10 Best Black Friday Email Examples to Inspire Your Holiday Marketing

You do have your upcoming Black Friday marketing strategy planned, right?

Look: People take less than 3 seconds to decide if they’ll click on your Black Friday marketing emails.

If they open your email, you only have 11 seconds to keep their attention.

You need to plan a Black Friday campaign that will stand out from all the other Black Friday emails.

In this post you’ll read about:

• What Black Friday trends mean for your e-commerce business (and why you should start planning now)
• 10 examples of the best Black Friday emails (and what makes them great)
• How to create a Black Friday email series that gets customers hyped

Black Friday is a big opportunity – don’t miss the chance to make the most of it for your business. The ActiveCampaign Holiday Marketing Toolkit has what you need to successfully prepare for the big event. Access here!

The future of Black Friday sales is here, and it’s online. Are you ready?

Thanksgiving and Black Friday are the busiest shopping days in brick & mortar stores, but you don’t see long lines of Black Friday deal seekers camped out like in years past. That’s because B&M shopping is in decline.

In 2022, online Black Friday sales topped record numbers from the peak of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. According to Adobe Analytics, $9.2 billion was spent online, a 2.3% increase over the year before. That's despite easier access to brick-and-mortar stores and inflation.

At the same time, Black Friday and Cyber Monday email sales online continue to break yearly records. 74% of Americans planned to open their wallets over the Black Friday weekend in 2018.

Similarly, Cyber Monday in 2022 also set a record sales number. $11.3 billion was spent on Monday alone, while the 5-day holiday saw $35.3 billion just in online sales.

That number is predicted to keep going up in 2023.

66% of 2018 Black Friday weekend purchases from Shopify merchants happened on mobile devices.

The Black Friday sales cycle starts earlier every year. It’s no secret that customers’ expectations have followed: the uptick in open rates and click-throughs of holiday emails happen earlier, too.

• Start marketing now. Don’t wait until you’ve already decided how big of a turkey you need this year. Plan your Black Friday marketing campaign now, and you’ll cut through the noise of all those other businesses that didn’t plan ahead (like you did).
• Boost your email list. We’ve talked about the ways to grow your email list. Update your mailing list signup CTAs at the start of November. Let people know they definitely want to get your Black Friday newsletter.
• Prep your website. Create special banners on your website to tease your promotions. Create a landing page for people to get a taste of your Black Friday deals (and capture even more emails).
• Get your abandoned cart automation ready. As customers hunt for the best deals on Black Friday, they add things to their carts to save for later. Cart abandonment emails were the highest performing automations of the shopping holiday, with a:
  • 34% open rate
  • 9% click-through rate
  • 2.13% conversion rate

  Black Friday is an extended flash sale (with more bells and whistles). Read our article to learn more about how to create a flash sale for Black Friday.

Here are the 10 best strategies to use in your Black Friday marketing emails:

1. Write an attention-grabbing subject line (Casper)
2. All about the urgency (Pretty Little Thing)
3. Showcase your Black Friday Deals (National Geographic)
4. Put your best graphics forward (BB Dakota)
5. Create copy that says it all (Cards Against Humanity)
6. Release the GIFS (Carhartt)
7. Use humor (but carefully) (Redbubble)
8. Make holiday shopping easy for your customers (Penguin)
9. Stand out from the pack (REI)
10. Optimize for mobile (Electric Objects)

After you see these strategies used in the following examples, you’ll be ready to create a Black Friday email strategy that stands out — and brings in your best Black Friday email revenue ever.

1. Write a catchy subject line (Casper)

47% of people open their emails based on the subject line.

Even though people want your Black Friday emails, the competition to get your deals noticed is fierce.

What do the best Black Friday email subject lines include?

