actual quantity of product items left in stock).
How to get your emails opened:
How do you get your emails open, given that customers receive hundreds of them a day?
• Work on your subject lines. Describe your super deals in them, in a nutshell, so that users know what they’re gonna get inside. • Annotation of your emails in Promo tabs (this is when recipients can see the start and end day of your sale and the amount of the sale). And the banner of your email. • Know your contacts. Segment your contact base. And personalize subject lines.
Dont’s:
• never ever buy a contact base • never ever send one single email to the entire contact list — segment • never use extremely low prices as a magic bullet
✔️Segment – You usually run a blanket offer but your messaging varies based on WHO the recipient is.
✔️Create Bundles – Create baskets of products / offers so you gain traction with sales volume.
✔️Start early – countdown series / fun nudges / dropping clues etc.
✅ Take advantage of AMP Emails – Removing friction by letting users edit and finish abandoned cart journeys within their emails. Creating a “be the first to know” or “early access” segment using a simple “thumbs up ?? or thumbs down ??” widget to see how many subscribers are truly keen on early access and opening up the sale a few hours earlier for them. Etc.
Perhaps more than 1 tip 😀 Don’t only discount articles that’s taking up your shelf storage, there needs to be some candy there as well.
Also have a plan A, B & C ready. What do you do if you sell out quicker than expected. Or if it is not selling as planned, can you change something? Make sure every department is prepared on what to do to execute the different plans.
For instance: Having a plan what to replace the products with if performing over plan. Of course if you don’t want to discount more. But also it can be valuable to use the momentum you have and add products. Also with the plan I’m thinking that it takes preparations from marketing having material, perhaps IT to make changes front-end/backend, Ecommerce to change/add things on site, CRM/MA content to send out etc. It often requires more than you think if changing offers, so important that teams are aligned with what happens if X or Y happens as you need to move fast.
About email specifics, a counter can be a great idea. There are also tools, if you have resources to be really sophisticated, that can replace content afterwards
JR: Plan A-B-C to scale up, scale down and if everything goes sideways.
⏬ Scale down (if you are selling too quick) Offer different products instead, reducing number of emails, Smaller segments, reserve the products / longer delivery times, agree to have vendor stand by to deliver more products, batched deployment (group by group).
⏫ So for email scale up plan (if not selling) I could imagine: Pre-registration, sending reminders, extending the offers, increasing the offer discount or product plus. Adding paid channels.
Great post, my tips would be: 1. Go from #BlackFriday to #BlackWeek (#BW ) 2. Use pre-access to BW-offers as an extra permission incentive 3. Start marketing the BW-list well before BW! (Onsite and in lead ads) 4. Emphasize offers where suppliers co-fund the discounts 5. Set up and schedule all BW communication well in advance 6. Use gamification to make BW communication more engaging and to collect data on customers and their households 7. Include a ‘snooze BW button’ in all BW communication
Cutting through the BFCM cluttered inbox is a must.
Rather than 1 hit on the day, promote and ’tease’ the sale before the day (week etc) Use the power of multiple channels to promote. Social for email sign up to get the best offer first. Sign up to SMS for a early entry VIP access promoted via email etc. Warm and nurture your base towards the sale.
Convert those thinking of buying by offering them ‘first chance’ to purchase. When working for a Hotel chain we used a SMS ‘VIP’ send as part of the overall BF campaign. It worked so well the volume of traffic generated pushed the website load management to the limit. Extra tip – throttle your SMS sends 😉
JR: “It worked so well the volume of traffic generated pushed the website load management to the limit.”
Yeah. I’d say to throttle any send (also email) if you expect systems to be pushed to limits, But also have static pages and extra capacity / fallback. If your site goes down, is terrible.
Pro-tip: An ESP where you can change the links after sending CAN save your life. 😀
DON’T saturate your subscribers. Make sure you have suppressions for your regular campaign flows. Or adjust them to fit around BFCM promos. And this year, in particular, with another world financial crisis, DO NOT guilt potential customers into buying. Get that copy “right” ?
JR: Very smart, yes you’ll have to go through the automated emails as well. For instance if you have a welcome flow with a discount, but it is lower than the offer in BlackFriday… Abandonned cart, etc, etc.
I am not a fan of making people feel guilty for not buying, although a little bit of urgency and FOMO can work very well.
Simon Harper. eCommerce & WordPress Website Designer at SRH Designs
Most important is not mentioned yet: look at what happend last year(s). What worked well? What worked less?
