November 25 is Black Friday 2022, one of the biggest shopping events of the year. Black Friday has become an unmissable opportunity for companies aiming to maximize sales and increase revenue.
Customers and users now expect companies to offer them great deals and unbeatable opportunities to mark the occasion. What better channel to reach and convince them to buy than email marketing?
But be careful. Sending out a single email with an offer is not enough. You need a targeted strategy to compete against the thousands of competing offers.
Why You Should Use a Checklist for Your Black Friday Campaign
To compete on Black Friday you need a precise plan, and you need to put that plan into action ahead of time.
The strategy for your email marketing campaign should include a number of points. Neglecting even one of them could compromise your final result. That’s why we’ve created a checklist for your Black Friday 2022 email marketing campaign. Follow this list and you will always have everything under control — and a successful Black Friday email marketing campaign.
Black Friday: Your Point-by-Point Checklist
Read each point of our Black Friday 2022 checklist then put all the tips to use in order to maximize the delivery and conversion rates of your email campaign.
Start on Time and Take Advantage of the Whole Week of Black Friday
Start planning your email marketing campaigns well in advance. You want to take care of every detail and beat the competitors to the punch.
Black Friday is now no longer limited to a single day. It’s an event that extends throughout the week.
Customers have learned that the high demand for products during this period can put a strain on logistics and warehouses. They often start their purchases days before Black Friday so don’t be caught unprepared!
Consider promoting early deals or send a newsletter at the beginning of the week that alerts your customers of the upcoming, unmissable offers you’ve reserved for them.The days following Black Friday also represent a good sales opportunity. After the day itself, try to meet the needs of the slow-movers who missed out.
Expand Your Contact List
Another reason to start early is that you want to reach as many people as possible.
In the months and weeks leading up to Black Friday 2022, try to expand your list of active contacts. Being able to reach more customers increases your sales opportunities.
- Create a newsletter sign-up form and integrate it on your website;
- Promote a sign-up campaign on your social channels;
- Offer a small discount for new subscribers.
However you build your list, don’t forget to:
- Always collect email addresses in compliance with privacy regulations;
- Provide tailored offers based on the preferences expressed by your contacts during their registration.
Optimize Your Contact Lists
The value of an email address database comes not only from the number of users in it, but from the quality of the contacts themselves.
To build a good and optimized address list, you need to follow some simple steps:
- Delete inactive contacts and bounce backs;
- Delete addresses that asked to be unsubscribed from the list;
- Verify that your contacts have provided permission to send the newsletter.
These three basic checks will save you the cost of sending to non-existent or uninterested contacts and enable your sending IP to maintain a good reputation, maximizing your delivery rates.
Filter Your List By Segment
Once you’ve built a valid and secure contact list, start filtering and segmenting addresses. If you have data that lets you create segments containing group contacts with the same interests you can send them newsletters with tailored offers.
For example, knowing the nationality of your contacts will let you group them into language segments and create promotions for their geographic area.Contacts who reach your database from e-commerce will arrive with very useful information about the purchases they’ve already made. You’ll know what they bought, when they bought it, and you can even find out if and when they abandoned their shopping cart. All this data is really important for your Black Friday campaign as it will allow you to plan and send tailored emails with much higher conversion rates than a generic newsletter.
Create an Email Template for Black Friday
Your email campaigns might follow a graphic layout aligned with your brand image but for Black Friday you can — and should — take risks.
Redesigning your newsletter template will help you stand out among the dozens of emails your customer will receive in a very short time. The graphics matter. Use a different color palette, one that echoes the distinctive black color used for this event. Play with strong contrasts. Grab the user’s attention with animated GIFs, and give space to your product images.
Make the Template Responsive and Test it on All Devices
Your Black Friday 2022 template design might be out of this world but if you need a large screen to view it or if a mobile phone cuts off your content, you’ll have thrown away a great opportunity and undone much of your work.
An email template should not only be impactful, it has to be optimized for desktop and mobile devices as well.
After creating your email campaign template, test it on as many devices as possible to ensure a perfect display.
Write an Email Subject Line That Stands Out
Getting good open rates is never easy. It’s even harder during Black Friday when inboxes are flooded with offers.
A good email subject line can really help.
Lines that mention Black Friday, discount percentages or with clear calls to action to work particularly well in this kind of campaign.The addition of particular emojis (lightning bolts, black icons, clocks, electronics, etc…) also helps to catch users’ attention as they scroll through their inbox.
Prepare Original and Tailored Content
Don’t limit yourself to a good offer. Customize the text of your newsletter using the information you have available about your users, their preferences and their past choices.
For example, if your customers expressed a preference for a certain product category during their registration, send that segment specific offers based on that interest.
You can also choose not to focus exclusively on discounts or promotions but suggest supporting charitable initiatives or offer free giveaways.
Aiming at a good cause is one way to make your offer original.
Enrich Your Newsletter with Dynamic Email Content
Integrating dynamic content into your newsletter is a simple and effective way to personalize your campaign.
Dynamic email content is text extracted from the database or dynamic template blocks displayed according to values associated with the user.
For example, dynamic content can replace a placeholder in the template with the recipient’s name, a much more personal touch.
Dynamic content can also offer a different coupon code for each user, providing greater security in the distribution of discounts.
Collect information about user interests during registration and you’ll be able to create a block with those products that most interest particular groups of users. Dynamic content will allow you to achieve better interaction and higher conversion rates.
Take Advantage of FOMO
FOMO is an acronym that stands for Fear Of Missing Out. In marketing, FOMO is leveraged to convince even the most reluctant people to make a purchase or take a certain course of action as soon as possible.Use your email subject line or its content to propose limited-time offers, limited product editions or lead magnets. One very effective solution is to embed a countdown timer.
Watch Sending and Interaction Statistics and Adjust Your Campaign According to the Results
Work on your Black Friday 2022 campaign doesn’t end with the sending of your newsletters.
In the hours and days after you’ve sent your newsletter, carefully analyze the delivery, open, and interaction statistics. The data will enable you to develop new strategies, plan sendings to specific targets, and take note of mistakes so you can avoid repeating them in subsequent mailings. Remember that Black Friday doesn’t have to end at midnight on Friday, November 25. You’ll still have a few more days to propose offers and discounts to the contacts in your database.