1. Company name. Don’t be coy: 64% of people click an email because of who it’s from
2. Customer name. Personalized emails have 29% higher open rates than emails without personalization
3. Friendliness. Keep your tone conversational and familiar. Think less hard sell, more friendly chat (about your awesome Black Friday sale).
4. Urgency. Black Friday is probably your biggest, baddest sale of the year, right? So let people know these deals won’t last.
5. Your sale details. Subject lines with percent-off discounts have an average conversion rate of 18.1% (vs 3.8% for subject lines that don’t have an offer).
6. Curiosity. Don’t give everything away in your Black Friday email subject lines. Give just enough of a tease that they can’t help but click.
7. Emojis. If you ❤︎ an emoji, great news: emojis can increase your click-through-rate by as much as 28%
8. Humor. If your Black Friday subject lines put your customer in a cheery mood, there’s a better chance that mood will keep them clicking through to your Black Friday sale email

Aficionados of the Dad Joke rejoiced at this Black Friday subject line from Casper: “Every Friday is Black Friday when your eyes are closed. Because you’re napping.”

These are real examples of great Black Friday subject lines:

• 40% Off. Free shipping. It must be Black Friday.
• First Turkey, Then Great Deals!
• Get your Black Friday game face on
• ⏰Rise & shine Karen…half-off Black Friday deals are here
• Better Than Their Deals☝️
• ★ BLACK FRIDAY is here – want a little help with your Christmas shopping?
• The biggest, best, most amazing, OMG, beyond anything, ever, sale event. Starts now.
• If you open one email this Black Friday…
• Give thanks (and then get an extra 50% off!)
• Karen, your boss is shopping today too

The best Black Friday email subject lines only use one or two tactics. That’s because if you shove every tactic into one subject line, there’s a good chance it’ll be spammy. Triggering spam filters can negatively impact your email deliverability (and undermine your entire Black Friday email strategy).

You have a fine line to walk: don’t get lost in Black Friday sale inbox clutter but don’t come across as desperate. If you need some help, try our email subject line generator.

2. All about the urgency (Pretty Little Thing)

Black Friday emails trigger FOMO — and why not, as many online stores save their very best deals of the year for Black Friday? FOMO is actually hardwired into our brains

What is FOMO? It’s the fear of missing out; people care more about what they might miss out on than what they might acquire. That fear is an especially effective Black Friday marketing strategy, with over half of social media users regularly experiencing FOMO.

Here are 5 popular ways to use urgency in your Black Friday emails:

1. Do your Black Friday deals usually sell out due to popularity? Let people know! People like the extra thrill of nabbing a deal that other, slower people missed out on.
2. Is your sale only available for a limited time window? Include a countdown timer in your Black Friday email design that lets people know they’re up against the clock
3. Is your Black Friday special limited edition? Make it clear that your Black Friday special is a one-of-a-kind item that won’t be available again
4. Do you want to show off your social proof? People decide what to do based on what other people are doing. How can you take advantage of this on Black Friday? Set an alert that shows how many people have your products in their cart.
5. Are these your best deals of the entire year? Announce that if people skip this sale they’ll have to wait a whole year to see deals like these again (but if it’s not true don’t lie)

There’s no reason to go black on Black Friday if it’s not your normal style

Pretty Little Thing Black Friday subject line: Don’t miss out again!

What this Black Friday email does right:

• Use a Black Friday countdown timer. Do you want to speed up your customer’s decision to purchase from you? People quickly act on countdown timers like this one (from Pretty Little Thing) because they can see their opportunity ticking away right in front of their eyes.
• A subject line that is all about the FOMO. You can’t get trigger a fear of missing out much harder than when you use the subject line “Don’t miss out again.”

What this Black Friday email could do even better:

• Don’t be a broken record. There’s no need to tell us that dresses are 30% off! Bottoms are 30% off! Tops are 30% off! We get it, we get it — we got it from the headline “30% off everything,” actually.
• Avoid stock images. People know a generic stock photograph when they see one. If possible, use images created especially in your Black Friday emails. Halloween, New Year’s Eve, Groundhog’s Day...this model shot could be used for any campaign throughout the year.
• Ask for feedback. If somebody isn't ready to buy, why not find out why that is? Make this easy with our free feedback email templates.

3. Showcase your Black Friday deals (National Geographic)

True or false: The most important information to include in your Black Friday emails is that you’re having a sale.