Learn from what you did and keep learning. Not sure what to conclude from previous year(s) then put your hypotheses in A/B/C test. But only if your audience is big enough! So sad to see that marketeers sometimes make conclusions based on not – significant test results.
Let’s see if I can add a few unusual tips for this season.
First, let’s get rid of the mandatory ones:
⚠️ Prepare an ever-increasing volume of emails so as not to scare the ESPs when the time comes. If they see an unusual number of emails from your sender, they might block your emails when you need them the most.
🥵 Prepare anticipation right out of the bat, a few weeks or months before, and have them enter a VIP list way before the date to exclusive access the offers way before the others. Also, differentiate between the types of clients: regulars, high-ticket, influencers, etc. Use it more as a retention campaign than to get new customers.
📣 Incentivise shareability among your audience. Make it about them and not you. For instance, “Look how I’m so amazing. I found the best bargain on the internet. Me!!”
🧐 Exclusivity wins, especially when it comes to high-ticket products. If your well-regarded client list has exclusivity, as mentioned in a previous point, but then they can give their exclusive network of friends access to the same line of products, but for not-as-good pricing, it can be a great incentive for them to share and show how privileged they are. Again, playing with their vanity.
JR: 📣 Incentivise shareability that are about them = very interesting. Love to see that in real life.
Rui: Here’s an example.
This is the idea!
JR: OMG, now that is a hefty reaction :D. So what if I am not Nike and my customers / VIPS aren’t superfan already – we’d have to get more creative then.
📌 Enrich customer profiles with “I want this” 😎 I’ll start with one of my own favorites
The Holiday period is becoming longer. Brands are starting their pre-promotions earlier, and the offers end later. But you don’t want to start your promotions too early with blanket promotions.
👉 Rather, make sure to check how complete the profiles in your database are. ❤️ Do your customer profiles tell you exactly what people want? ❤️Do you know which products / services to exclude? ❤️ Is the data recent enough?
A pretty straightforward trick to make these Emails pop is to make best use of what you know the customer wants, turn to targeted marketing and make them love you.
If there are holes in the profiles, you can ask for preferences, or to (pre)fill their wish list. Another way is to tease them with similar items or related content and track the clicks to get that individual data.
Additional data allows you to be much more specific in your targeting personalization, and segment. And don’t forget about that negative data, that tells you what people DON’T LIKE.
Jordie Van Rijn. Founder and Chief of Email Vendors Selection
Be prepared for this to be a long peak period. Most people have already started. Things to contend with
> People have limited budgets
> Expect discount by default almost
> Deal fatigue (goes against above)
> We value services over products
Planning around this, feels like more emails, to smaller groups. I am suggesting an email that asks people what they want – think your best customers. You have said much of this yourself but it is the toughest environment we have seen in some time. And we don’t know what curveballs will come either.
Finally, develop mail specific landing pages – make this experience feel connected. It is not enough to go to category pages anymore.
This is the Christmas of “Little Increments Everywhere”
JR: Ecommerce is having a harder time and marketing in general is in a rough stage. (less budget, less organics, fierce competition).
So breaking up the list into smaller groups and have a more tuned approach + specific landing pages. Is good idea, but also seems like more work.
I have seen it pay off. A specific offer (30% on this thing you wanted) vs blanket offer (30% on everything) rationally the specific one is a worse offer, but in practice is a way better offer and converts way better.
Some things I like to do, and this might sound counterintuitive, but I want to start with an opt out. This shows you care about your customers and they might want to be bombarded with emails, this keeps on them ready for your other emails and they’ll appreciate it.
Then, definitely tease and build anticipation for the sale.
And when someone buys, make sure to take them out of the campaign!
JR: Do you mean to add an extra opt-out for the blackfriday email campaigns? Maybe you can illustrate how that looks and works in your case. Is this in a seperate email or how do you show the opt out normally?
Juliette: It’s part of a teaser email, just letting them know that BFCM is coming. Then just a simple link to opt out of the upcoming promotion. Then they get tagged to make sure they don’t receive those emails.
Juliette Cabrera. Email Strategiest and Copywriter at JC Marketing Innovations
There have been many discussions on this topic. I would pick 3 points: 1. Don’t start emailing people who purchased 15 years ago, but have not been engaged since. 2. Make something special that only email subscribers receive 3. Test everything before sending the email – landing pages, loading speed, different email clients, etc to make sure all the technical aspects work properly.
