Black Friday and Cyber Monday are fast approaching. Together, these shopping events mark the biggest opportunities for brands to reach their annual goals. While Black Friday has been around longer and is arguably more widely known, Cyber Monday tends to outperform it. For example, Black Friday racked up $8.9 billion in sales in 2021, while Cyber Monday accounted for $10.7 billion. But regardless of which event generates more sales, together they bookend a weekend that is crucial for marketers. With that in mind, here are a few tips for planning and executing campaigns that make the most of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Start with a Plan
It should go without saying that planning in advance for Black Friday and Cyber Monday is key. While your brand’s specific objectives may vary, here are some high-level activities every Black Friday and Cyber Monday plan should include.
Dedicated Marketing Calendar:
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the most important dates on your overall marketing calendar. So important, that they deserve their own detailed plan. Schedule your promotional messaging to ensure it generates maximum traffic in the lead-up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but don’t stop there. Send email to your customers during both events and don’t forget to follow-up with messages afterwards.
Activate your Customer Database:
Take advantage of smaller holidays such as Labor Day and Halloween to reach out and reactivate dormant customers ahead of Black Friday and CyberMonday.
Expand Your Customer Database:
Step-up your lead-generation efforts to get website visitors, social media followers, and in-store shoppers to subscribe to your list ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Homepage pop-ups work great for signing up web visitors, but you can also make it easy for your social media followers and shoppers to subscribe by providing stand-alone landing pages with simple URLs that are easy to find and use.
Ensure the acquisition forms on your pop-ups or landing pages convert by dressing them up with special, Black Friday or Cyber Monday discounts for new subscribers.
Tailor Your Tactics
With every brand – directly competitive with your own or not- vying for attention during the holiday season, it can be hard to cut through the clutter. Here are some email tactics for drawing attention to your Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns.
Provide Personalized Attention
Holiday shopping for family and friends is a very personal experience. Your messaging should be personal as well. Take advantage of marketing automation tools to deliver personalized messages that welcome new subscribers, celebrate the birthday or anniversary of existing subscribers, or leverage browsing history to deliver personalized offers.
Member-only Sneak Previews
Send a sneak preview of your Black Friday or Cyber Monday sale to subscribers to get and keep their attention. Consider including an exclusive pre-sale deal for members only.
Curated Landing Pages
It is easy for shoppers to feel overwhelmed when browsing all the Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers. The pressure to act fast before the best deals are gone can be paralyzing. Relieve customer anxiety by delivering personalized offers connected to dedicated landing pages where they can quickly and easily find deals that match their interests without all the distractions. Whether you take advantage customer data to focus on a specific product or simply highlight your newest or bestselling products, getting customers to a curated landing page can make it easier for them to come to a decision and make a purchase.
Up Your Transactional Game
Our first two tactics focused on personalizing your promotional email messages and landing pages to drive Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Don’t stop personalizing after the sale. Take advantage of automated transactional emails to continue building a personal relationship with your customers. Doing so can deliver immediate dividends by turning Black Friday customers into repeat buyers on Cyber Monday and boosting your sales throughout the holiday season.
Here are a few examples:
Order Confirmation – Thank new customers for their purchase and encourage an additional purchase by providing a discount code for on their next holiday purchase or offering to extend an existing Black Friday or Cyber Monday sale.
Abandoned Cart – Automated abandoned cart messages had a conversion rate of 49.2% in 2020. Offer a limited-time discount as an incentive to complete the sale before time runs out.
Purchase Feedback – Don’t waste anytime reaching out to Black Friday buyers to learn how they liked their recent purchase. Take the opportunity to offer a Cyber Monday deal on a related product or offer other holiday gift ideas.
Supercharge Your Holiday Subject Lines
With so many brands flooding in-boxes with offers, an eye-catching subject line is essential. Keep your Black Friday or Cyber Monday subject line short to make sure your deal stands-out. Subject lines of less than 60 characters optimize open rates. Use big BOLD text to focus attention on your hook and don’t forget to add some emojis. Not only can they help deliver your message and shorten your subject line, emojis can boost your open rate as much as 65%. You can learn more ways to improve your subject lines in our white paper on the topic, Zen & the Art of Subject Line Testing.
If you really want to take your subject lines to the next level this holiday season, try SubjectLine Pro. Our virtual subject line test delivers accurate results in seconds. Quickly and easily test 3 or more subject lines to get as much as a 20% lift in your click rate.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the most important events of the year for email marketers. Having a good plan and sound tactics can make the difference between meeting and exceeding your annual goals or falling short. Hopefully the tips included in this article will help you along your way. You should also check out our latest Holiday White Paper for more tips. Feel free to contact us for more information on how we can help you make the most of your holiday marketing program.