Answer: false.

Customers assume e-commerce stores will have Black Friday deals. Full stop.

So it’s not if, it’s what.

Simply put, people want to know exactly what your deals are. The best Black Friday emails state their deals up-front. If you don’t, your Black Friday battle to attract customers is already lost.

Surprise your customers by extending your Black Friday sale

National Geographic Black Friday subject line: Black Friday Extended – Geno 2.0 for only $49.95 | Save up to 70% on Nat Geo gifts!

What this Black Friday email does right:

• Show your regular price vs sale price. National Geographic is a smart magazine, so it’s no surprise they know Black Friday email best practices: You see exactly how much you will save with their Black Friday deals.
• Iconic design. If your brand is well-known enough, you don’t need to use flashy gimmicks. National Geographic gives us a classic, refined Black Friday email design that plays off its iconic status.

What this Black Friday email could do even better:

• Make a subject line that excites. This subject line is as dry as a pile of National Geographic magazines that have been sitting in an Arizona attic for 40 years. A little curiosity would make this subject line more interesting.
• Keep it concise. This email is long. It’s so long that not all of it’s shown here. Your Black Friday email is not your e-commerce store — so don’t include your entire store’s inventory in it. Focus on a small selection of your Black Friday deals to showcase.

4. Put your best graphics forward (BB Dakota)

In 2018, Black Friday shoppers planned to spend an average of $472 each, according to a survey conducted by BlackFriday.com.

How do you design Black Friday emails that nab you a piece of that pie?

Look, everyone knows it’s Black Friday, not Mauve Monday or Taupe Tuesday. And it’s easy to think that a play on black is the best (and maybe even the only) way to go. Newsflash: it actually is the best strategy — if your goal is to be utterly, completely forgettable.

This is boring and we hate this.

Black Friday email design cliches you want to avoid are:

• A black background. You can let your inner goth out in your Black Friday email designs — if you use black in interesting ways. Ask yourself:
  • Is all of your copy easy to read against black?
  • Is a black background your only big Black Friday design “wow?”
  • Does a black background work for your business’s style?

  People don’t want to see the same basic email design endlessly repeated by different companies. A unique (and cohesive) design that avoids these cliches will make you stand out from the herds of generic Black Friday email templates roaming inboxes.

No one will scream because they can’t read this Black Friday email on their mobile phone

BB Dakota Black Friday subject line: TGIBF: TAKE 50% OFF

What this Black Friday email does right:

• Black doesn’t have to be boring. BB Dakota uses unique photography that flawlessly tackles the Black Friday theme in a playful, clever way (but doesn’t overwhelm their own design aesthetics).
• Copy should play nicely with design. What flavor do you think that black ice cream cone is? No idea — but it was the perfect inspiration for copy that’s better than your average Black Friday email copy.
• Have one CTA. This entire email is clean, concise, and easy to navigate. A single CTA means it translates well on mobile, too.

What this Black Friday email could do even better:

• Don’t hide the details. How long can you get 50% off? I don’t see — Oh wait — it’s hidden in that huge TOS block. Give your sale’s start and end times visual priority, and your urgency meter rises like *snaps fingers* that.

5. Write copy that says it all (Cards Against Humanity)

Black Friday can feel a bit like a talent show where businesses perform their best marketing routines. Black Friday email campaigns are the mic you’re holding on stage. The question is, what will you say?

The best marketing messages come from your own customers.

• What do they have to say about your products?
• What do they hope your Black Friday deals will be?
• What stresses them out when shopping Black Friday online?

Keep your Black Friday email copy conversational, friendly, and use the words your customers use. What happens when you use the same language as your customers?

• If you say what they’re already thinking, customers know that you get them
• Customers better understand what your products can do for them
• When you go above and beyond to address their specific concerns, customers show more loyalty

Here are a few articles that show you how to make Black Friday emails that your customers want to read:

• The Secret to Writing Great Marketing Copy is Market Research
• Your Email Blast Is Bad. Here Are 6 Ways To Fix It
• 7 Surefire Tips to Increase Email Engagement (and Keep It Going)

A company that always calls customers their “horrible friends” knows their mailing list wants something outside the norm

Cards Against Humanity Black Friday subject line: Nothing.

