If you think rising inflation will hinder people’s spending habits on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, think again! Black Friday marks the beginning of the holiday season. And with people looking to splurge on themselves and their loved ones, it’s the ideal time for businesses to drum up sales figures.
Plan your Black Friday email campaigns in advance to make the most of the holiday shopping frenzy. Email clients beforehand to generate interest instead of waiting until the last minute. This Black Friday email marketing guide demonstrates strategies to boost email deliverability, customer engagement, ROI, and sales. Continue reading for valuable tips, Black Friday email templates, and examples.
The Benefits of Starting Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) Email Campaigns Well Ahead of Time
While starting earlier might sound like cliche advice, it’s crucial for Black Friday marketing if you want to reduce dependency on paid advertisements and discounts to get you through the holiday season. The sooner you start working on the holiday campaigns, the more time you’ll get for creative edits, and the better your campaign will turn out.
In the early planning stages, remember to focus on the following:
- Optimal campaign sending schedule
- Email marketing cadence
- Audience segmentation
- Number of deliverables required
The ideal time to start BFCM campaigns is a week before Black Friday sales begin. To increase Black Friday email open rates, start with a teaser message that gives readers a taste of what is to come but withholds the details. This helps your second email stand out in a crowd of Black Friday and Cyber Monday emails.
Send the second email before dawn to increase mail deliverability on Black Friday. This message should contain the discount code and a countdown timer. Now, this is the most crucial bit.
Send a third email with a last-chance reminder about your Black Friday discounts in the final hours when online shopping rates start dropping. This gentle reminder has a psychological effect and creates FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), boosting sales for a few more hours till the offer closes.
Top 10 Tips for Increasing Black Friday and Cyber Monday Email Deliverability
Now that you understand the benefits of starting holiday campaigns early, here are our ten best tips for maximizing mail delivery on Black Friday.
Prepare Your Mailing List and Check for Inactive Accounts
The holiday season is that time of year when people subscribe to random email lists to avail of exclusive perks. Email marketers also send more messages to inform holiday shoppers of unique deals. The combination of these two factors makes list hygiene a critical step during BFCM.
To increase Black Friday email open rates, you must identify and remove non-existent email addresses from your mailing list. A simple marketing tool like double opt-in forms can validate your mailing list, decrease bounce rates, and improve the sender score.
Email Industries experts recommend re-engaging campaigns with customers who aren’t interacting with your emails. Once you complete this step, remove all non-engaging email addresses from your mailing list before working on future campaigns.
Monitor your suppressions and bounce notifications actively, and experiment with your email content and subject line if you continue to record poor interactions. Remember, you cannot force people to interact with your emails. Hence, sending more messages will only hamper your sender reputation.
Find Out What Your Customers Demand
The Black Friday event, followed by the Cyber Monday sale, is the perfect time for retailers to clear old inventory and stock up for the Christmas holidays. But simply because you have these goods in the warehouse doesn’t mean your subscribers want them.
So, before planning your sales emails, you must shortlist customer preferences. For starters, monitor online purchase habits, create email surveys for your subscribers, and study purchasing trends during the holiday season.
Understanding the customers’ buying habits will help you create exciting deals that shoppers actually want. Use this information to develop exciting Black Friday deals that will return customers to your retail webpage or online store. For better results, study your competition and compare the deals on offer. Use the data to create attractive deals that will interest your email subscribers.
Boost Open Rates with a Quirky Subject Line
Since people first read the subject line to decide whether to read your email, quirky messages can drastically increase Cyber Monday email open rates. To generate excitement, some marketers get aggressive and use ALL CAPS, a bunch of exclamation marks, and emojis. However, this can often trigger spam filters.
Instead, get innovative in your copies and use a clear subject line to deliver the message and simultaneously generate excitement. A simple message like “Black Friday Sale. Get up to 25% off!” will generate sufficient interest. For best results, research keywords and add search terms that online shoppers are more likely to use.
Create Appealing Email Designs
An appealing email campaign fares much better compared to generic templates. You can craft your own design or use pre-made email templates to save time. Email Industries offers standalone creative campaigns and templates that resonate with your subscribers. Share your details with our experts, and we’ll handle the rest.
Whether you hire a professional or take the DIY route, here are a few tips to help you nail the perfect email design.
- Use High-Quality Images: Customers like to see actual images of your products. So, use attention-grabbing images to intrigue them.
- Use Vibrant Colors Throughout the Campaign: While black and yellow are the preferred colors for Black Friday emails, you can get creative and include red and green since Christmas is around the corner.
- Use Clear Designs: Simple layouts that stress the message are visually appealing. Use white spaces to increase readability.
- Use the Right Size Font and Color: Experiment with your email design to find the right font size and color combinations that work.
