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The shoppers are lining up with their wallets out and credit cards at the ready: Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) is the biggest shopping weekend of the year. Shoppers spent US$7 billion in 2018, and are expected to top that this year.
So you've gone through and got your website ready, updated product descriptions and images, and set your deals up.
There's just one thing left to do: get the shoppers to where you want them: at your store. And there's no better way to do it than email marketing.
Here's our super guide to getting your Black Friday Email Marketing right.
Over the Black Friday 2018 weekend, email was a key driver of sales at 24%, compared to 18% for organic search and 1.1% for social media. [Adobe]
According to Shopify, email campaigns were the highest-converting marketing tool in 2017.
Emails are increasingly integral to a successful marketing campaign, providing the most predictable source of traffic. The trouble is, every retailer will also be trying to compete for your customers' attention (and dollars) with their own emails.
Here's our four-part plan for making your Black Friday email campaigns a success.
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With just weeks to go before the biggest shopping event of the year, building up your list of customer emails will greatly impact your BFCM revenue. Each email on the list is a potential customer - so the more emails you have, the more potential customers you have for sales.
Here is some advice to boost your email list:
If you don’t have an existing email list, read on for some ways to get started.
Signup sheets are a great way to collect email addresses at events and your store.
Exchanging business cards with others and adding gamification as an incentive that allows your customers to receive gifts, offers, etc encourages more people to sign up with you to receive emails.
Offering birthday rewards, giveaways like free birthday posters, and refer-a-friend deals for email subscribers help to drum up interest in your store and have more people sign up.
When returning and potential customers visit your website and business blog, having email registration forms on every page of your site will help to add them to your email list.
On social media platforms, you may drive traffic towards your website so they can sign up as an email subscriber.
Offering discounts and deals which are time-limited in exchange for their email addresses are very effective in helping to build your email list. Eg: Free shipping with minimum purchases.
Capture the attention of your target audience by offering exclusive deals for email subscribers. This will grow your email list when people sign up for your deals.
Rewarding your loyal customers during BFCM is a great way to give them the chance to benefit from an earlier sale or exclusive offers, and act as an incentive for potential customers to leave their email before leaving your store.
Now that you have an email list, here are some great tips to get started on a powerful email marketing campaign.
When figuring out which Black Friday email campaigns to send, there are a few common types of emails:
Subject line: Black Friday 20% Off Ends TONIGHT
The Awesome: Athleta gave away a free mask as part of their Black Friday sales.
Why it works: Athleta dangled the free gift as an additional enticement for its Black Friday sales, on top of its 20% sitewide sales. Offering a free gift - a helpful one, everyone needs masks these days - is a great incentive to attract customers to visit their website on Black Friday, and sweetens the deal.
How to implement it: You can offer free gifts with a minimum purchase amount. Increasing your average order value will help to offset the cost of the gift -- and make sure your customers spend more at your store. Giving back to your email subscribers with free gifts before BFCM makes them feel special and encourages return purchases. Instead of giveaways, you can also run a contest instead, with a chance to win prizes for each dollar spent or purchase made.
Subject line: Only a few hours left to get 30% OFF
The Secret Sauce: Gourmet food company Oliviers & Co played up the Scarcity angle for their Black Friday offer. They offered a generous 30% off, but made it irresistible to the audience, with three instances of emotional words:
Why it works: This email stands out with a call to action for subscribers to act with urgency if they want to have the discount. If you received an email like this, the natural reaction would be to take advantage of the offer.
Another variation we've seen is brands that send an email with a countdown timer. The ticking clock adds a layer of tension that encourages customers to buy.
How to implement it: Add a countdown timer, last-minute deals, and free gifts to attract new and existing customers to check out your sale before it ends.
Subject line: Massive Deals. EVERY DAY. During Black Friday Deals Week
Content: Book Depository lets customers know they don't have Black Friday Sales - they have Black Friday Week Sales - and sets up anticipation for customers.
