It's Black Friday time again. And again our marketing teams are expected to send more emails, and generate more opportunities and sales than ever before! It's a challenge to meet these expectations while balancing engagement and deliverability in the face of crowded inboxes and stricter ISP filters. Here are some practical tips to help reduce deliverability issues and customer fatigue, and help ensure a successful Black Friday period (Spoiler: marketers should adopt data-driven strategies focused on engagement; personalized, relevant and simple content; smart timing; and spread campaigns over the whole week)
1 - Weeks Before Black Friday (Lead-Up Period)
Data:
- List hygiene and segmentation: Clean your email list by removing long-term inactive contacts with zero purchase history. Create segmentation rules in advance based on preferences, recency of engagement, and past purchasing history. Avoid using "opens" to define "active".
- Re-engagement campaigns: Initiate re-engagement campaigns for dormant subscribers early. This helps you identify those who are still interested while improving your list quality before Black Friday. Use a multi-channel strategy to re-engage high-value contacts who are inactive on email.
- Google Postmaster Tools: Ensure you can see your reputation and spam complaints for your gmail subscribers. Set up is simple and it is free to use.
Content:
- Tease promotions: Send teaser emails highlighting upcoming deals, sneak peeks, or exclusive early access offers. This builds excitement and expectation without overwhelming your subscribers.
- Value-driven messaging: Deliver content with value to your customers. Buying guides, product care, personalized recommendations. Ask for feedback and preference updates.
- Opt-in for exclusive deals: Create opportunities for subscribers to opt-in to Black Friday "VIP" deals, allowing you to prioritize your most interested customers, and giving a sense of exclusivity.
Timing and Strategy:
- Gradual ramp-up: Progressively increase email volume as Black Friday approaches. This primes your subscribers and ISPs, avoids a sudden volume change on Black Friday, and also helps test your older email data more gently and at a less critical time.
- A/B testing: Run A/B tests on subject lines, content formats, and calls-to-action (CTAs) to fine-tune the best performing combinations.
2 - The Week of Black Friday
Data:
- Active monitoring: Keep a close eye on engagement metrics, like open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates. Adjust your targeting if you notice certain segments showing fatigue. Focus more on those who are engaged in the build-up, reduce sending to those who are not. Exclude contacts contacts who clearly have no interest.
Content:
- Final reminders and urgency: Emails sent in this week should drive urgency and anticipation, with countdown timer, reminders of time-specific offers, or highlighting in advance your most limited offers.
- Personalized offers: Leverage previous purchase data and browsing behaviour to send highly relevant, complimentary product recommendations and exclusive offers.
- Clear and simple content: Simple subject lines will help emails stand out in a busy inbox. Keep the content simple, making information easy to read. To maximise engagement, make sure any call to action is a simple and direct (e.g. "Reserve your place" "Remind me" "Browse Offers").
Timing and Strategy:
- Email cadence: Test increases in sending frequency to your most interested contacts. Avoid sending too many emails to those not engaging. Test sending at different times of the day.
- Cart/Browse abandonment emails: If your audience is browsing but not converting, use cart abandonment emails to gently remind them about their incomplete purchases. Incentives (free shipping, limited-time discount) are not necessary, as this can "train" your customers to expect these for every purchase. Instead offer alternatives or complimentary products
- Multi-channel: High value customers who have still not engaged are prime targets for SMS, display, search and social advertising.
3. Black Friday and Cyber Monday (Peak Period)
Data:
- Monitor deliverability: You can assess inbox placement across different email providers by comparing open and click rates. Adjust your sending strategy if needed to protect your reputation. Keep a close eye on replies, spam complaints (Google Postmaster Tools), and bounce rates.
Content:
- Flash sales and exclusives: Highlight the most compelling offers of the day with time-sensitive or flash sale content.
- Subject line marketing: Subject lines can directly drive website traffic if they are clear and obvious.
- Keep it simple: Use a clean, straightforward design with an obvious CTA. Avoid complex visuals or overly long copy.
- Include urgency tactics: Countdown timers and reminders of how long deals will last help create engagement at the right times.
Timing and Strategy:
- Engage your best contacts first (Halo Effect): Send your campaigns to the most engaged contacts first. Your subscribers’ positive responses (opens, clicks, purchases) generate engagement signals. This is a "halo effect" which helps boost your real-time sender reputation and improve deliverability for the rest of your list.
- Avoid “top of the hour” bottlenecks: Avoid sending or scheduling emails exactly at the start of each hour. Sending at less congested times (e.g., at 10:12 AM rather than 10:00 AM) can give your email a better chance of bypassing ISP throttling and strict filtering.
- Use SMS or app notifications: Complement email with SMS or push notifications for key flash sales, especially to your most engaged customers.
- Avoid volume spikes: Since Gmail started rolling-out more strict rules we have noticed they are especially sensitive to sudden volume increases. Keep volumes at your normal levels over this critical period to help avoid emails being delayed
4. Post-Cyber Monday (Retention and Follow-Up)
Data:
- Post-event segmentation: Segment audiences into those who purchased and those who didn’t. Tailor follow-up messages accordingly (e.g., feedback requests, product care tips for buyers, or additional incentives for those who didn’t purchase).
- Analyze performance: Review your engagement metrics and refine your audience segments for future re-engagement or holiday marketing. Make notes for next year.
Content:
- Thank you emails: For customers who made purchases, send a follow-up "thank you" email, reinforcing their decision and building brand loyalty. Include shipping information, personalized recommendations, product care tips, or next steps.
- Extended deals or “Last Chance” offers: For those who didn’t buy, offer a final opportunity to purchase with a “last chance” or extended Cyber Week sale.
Timing and Strategy:
- Scale back frequency: Reduce the sending volume after the peak period to avoid email fatigue and maintain positive engagement.
Final Tips for Minimizing Risk and Maximizing Success:
- Send during less congested times: Avoid sending emails at the start of the hour to improve inbox placement.
- Leverage the Halo Effect: Send emails to your most engaged contacts first to boost overall campaign performance and deliverability.
- Be prepared to adjust strategy: Monitor engagement and reputation (Google Postmaster Tools). Stay agile and adjust your strategy based on data and performance.
- Personalize and simplify: Ensure your content is relevant, easy to digest, and includes clear calls to action.