As summer comes to an end, many marketers are already thinking about one of the most significant holiday shopping seasons of the year, and more importantly, BFCM/Cyber Week.
Black Friday isn’t just about offering discounts (although we will soon be publishing some rather exciting Black Friday SaaS deals!). It’s about engaging your audience, building a community, and creating memorable experiences for your customers, which will hopefully turn them into returning customers.
If you are struggling with putting together an email marketing strategy for this year’s BFCM/Cyber Week, don’t worry – we’ve got some top tips to help you get the most out of it.
We’ve also added a whole section on free Black Friday templates at the bottom, with links to the best email templates from our favorite providers, so make sure you take advantage!
Black Friday 2026: Key Dates
| Event | 2026 Date |
|---|---|
| Thanksgiving | Thursday 26th of November |
| Black Friday | Friday 27th of November |
| Small Business Friday | Saturday 28th of November |
| Cyber Monday | Monday 30th of November |
15 Tips for a Winning Black Friday Email Marketing Strategy
In this article, we will provide you with 15 tips to create an effective Black Friday email strategy. So let’s see how you can get your online sales flying through the roof this year.
1. Start planning your calendar ASAP
Think October is too early to start sending Black Friday emails? Not at all – especially when you consider that 80% of shoppers have already started their holiday shopping by this point.
Starting your BCFM campaign early doesn’t mean blasting subscribers with offers right away. Instead, plan your calendar to slowly build up to your Black Friday sale in a natural way – for example:
| When | |
|---|---|
| Late October | VIP/waitlist invitation |
| Early November | Teaser or gift guide |
| 1–2 weeks before | Preview the offer / wishlist reminder |
| Nov 24–26 | VIP or early-access launch |
| Nov 27 (morning) | Main Black Friday email |
| Nov 27 (later) | Reminder to engaged non-buyers |
| Nov 28–29 | Product recommendations / remaining deals |
| Nov 30 | Cyber Monday launch |
| Nov 30 (evening) | Final-hours email |
| Dec 1 onward | Thank-you, cross-sell, review or retention sequence |
Remember, not every subscriber should receive every email. Instead, use engagement and purchase behavior to determine which emails should get sent to whom, when they should be sent, and how often.
Oh, and don’t forget to plan for your post-sale communications too – we’ll talk about that a little later.
2. Protect Your Deliverability Before Black Friday
Black Friday is exactly when marketers tend to make deliverability mistakes: suddenly mailing dormant subscribers, substantially increasing volume, and sending more frequently. Any of these actions can land you in the spam folder very quickly!
Before you start your Black Friday promotions, make sure your sender setup is optimized for delivery. Here’s a quick list of some of the key items to checklist, but you can also download our more complete guide below:
- Authenticate with SPF, DKIM and DMARC
- Check Gmail Postmaster Tools before the sales period
- Clean obvious invalid/unengaged addresses beforehand
- Send primarily to engaged subscribers
- Ramp up frequency gradually
- Check that one-click unsubscribe works
One thing to note: a Black Friday email that lands in Gmail’s “Promotions” tab is not the same thing as going to spam! So don’t stress too much if this happens to you. The real priority is getting accepted and delivered, rather than trying to disguise obvious promotional mail as personal correspondence.
In fact, our Email Detective data shows that, while users of ecommerce-focused platforms like Klaviyo and Shopify Messaging do tend to have a higher proportion of emails land in “Promotions” compared to other ESPs (around 20-30%), their overall spam rates remain very low (less than 1%):
Data from our Email Detective Chrome extension, which tracks the ESPs behind newsletters received in users’ inboxes
So landing in the “Promotions” tab isn’t a reason to panic. Most subscribers understand that offers-based emails tend to land here, and if they are expecting to receive Black Friday emails in the lead up to BFCM, they’ll likely be checking this tab more actively anyway.
3. Focus on List-Building
Your email list is one of your most important marketing assets. Black Friday is a great way to collect email subscribers, so why not try something new:
- Engaging opt-in forms: Revamp your email opt-in forms with compelling Black Friday deals such as VIP-only promo codes or exclusive access to a community. Make these forms visible on your website and social media channels.
- Use wishlists: Invite visitors to save products they want to watch during Black Friday in exchange for their email address. Later, you can tell them when one of those items goes on sale.
- Turn product quizzes into email capture: If you’re a skincare company, you can provide personalized recommendations based on skin type. Or if you’re a fashion retailer, you can show offers based on style, size or budget. The visitor gets useful recommendations, while you get both an email address, and useful information to feed into future segmentation and personalization.