JR: I like the idea of giving something special / exclusive that only email subscribers get, and so that will be both a subscription reason and a kind of loyalty mechanism.
Like early access,
higher discounts,
product plus (get something extra for free),
exclusive products.
What else could we add for this BlackFriday?
Tali: Brands need to make sure they do offer something “special”, and not just advertise it in an email but in reality, everyone gets the same deal.
Tali Hasanov. Principal, Certified Digital Marketing Consultant at WSI Digital Path Marketing
My favourite thread of them all, Jordie! 😍 Here are a few that I would highlight:
Pre BFCM
⏳ prepare that BF starts earlier than you may think! Plan ahead and beware of the market situation (are there also e.g. elections in the country you are working in?)
🚿 cleanse and verify your audience
🚨 re-engage your old subscribers
🎯 define and find your VIPs in your list
🗓 plan your promotions and product drop calendar with special benefits to your loyalty members / VIPs
👫 create your zero and first party data strategy: What can you collect and enrich during BFCM? What can you use/followup on after the event?
✖ Plan cross-channel activation aligned with all (digital) marketing and offline options
🎁 send out “Save to wishlist” / “sign up to be notified” way in advance before products go on sale / drop: my ultimate favourites are
🛣 if possible, setup automated journeys for these
📞 integrate customer service messaging for free shipping, (extended) free returns, etc.
🎄 implement communications for gifting messaging relevant to the cultures in your target market: many people might buy gifts already in BFCM
🚀 Let’s go!
JR: Gifting yes.
So that is also a datapoint to ask for. If someone is gifting we ideally like to know that (for later time). And then some offers can be “buy one, give one”.
Make sure you also prepare for Black Friday with a smart reactivation campaign by e-mail.
Why? Older or less active records are often overlooked or just sent standard communication. Black Friday is a great opportunity to reactivate some of them and be more aggressive.
Thoughts here:
If you have a higher unsubscribe rate here, that’s OK for this segment.
Its easier to share big discounts during Black Friday without cannibalizing too much on normal pricing. You could even use the biggest discounts here.
Use clear segments to have better learnings afterwards. Make a benchmark with usual click rates, opens and turnover for each segment for the past year.
Then compare the upside during the Black Friday Reactivation Campaign.
Valuable insights could be: – what records do not even convert with Black Friday? – what is the upside in sales and interaction during Black Friday? – how much additional traffic was driven to the website? – what kind of content does well for this target group?
Especially for bigger databases, the upside can be huge. Because you start to tap in on a part of the database that is often neglected. Next year, you evaluate in time how this years reactivation campaign went. Improve. Repeat.
JR: Great points. And the evaluation is also very important.
* For those who can’t (easily) get segmented metrics out of their software, they may want to send the emails to specific segments separately and be able to compare that way.
* Make sure to tag any kind of tracking links with the proper utm tags.
what else?
Taco: Thank you for zooming in on the evaluation Jordie. Especially for an event like black friday its important to map out beforehand what valuable answers and insights you want to have about your database.
Rather than creating many different segments, I would consider adding tags to different parts / flavours in your database. When evaluating all results, you can make exports from for instance people that clicked on a certain CTA.
Understanding what kind of people are triggered by your mails is where the gold is. Then you can follow up on them. Or decide to try something new.
Consider for instance: how many are new? How many are reactivated? How many are recurring buyers? What are previous purchases? How long ago?
So basically what I am saying here is don’t just look at the standard stuff like open rate and click rate. But start looking at actual data. Cluster them. Discover patterns. Make your campaigns smarter. Repeat.
Bonus points if you share key insights within your marketing or sales department with actual examples of customers. Make them visible. My bet is that you will look different at the next campaign if you give your data a face.
Taco de Koning. Freelance CRM en e-mailmarketing specialist
What’s up Jordie!!! A few ideas from the MailerLite team
Let others do the talking. Empower your subscribers to become BFCM micro-influencers…
1. Start early with a subscriber UGC campaign (contest) on social media and then feature the best content in your BFCM email promotions as engaging social proof.
2. Offer an extra discount for subscribers who share your offer to X amount of people on social media or through their email.
3. Run an exclusive VIP sale for the subscribers who spread the promotion to others & make sure to ask them to “favorite” your email in their inbox (for outlook) / or to mark it as “important” for gmail so that they don’t miss the future VIP discounts
4. Create a super-charged refer-a-friend campaign. Make it too good to be true. Then have a plan to retain them when the euphoria fades
JR: Hey Jonas that is an interesting combo of UGC, social proof, and tell a friend during the BFCM season.