What this Black Friday email does right:

• Stay true to yourself. When your style is wildly popular, why mess with a good thing? Cards Against Humanity (CAH) keeps it real with their bare-bones black & white email — a hallmark all their distinct marketing emails share.
• Keep people curious. If your email is all copy, you better keep your writing interesting. Normally a call-to-action button so freakin’ big would be a big no-no, but in this email it introduces curiosity — which gets us to read why we should give CAH $5.
• Make Black Friday a true event. CAH is known for their Black Friday shenanigans, so much so that they get major media coverage every year. And because you’re totally wondering, this Black Friday campaign yielded just over $71,000.

What this Black Friday email could do even better:

• Nope. We got nothin’. It’s pretty brave to have a Black Friday subject line that literally reads “Nothing.” It’s even braver to ask your customers to blindly give you $5...without explanation. Cards Against Humanity really know their audience — this probably won’t work for most businesses.

6. Release the GIFS (Carhartt)

Animated GIFs in email increase CTR by 26%. Since Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest days of the year for email marketing, there’s no better time to use a GIF in your campaign. A Black Friday GIF adds visual interest to an email in a way that static email designs don’t.

Here are a couple quick tips on how to best use a GIF in your Black Friday emails:

DO: Test your emails across multiple clients to make sure they perform as planned. Your brilliant Black Friday gif won’t matter if it doesn’t work in everyone’s inbox.

DON’T: Use giant GIFS. Any sort of image that has a large file size will slow down your email’s loading time. Since the average email attention span is only 11 seconds, you can’t afford a lag. After all, your customers’ inbox is full of other Black Friday emails that might load faster.

Read our article to learn even more about how to use gifs in marketing emails.

We like that the blinds in this Black Friday Gif go askew when drawn up, just like real blinds

Carhartt Black Friday subject line: Black Friday Weekend

What this Black Friday email does right:

• A clever gif. Carhartt adds energy to their email with this clever animation of blinds opening to reveal that their Black Friday sale has begun.
• Simplicity. This clean email design looks great on both a laptop and a smartphone.

What this Black Friday email could do even better:

• Don’t bury the lede. The most important information should appear at the top of your email. The most important Black Friday email copy is your discount or deal. This email pulls the blinds down over that info.
• A better subject line. Thanks, Carhartt, we had no idea it was Black Friday. This subject line gives us zero good reasons to click on it.

7. Use humor (but carefully) (RedBubble)

What are the most memorable advertisements you’ve ever seen?

Chances are your mind immediately goes to ads that made you laugh. There’s a reason that the majority of Super Bowl ads (which cost $5 million for 30 seconds) elect to go for a humorous angle.

Most Black Friday emails are straightforward, so well-placed humor makes your Black Friday emails more memorable, too.

But use humor carefully. Your email may be hilarious, but if it doesn’t give customers the practical information they need, it’s not doing its job — which is to get people to shop your Black Friday sales event.

Do you think all that black lipstick smears off on their turkey drumsticks?

RedBubble Black Friday subject line: Get up to 35% off. The stuff Black Friday dreams are made of.

What this Black Friday email does right:

• Let the joke speak for itself. Notice something funny about the copy of this Black Friday email from RedBubble? No, you don’t — because the humor is in the photograph. The email copy provides important sale info without fanfare.
• Keep it brief. Once you’ve had a chuckle at the happy candy-colored kid and his serious Gothy McGoth family, the rest of the email doesn’t waste people’s time. Here’s the deal you’ll get, here’s the code you need, and here’s when it ends. Boom! Got it, thanks!

What this Black Friday email could do even better:

• Remember the text-only crowd. At least 1 in 3 people have their email images turned off. Since RedBubble’s deals are part of a graphic, 1 in 3 people won’t see those deals when they open this Black Friday email blast.
• Tweak your wording. Expires November 25th at 11:59 pm. Factual, but not emotional. A couple simple word changes (like These offers are only available until instead of Expires) would create urgency to shop while you still can.