- Don’t show the same popup to everyone: Many email marketing platforms now let you show different versions of forms for existing subscribers, and to create separate campaigns for returning customers, non-subscribers, email subscribers who haven’t joined SMS, etc.
- Test multi-step forms: To reduce signup friction, get the email first, then optionally ask for another piece of information at another point.
- Capture consent at checkout: Customers who buy from you before Black Friday are an especially valuable audience for later BFCM campaigns. Make sure your checkout gives purchasers a clear opportunity to opt into marketing rather than relying solely on popups.
- Consider gamification: Spin-to-win, scratch cards and reveal-your-offer forms are available in a wide range of ESPs (e.g. Klaviyo and Omnisend), and can increase opt-ins, particularly for ecommerce.
4. Increase Your Ad Budget Strategically
Black Friday brings a surge in shoppers actively looking for deals, which can make paid campaigns especially valuable. If your budget allows, consider giving yourself more flexibility during this period, but focus the extra spend where it can have a lasting impact.
- Use ads to grow your owned audience: Run targeted campaigns that promote early access, exclusive Black Friday offers, waitlists, or giveaways in exchange for an email signup. This way, you’re building an audience you can continue marketing to after Black Friday.
- Retarget high-intent visitors: Prioritize people who have already visited key product pages, added items to their cart, or engaged with your brand, as they’re often more likely to convert during BFCM.
- Coordinate ads with your email campaigns: Keep your offers and messaging consistent across paid ads and email, and use ads to reach subscribers or customers who haven’t yet converted.
5. Create Targeted Offers to Different Segments
Not everyone should be sent the same offer. For BFCM, useful segments include:
- VIP/high-value customers
- Previous Black Friday buyers
- Recent customers
- Browsers who haven’t purchased
- Cart abandoners
- Category/product interests
- Highly engaged subscribers
- Less-engaged subscribers
- Customers who already bought during the current BFCM promotion
For example, you could re-engage past customers with some exciting new marketing strategies:
- Win-back email sequences: Craft win-back email sequences to re-engage customers who last interacted with your brand a while ago. Personalize these Black Friday emails based on their past purchases from your online store and offer tailored recommendations for new products.
- VIP-only Black Friday: Inform past customers about your upcoming VIP-only Black Friday sale. Highlight the exclusivity and that they’ll receive early access to your sale.
Creating a VIP group is also a great way to gather your most loyal customers. You can immediately create a sense of exclusivity for them by introducing the following campaigns:
- VIP waitlist offers: Send newsletters to your subscribers, offering them exclusive access to a waitlist for your VIP Black Friday Event. Clearly communicate the benefits of being on the waitlist, such as limited-time discounts and early access to products.
- Personalized follow-up emails: Follow up with waitlist members, expressing your appreciation for their loyalty. Offer sneak peeks into the Black Friday deals to get the excitement going!
6. Be Strategic About Your Subject Lines
Black Friday inboxes are crowded, so your subject line has to work harder than usual. Rather than relying on vague phrases like “Our Black Friday sale is here,” make the value of opening immediately clear.
Whenever possible, highlight the offer, urgency, exclusivity, or product relevance. For example:
- Early access: “You’re in: Black Friday starts early”
- Clear offer: “Black Friday: 30% off everything”
- Urgency: “5 hours left: your 30% discount”
- Exclusivity: “VIP access to our Black Friday sale”
- Added value: “Black Friday: free shipping + a gift”
It is also worth testing different approaches rather than assuming the most dramatic subject line will win. Many email marketing platforms now offer AI-generated subject line suggestions, while some can help optimize messaging based on previous campaign performance.
Just don’t judge success on open rates alone. Thanks to Apple Mail Privacy Protection, opens are less reliable than they once were. For Black Friday campaigns, clicks, conversions, revenue per recipient, and unsubscribe or complaint rates will usually tell you much more about whether your subject line and email actually worked.
And avoid creating urgency that isn’t real. If your “final chance” email is followed by another extension the next morning, subscribers may be less likely to believe you next time.
7. Test Your Email Campaigns
By testing your Black Friday campaigns you can improve your engagement rates, increase conversions, and most importantly, find out what’s generating sales.
- A/B testing: Conduct A/B tests on offers, CTAs, send times, and email content to see what actually drives clicks and sales. Evaluate the key metrics of two different emails using a small sample of your email subscribers, and later send the better-performing version to your entire email list.
- Device testing: Use responsive email templates to ensure that your email campaigns are compatible across various devices. With so many customers using their mobile devices to shop online, it’s important to ensure that your emails look good on these devices. (Btw, use our free subject line previewer to see how subject lines will display on mobile!)