I remember a good one from an airline where the main pre-promotion was: Where do you want to go with a friend? So catching the interest for destination, getting into their ear + tell a friend.
And there was a level up your discount-mania-campaign (i am getting the name wrong) from Surfer and Tom Niezgoda, where you unlock extras + the more people sign up the more you can unlock as well. Amazing execution on that one.
My tip is to make the offerings personal and relevant. If you know that a customer always buys sneakers but looks at high heels, don’t offer a discount on sneakers, cause she will buy them anyway, offer a discount on the high heels she looks at to convince her to buy a pair for once. So be data driven and make the right segments and offerings for each of your customers. And offer customers more than non customers. Reward their loyalty to you
JR: This is interesting. So you can make an offer that is on an unmet desire. Or maybe the upsell or other category that the customer normally doesn’t buy.
It has me thinking about
The emotional effect of getting those aspirational goods,
The feeling of getting (or missing out on) a great deal
Segment your database and write a tailored message per audience-group. Be sure to connect the offer to something urgent for your audience at this moment. Example; ‘working on your marketing plan for 2025? We got your back with this offer…’.
Also; give a serious discount AND over-deliver.
JR: So Marcel, you are saying to segment the messaging of the offers. Which makes sense.
For one there are some well known segments in there VIPS, Last year discount shopper and also gifting. Check out the buy for my self versus gifting email example from Kent.
My absolute favourite Black Friday tip is to capture “early adaptors” and “laggards”.
1️⃣ Give your customers sneak peeks of the Black Friday deals to come. You will get your customers excited, they know what to expect and there’s a good chance they will share your deals among their peers.
2️⃣ Grant early access to your best deals to your A customers. You will make your best customers feel valued and be part of an exclusive circle, especially when deals are limited.
3️⃣ Run last-chance or extended Black Friday deals. Giving your customers a last chance even after BF has “officially” ended can create a sense of additional urgency and bring even the laggards to convert.
If you haven’t done already: start enriching and segmenting your database so you can send out emails campaigns with relevant offers/content for the best conversion. If you are a bit behind schedule: run two campaigns at the same time where 1 is focused on generating permissions, and second on segmenting.
We see an increase of companies using ‘low effort, high conversion’ game formats to generate email permissions, and segmenting them in preparation of Black Friday campaigns.
Because not only does email win the challenge of still returning the highest conversion rate, but also prepping email campaigns avoids paying too much for your paid ad campaigns in a period where most are fighting for the attention of their audience. There is of course a lot of focus on SoMe marketing for good reason, but email marketing has a different purpose and is relevant more than ever. It’s not or/or, rather and/and when it comes to allocating budget and time, imho of course.
99% of your success or failure will be on your data segments – How might you prepare?
Get a countdown email funnel going. Mostly preparing your volume for your BIG send and also in case your delivery dumps on that day you have already delivered messages lined up preparing your loyalty (segment) customers for the “Big Payoff” on your sale days and links that can redirect them to the FINAL HOURS, PAYOUT, SALE, BIG BONUS, EXTRA SPIN .. or whatever you chose to do. good luck!
Keith Kouzmanoff, Postmaster of Email at Inter7 Internet Technologies
May sound basic, but split test. Split test subject lines with a small segment early, split test content, CTAs, you name it.
Start with a smaller segment and send the winner to the remainder of your list. The incremental wins can make a big difference at a time like BF/CM (and Giving Tuesday).
If you’re heavily discounting, avoid sending recipients emails of discounted products who had recently purchased items at full price. It leaves a bad taste with consumers and starts to diminish any loyalty.
Instead, segment out recent purchasers of the products that are being featured. Instead, if you can, send those recent purchasers complementary products that are maybe now discounted that would be relevant to their recent purchase.
Jenna Tiffany, Founder and Strategy Director of Let’sTalk Strategy, Chartered Marketer
Segmentation, personalization, heavy discounts (include % in subject lines), GIFs.
Don’t make them choose between too many offers at the same time, and retarget those who did not convert during the holiday season.
Also, by segmenting your database you will reduce deliverability issues with some email clients who are trying to handle a higher volume of emails at the same time.
It has not been an easy time for the (travel) industry, but we keep working hard to make people’s dreams travel. Stay tuned and follow our progress!
