As November approaches, retailers have one thing on their minds—Black Friday. This and Cyber Monday represent the pinnacle of holiday shopping—and they are prime opportunities to maximize sales through effective email marketing.
A well-crafted email campaign with a punchy subject line can capture consumers’ attention. Think of email marketing as the appetizer to get your audience hungry for your amazing deals. Best practices include audience segmentation, compelling subject lines, and mobile optimization—but that’s not all marketers need to consider.
This guide explores strategies to rocket your email marketing to new heights during these critical shopping days.
Why email marketing is the hero of holiday campaigns
In 2023, Cyber Week (the five days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday) saw record numbers of shoppers. The National Retail Federation reported that 121.4 million consumers visited retail stores, and 134.2 million shopped online. Forget turkey and pie—consumers are chomping to get ahead of their holiday shopping.
Email marketing for Black Friday is crucial for retailers wanting to take advantage of the buzz. The benefits include:
- Direct communication: Communicate with your customers with targeted messages. Email is an effective platform for exclusive offers and reminders about sales.
- High return on investment (ROI): Email is cost-effective compared to other channels. Automation tools offer a budget-smart way to plan holiday email campaigns.
- Customer engagement: Segmented email lists and personalized content entices the user. Engaging with the customer promotes higher conversion rates during high-traffic shopping days.
- Anticipation: Teaser emails pique customer curiosity. Building excitement increases the chance of conversion once sales start.
- Traffic: Effective Black Friday email marketing can drive traffic to online or physical stores. More traffic means increased sales during the competitive shopping period.
Let’s explore 10 email marketing strategies for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
1. Harness the power of planning
Early preparation for Black Friday and Cyber Monday email campaigns ensures greater success. Starting early gives you time to iron out edits and approvals. Earlier preparation means less need for discounts and paid advertising.
Ways to plan your email strategy in advance include:
- Create a calendar: Work out critical days to send out emails and plot these out on a calendar. Include teaser campaigns in October to build up anticipation.
- Build customer profiles: A customer profile lets you align marketing efforts with your ideal customer type. Analyze your current customer base and group them based on certain characteristics.
- Review last year’s results: Data from Black Friday and Cyber Monday email marketing campaigns provides valuable insights. Identify which promotions and channels had the best results. Analyze metrics like conversion rates, ROI, and sales numbers.
2. Supercharge your email list
The backbone of any successful email marketing campaign is the email list. One of the top Black Friday email best practices is to grow your subscribers. Here are some tips to boost your email list:
Offer incentives
Entice the user to sign up for your mailing list through special offers:
- Discounts and coupons: Encourage users to sign up with a percentage off their purchase.
- Exclusive access: Provide subscriber-only early access to sales or new products.
- Free resources: Offer downloadable content, such as ebooks or product guides, for subscribers.
Use website pop-ups
Pop-ups can be a valuable tool for growing your email list:
- Entry pop-ups: As the user lands on your website, a pop-up appears inviting them to sign up for newsletters. You can incorporate this with a discount offer.
- Exit pop-ups: Use a targeted message to capture the visitor before they leave the site.
- Timed pop-ups: Present a customized pop-up when the user spends a certain amount of time on your site.
The key is to make sure these pop-ups aren’t overly obtrusive and don’t disrupt the shopper’s experience.
Create valuable content
The chances of potential subscribers increase when content addresses their needs and interests. Useful content types include:
- Blog posts: Informative articles help grow your email list. Blog posts also boost your search engine ranking through search engine optimization (SEO).
- Newsletters: Provide regular newsletters with tips, trends, or industry news.
Leverage social media
Social media is a powerful platform for increasing subscribers and brand awareness. You can leverage social media by:
- Promoting sign-ups: Highlight offers to drive traffic to your sign-up page.
- Running contests: Encourage followers to enter giveaways by providing their email addresses.
Implement referral programs
Turn your customer into the marketing machine! Word of mouth can be a great way to grow your customer base:
- Invite sharing: Encourage existing subscribers to refer friends and family with incentives.
- Referral rewards: Offer discounts, cash back, or freebies when a referred friend signs up.
