Black Friday Email Marketing: Best Practices and Examples

Black Friday, the day when businesses’ finances go “into the black” for the year, and Cyber Monday, the day after, are the two biggest shopping days of the year. People show up eager to spend both online and in person. It’s natural for a business owner to desire to capitalize on important occurrences. Is it, however, truly worth it? And, if so, how can you design effective campaigns for these occasions?

With these dates rapidly approaching—in 2021, it is critical to make your decisions now. This article will provide you with all of the knowledge you need to plan for these major shopping occasions.

In this article, I will share with you 8 best practices for Black Friday Email Marketing as well as some great examples that can inspire you. Let’s jump right into the details!

8 Black Friday email marketing best practices

1. Boost Your Email Subscribers’ List

If you don’t already have an email list, you should start building one right now. It’s useful, especially during the holiday season. The Black Friday weekend is the busiest shopping weekend of the year. To reap enormous riches, you should have all of your weapons available in your arsenal.

There is a good likelihood that consumers who have previously purchased from you will do so again. As a result, having an email subscriber list is critical.

To increase your email subscriber list, you must first strengthen your offerings with urgency for your products. Keep in mind that you must complete this prior to the launch of your Black Friday discounts and offerings.

Furthermore, promotional banners at the top of your most popular pages might provide exclusive discounts to email subscribers alone. Aside from that, you can always design a unique landing page to collect emails from visitors. Simply by doing so, you can point your visitors in the direction of the actions you want them to take.

2. Begin Sales Before Black Friday Weekend

You should not publicize your offerings on Black Friday or even Thanksgiving if you want to attract a large audience. Instead, you should start your promotions before that. Why? Because individuals are more knowledgeable about their holiday shopping before the official season begins.

According to Adobe’s Digital Insights, the holiday season begins before Black Friday. Furthermore, by Thanksgiving and Black Friday, your clients’ email inboxes will be clogged with promotional emails.

The best Black Friday Emails plan is to start early. You surely don’t want your customers to miss out on your promotional email in the midst of the storm. Convey the notion that your deals will begin the week of Black Friday, or perhaps the Friday before.

3. Test Your Black Friday Email Subject Lines

Increasing email open rates can be a challenging goal. It could be a combination of various factors such as time of day, week, weather, political event, and so on. Several factors influence your email subscribers’ willingness to open your messages.

However, we believe that one of the most important aspects influencing email open rates is the subject line of your emails. Typically, your instincts or experience will determine which topic lines result in higher open rates. However, there are a few more factors to consider. For example, should you use the word “free” in your emails, or should you say “discount,” “promotion,” or specifically state that the discount is “20 percent?”

Keeping the Black Friday weekend bustle in mind, you won’t have much time to test different email subject lines. Following that, you should conduct A/B testing on your email subject lines. It will allow you to enter two different versions and see which one performs better.

You can A/B test by distributing version A to 25% of your recipients and version B to the remaining 25%. The winner should be the subject line of the remaining 50% of emails.

4. Create Urgency in Your Black Friday Email Campaigns

In economics, we learn that when a product’s supply declines, its demand rises. It is critical that your Black Friday marketing initiatives instill a sense of urgency. For example, include a timer or scarcity with your products so that your buyers understand that the promotion is only available for a limited time. It considerably enhances the conversion rate.

Remember, if a buyer clicks on your promotion, you should keep the timer or urgency theme going. To boost your Cyber Monday email conversions, for example, configure your Cyber Monday email or page timers to expire at 11:59pm.

When you advertise your goods as scarce, you should show how many are left. If you have ten pieces available, show that just two are available. Notifications of others looking at or purchasing the same product will also have a major impact.

5. Reward Your Loyal Customers

It is a smart habit to provide additional incentives to your existing clients and subscribers in order to keep them loyal to your business.

You can provide your email subscribers early bird discounts, items on sale, free shipping, or a combination of these things. Also, market the fact that you reward your subscribers with such incentives to entice your website visitors to become email subscribers. You can also reward your loyal long-term customers with exclusive deals, free gifts, or ‘buy one get one free’ offers.

Rewarding your email subscribers and loyal consumers will allow you to massively grow your business. It will also allow you to lengthen the life of your customers.

6. Extend Your Deals Past Black Friday Weekend

It’s also a good idea to prolong your Black Friday marketing offerings past Cyber Monday. However, don’t go too far and prolong it all the way until Christmas. Simply extend it for 48 to 72 hours.

It is critical to sell your extension. Ensure that your promotions retain their scarcity and exclusivity during the prolongation. To extend sales, your Black Friday email campaign should be eye-catching and to the point.

Customers who did not have the opportunity to take advantage of your Black Friday deals can still purchase from you at a discount. Customers should be able to notice your emails by now. The majority of the emails have already been sent. There is a good probability that your potential customers’ email inboxes will be quieter after Black Friday. As a result, the more opportunities you have to shine.

7. Designing Your Black Friday Email

It is usually preferable to keep things simple. It is much better if you include columns because it makes your emails more responsive. Also, aim to keep your HD graphics and content in the email at a 60/40 ratio. Make sure your fonts and text size are aligned. Finally, choose which CTA buttons to use and make sure they are visible in a contrasting color. Overall, be lovely but don’t be quiet!

8. Don’t Forget Your Signature

Create a distinct voice for your emails. It will enable you to stand out and be easily noticed in your inbox. It’s especially important during a busy time like Black Friday. Your opponent will use a similar set of terms with different percentages of discounts.