Juan-Pablo Botero, Marketing Automation Specialist at International Air Transport Association
Segmentation is the key. This is the time to show how well a business understands its customers and how well customers are segmented on the basis of their history. Now is the time to utilise the segments and run hyper targeted promotions.
So send discount deals to customers who are more keen on discount vs FOMO to those customers who never want to miss on new launches.
Sandeep Saxena, Founder and CEO at PostBox Consultancy Services
Black Friday SaaS deals dance break! We bundled over 90 Black Friday SaaS Deals. This will easily save you hundreds of dollars.
If that doesn’t make you dance, I don’t know what will.
Now on with more Segmentation tips...
Cause related marketing and changing the narrative
With everyone on the BFCM bandwagon, I am backing an Anti-Black Friday/Cyber Monday Campaign.
The idea is to flip the typical high-pressure, urgency-driven sales narrative on its head and can create a lot of attention.
Here’s how it could work:
The Concept: No Sale, No Rush, Just Value
Strategy: Instead of running deep discounts and sending non-stop promotional emails, you take a calm, contrarian approach by offering no sale at all, or a minimal discount while focusing on storytelling, building relationships, and positioning your brand as ethical, sustainable, or different from the noise.
Target Audience: This can appeal to customers who are overwhelmed or exhausted by the barrage of promotions during the holiday season and are looking for brands with a different message.
Subject Line Ideas:
“Thank You, That Is All.”
“We’re Skipping Black Friday – Here’s Why!”
“Too Many Emails? Just Delete This One”
“Always Great Prices, and Free Shipping.”
Message Content:
Explain Why: Position your email with a clear and relatable story. For instance, explain that your brand believes in everyday fair pricing, focuses on quality over quantity, or wants to promote mindful shopping rather than impulsive buying.
Ethical or Sustainability Focus: Use the email to talk about the environmental impact of overconsumption during Black Friday or how your brand prioritizes sustainability and slow fashion, if relevant. Highlight that your brand believes in thoughtful consumption rather than jumping on the discount train.
Alternative Value: Instead of a discount, offer something special that’s non-transactional, like an exclusive behind-the-scenes video, a free virtual workshop, early access to a new collection, or a donation to a charitable cause based on purchases made.
Reverse Sale Incentive Pay More, Get More: This bold approach flips discounts by creating a pay more, give more strategy, where customers who voluntarily choose to pay more than the listed price (for certain items) contribute to a charity or social cause.
Example: For every purchase made, the customer can opt to add a contribution that the brand matches for donations to environmental, social justice, or health-related causes. This creates a sense of goodwill and positions your brand as caring beyond just sales.
Surprise Element Email Instead of announcing a major sale on Black Friday, send out an email promising something special, but without revealing it in advance. The twist is, the “surprise” isn’t a huge discount, it’s an exclusive experience (e.g., VIP membership access, product personalization, or a giveaway entry that’s truly unique).
Email Series: The Slow Burn Sale FOMO-Free Sale: Run a longer, slow-burn sale that happens before or after BFCM. Tell your customers or prospects, “We know you’re bombarded with sales right now, so we’re saving our offer for later when the dust settles.” This makes your email campaign stand out because it avoids the holiday rush, offering customers a breather from the frenzy.
Gratitude Email Campaign No Sale, Just Thanks: Send out a heartfelt “Thank You” email to your customers instead of a sales pitch. Tell them how much they mean to your brand, highlight customer stories, share milestones, and emphasize the value of their support throughout the year. A unique touch could be a personalized video from the CEO or someone in leadership.
Scarcity Twist: Limited “No Sale” Products Instead of discounting, launch a limited edition product that can only be purchased at its full price during Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Emphasize scarcity, exclusivity, and craftsmanship—this turns the BFCM ethos upside down but still uses the urgency factor in a positive way.
Unsubscribe Challenge (this one is controversial!) A crazy idea would be to offer customers an unsubscribe to win challenge during BFCM. In the email, you challenge your customers to unsubscribe for a chance to win a unique or high-value prize (e.g., a year of free products, a large gift card, or an exclusive service). Why should you do this? It sounds counterintuitive, but it generates curiosity, taps into reverse psychology, and ensures that only highly engaged users remain subscribed, improving your overall list quality. Make sure to tell people what they will miss out on.
Why This Can Work:
Inboxes are flooded with discount-driven, high-pressure sales emails. Offering a unique, anti-sale message cuts through the noise. It may help build brand loyalty and long term subscriber relationships. Sure it is controversial, but sometimes the craziest ideas are best, right?
