Black Friday is almost upon us, and that means merchants are gearing up for the biggest sales weekend of the year. It’s only a matter of time before our inboxes start overflowing with Black Friday emails. In this article, we’ll see 5 emails examples to send in the lead-up to Black Friday.
And there’s a reason merchants send so many emails in the lead-up to and during Black Friday.
According to Custora, email marketing is responsible for 1 in every 4 Black Friday purchases, beating out every other channel. Social media generated only approximately 2%.
Email drives more sales than any other channel, and people who purchase through email spend 138% more on average.
It’s not hard to see why Black Friday email marketing is so important. The question, however, is how to do it well.
What elements go into a successful email campaign for the biggest sales weekend of the year?
Send multiple emails
An email campaign for any event, as significant as Black Friday, should always consist of more than one email.
You’re sadly mistaken if you think you can wait until Black Friday arrives to send out an email in the morning with your offers and expect it to generate results. The reality is that almost every one of your competitors will be emailing their subscribers not only on Black Friday but also in the lead-up.
To ensure your customers know about your sale, you should ideally start emailing a few weeks before using a service. This gives them a chance to decide to spend their money with you over your competitors. So,
By following this up with additional emails as part of your more extensive campaign, you’ll ensure that your customer base remains fully aware of your sale.
So, how should you structure your campaign?
While no one-size-fits-all formula will work for every store, below is a list of 5 different emails you should consider adding to your campaign.
How to structure your Black Friday email campaign
1) Teaser Emails to Send in the Lead Up to Black Friday
A great option for your first email is a simple teaser-style message that aims to pique your customers’ interest by being sparse on the details.
The email below from Peel is an excellent example of this in action.
Again, ideally, you’ll send the first email in your campaign at least a couple of weeks before Black Friday, so this type of email is perfect if you haven’t finalized your offers yet.
What you’ll also notice, however, is that Peel offers its customers a ‘sneak peek’ where customers can check out some of its upcoming offers, even though the full sale has yet to be announced.
This gives the email a sense of exclusivity, and by also spinning it as an invitation, their customers are more likely to engage with the email, which will help foster brand loyalty.
2) Sale announcement
At least a week before Black Friday, you’ll want to announce your sale details formally following this best Black Friday Emails Examples.
While you’ll want to announce this on your site and across your social media profiles, you should also send a simple sale email to your email list.
This email only has to contain details of your sale, including your offers and when your sale starts and concludes (e.g., does it run just for Friday, cover the whole weekend and Cyber Monday, or even begin early?).
One thing to consider to help build excitement and anticipation is a countdown timer for when your sale begins. Like in Zagg’s email below.
Some email service providers let you add a timer when composing an email. If your current email app doesn’t have that option, plenty of custom HTML options are available.
3) Gift Guide: Emails to Send in the Lead Up to Black Friday
Once you’ve announced the details of your sale, you’ll want to send a couple of follow-ups to keep your sale front-of-mind for your customers. However, you don’t want to keep sending the same message; otherwise, you’ll risk annoying people.
One way to keep things fresh is by emailing customers a gift guide.
Many people take advantage of Black Friday sales to buy holiday gifts, so this type of email will likely resonate with a significant portion of your list.
In terms of creating the gift guide, you could create product collections based on price, like Bed Bath & Beyond did in their email below. Or you could break collections down by who people are buying for (men, women, children, husbands, wives, etc.).
4) Reminder email
You have an opportunity to send one final reminder email a day before the start of your Black Friday sale (so on Thursday if you’re keeping things traditional).
This one can be pretty simple. All you have to do is remind people that your sale starts in less than 24 hours. The critical points of your offer(s). The email below from Urban Barn is an excellent example of this.
5) Emails to send on Black Friday itself
Okay, these aren’t emails to send in the lead-up to Black Friday, per se, but on the big day itself.
Given the significance of Black Friday and the amount of competition, it’s probably the only day of the year when you can get away with sending more than one email.
So, in addition to sending an email in the morning announcing that your sale has begun, you should also send a ‘final chance’-style email later in the afternoon. The aim of this final reminder is to create a sense of urgency and activate people’s fear of missing out (FOMO).
One way of doing this is to include another countdown timer, like in the example below from Christopher and Banks. To help improve your open rate, you’ll also want your subject line to create the same sense of urgency.
Of course, if your Black Friday sale lasts the whole weekend. So, you’ll want to hold off on this email until the final day of your sale.
Emails to Send in the Lead Up to Black Friday Conclusion
Black Friday and email marketing are a powerful duo.
While Black Friday emails already outperform other marketing channels when it comes to driving sales and average order values, sending a proper campaign complete with multiple emails will drastically improve performance even further.
And with Black Friday approaching quickly, there’s no time to waste putting off creating your emails any longer.
If you need more ideas or inspiration, you can always look for more examples of Black Friday emails or spy on your competitors to see what they’re doing.
The sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll be able to send it!
