Our Top 5 picks for Black Friday Emails

Black Friday is all about sales, promotions, and giving your customer a great deal along with an exceptional customer experience. It’s also traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year online and in-store.

Falling on the calendar the weekend after Thanksgiving this year Black Friday occurs on the 25th of November. Consumers are looking out for bargains this time of year and if they are looking out for them it’s a perfect time for you to offer something and drive your business further.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the hottest online and offline shopping times of the year. Every year, online spending increases year after year. The last year 2021, online sales reached unprecedented heights, totaling a record 9 billion SEK, an increase of 20% compared to 2020 on Svensk Handel. Creating an email campaign and driving customers to your online store seems like a pretty damn good idea no? (Well I think so anyway).

With many online stores running week-long campaigns, now is a better time than ever to prepare and organize your campaigns. To kick-start your creative juices we bring you the top 5 email campaigns picked by us based on design and conversion potential.

1. asos

Asos gets straight to the point with their design and also discount code which is easy to remember but also adds urgency “GOGOGO”. Simple and straight to the point.

2. Forever 21

Forever 21 used a scratch card  GIF in their Black Friday email campaign. It created a very realistic and cool element to their email. Users needed to click on the CTA to see which offer they received either 15%, 20%, or 30% off. It is one way to gamify your email campaign. After all the purpose is to get your audience to click right?

3. J.Crew

Ok, so this is an email sent out on Cyber Monday (the Monday after Black Friday). However, we love the design element of using photography and copy to deliver the message. It’s eye-catching and different, plus they a dynamic store locater at the bottom of the email so you can find your nearest store. Plus the inclusion of Free Shipping is a great sales hook! Pretty neat!

Tip: Your spin on Black Friday-Cyber Monday doesn’t have to be limited to sales and the holidays, think about what would make your customers happy. Plus showcasing that you offer free shipping has been shown to increase sales.

4. Revolve

Revolve launched their online sales early with their campaign giving their users the feeling of being a VIP so they could receive discounts before anyone else would. It is a play on words but it works. Another great thing we like about their email is the shipping time calculator. Keeping it simple and understanding their customers.

5. The Body Shop

We love the Body Shop, its simple and effective use of Black and then the vibrance of colors that depict the body shop. The discount is bold and in color, and a bonus is the mention of free standard shipping when you spend above a certain amount. Customers love free shipping and it also gives you a guaranteed minimum basket amount! With this email you have the opportunity to either shop online or visit a store, catering to both types of their customers.

These top 5 emails are all clean to the point and also a great use of creative colors and imagery. We know thinking of everything can sometimes feel overwhelming. Planning early is key to delivering an epic Black Friday email campaign.

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Updated Nov 2022. The article was written in 2017.