- Run a spam test before sending: Spam-testing tools can flag potential deliverability problems, such as authentication issues, problematic links, blocklist appearances, or other technical red flags. They can’t guarantee that you’ll land in the inbox, but they can help you catch avoidable problems before sending to your full list.
- Test the customer experience: Check links, discount codes, checkout pages, images, and personalization. During Black Friday, even a small mistake can mean a lot of lost sales.
8. Implement Upsells and Cross-Sells
Upselling and cross-selling are not only great ways of enticing your customers into spending more money during your Black Friday sale, but they also provide your customers with a better, more personal shopping experience. Consider the following techniques:
- Product bundles: Create attractive product bundles and offer them at a discounted price. Encourage customers to upgrade their purchases by showcasing the value of bundled items. For example, a company selling knitted hats could create a bundle that includes gloves and a scarf, offering customers a more complete shopping experience.
- Cross-sell recommendations: Utilize customer purchase history data to recommend related products, to which they can apply a Black Friday discount.
9. Show a Range of Discounts
We know that offering a huge Black Friday discount on everything might not be feasible for your brand. However, if you choose to have a small selection of items with larger discounts, it’s a good idea to promote a variety of discounts instead of a single percentage.
- Tiered discounts: Choosing to have a small selection of items with larger discounts, and a variety of lower discounts on other items, helps to create a sense of variety and choice for your target audience.
10. Create Urgency with Countdowns and Limited Stock Alerts
As your Black Friday sale is such a time-sensitive event, it’s important to remind your customers that these offers are only available for a limited time. You can persuade your customers to take immediate action when it comes to buying by using the following methods:
- Countdown timers: Incorporate countdown timers in your emails and website banners. Set timers for specific deals and emphasize the limited time remaining until you reveal the Black Friday discounts.
- Low stock alerts: Implement low stock alerts for popular products. Notify customers when a product is running out of stock, encouraging them to make a purchase before it’s sold out. Of course, this should always be based on the truth and not simply employed to manipulate users into buying.
11. Utilize Abandoned Cart Sequences
Unfortunately, things can get in the way between the buyer and the Pay Now button, so when this happens, make sure you follow up with your audience:
- Engaging abandonment emails: Craft engaging and playful cart abandonment emails. Use creative copy and visuals to remind customers of their abandoned items and highlight the benefits of completing the purchase.
- Exclusive recovery offers: Include exclusive recovery offers, such as additional discounts or free shipping, to incentivize customers to return and complete their purchases.
12. Offer Value Instead of Deep Discounts
Sometimes e-commerce customers find freebies more interesting and tempting than a discount, quite literally because of the use of the word “free”. Try to increase your consumers’ spending activity by highlighting the following incentives:
- Freebies with purchases: Offer free gifts, free shipping, or limited-edition items with qualifying Black Friday purchases. Clearly communicate the conditions for receiving the gift, creating a sense of value and exclusivity to your customers.
- Value-added services: Provide value-added services, such as free customization, extended warranties, or free consultations, to enhance the value of purchases during the Black Friday event.
See our guide on how to drive sales without discount offers for more ideas.
13. Make Buying Decisions Easier
Customers expect a seamless and enjoyable online shopping experience, which is especially important during the Black Friday weekend, as you’ll be competing more than ever for their attention. Make their buying decisions easier with the following tactics:
- Customer favorites: Showcase best-selling and customer-favorite products. Create a curated list of products that are highly reviewed by other customers, making Black Friday buying decisions easier for online shoppers.
- Simplified categories: Simplify product categories during the Black Friday sale. Group products into clear and distinct categories, allowing customers to navigate the sale easily and find relevant items without feeling overwhelmed.
14. Black Friday Follow-ups and Exclusive Promos
Maximize the potential of your Black Friday email strategy by following up immediately after the sale. This helps to nurture customer relationships and maximize the long-term value of your online store.
- Post-event thank you: Send a thank-you email to all customers, expressing gratitude for their support during the Black Friday email sale. Include a personalized message and a token of appreciation, such as a discount code for their next purchase.
- Exclusive post-event promo: Offer an exclusive post-Black Friday email promo to your VIP customers as a gesture of appreciation. If you work in the tech industry, then Cyber Monday would be an obvious event to promote. Provide them with a limited-time offer or access to a unique product selection, reinforcing the value of their loyalty.
15. Use AI Where It Can Actually Improve Your Campaign
With AI tools now more integrated into email marketing, it’s easier than ever to create tailored experiences for your audience. Leverage AI-driven solutions to analyze customer behavior, preferences, and past purchases to send hyper-personalized offers. This approach can significantly increase engagement and drive conversions. For example:
- Dynamic product recommendations: Use AI to automatically suggest products based on browsing history, cart activity, and past purchases.