8. Make holiday shopping easy for your customers
(Penguin Random House)

We all know that fighting crowds to do your holiday shopping, well, sucks. But helpfulness and convenience are major factors as people decide if they’ll complete a purchase online, too.

Does your e-commerce store offer holiday perks, like:

• Free shipping?
• Gift wrapping?
• Guaranteed delivery date?
• Gift guides?

Make any amenities you offer customers into prominent features of your email marketing campaign: If you can quickly solve a person’s seasonal problem, you’re that much closer to a year-round loyal customer.

The Brady Bunch reference isn’t just amusing, it invites you to click on each Penguin — which leads you to a different pre-made gift guide

Penguin Random House Black Friday subject line: Black Friday Burnout? Contact the Penguin Hotline!

What this Black Friday email does right:

• Compel them with cute. Penguin Random House has a pretty cute mascot (and they know it). People love a cute animal (or baby, or...anything, really) so if it makes sense to slip a cutie into your Black Friday marketing — go for it.
• Solve a problem. Dad loves a suspenseful beach read, Mom devours Neoclassicism art history, and Sis is obsessed with breeding exotic chickens. What do you get them? A business that can answer that question for a flustered shopper will earn so many grateful loyalty points.

What this Black Friday email could do even better:

• Don’t leave customers high and dry. Penguin Random House should have listed the hours and dates the helpline is active. What happens if a desperate last-minute shopper wants to use the helpline...but it’s closed? They’ll be more frustrated than if the helpline hadn’t existed in the first place.
• Microcopy matters. Small words make a big impact. Contact the helpline is fine microcopy, but it could be better. Is it Chat with the helpline? Call? Email? A few tweaks to the CTA’s microcopy, the answer’s clear.

9. Stand out from the pack (REI)

How can you make your Black Friday marketing campaign stand out (in a way that doesn’t have anything to do with your subject line, design, or copy)?

Be a rebel with a cause by doing something unusual:

• Donate to charity. Give back (and give thanks) with a charitable donation of part of your Black Friday proceeds. Use your marketing emails to showcase the charity you’ve chosen.
• Opt out of Black Friday. Maybe a Black Friday email blast works against your business’s core values. Maybe your Black Friday event is that you won’t have an event.

REI knows that people expect to see the same thing (more or less) with every email they click. REI isn’t gonna play it that way.

REI Black Friday subject line: Everything You Need to #OptOutside

What this Black Friday email does right:

• Live your mission statement. REI's core purpose is to “… inspire, educate and outfit for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship.” They’re walkin’ the walk by closing their stores and asking us to join them outside.
• Hash it out. Real talk time: there are a lot of people who don’t like Black Friday. REI knows this. With a handy #optoutside hashtag people can spread on social media, REI creates a feeling of solidarity with their True Fans.
• Give people something they can use. You can’t #optoutside if you don’t know where to go. REI’s CTA shows you local trails and parks that you can visit before the turkey tryptophan starts to hit.

What this Black Friday email could do even better:

• Practically perfect in every way? This email has a very unorthodox purpose (which is to inspire loyalty, not to make money). REI shows that they know exactly what their customers want from them on Black Friday: a powerful statement backed up with content that’s useful.

10. Optimize for mobile (Electric Objects)

How many people check their smartphone right away when they wake up?

4 out of 5 people check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up, and the first thing most of those people look at is their email.

Nearly 40% of all e-commerce purchases during the 2018 holiday season were made on a smartphone...up from 29% in 2017. Black Friday 2018 was also the first day in history to see more than $2 billion in sales stemming from smartphones.

People on a smartphone are more likely to abandon a shopping cart. 3 out of every 4 mobile shoppers abandon carts, actually. Why? Because many emails and websites aren’t optimized for a good mobile experience.

The writing on the wall is in flashing neon: If you’re not optimized for mobile, your Black Friday email campaigns won’t be a success (and neither will your sale).