Via Milled.com: Books Depository
Why it works: One week before Black Friday, Books Depository emailed all their customers to tell them about Black Friday week. And every day of that week, they sent a nudge email to remind customers to check the homepage daily for sales.
In fact, they've been doing these sales since at least 2019, so long-time customers know to expect these sales and check back every day of the week to see the new deals. It's a great way to drive consumer traffic to the site and nudge consumers into daily check-ins.
How to implement it: You can offer new sale items that are appealing to your customers, and change these items every few hours to keep your customers checking back your store for new deals.
Subject line: Switch Things Up on Black Friday and #OptOutside
Content: REI Co-Op encourages customers to go outside on Black Friday.
REI Co-op, via Really Good Emails
Why it works: REI stands out against their competitors by nudging their customers to spend Black Friday outside, instead of indoors on their laptops shopping. Their message and email remind customers of what they're missing and are an amusing take on traditionally 'salesy' Black Friday emails.
How to implement it: Use a simple and interesting subject line that is customized to your target audience with a good design.
Subject line: GFDA Black Friday Sales
What Works Here: GFDA isn't afraid to swear -it's in their name!- but they point out the absurdity of Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales, and they also incorporated the cussword in their discount code.
Why it works: It's rare to get an ecommerce email with a swearword, but GFDA clearly has a more friendly, direct tone with their customers. The shock value of the f-word also helps jolt the customer into action and is a key part of their tone and voice.
How to implement it: Incorporate humor in your emails to customers, and don't be afraid to call out the obvious absurdity of situations. Humor takes our attention away from the fact that we are being sold to. Humor is not expected in ads and using it in your Black Friday Cyber Monday emails helps you to stand out.
Subject line: Black Friday | Sale on Sale Favorites
What Works: Maternity brand Storq declared that even their sales section was on sale!
Storq, via Milled.com
Why it works: People love sales, so when you put sales on the sales section it gets extra attention from customers.
How to implement it: You may send a customized email to previous and potential customers. For your highest-spending customers, you can send them a special VIP discount code that gives them further discounts for their purchases. They are likely to buy again if they have already purchased from you before.
If you have customers who have purchased from you within the past 30 days, it is good to include them in your marketing strategies.
Now we come to the crux of the matter -- what do you put into those Black Friday emails? It all starts with subject lines & copywriting tips to get customers to open emails.
Black Friday is the time of the year when e-mail boxes get flooded with tons of emails and standing out from your competitors is crucial for your business.
Your email subject line is the first thing your customers read when you send out your email marketing blast. Here are some tips to help you with creating that irresistible email campaign.
Below are some of the best free email template builders to help you get started:
This is not an exhaustive list but will get you started.
Stand out from your competitors -- don't just send a page of discounts & product offerings. Here are some more content ideas for your Black Friday campaigns:
Many holiday shoppers begin their online searches for their purchases as early as October. According to research by CampaignMonitor, the best time to send Black Friday emails is on Thursday, 7th November 2019, or a week after Halloween as this gives your customers a break after the Halloween season.
Announcing your BFCM deals and sale by sending out details of your event early to existing customers drums up anticipation for your event.
Begin your email campaign at least a week early with three emails; one sent a week before BFCM to build interest and hype up your deals, the second email early on Black Friday to present your deals to your customers, and the third email containing last-minute deals when traffic begins to slow down.
Source: Campaign Monitor
Schedule your Black Friday Cyber Monday emails based on time zones for domestic and international customers, and during the peak of your online email users.
According to Shopify, “order traffic on Black Friday steadily increased until hitting a 12 p.m. peak."
For UK & Europe consumers peak sales times:
Source: SaleCycle Twitter
Don't lose out on the opportunity to grow your sales for the rest of the year. With the right follow-up, you can turn the surge sales on Black Friday into recurring revenue.
Darren is a content/SEO writer and product marketer. He doubled search traffic for the blog and put ReferralCandy on the front page of the Shopify AppStore.
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