- Optimized send times: AI tools can identify the best time to send emails to each subscriber, maximizing open rates and engagement.
- Automated customer segmentation: AI can help segment your audience based on behavior patterns, ensuring that the right message reaches the right person at the right time.
- Predictive purchase likelihood: Uses AI to analyze past customer behavior and predict which subscribers are most likely to buy, so you can target them with more relevant offers.
- Subject line ideas and testing: Generates subject line variations and help identify which ones are most likely to drive opens, clicks, or conversions.
So there you have it – 15 creative Black Friday email marketing ideas to help boost this year’s strategy. Whether you’re aiming to increase sales or build stronger customer relationships, these tips will set you on the right path.
Now, let’s take a look at some of the brands that are putting all these tips into practice, to give you some inspiration for your own campaigns.
Our Top 5 Black Friday Email Marketing Examples
We’ve gathered some excellent Black Friday email examples to boost your competitiveness during this busy shopping weekend. Keep reading to find out what makes these promotional emails stand out.
Cutter and Squidge – Countdown Timer Email
This Cyber Monday email from bakery Cutter and Squidge is designed to immediately attract views with its bright colors and fun design. But it also does a great job of making its offer clear, and imbuing a sense of urgency through its use of countdown timers and headlines such as “Quick!” and “Don’t wait!”.
The message is simple, but it gets right to the point: hurry up and shop now because this is your last chance!
beehiiv – Black Friday Discount Code Email
We really like the design of this Black Friday email from newsletter platform beehiiv. As a tool designed for online creators, the graphic design (which cleverly makes the email looks like a web browser tab), and aspirational image of a person working with a notebook and laptop (plus the revenue he made by using the product), makes it immediately clear who the email is intended for.
Not only that – it also makes the Black Friday offer clear and compelling, with a bold, action-based headline (“This Black Friday, it’s time to build”), and a discount code for 20% off their annual plan (with a freebie thrown in). The CTA button is also prominently displayed.
As far as Black Friday Email go, this one ticks all the boxes!
Flodesk – Cyber Monday Last Chance Extended Email
Email marketing platform Flodesk are the masters of sleek email design, and their Black Friday/Cyber Monday email is no exception. In this Black Friday/Cyber Monday announcement, they’ve used an eye-catching approach that highlights that their flat rate plan is ending in a few days, pushing customers to act now.
With a clean email design that focuses on a single, clear message, it’s a remarkably simple email that accomplishes its goal – making the audience want to shop the deals before they end!
Fever – Final Chance Email
This email from event promoter Fever is a great example of how personalization can make a Black Friday campaign much more effective. The email presumably uses dynamic content to recommend events and activities that the recipient is likely to be interested in based on their location and past purchases. This helps make the email feel less generic and more bespoke – something that can ultimately drive more conversions.
Visually, the email is also very striking, with the use of an animated GIF as the banner image, a countdown timer, and photographic thumbnails of the experiences on offer – all of which help to propel the reader to taking action.
Forever21 – Scratchcard Email Campaign
We’ve saved our favorite design for last…
This Forever 21 Black Friday scratchcard campaign is a definite winner. People have a fascination with finding hidden surprises on scratch cards, and that’s exactly why Forever 21’s email design is so clever and out of the box.
By creating the urge for their audience to scratch these cards, they’ve made sure that their recipients will click through to reveal the additional offer. They also add the urgency of “ends at midnight”.
Now, that you’ve seen what others are doing, it’s time to start thinking about your own campaigns! To grab your audience’s attention, you’ll want some eye-catching, well-designed email templates to keep your audience engaged and excited. So let’s see what each of the major email marketing providers offers to help you do that…
Free Black Friday Email Templates
We’ve gathered our favorite Black Friday email templates from some of our top email marketing providers. The best part is, that many are free to use! Check them out below:
Klaviyo Black Friday Templates
As one of the most popular email marketing platforms for ecommerce brands, it’s no surprise that Klaviyo would offer a generous range of Black Friday email templates – in fact, we counted close to 30. Some have been created by partners, while others have been designed by their own team. Before selecting a template, you can preview both its desktop and mobile versions. Some also feature countdown timers, which is a built-in Klaviyo feature (not all ESPs offer this natively).
You also get a handful of Cyber Monday templates, meaning you have a very decent selection of designs to choose from:
Omnisend Black Friday Templates
Omnisend is such a key player in the e-commerce world, so there’s no wonder that it offers such a strong selection of Black Friday email templates. There are 20 available, and they even dedicate a whole section to Black Friday within their template library. With such a broad selection of sleek designs, it was hard, but we managed to select a couple of our favorite designs.