- Choose the Ideal Template Size: Pay attention to your email template to make the message crisp. The ideal email dimensions are 600px x 1500px with a file size of less than 102KB.
Send Pre-Black Friday Emails and Follow-Up Messages
You might be tempted to skip sending the pre-Black Friday email and follow-up messages in the afternoon. But an email series delivers far better results than a single message. If you’re unconvinced about the importance of the pre-Black Friday email campaigns, we can assure you that they are the most crucial part of your holiday email strategy.
You generate excitement with your subscribers by sending a pre-Black Friday message teasing the offer. And they anticipate a second email, which is critical. Otherwise, your message will disappear in a sea of marketing emails during the holiday shopping season. So, always give potential customers a heads-up about a special deal and follow up before the offer ends. This is an effective way of influencing customer behavior.
Create Exclusive Deals for your Email Subscribers
While a standard discount is effective in most situations, you need exclusive Black Friday deals to entice loyal customers during the Black Friday rush. Rest assured, most other brands are doing the same thing. For instance, instead of just offering a discount, create an exclusive product or service bundle that you will only sell throughout the Black Friday weekend. Give your loyal customers early access as a token of gratitude for consistently supporting your business.
If your business model has provisions for subscription-based products and services, reserve the VIP collection for your subscribers. Craft compelling subject lines for the pre-holiday email, informing your target audience about the special deal. This will grow your mailing list before the Black Friday sale goes live. If your business follows a different model, you could reserve the best deals for customers who recommend a friend. This is an excellent strategy for growing your email list organically.
Offer the Best Black Friday Deals to Your Best Customers
One of the best ways to boost email deliverability to ensure your promotional emails don’t trigger spam filters. By following the email deliverability best practices, you can ensure that the best deals reach the target audience.
Focus on the email subject lines, monitor past purchase behavior to create personalized content, and use a clear call to action to lead customers to your eCommerce store. For best results, segregate your email list. You can then send exclusive deals to loyal customers and a 10% discount code to new and potential customers.
Segmenting your mailing list helps improve your sender score by preventing you from sending too many messages and reducing bounce rates. For instance, if your first Black Friday email convinces a customer to buy a product or service, you don’t want to send them a sales reminder in the afternoon. Instead, send a thank-you message with the purchase history along with an incentive to refer a friend or some other valuable content.
Use Clear Call to Action
The call to action is crucial to your Black Friday email marketing campaign. You must consider a few things to make them effective.
- Choose the Right Color: Since the CTA must stand out, don’t be afraid of using bright colors, like yellow, red, blue, or green, to attract attention.
- Analyze the Placement: Place your CTA above the fold for maximum attention. Use the inverted pyramid model to lead subscribers to the CTA.
- Use Creative Copy: Use actionable language to increase click-through rates. Highlight your value proposition, but restrict the message to five words.
Integrate Email Marketing and Social Media
Integrate your Black Friday email marketing campaign with other channels for the best results. Social media is one of the biggest networking avenues today and has high engagement rates. Leverage platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Pinterest to boost your brand identity and Cyber Weekend sales.
One of the best ways to increase outreach is to include social media buttons. These link to your social profiles, connecting subscribers to your brand. You can also create dedicated Black Friday email marketing campaigns and leverage user-generated content to boost your email strategy.
And while you are at it, why restrict yourself to social media channels? Leverage SMS marketing, influencer marketing, and SMS marketing channels, too!
Create an Automated Workflow to Reduce Manual Dependency
Your Black Friday email marketing campaign doesn’t have to be tedious if you do it right. You can effortlessly plan personalized messages for all your subscribers and create bespoke email content for your loyal clients using the powers of marketing automation.
With the help of automated messages, you can send the right message to the right person at the right time. Some of the most effective email sequences you can use to empower your Black Friday email marketing strategies are:
- Engagement Messages: Approach people who have interacted with your website or products in the past with exclusive VIP deals.
- Upsell/Cross-sell Sequences: Re-target existing customers with exclusive Black Friday deals. This makes your patrons feel important and motivates them to buy from you again.
- Special Offer Reminders: Set up an email campaign to remind loyal clients of your VIP BFCM deals.
- Abandoned Cart Emails: Create a dedicated email campaign targeting customers with products/services waiting in the cart. This is an excellent strategy for recovering lost revenue during the Black Friday weekend.
Get Ready to Craft Personalized Black Friday Email Campaigns that Work!
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are some of the busiest times of year for online stores and retail businesses. Make the most of the holiday shopping season by crafting attractive email campaigns that show subscribers why they must purchase from you. Listen to what your customers want, and use that information to offer the best deals.
With the BFCM weekend right around the corner, get started on your Black Friday email campaigns today. Book a discovery call with Email Industries and learn how our expertise can benefit your business.
Head of Growth at Email Industries