The do’s and don'ts of Black Friday email marketing

In our previous article, we promised to conclude your preparation for Black Friday with a 101 on the do’s and don’ts of Black Friday email marketing and we’ve kept our promise.

Your learning will not be complete without you knowing what to do or not do to ensure that your Black Friday email campaign is a success.

Let's jump right into our list of suggestions for what to do and what not to do to get your campaign planning on track.

The Do’s

1. Announce your Black Friday sale in advance

If you want your recipients to pay attention to your brand amongst all the Black Friday emails from every retailer, there are some essential timing considerations to keep in mind.

Sending your campaign out too late will definitely be detrimental to your business. It’s best to start emailing your Black Friday special offers one to two weeks prior to Black Friday.

2. Make your campaign mobile-friendly

Having a mobile-responsive design will be great for your Black Friday campaign. There’s a high chance that your subscribers will see your Black Friday promotions on a smartphone or a tablet.

To help you with mobile optimisation, you should create campaigns with more images than long blocks of text.

3. Promote deals with deadlines

Imposing a sense of urgency is one of the best ways to encourage your customers to act promptly. You can announce the deadline at the same time as your special offer. You can even do this through your email subject line or preheader. The best headlines succeed to announce the offer, call to action and the deadline all at once.

4. Segment your list

There’s nothing wrong with streamlining your marketing efforts, even during the Black Friday season.

Segmenting your list will allow you to collect important data that you can use for the success of your Black Friday campaign. You can send emails to your customers based on their demographics and how they’ve engaged with your store recently or during last year’s Black Friday.

The Don’ts

1. Avoid sending just one email and calling it a day

For this kind of campaign, you will have to email your subscribers more than once. The impact and interest in your campaign will both rise significantly as a result of sequential messaging.

As we advised in our first article, divide the campaign into three mailing periods: pre-Black Friday, Black Friday day, and post-Black Friday. Make sure to follow this advice.

2. Don’t stop marketing after Black Friday

Don't stop marketing your products and services after Black Friday because it can be a great launchpad for you to boost sales. Use the momentum that you will have gained from your Black Friday campaign to sell more products at a discount post-Black Friday.

If you have left-over stock, make the most out of the Black Friday weekend to get rid of it.

3. Avoid sending a last-minute email campaign

Don’t leave your campaign to the last minute. Black Friday is a very important day. You should plan your campaign at least one month before Black Friday, especially if you have some good deals that your customers will love.

4. Don’t try to re-engage customers

Black Friday is not the best time for you to try to re-engage customers that no longer purchase from you. There is actually no worse time to start getting your re-engagement campaign out.

Rather, focus on the customers who have been consistently purchasing your products or services because they are likely to respond to your Black Friday campaign.

In the end, it's up to you what appears in your emails. However, you now at least have a basic understanding of the do’s and don’ts for your Black Friday email campaign to be successful and draw customers to purchase the products or services that you have to offer. You'll be sure to have high conversion rates and a satisfied customer-base that will use you again and again if you keep them in mind when developing all of your campaigns, not just seasonal ones.