JR: Pay more, get more = great. I had this discussion recently, that some shops also just close on BlackFriday because the brand is anti-consumerism. Can be a very strong brand signal.
The unsubscribe challenge I don’t see how that one would work. Like here is a gift, if you get off the list. Hmmm. Maybe if it is like a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery exclusive email list.
Hank: Yes, that one is very subjective. But I do feel like it’s always good to push people off your list if they don’t want to be there. Kind of like when Amazon used to offer people money to not take the job to see how they would react. 🤯
Hank Hoffmeier. Sr. Manager of Marketing Operations at Kickbox
When a big opportunity stares us in our faces, there’s an understandable tendency to try and make the most of it. That doesn’t mean to allow your brand to become something it’s not – just because of this apparent opportunity to engage more, convert more, and sell more.
Opportunities like BFCM can become detrimental to a brand’s health if mishandled with wrong approaches to consumers/customers, be it the wrong offers, wrong messages, or the wrong approach. Remember, they see things like BFCM as an opportunity for them.
Recognize that as a willingness on their part to engage more with you, to say “yes” more quickly or more often, and buy more. To suddenly, inexplicably become something you’re not, to communicate in a way that’s unfamiliar – you put that relationship you’ve worked so hard to establish and strengthen at risk.
Consider rewarding their loyalty with special offers or special services. If you’ve never been about price – don’t have that become your core value for a couple of days. Make it about what your brand has always been about…with the added appeal of something…and yes, that can be special pricing. Remember, there’s maybe a week’s worth of such special sales days like BFCM across a year. Play the long game to win.
Steve Hoechster. Director of Content & Communications at Stensul
Incorporate a unique programmatic feature, such as a philanthropic initiative where a percentage of every dollar spent contributes to a charitable cause. Ensure that this distinctive aspect is prominently conveyed in both the subject line and the body of the email. This strategy is certain to set your brand apart amidst the overwhelming noise.
And I would have a very neutral charity, given the current state of the world. (sad but true)
Andrew Kordek. Vice President of Customer Engagement at iPost
It’s a tricky time to stand out. Why wouldn’t you not display your brand logo in Gmail then? Literally takes 10mins no matter what email vendor you use. Step by step guide: sensorpro.net/senderlogo
And what did others do last year? Head over to liveinboxer.com and steal from the best. You might find some good ideas on ReallyGoodEmails and milled.com too.
For Shopify users, add a countdown timer to your site banner.
No one knows ecom better than Vinny O’Brien so do whatever he says. Use dynamic images or countdown timers with tools like niftyimages to convey urgency.
PS hat tip to John Walsh for reminding me about Giving Tuesday (right after BFCM) so consider partnering with a charity and announcing that a portion of all sales will go towards a good cause.
An underrated move is to team up with other brands. Regardless of what you do with your discounts, having a “team-up” communication strategy helps to boost and increase the reach of your offer. And keep your content ENTERTAINING
How would a brand do that?
Most brands do have a network of either “partners” or brands that work closely with them. If they help with cross-promotion it’s only a win for both. The entertaining factor will have to go with their tone of voice, and how far and crazy can they go. But remember this is fall/Halloween season, you either stick to the season or go crazy with a pre-Xmas promotion ?
Marcos Bravo. Founder & Brand Evangelist at The Waterlemon
Ethical marketing prompts – anything linking Black Friday promotions to fair trade, green initiatives, and social activism gets my business.
While it’s been a tough year, consumers still want that feel-good factor when they buy something, knowing that their hard-earned cash is going towards the greater good.
Chris Cano – Content Strategist & Senior Writer at dotdigital
For our B2B investment brands, I’d say either be bold and get creative with your comms on BFCM (it’s an opportunity to humanise your brand) or avoid sending event reminders or product updates on these days completely.
Send more than one email, so building a campaign where you create a sense of urgency and remind customers that this is their last chance.
And since this is a difficult time, I personally find it nice the association with a good cause. Part of the income can be used to support those who need it for example.
JR: Building in empathy, I like it Dalila. What would you set on the foreground still the discount or the cause? That depends on the campaign goals, I don’t have a personal preference?
Dalila Bonomi, Design Researcher & Service Designer at Beefree
I’m gonna keep it real simple – don’t include the words “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday” in your subject lines. Every other brand and their mother is going to do the same. Your subject line will get lost in the deluge.
Try putting your own spin on it OR lead with your offer.
JR: We should make a list of spins / original subject lines ~ as inspiration. Being original is HARD! ?
