We are now exactly 66 days away from Black Friday. If you’re an eCommerce marketer, it’s time to start planning your email marketing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2023. After all, year after year, eCommerce stores report making up to 30% of their annual revenue from the BFCM weekend alone. And 30-35% of these BFCM sales come from email.
But of course, a lot of behind-the-scenes work needs to go into making that blockbuster BFCM revenue, including (but not limited to):
- Preparing the offer
- Checking stock levels
- Segmenting email lists
- Creating high-impact email assets to stand out from the crowd
As a premier email marketing agency that has helped eCommerce brands to net serious sales revenue over this period, we’re here to help. Here’s a list of 5 essential email marketing tips, based on our predictions for Black Friday 2023.
Tip #1: Remember That You’re not Promoting Black Friday.
This may seem obvious. But with all the hype of the season, it’s easy to forget that your Black Friday email marketing is actually not about Black Friday. It’s still about your brand. And at a deeper level, that means it’s still about your customers’ needs and wants.
Be careful about giving too much space in your email copy, subject lines and banners to Black Friday itself. These elements should instead focus on your offer. Remember, there’s a digital avalanche of content at this time of year. Customers will be looking for your authentic tone of voice to shine through. If you stray too far from your brand voice, they may not recognize you.
Design advice: keeping the focus on your brand
Black Friday is almost a brand in itself. But unlike most brands, it doesn’t need any marketing. Make your product and your offer the main elements in each email template.
One way you can do this is by avoiding cliche. For example, a black and white color scheme is all too common over this period. Instead of just following this trend, showcase your color palette. Also, be sure to stay consistent with how you’ve been communicating throughout the year. If your brand is youthful or Gen-Z focused, it makes no sense for your Black Friday emails to switch to a more generic tone.
Here’s an example of a Black Friday email that pushes the sale, without sacrificing authenticity.
Tip #2: Design Black Friday Email Offers That Customers Want to Buy.
If there’s one rule when it comes to Black Friday offers, it’s this: go big, or don’t bother. This is always true. But this year is expected to top 2022’s blockbuster $9 billion. To win a share of that pie, your Black Friday 2023 email offers will need to stand out from the crowd.
Customers are waiting for this sale for most of the year. And you’re probably planning to hype them up in the run-up to Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend. So, your BFCM deals must be different from your usual offerings. If customers perceive the offers as a rehash of what they usually get, they disengage, and may even unsubscribe. They can even feel like they’ve been duped. We’ve seen eCommerce brands face serious backlash on forums like Reddit, where customers share notes about brands who run lackluster sales.
With that in mind, let’s consider some of the offer types that actually convert.
Increase order value with smart bundles and ladder offers
Percentage-off deals are evergreen. The bigger the discount, the better. But you can further increase conversions and revenue through bundling. For example, entice customers to spend more by increasing the discount in relation to the cart value.
These “ladder offers” work well, especially for eCommerce stores with one flagship product. For example: “buy 1, get 15% off, buy 2, get 20% off. These deals encourage gifting, increasing overall conversions.
Nurture your early bird segment
The early bird list is generally more profitable than any other. But they do take some careful planning. In general, our account managers recommend something like the following:
- Create a dedicated landing page on your site for opt-in.
- About a month before the sale, invite your whole list to join, via the landing page
- In addition to these invites, push cold traffic to the landing page.
- Do plenty of pre-sale hype, and offer exclusive perks to this group, such as early access.
Throughout this process, make sure your communication is crystal clear. Let your VIPs/early birds know exactly what you’re offering, when it’s going live, and how they can access it. A useful instruction to give your readers is to star your emails. It’s a low friction action from their side, and it increases your chance of staying visible in Gmail or Outlook.
Tip #3: Don’t Overlook Your Email Flows.
It’s important to make temporary changes to adjust email flows for the Black Friday season.
For example, add custom Black Friday/Cyber Monday banners to existing flows, along with your website and pop-ups. This can help to push new signups who receive your welcome flow to join the VIP list. You can also boost the standard discounts in your email flows in the run-up to the sale. Just be sure to remove these changes once Cyber Monday is over.
Here’s an example of a Black Friday banner for a flow email, and a website pop-up. They’re both promoting the sale, but they’re unmistakably on brand for the store. Our designers were able to create a consistent Black Friday feel of flows, campaigns and even the website. You’ll notice that we retained the brand’s patriotic colors and paired them with a distinctive typography, and visual elements (like the light beams) through all designs.
Tip #4: Get Design and Copy on the Same Creative Page
When great-looking emails don’t convert, it’s often because of a mismatch between copy and design. These two creative elements need to work together. There has to be a clear connection between the style and tone of the copy, and the aesthetics of the design. And you also need to balance the amount of copy to fit the design template.
This is hard to do, especially at the scale that Black Friday requires. At Hustler Marketing, we solve this problem by integrating our creative teams. Our email copywriters and designers come together for training workshops and collaborative sprints. This enables us to craft cohesive and on-brand experiences for each brand’s audience.
Bonus Tip #5: Trends Come and Go, but Purpose Makes a Lasting Impact. (Ask Barbie).
Customers like discounts. And they’re expecting discounts on Black Friday/Cyber Monday, for sure.
But they LOVE buying products that align with their values. The values you project to your audience aren’t just about doing good – they can be a major motivator in customers’ purchasing decisions. If you doubt that, consider this year’s blockbuster “Barbie”, reinvigorating a classic brand to the tune of $356 million. The social values in the movie itself played a large part in driving that success.
Here’s how to showcase your values in an authentic way:
Be selective: you can’t champion every trending issue. Pick the ones that best align with your brand. That could be sustainability, inclusion, or any other topic that you and your audience care about. Thread that idea into your email copy and design.
Design with diversity: it’s a good idea to showcase different ages, ethnicities and genders. That makes all of your customers feel like you see them and you care about them. Once they see that, they’re more likely to buy.
Ready to Make Black Friday 2023 Your Best Yet?
Black Friday takes a lot of work. And it’s a hard sprint, from beginning to end.
But it’s our approach that makes all the difference. Each of our clients gets a team of 4 experts covering account management, design, copy and Klaviyo implementation. By leveraging their expertise, and cutting-edge insights from their respective industries, they’re consistently able to propel our clients forward.
Through Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2022, we helped our clients bring in over $53 million in email and SMS revenue across 15 eCommerce verticals. This year, we’re working towards even bigger things.
Hustler Marketing is ready help you optimize your email and SMS funnels to net more sales – through Black Friday 2023 and beyond. Make Black Friday 2023 your best yet.
