So you ignored my ignored my advice to start sending out marketing emails about your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales early, and left it to the last minute…
I get it, though – you’re busy and have a million things to do before November 24 to prepare your ecommerce store for the big event, and email marketing just happened to slip from your mind. Being the biggest driver in sales during this period, it’s important to incorporate email as a marketing channel in your strategy for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
But fear not – all is not lost!
It’s never too late to start sending out emails to your customers to advertise your store’s sales during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
To help inspire you, here are some great Black Friday and Cyber Monday emails from other ecommerce stores. And because this is a busy time for you, we’ve deliberately picked out simple ones that you can easily recreate last minute.
1. Game
No matter how late you’ve left it, it’s never too late to start sending out Black Friday emails. Some emails could actually be more effective when left to the last minute.
In the lead up to Black Friday, this email from Game works to hype up their sales and get their email list interested. As well, Game have decided to release different deals each day in the lead up to Black Friday. This could encourage their subscribers to check back every day to see what is on offer.
In particular, the inclusion of a countdown in this email especially gets subscribers excited by letting them know when sales are going to begin. Including a countdown in your Black Friday email could be effective as well. In fact, sending out an email with a countdown might be more effective the later you send it. This way, your subscribers are less likely to forget about your sale as they receive marketing emails from other ecommerce stores.
However, to improve upon this email from Game, my one recommendation would be to include specific details about the deals that customers can expect during the Black Friday sale. Do they get an offer code? Free shipping? Or are select products discounted?
2. Tradesy
Tradesy keeps their Black Friday email simple with a monochromatic design. While it might not be as flashy as some other Black Friday emails, it gets straight to the point and is still effective. Not only this, but a simple email like this one from Tradesy is something you could easily recreate in a pinch.
In particular, this email’s minimal copy is effective, as subscribers don’t have to sift through any superfluous information; keeping your email copy short and sweet is also a good idea if you’re creating your Black Friday emails last minute.
I especially like that Tradesy have decided to not use an offer code, but rather taken 10% off all the products in their store. This makes it easier for customers to participate in their sale, both because they don’t have to remember the offer code, and can return to Tradesy and buy more products in multiple transactions if they wish.
3. MyCustomCase
Similar to Tradesy, MyCustomCase also keeps the copy in their Black Friday email to a minimum. Instead, they include only the important things that their subscribers should know, such as ‘40% off everything’. Their use of different font styles, colours and sizes is also effective, and is a great way to make it seem like you’ve put a lot of time and effort in designing your newsletter.
Opting for a more colourful email design, MyCustomCase also includes some product images. This is an easy way to include some pops of colour in your email without having to create any fancy graphics. This saves you time when designing your emails, especially if you’re in a rush as Black Friday approaches.
4. The Diamond Store
After announcing the start of your Black Friday sale, you should send out multiple follow-up emails to your list during the course of your sale – especially those who are most engaged with your emails. This is to serve as a quick reminder to your subscribers that your sale is happening, in case your subscribers have forgotten or have been busy shopping elsewhere. They could’ve also missed your initial emails, which might have gotten lost in the Black Friday shuffle.
An example of a great follow up Black Friday email comes from The Diamond Store.
Again, this email includes only relevant information and can be easily read by subscribers in a few seconds. Shoppers are probably busy hunting around for Black Friday bargains, and don’t have the time to read through paragraphs of text. Additionally, the countdown at the bottom of the email adds urgency by reminding customers of the limited time left for your sale.
Although they’ve included some buttons at the top of their email to click through to the corresponding parts of their website, The Diamond Store haven’t included a call to action button in the body of this email. I would recommend including a call to action like ‘Shop Now’ with a button so that shoppers can easily click through to your store.
5. Gemvara
Compared to previous Black Friday emails so far on this list, Gemvara includes a bit more copy for their subscribers to read. However, the text is this email is still reasonably short, easy to digest and witty. Creating an email that only includes text is a great last minute solution for you, as it takes much less time to create than an email with graphics and images.
As I’ve made clear already, it’s important to get straight to the point with your Black Friday email, because shoppers are going to be busy and won’t appreciate being sent an essay in email form. If you are going to opt for a text-only Black Friday email, though, it’s important that the copy is witty and fun to read, in addition to being easy to read. At the very least, this will mean that your email isn’t dry – something your subscribers will appreciate.
6. Soko Glam
This Black Friday email from Soko Glam lets their list know that their Black Friday sales are extended through to Cyber Monday. This could also work well for your store, especially if your Black Friday sale was a success.
This strategy is also a pretty clever way to save yourself some time if you’re on a tight schedule. Rather than spending more time planning and marketing your Cyber Monday deals in a different sale, simply extending your Black Friday sale means less work for you. Effectively, this will mean you only need to plan for one sale; in turn, you’ll be able to focus your attention on Black Friday and do it well.
7. King Kravate
That being said, if you are planning on doing one, I would recommend going with Cyber Monday. (Statistic)
While including some extra details compared to other emails on this list, this Cyber Monday email from King Kravate still manages to keep it really simple.
The inclusion of product recommendations gives the reader an idea of what they could purchase during the sale. Including personalised product recommendations in your Black Friday and Cyber Monday emails are an easy way to both highlight your products, and potentially earn more sales through personalisation.
My only suggestion would be to increase the font size of their 50% off deal and offer code, and to include a button with a call to action. This would make the email overall easier for subscribers to read and engage with.
8. Herschel
Herschel provides an example of another great follow up to an initial email announcing the Cyber Monday sale. Urgency is a great marketing tool; by telling them that your sale is ending soon, customers are forced to make impulsive decisions and act quickly before they miss their opportunity.
Game and The Diamond Store have used timers in their Cyber Monday emails to do this. However, I think Herschel’s use of solid text (‘4 Hours Left’) is just as effective – and requires less effort!
Similar to Gemvara, Herschel also makes use of witty copy, which is complemented by the simple stock image they use in this email. Using humour will help your Cyber Monday email to stand out among the many your customers will receive during this time.
9. The New York Times
Like Soko Glam, The New York Times have decided to have only one deal that encompasses both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This means that they have less to worry about over this busy period, and don’t need to spend as much time designing multiple emails for their different Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.
You too can save yourself some time by combining your sales, which means that you can easily focus on creating marketing emails for one deal. We do recommend sending out newsletters to your list multiple times over the sale period, so it might be a good idea to create several variations of your email advertising your combined sale. It might not leave the best impression if you keep sending out the same email to your list over and over again.
The New York Times also makes use of colour and different font sizes to make their text-only email visually appealing. This is something you can do to easily and quickly jazz up your last-minute Black Friday or Cyber Monday email if you don’t have time to create any fancy graphics or take product images.
10. Kate Spade
If worst comes to worst and you haven’t left yourself enough time to send out a series of emails to hype up your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, you could always send one out at the start of the sale to announce your deal.
Kate Spade cleverly announce their sale as a surprise. By doing so, they generate excitement for their shoppers, and make use of urgency (‘it all ends tonight’) to encourage their subscribers to take part in their sale.
Of course, in the frenzy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, this surprise sale email might get lost. This means that it’s still important to send your list a number of follow up emails throughout your sale period too.
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Conclusion
Hopefully these Black Friday and Cyber Monday emails have helped you to construct some last-minute emails of your own. Try incorporate some of the effective aspects of them, and incorporating some of the tips I’ve discussed throughout this post, and you’ll be sure to have a successful sale. However, it’s important to note that this should only be a last resort if you’re in a sticky situation and haven’t planned any email marketing at all. There’s no substitute for a well-planned email campaign, but something’s better than nothing!