If that doesn’t make you dance, I don’t know what will.
Now on to Deliverability...
Deliverability!
One tip that is often forgotten is ‘warm up your IPs’ if you are going to do a lot more mailings than usual.
And please, pretty please, don’t trick your customers by raising the prices leading up to BFCM so you can offer “biG DiScouNTs”. Please remember that in that case you are fooling and telling lies to the people who’s loyalty you might need in the future.
And also: double opt-in all the new customers you might acquire and maybe filter out temporary email addresses as they might cost you unwanted bounces in the future.
JR: You know on the point of fake discounts… I had an experience last year from a big ecommerce site, that they did have some outrageous discounts on shoes and sweaters, but then all of them were either
> out of stock or > too small or too big size.
and then with other colors being available but for higher prices. ;/
Not a great experience. And they could have filtered these non-matching products out of the emails at least.
Mark: I would like to call that kind of practices ‘misleading’. I would probably never shop there again if that’s how you treat your customers.
I have often had it with a big clothing e-commerce website that I saw a caroussel Social ad with nice pieces of clothing being promoted for a great price and then when I click it’s no longer available. And not just one, ALL of the items in that caroussel. Just to get clicks and hoping that people will then buy other things instead. And it wasn’t an incident with them: I have checked those ads a couple of times in the weeks after that when I got one served again, and it was the same experience. Probably a marketing department that has a target on clicks and not on conversions 😂
Mark Kruisman. E-mailmarketing Specialist at Centraal Beheer
Following this best practice is key to maintaining strong deliverability and successfully landing in customer inboxes: Run a re-engagement campaign with customers who aren’t interacting with your emails. Once you’ve tried that, take any non-engagers off your holiday send list. 👍
JR: So just don’t email the non engaged during holiday season you would say? Even when you don’t really have any deliverability issues?
Why I’d love your thoughts on this. Is because the other side of the coin is that this season has a bit higher rate of reactivation.
Frank: It’s because a sudden spike in email volume can negatively impact your sending reputation and lead to deliverability issues. The peak season makes deliverability more challenging than usual.
Frank R. Freier Berater für E-Mail-Marketing at VERTUS
Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and then the Holiday Season are quite difficult, mostly because Q4 is the busiest time of the year for marketing (and email marketing) in general.
So it’s important to be strategic during this period.
First of all, it’s important to maximize the value for your customers—offer proper deals to those who matter.
But also remember yourself and your sustainability – don’t undersell your products/services just because others do.
Then, ensure that your messages will actually be delivered.
To do so:
1. clean your list (if you don’t do it holistically and regularly),
2. check your set-up (authentication: SPF, DKIM, DMARC),
3. run some deliverability tests,
4. do some warm-up with pre-hot-season send-outs (if you don’t engage with your audience regularly)
Points 1-3 are quite technical, and there are tools to help you with that 😉
The warm-up is both technical and about engaging with your customers … you might want to do a pre-deal to re-engage part of your audience and warm up your infrastructure at the same time.
If you were not communicating with your audience regularly during the year I would:
– clean the list first,
– start with some email campaign (can have some Fall Deal, but does not have to) to engage customers first,
– then, if all is good with the deliverability, send another campaign to engaged and part (or all) non-engaged customers,
– maybe run one more…
Based on the engagement for these, segment your audience, and decide who you want to target during THE SEASON. We have created a short checklist on that topic…
With number three I mean testing your content and also tooling by sending the emails to objective email addresses, to see if they land in spam or inbox + to learn what might be the areas of improvements in terms of deliverability. It’s also known as seed tests.
One thing I will be focusing on this year is not landing in spam or over doing it. Hit and spray just isn’t going to cut it this year
JR: Just need to change this meme to deliverability.
Ben Harrington, Email Marketing Consultant at Truffleshuffle Media
Expect busy inboxes! This may be a great time to *gradually* increase your number of deliveries for a seasonal push. And then drop back to your normal flow after. Don’t overdo this, but you may need to send more emails to get opens!
My tip is an experience that we had from last year BFCM campaigns. Last year we saw with a lot of our clients that the pressure on inbox providers like Gmail, Microsoft, Apple Mail on the specific friday of Black Friday was enourmous. It ensured that emails scheduled at the beginning of the day only ended up in the inbox hours later. That can of course be fatal for your results. So if I had to choose one tip, I would say: don’t let the success of your BFCM campaign depend on Black Friday itself. But start your communication earlier (or later) to ensure that the emails end up in the inbox at the time you want.