Good graphic design plays with our expectations as it delivers information

Electric Objects subject line: Black Friday Is Now—$50 Off EO2

What this Black Friday email does right:

• Have some fun. Electric Objects uses vibrant colors and playful shapes to create a party-like mood in their Black Friday email design. After all the black emails people have already opened, this email is a breath of fresh, colorful air.
• Show them the money. A study conducted on email offers found that emails that offered discounts of dollar amounts (instead of discount %) perform better. And free shipping? That’s the cherry on top.

What this Black Friday email could do even better:

• Spell. It. Out. How long does the sale run? It says Monday (in tiny, easy-to-miss type) but at what time? If you don’t state your time cut-off, expect emails from customers who want you to extend them the deal still. If you aren’t serious about your cut-off time, customers won’t be, either.
• Don’t be too chill. “Black Friday is our excuse to cut loose!” Cool — but if your email if too laid-back and loose, your customers won’t feel any urgency to jump on your deal.

A customer’s decision to buy often hinges on anticipation. People enjoy the anticipation of getting something just as much as they enjoy actually getting it.

An automated series of Black Friday emails builds the right kind of anticipation — the kind of anticipation that leads to more sales the day after Thanksgiving.

What is an automated email series? It’s a series of scheduled emails automatically sent to people on your email list. It’s easy to send an automated email sequence with ActiveCampaign.

Much like in a product launch email series, for the best results you should send at least 3 emails:

1. The informational teaser email
2. The live sale email
3. The going-going-gone email

1. The informational teaser email (Quip)

People want to know your Black Friday deals in advance so they can plan ahead and budget. There are already published articles devoted to helping deal shoppers prepare their game plan for Black Friday.

There are 2 goals for your first Black Friday email:

1. Tease your deals. Create curiosity and anticipation so you’ll be at the top of the lists of e-commerce stores to visit on Black Friday
2. Give Customers information. Customers want to know what to expect from your Black Friday sale. If it’s not clear, you’ll lose sales.

How can you make sure your information is clear? Make sure your informational teaser email answers these 3 W’s:

1. What. Your business is having a Black Friday sales event: these will be the special deals and offers available.
2. When. It will happen on this specific date, and run from this time until that time.
3. Where. This is where (and how) to get these Black Friday deals.

The American Dental Association is the final word in all things dental. A partnership with them gives Quip authority.

What this Black Friday email does right:

• Use black wisely. If you go all black with your Black Friday email ideas, own it. Quip uses its first Black Friday email to showcase a new all-black toothbrush. The minty pops of color in the logo and the model’s nails add enough visual interest to keep the black from being oppressive.
• Support a good cause. “Brush black, give back” is a great slogan to back a charitable cause — not only do you save 20% on your purchase, $5 of each purchase goes to the American Dental Association. It’s big wins all around — especially for Quip.

The best time to send this Black Friday Email: Send your Black Friday informational and teaser emails at least 1 week before Black Friday. If you send more than 1 preview email (we recommend 2), send the first email 2 weeks before Black Friday.

2. The live sale email

Why is it so important to send an email when your Black Friday sale is live?

Because people’s memories are terrible.

People receive an average of 18 marketing emails a day in the lead-up to Black Friday. With so many emails hitting people’s inboxes before (and especially on) Black Friday, if you don’t remind them of your sale there’s a good chance it will have completely slipped their minds.

The details in your live sale email will mostly be the same as your first email, with these additions:

• Update your call-to-action. Change your email copy and CTA so people know your sale is now live
• Push scarcity and urgency. We not only feel emotions in the here and now, we also anticipate emotions we’ll feel in the future. If a product might sell out you’re more likely to buy due to loss aversion.
• Be celebratory. Desperation isn’t cute — use design and language to treat your Black Friday like the exciting event it is and people will respond in kind.