3. Segment your audience
Customers have unique needs and interests. Instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach to customer satisfaction, tailor your marketing by dividing your overall email list into smaller segments. Target the people most likely to buy over Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Segments may include:
- Engaged customers: This segment includes people who regularly open or click on your marketing emails.
- Loyal customers: Think of this segment as your VIPs. It might include customers with repeat purchases, high sales revenue, or a long tenure.
- Repeat holiday customers: Create a segment for those who converted through Black Friday email campaigns in previous years.
4. Craft compelling subject lines
Successful Black Friday email examples have one thing in common—attention-grabbing subject lines. The hallmarks of appealing subject lines are:
- Urgency and scarcity: Phrases like “limited time only” or “exclusive access” can encourage opening—but make sure to use them in moderation.
- Personalization: Customers prefer content that speaks directly to them. Use data fields to pull in customer information.
- Clear expectations: The email’s subject line should clearly state its content. Avoid vague or unclear language and clickbait.
5. Design open-worthy emails
The email subject draws the user in, and the content keeps them there. The best Cyber Monday email examples use these two elements:
- Unmissable offers: Enticing offers prevent your emails from getting lost in the sea of Black Friday noise. Consider time-limited flash sales, incredible discounts, or exclusive products.
- Visually appealing design: Use eye-catching graphics and bold colors to grab the user’s attention.
6. Optimize for mobile
Around 1.7 billion people globally access email from mobile phones. Optimizing for mobile is critical when designing Black Friday email campaigns or Cyber Monday emails. Test your emails across various mobile devices to ensure they are responsive and visually appealing.
You can use Everest Design and Content to view how emails display across different devices.
7. Boost email deliverability
You have a well-crafted email with an offer so electrifying that the customer is sure to open it, but how do you ensure the email reaches your audience? Email servers may block or send delivered emails to the spam folder. Email deliverability is how many emails land directly in your customers’ inboxes.
Here are ways to ensure successful email deliverability:
Clean your subscriber list
Maintaining your email list reduces bounce and spam risk. Cleaning your subscriber database means removing invalid or outdated emails. If this feels like a mammoth task, don’t fear! Validity BriteVerify® comes to the rescue with a secure contact verification solution. This tool allows you to engage with the right customers by building a clean, actionable database.
Use tools to avoid spam filters
Use these tips to prevent your Black Friday emails from going straight to spam:
- Understand why your emails go to spam: The first step in avoiding spam filters is understanding how your emails end up there. A tool like Validity Everest provides insights to increase inbox visibility. Alerts allow you to resolve issues before they escalate.
- Enhance sender reputation: Managing email channel security and deliverability is daunting. Luckily, Validity’s Sender Certification monitors your email channel to detect threats. With Sender Certification, your organization is seen as a trusted sender by major mailbox providers. Your emails land in more inboxes, enhancing the success of your Black Friday and Cyber Monday email marketing.
8. Set up automation
Email automation saves time, money, and effort. You can pre-build emails to send automatically based on specific triggers. Automation improves the customer experience by sending relevant content at the correct times.
Two email marketing best practices for automation are:
- Drip campaigns: Schedule emails to go out at specific intervals to targeted audiences. Drip campaigns are less personalized but build customer relationships with helpful information.
- Trigger campaigns: When the subscriber takes action, like clicking on a Black Friday sale email, it triggers an event. The personalized content encourages the user to convert.
9. Track and measure
Measuring results is the final slice of the email marketing pie:
- Use A/B testing: During Black Friday campaigns, try different subject lines, offers, and layouts. This will help you understand what resonates best with your audience and optimize accordingly.
- Track campaign performance: Metrics to monitor include open rates, conversion metrics, and click-throughs. Use these numbers to refine your campaigns.
- Conduct a post-campaign analysis: Compare campaign performance against your initial goals. Did they perform as expected? Gathering insights identifies areas of improvement to guide future campaigns.
Amplify your Black Friday and Cyber Monday email marketing with enhanced deliverability
Discover how Validity’s suite of products can increase email deliverability and customer engagement. Contact us today to schedule a free demo.