Omnisend Black Friday Email Template
This Black Friday email design is simple and minimalistic. It uses eye-catching colors, such as bright green lettering and white-on-black contrast, to draw attention to the huge discounts on offer. By choosing to showcase some of the products on sale, you can let the products speak for themselves. This should be more enticing to your audience rather than a simple CTA.
Omnisend Black Friday and Cyber Monday Email Template
This template by Omnisend is minimalistic and shows off the Black Friday sale in an editorial, stylish way. You could personalize this template to look exactly like your website. The product category CTAs help to create a user-friendly experience for your audience.
Moosend Black Friday Templates
Moosend offers a great selection of e-commerce email templates. From basic designs to more complex email newsletter templates, they offer a pretty good selection. Let’s take a peek:
Basic Black Friday Template:
This template is an excellent choice if you are looking to create an effective Black Friday email campaign. Its sleek, responsive design and customization options make it a valuable tool for maximizing your Black Friday sales. With its user-friendly email editor, you can easily edit discount codes, CTAs, and more.
Single Product Promotion Email Template:
This email template is meticulously designed to focus on one standout product, making it perfect for highlighting your latest or best-selling item during Black Friday weekend. With a clean and well-organized layout, it ensures that your product takes center stage. The result is an email that not only looks great, but also encourages recipients to go ahead and make that purchase.
Brevo Black Friday Templates
We rate Brevo pretty highly, due to its excellent value for money. So it’s no surprise that Brevo offers an impressive array of e-commerce email templates perfectly suited to your Black Friday campaigns. So let’s dive in and explore what Brevo has in store for you…
Brevo Cyber Monday Email Template
The Brevo Cyber Monday sale template features an eye-catching design with a strong layout and clear typography to highlight exclusive Cyber Monday deals and promotions. Discounts and CTAs are displayed clearly, making this a great email template for showcasing popular and relevant Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals.
Brevo Black Friday Template
The Brevo Black Friday template has a captivating visual layout, promoting the Black Friday discount. The bold typography, strategically positioned call-to-action buttons, and overall modern-looking design make this an awesome Black Friday email template for enticing and engaging customers.
GetResponse Black Friday Templates
GetResponse is another excellent email marketing provider for e-commerce. It offers a nice selection of simple yet effective designs to showcase your Black Friday products and discounts. Let’s see which templates GetResponse has on offer this Black Friday…
GetResponses’s Black Friday: Super Sale Template
This Black Friday template by GetResponse features bold, attention-grabbing visuals, strategically placed call-to-action elements, and space to showcase your products. This template effectively spotlights exclusive Black Friday promotions for your company.
GetResponse Black Friday Promo Template
The “Black Friday Promo” template stands out as a marketing gem, combining a sleek and modern design with effective product showcasing to make Black Friday promotions truly pop. This template provides an ideal backdrop for product presentation, allowing businesses to spotlight their Black Friday offerings effectively.
ActiveCampaign Black Friday Templates
ActiveCampaign provides a diverse selection of email templates, catering to various needs. Its selection ranges from sleek and straightforward designs to intricate newsletter-style layouts. Check out these effective Black Friday templates from ActiveCampaign.
ActiveCampaign Black Friday Template
With its bold design, this template serves as a powerful tool to drive traffic to your online store, increase conversions, and help you make the most out of your Black Friday campaigns. The countdown timer creates urgency, and the well-placed call-to-action button is used to entice users to go ahead and make a purchase.
ActiveCampaign Black Friday: Product Template
This ActiveCampaign Black Friday template helps you to effectively showcase your products. The template features a discount code, an eye-catching banner, and a well-structured selection of CTAs to persuade your subscribers to make a purchase.
Final Thoughts: Black Friday Email Marketing
Black Friday can be one of the biggest sales opportunities of the year, but the strongest campaigns don’t start on Friday morning. Build your audience early, plan your email sequence in advance, segment subscribers based on their interests and behavior, and make sure your campaigns are thoroughly tested before send day.
It’s also worth thinking beyond the immediate sale. Use Black Friday to turn first-time shoppers into repeat customers with thoughtful follow-up emails, relevant product recommendations, and post-purchase automations.
A good email marketing platform makes all of this much easier. You can schedule campaigns ahead of time, personalize messages for different segments, automate email sequences, and track which campaigns actually generate sales.
Most importantly, don’t feel you need to use every Black Friday tactic at once. Focus on the strategies that make sense for your audience, test what works, and use what you learn to make next year’s campaign even stronger.
Have a Black Friday email tactic that’s worked particularly well for you? Let us know in the comments.