Quip gives customers more than one way to use their Black Friday discount, which removes objections to purchasing

What this Black Friday email does right:

• A once-a-year deal. Quip makes sure they state twice that their Black Friday deal is the one deal they offer all year. Anyone thinking about buying a Quip brush will jump on (their only) chance to save 20%.
• Just enough GIF. A GIF doesn’t have to be the focus of your email design. A minimal animation adds just a touch of drama...which still equals a lot of visual interest.

The best time to send this Black Friday Email: Studies have been done on the best time to send Black Friday emails. The data shows:

• The best Black Friday email open rates are at 10:00 am and 4:00 pm
• The second-best times for Black Friday email open rates are 12:00 pm and 6:00 pm

Why are these the best time to send your Black Friday email blast?

Around 10:00 am, people often go through all their morning emails (and then catch up again at noon). From 4:00 to 6:00 pm, people get ready to leave work or have arrived home, which are other popular times to check their personal email.

Another way to schedule your emails is with predictive sending. Send emails at just the right time, based when each of your customers are most likely to engage with them.

3. The going-going-gone email

This is your last chance to get people to shop your sale. This is where you really push the urgency.

A play on words is a fun, easy way to add humor and interest to your Black Friday emails

What this Black Friday email does right:

• One CTA. The clock is ticking, so you want to make it as easy as possible for people to make a purchase during your sale’s final hours. A single CTA with a low-friction “Get 20% off” microcopy does just that.
• Repeat your key points. Treat each email in your series like it’s the only one you’re sending. Why? Because lots of people won’t have opened your earlier emails. Your last email might be your first chance to convert them into a customer.

Black Friday emails can be an extremely effective method of engagement during the busy holiday season, but not if they overwhelm or irritate your target audience. There are some simple do’s and don’ts when it comes to a Cyber Monday or Black Friday email campaign.

Create a sense of urgency in your content.

If you give shoppers the opportunity to say no to an email, the odds are decent that they will. When it comes to competing for Black Friday holiday sales, the last thing you want is for someone to read your email and react with ‘Hm, no, I don’t think so.’

Come up with simple email content that sparks their interest, whether through urgency or curiosity and inspire them to click through for further action. Phrases such as “ending soon” or “only a few left” may help.

Don't be overwhelming

Try not to cross the line between urgent and overwhelming. Your goal with urgency is to motivate, not instill fear.

Email subject lines or content with a fear-enticing tone may send the wrong message and turn off customers from starting and completing purchases. Also, too many emails with the same urgent tone might cause recipients to back away. Diversify your messaging among emails.

Start emailing early

Starting too late is often detrimental to the outcome of projects or goals. Procrastinating on Black Friday and Cyber Monday email marketing is no exception.

Marketing for these days should begin 2-3 months prior to the days themselves. The goals here are to stay top-of-mind and to build anticipation for what you’re offering during the weekend.

Don't be a pest.

Whatever emails or social posts you plan to send out in your Black Friday email marketing strategy, don’t be annoying about it.

Depending on the types of emails you’re sending, weekly or monthly can sometimes show better results than daily or every other day. This will also depend on the different audience types you’re targeting.

Personalize emails.

No 1 likes to talk to a robot. Human connection is an important relationship-building block between brand and buyer. Although a goal for Black Friday and Monday is sales, it’s not the only goal.

Take the automated feel out of your automated email campaigns and get a little personal with your tone. Your buyers want it.

Don't get too personal.

There’s personal, and there’s too personal. People are more interested in doing business with organizations whom they feel they can trust, but not 1 that feels intrusive.

Marketers and businesses have access to lots of customer information that needs to be used responsibly and strategically.

The best time to send this Black Friday Email: Does your sale run over the entire Black Friday weekend? Send it on the final day. Is your sale a one-day event? Send it in the final hours.

Creating an offer unique to Black Friday should focus on three concepts:

• How do I create an offer so compelling that it's a no-brainer for people to buy?
• How do I reward my most engaged customers?
• How do I surprise and delight new customers and turn them into raving fans?

Generally, you should send 2-3 different emails during the day on Black Friday and the time leading up to it.

Last chance to get out Black Friday Toolkit with 7 different tools to help you sell more this holiday season! Access here!