Email marketing ideas for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become among the most important shopping days on the South African calendar. No matter what you’re selling, your customers are ready to open their wallets. One way to claim your share of their spending is by creating Black Friday and Cyber Monday email marketing campaigns.
One of the biggest assets you have is your email list. But, since your customers’ inboxes are going to be inundated with Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers, you’ll need to stand out and give them a reason to open your emails. It’s not enough to show up; you need to make them an offer they can’t refuse.
Below you’ll find nine suggestions for Black Friday and Cyber Monday email marketing campaigns.
Related: 6 best practices for email marketing in 2020
The importance of Black Friday email marketing
The Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend can be a massive boost to your overall sales numbers for the year, especially after the tough time most businesses had under lockdown. Best of all, you can get this boost just by sending some thoughtful and well-crafted emails.
Year after year, more and more customers are getting their wallets ready for the impending sales, and this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday are primed to be the biggest ones yet. You need your emails to stand out and get opened if you’re going to convince your customers to click through and visit your store.
Related: How to create a professional email newsletter in less than half an hour
9 revenue-boosting Black Friday and Cyber Monday email campaign ideas
- Get in your customers’ minds early.
- Offer a pre-sale for loyal subscribers.
- Entice with a free shipping coupon.
- Create a scarcity-based bonus.
- Create a time-based Black Friday sequence.
- Frame your sale as smart Christmas prep.
- Create a raffle or free giveaway.
- Partner with other complementary retailers.
- Extend your Cyber Monday sale, aka the Tuesday Blowout.
Let go into the details of our nine email campaign ideas.
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Get in your customers’ minds early
Before the madness of the Black Friday weekend sales begins, you’ll want to already be at the forefront of your customers’ minds. No doubt their inbox is going to be flooded with hundreds of emails vying for their attention. One way to grab their attention is to tease them early so they seek out and look forward to your email.
For example, send a thank you email out as soon as possible. The purpose of this email is to thank them for being a loyal customer throughout the pandemic and always opening your emails. Make it a real email, like one you would send a friend. Write it with emotion and from the heart.
Then, towards the end of the email, let them know about the massive sale you have coming up. Something like, “Black Friday 2020 will be our biggest sale in company history, so make sure to keep an eye on your inbox.”
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Offer a pre-sale for loyal subscribers
If you’re looking to drive sales before the holiday rush starts, you can create a pre-sale email campaign. This will be for your loyal customers only. To do this effectively, you’ll need to segment your email list based upon active users who regularly open emails or regularly buy products from you.
You don’t want to send this out to everyone on your list. First, you need something to offer. Perhaps you’re marking down certain items, offering a coupon code off the total order, or throwing in a buy-one-get-one-free deal. Whatever it is, create an offer that your loyal subscribers can’t resist.
With this deal, you’ll have a countdown timer in place. You could offer this deal for Black Friday day only, or you could offer it for a few days up until the Black Friday weekend starts. It’s up to you.
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Entice with a free shipping coupon
If you’re looking to sweeten the pot of your Black Friday and Cyber Monday email deals and you run an ecommerce business, consider offering a free shipping coupon as well. To ensure you aren’t losing money on the deal, calculate your shipping costs, and offer a free shipping coupon for orders over a certain value.
For example, “orders over R450 will get free shipping, just enter the coupon code FREETHINGS at checkout.” You can offer this coupon throughout the entirety of Black Friday weekend, or choose a day like Black Friday or Cyber Monday to really boost sales that day.
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Create a scarcity-based bonus
Instead of just offering a discount, you can include a free bonus. Maybe it’s a free backpack or T-shirt. Whatever you’re offering, make sure it’s good, as a lot of customers will buy something from you just for the bonus alone. You can take this even further by making the bonus scarce. For example, only offer the gift to your first 20 customers.
You can also send a follow-up email letting your subscribers know how many of the bonuses have already been claimed. If you’d like, you can even tease this bonus in your earlier emails. Since you’ll be emailing your customers relentlessly from Black Friday all the way through midnight on Cyber Monday, you can leave this bonus until later on.
Something like, “keep an eye out for our Cyber Monday email where we’ll be giving away a gift worth R200 to the first 20 customers.”
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Create a time-based Black Friday sequence
One great way to create scarcity is with a countdown timer. Once the timer is up, the sale is over. There are multiple ways you can run this. For example, if you have multiple lines of products you can offer a discount on that product line for each specific day.
Black Friday is for watches, the weekend after is handbags, and the blowout Cyber Monday sale is all remaining accessories. Each email you send will focus on the category of items you’re selling, as well as a countdown timer to show how much time they have left to buy.
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Frame your sale as smart Christmas preparation
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday being some of the biggest shopping days of the year, people are going to be spending a lot of money. However, a lot of customers will also be looking forward to Christmas, budgeting for this time of the year as well.
You can take advantage of this by framing some of your emails along this line: “Get your Christmas shopping done early. While all your friends are rushing all over town and crowding the malls, you can sit back and relax. You took care of all your Christmas shopping weeks ago.”
Even the reminder that Christmas is coming and these will be the lowest prices you’re offering all year should be enough to garner a few extra sales.
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Create a raffle or free giveaway
People love free giveaways and the chance of winning big. It’s the reason millions of people play the lottery every single year. Of course, you won’t be offering a prize that substantial. But if it’s compelling enough, you can see a flood of new orders. For example, whoever makes a purchase over R250 during Black Friday will be entered into a giveaway for a R1,000 gift card.
Your customers are already primed to buy, and this can push them over the edge. It doesn’t have to be a cash prize either. Maybe free shipping for the next order? A gift card to another store? Get creative and think of a prize so compelling you’ll have customers buying from you solely to have a chance at winning.
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Partner with complementary retailers
This one will take more work beforehand, but it can be a great way to reach new customers while multiplying your bottom line. The premise is this: Instead of emailing your list over and over again, you’ll get other retailers to email their customers about the massive sale you’re having and vice versa.
Make a list of stores that aren’t your direct competition, but instead offer complementary products. So, if you’re selling backpacking backpacks, you could partner with retailers who sell tents, camping knives, water filters, bottles and more. Then, you’ll have these retailers email their list with your Black Friday or Cyber Monday coupon codes, and you’ll do the same with your list.
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Extend your Cyber Monday sale, aka the Tuesday Blowout
If you’re not burnt out with the five days of emailing, then we have another one for you. The single-day extended sale. The purpose of this is to sell to the last remaining stragglers or those who are remorseful they didn’t pull the trigger over the previous few days.
Think of this as the final blowout sale. However, you have to be careful not to alienate those who already purchased from you previously. For example, if you had a time-based deal that ended at midnight on Cyber Monday, then you need to follow through with that.
Wrapping up: How to make this Black Friday weekend the best yet
Running successful Black Friday and Cyber Monday email campaigns takes a lot of preparation and planning, but it’s time well spent. You don’t have to execute on every single campaign idea above. Instead, pick a few that are most in alignment with what you sell.
Editor’s note: With GoDaddy Email Marketing it’s easy to prep Black Friday emails in advance and schedule them to send whenever you want, so you don’t have to spend your holidays sending emails.