There is no one-size-fits-all method for creating the ideal Black Friday email. The important aim here is to make sure that when your customers read your email, they identify you. If they open and read it in the midst of a slew of other promotional emails, you’ve done your job successfully.

We strongly advise that the identity of your brand (logo, style, voice, subject lines, graphics) be clearly visible in your promotional emails. It will improve your chances of capturing the interest of your reader.

8 Best Examples Of Black Friday Email Marketing

1. Carhartt’s Animated Black Friday Email

What is a sure-fire strategy to make your emails stand out? Make an animation out of them. Carhartt’s Black Friday email design contains a simple animation that is eye-catching and serves as a clever method of notifying that their deal has begun.

The only thing that isn’t mentioned is what discounts and deals they provide. This is crucial information for attracting folks to click through. At the very least, they have two distinct CTA buttons at the bottom of the email to aid in clicks.

Key takeaway: When most emails only have static images, a simple GIFT can make your emails stand out.

2. Forever 21’s Anticipation Building Email Design

People enjoy revealing the information contained on scratch cards. That is what makes Forever 21’s email design so appealing (even if they went bankrupt).

They’ve essentially ensured that users will click through to check what their additional two offers are by capitalizing on the need to scratch these cards.

Unlike previous Black Friday emails, this one provides a phone number for customer service as well as links to FAQs, store locators, and mobile apps. This assists in removing any hurdles that may exist between a buyer and their purchase.

Key takeaway: Thinking outside of the box when coming up with Black Friday email ideas will enable you to create a clever and unique design

3. ModCloth’s Colorful Black Friday Email

What is the most prevalent theme in Black Friday emails? The color black is used. That implies that using color to make your emails stand out is as simple as it gets. ModCloth clearly pushes the use of color to the extreme, which they can get away with because it fits their brand. Even if your business does not lend itself to using the entire rainbow, try including a few hues into your email design.

This sample, like any good Black Friday email, mentions their deal and includes a clear CTA button through to their online store. Although officially a Cyber Monday email, this design can be used for both Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Key takeaway: Just because it is Black Friday it doesn’t mean you’ll have to go heavy with the black color, experiment with other colors as a part of your Black Friday email strategy.

4. Casper’s Snooze Through Black Friday Email

Casper’s email, another example of both innovative email design and clever email language, invites readers to avoid the usual Black Friday shopping lines and instead visit their online store.

Many individuals are all too familiar with the idea of many alarms set, making it relevant. It is also certain to instill fear in some subscribers when they open the email. The relief of being able to access the savings right away is all the more gratifying.

Key takeaway: The use of imagery that aligns perfectly with Casper’s product makes this a great Black Friday email.

5. ZAGG’s Email Countdown

One of the most common mistakes marketers make with their Black Friday email marketing is failing to start early enough. If you keep waiting until the weekend of Black Friday or Cyber Monday, your emails will be competing with tens of thousands of others in people’s inboxes.

You have a much better chance of having your emails opened and read if you send them out early (preferably a few weeks in advance). ZAGG goes a step further by incorporating a countdown in their early Black Friday mailings to encourage consumers to feel excited and build anticipation.

Key takeaway: Don’t leave your email marketing until the last minute. Getting your emails out early will help you get people hyped for your Black Friday sale, especially if you use a time countdown.

6. Christopher and Banks Creates Urgency

A few aspects of this Black Friday email design stick out. First and foremost, there is no black in the design. The usage of green and red helps to connect it to the rest of the holiday season and Christmas.

Second, the countdown meter at the top of the email beneath the words “FINAL HOURS” generates a sense of urgency, which is an excellent approach for getting people to convert from your emails. Without it, you risk customers opening your email and then forgetting about your sales since they don’t immediately visit your online store.

This, however, is not the section of the email that instantly catches your attention. Instead, the $19 amount catches people’s attention because it is so large. It depends on the deal whether it is better for the Black Friday offer or the timer to be the most noticeable.

In any case, the CTA buttons at the bottom of the email should be made to stand out more. With the design seen above, they blend into the backdrop of the email, reducing click-through rates.

Key takeaway: Adding a timer creates a sense of urgency that will get more people to click through your email.

7. Urban Outfitters’ Weekend Sale Email

The Black Friday email from Urban Outfitters is an excellent example of Black Friday planning. They not only send out their email almost a month in advance, but unlike ZAGG, they also advertise their bargains.

By providing this information to your subscribers before they are assaulted with other Black Friday offers left, right, and center, they will have more time to analyze your offer and make a decision. This raises the likelihood of individuals deciding to buy from your store before Black Friday even begins. Giving you a competitive advantage as you capture a larger percentage of people’s wallets.

Key takeaway: Consider showing your subscribers your Black Friday offers in advance to stay ahead of your competition.

8. Peel’s Black Friday Sneak Peek Email

A smart Black Friday email marketing approach is to provide a sneak look of your offer to your loyal consumers. That is exactly what Peel’s email does. The sense of exclusivity also helps to distinguish the email from other Black Friday emails while compelling the user to click through and see what the deal is.

Key takeaway: Making your loyal customers feel they are valued by providing them with an exclusive sneak peek of your Black Friday deals is sure to boost email engagement.

Final words

That’s it! I hope this article has provided you with valuable knowledge and tips about Black Friday Email marketing. Please feel free to leave comments below for further discussion on this topic.