I’ve put together several thoughts about fourth quarter best practices for deliverability success.As the fourth quarter isn’t just a season of celebration and giving; it’s also a time of intense competition and potential pitfalls.
Avoid Mailing Long Inactive Users and Volume Spikes
Gradually Grow Your Target Audience
Send to Targeted Segments
Respect Subscribers’ Diverse Holiday Preferences
Consider Inviting People to More Frequent Holiday Deal-Specific Newsletters
Importance of Data Hygiene During the Fourth Quarter
Be Aware of Fake Shipping Notifications and Phishing of Your Brand
Implement Strong Authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to Protect Consumers
Here’s my 1 insight about the martech side of the BFCM email campaigns: make sure that your ESP/MAP performs well and the user has access to the content on time.
2 examples from my experience: 1. In some ESPs, the email delivery speed may go down during the BFCM season, leading to poor performance of your campaigns. You want to get to your audience’s inboxes faster than your competitors, right? Always check your delivery time and contact your ESP support if needed, to ensure good delivery speed.
2. Sometimes, the tracking links in your emails may break – that can lead to errors and slow image / page downloads. A user may open the email, click the link and then just close the tab because the tracking link doesn’t perform as it should. Test the links in your email before sending the campaign.
It’s clear that the tech aspect is important, but if we forget about it, errors like that can kill all the BFCM conversions.
So many tips ? Here is one from me: Many brands still do not authenticate their domains (SPF, DKIM) and use their ESP with “out of the box” domains. At this point, so close to Black Friday (and SM, etc.), in case a brand is not authenticating, it’s (in most cases) not the time to do so. I’ll do that slowly and surely warm up the brand domain (or a sub-domain) at least two months before the holiday season.
I would suggest marketers keep a few things in mind: > Black friday/cyber monday is not the time to dust off your list and email everyone who has ever purchased something of you in the past 15 years
> Run the best possible offer and send only to those who would be interested
> Ensure you are not still delivering email after the offer expires and do not run flash offers over this period if your esp is not able to deliver in a timely manner… A 24 hour flash offer sitting in a queue for 3 days before delivery will lead to disappointed subscribers.
Ask your ESP how long they retry messages for. Many are set to 3 days or longer by default. How much of your campaign is delivered within 3 hours? How much is still waiting to be delivered 18 hours after you click send? Do you know the answers to these questions? As a marketer I think you should.
If you have not cleaned your list in the last 6 months, give it a good clean before your #BFCM campaigns! ???
JR: What do you say to people that recommend the exact opposite? (BlackFriday is also the time that has biggest chance for reactivation I have heard).
True! I guess the biggest threats are inactive email addresses/ possible spam traps. If you are not cleaning your list, your email might not arrive in the inbox for those recipients to even have the chance to reactivate their subscription. The best thing to do would be to send a re-engagement campaign with some sort of #BFCM offer before any drip campaigns to ensure they still want to hear from you.
Remember those subscribers using AppleMail who have opted-in to the new privacy option will skew opens (depending on their portion size of your list) and also countdown timers based on opens will be effected by the loading of content on proxy servers. Also automations based on open rules will also be effected.
Give your VIP customers early access to BF/CM sales as a thank you and mention to order early as shipping and supply chains may impact product availability.
If you offer Gift Certificates make sure you have a plan to roll them out and promote around the time of your last shipping date for Christmas to give customers an option.
If you might have supply issues, be aggressive with early sales as people will be buying early to avoid sellout of products or shipping issues.
Intra-day Warmup. I have good expectations it will make a big difference in inbox placement. Start with the high engagers, then spread it out from there in increasing numbers.
JR: With intra-day, you mean on the same day or accross multiple days / sends? Within the same day, yes. Proving your reputation again and again every day as an extra effort to stand out from less-scrupulous senders.
Time for discounts for the eagerly awaiting audience. Coupled with eye-grabbing content a a subtle element like GIFs does have a good retention as well as conversion. Using the data segmentation to personalise the above does create a good engagement for the same.
Also this is the time to for the periodic clean up of email list for retargeting.
Hi Jordie – Encourage shoppers to get excited and prepared by adding a “wishlist” – this increases the chances of bagging that sale when the big event comes – check out the real life example from Freddy.
Everything about this email is striking and engaging. The imagery, the colour, the copy, the CTA, and the overall message.
Komal Helyer, Fractional CMO and Chair Email Council at DMA UK
