Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, has become one of the busiest shopping days of the year in many countries around the world (let’s not forget Cyber Monday, too!). Black Friday “sale season” brings excellent opportunities for businesses – it’s a perfect run-up to the Christmas holidays. Email marketers get super busy creating engaging email marketing campaigns to reach their customers and/or leads. So, let’s learn more about Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Get Your Online Store Ready
Millions of shoppers look for Black Friday deals. You can imagine the usual craziness in stores when the sales are announced. However, the pandemic has changed the shopping habits of many consumers, shifting purchasing towards the online space.
According to the National Retail Federation, compared to 2019, the amount of online-only shoppers grew by 44% in 2020. We also have to note that many retailers had to close or set up their brick-and-mortar stores to limited in-store shopping access because of the pandemic.
Millions of shoppers look for Black Friday deals. You can imagine the usual craziness in stores when the sales are announced. However, the pandemic has changed the shopping habits of many consumers, shifting purchasing towards the online space.
According to the National Retail Federation, compared to 2019, the amount of online-only shoppers grew by 44% in 2020. We also have to note that many retailers had to close or set up their brick-and-mortar stores to limited in-store shopping access because of the pandemic.
What Are Many Customers Looking For?
According to the National Retail Federation, many customers want to buy gifts during the Black Friday sales. Over five Thanksgiving holiday sales days in 2020, consumers spent an average of $311 on holiday-related items. Almost three-quarters of that amount was spent on gifts.
The National Retail Federation also revealed the top gift categories:
- 52% of surveyed respondents bought clothing;
- 32% purchased toys;
- 29% bought books, movies, video games, music or gift cards and gift certificates;
- 27% purchased electronics.
Plan the Timing of Your Campaigns Well
You should consider building a series of emails for Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. Nowadays, email campaigns don’t need to be manual bulk deployments. You can create automated journeys triggered by your email recipient engagement with your email and/or landing page or website.
One thing to consider is the timing. If you are using triggers to send the campaigns, that’s a great path for a unique and timely customer experience. But, for one-off manual campaigns, timing can also make a difference.
Here’s an interesting statistic: according to Adobe Analytics Data, in 2018, many shoppers took advantage of the final Cyber Monday deals before going to bed. It was expected that the last three hours of Cyber Monday would drive $1.7 billion in online sales! You could develop really insightful email campaign deployment tactics if you have previous sales volume data (daily or even hourly).
Be Creative – Be Seen
Obviously, lots of email campaigns will be sent out during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday days. Your recipients will likely receive multiple emails. Their inboxes will be full of inviting subject lines and pre-header texts. As marketers, we have to do our best to stand out in the email crowd and catch readers’ attention.
So, be creative with your subject lines and pre-headers. Think about stepping up personalisation (maybe even in the subject lines). Learn more about BIMI or use Gmail annotations to make sure your customers notice your emails quicker.
Be creative. Have clear calls-to-action (and make sure to check for those broken links in the email!) and try something new, like animated gifts, to engage your audience. Here are some Black Friday and Cyber Monday email examples to inspire you:
“The New Normal”
Unfortunately, it’s 2021, and the world is still in the middle of the pandemic. The situation in every country is different, so take that into account when you plan your campaigns. It can impact the way you design the email or write the content.
Also, the KPIs and goals can be amended too – sometimes, it’s hard to benchmark against the pre-pandemic results. Some industries really suffered from the lockdowns and restrictions, while others found opportunities to grow online and increase the client base. That’s why when you set your goals for your campaigns, think about how the pandemic can impact the results.
It Will Be Busy!
Our final advice for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns is to plan in advance. Give yourself enough time to create, build and test. It will be busy – marketers will be crafting their emails, and the recipients’ inboxes will be busy receiving all these great campaigns. We can’t wait to see all the beautiful Black Friday and Cyber Monday emails this year!