If you are an ecommerce company, you might already know the importance of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These two events could actually prove to be a make-or-break time of the year!
Rightfully so, Black Friday generates 3.6x higher ecommerce sales when compared to an average day in November. And if we notice the trend here, Black Friday weekend sales are demonstrating healthy growth, year over year.
When compared to 2017, 2018 Black Friday was far bigger and better as far as customers and sales are concerned. According to the data released by the National Retail Foundation, 165 million Americans shopped over Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Thanksgiving.
Let’s have a closer look at what the statistics say:
- 2018 Thanksgiving was able to generate 27.9% more online sales when compared to 2017. The average order in 2018 was up by 8% in comparison to 2017.
- Revenue of $7.9 billion was generated on Cyber Monday, exhibiting an increase of 19.3% over 2017.
Quite predictably, Black Friday 2019 will exceed these numbers. Therefore, it is the right time to plan and make the most out of email marketing this year. How do you do that? Choose the right newsletter templates for Black Friday, target the right people, and strategize effectively.
Let’s find out.
Best Black Friday Email Marketing Strategies
Kick off your email marketing campaign early
Shoppers start flooding the online shops at the break of dawn. Make sure that you don’t wait for the end moment to launch your email marketing campaign. Instead, start early. You must, at least, schedule your campaign a week early.
We will highly recommend you to send around three emails in the series – the first one should provide a quick teaser about the expected deals, the second one should provide a closer insight on the varied offers, and the third one should act as a wakeup call.
Build your subscriber list
To execute an email marketing strategy successfully, it is necessary that you have an exhaustive email list of your customers. Think about the customers who have already shopped from you. It is much easier to sustain your existing customers than to attract new ones.
To further boost your subscriber list, build a sense of urgency by offering lucrative deals to your customers. To attract more signups, make sure that you style the signup forms to emphasize your seasonal offerings.
Creating a landing page tailored for the holiday season is another great way to grab visitors’ emails.
Split test your subject lines
While launching your email marketing campaign is easier, what is tough is to extract the expected ROI from it. You might not get enough open rates, and even if you do, not a lot many people might make a purchase.
This is why it is essential to take the right steps right from step one. And the subject line is one of the critical aspects that could impact the psychology of your customers.
That said, there is no right and wrong when it comes to subject lines – what works for you works for you. The idea is to go with your intuition, run a few trial tests, analyze, predict and repeat.
Focus on cart abandonments
Cart abandonment is one of the grave issues that all ecommerce owners face. However, employing automated email workflows to follow-up these cart abandonments was found to be associated with a 34%open rate and a 9% click-through rate in 2017.
It was found that these figures only got better in 2018 with CTR increasing from 7.62% in 2017 to 9% in 2018.
The bottom line? Customers often find themselves in the middle of an array deals on Black Friday. It is important to win their focus and give them a final call to make the purchase while the offer lasts.
Design your newsletter attractively
Similar to the subject line of your email, the design of your newsletter also impacts the mood of your customers. Make sure that your emailer is properly designed, reflects the festive mood, and also builds the trust of your customers.
Additionally, ensure that your newsletter is responsive such that it can fit devices of all screen sizes. Do not only focus on its design but also ensure that it is nicely written with no spelling and grammatical errors.
Analyze the previous year’s trends
If you really want to take off your holiday email marketing, it is essential that you learn from the past. Dig out your historical email campaign data. Look for trends like which day of the time witnessed the most opens, what were the most popular subject lines, and so on.
Derive inputs from previous campaigns and build your strategy around those. Most importantly, do not forget to add a call-to-action button at the bottom of the email to help customers take the desired action!
The Next Steps
With this in mind, it is the right time to get started with your email marketing campaign. To make the most out of the holiday season, we will highly recommend you to get started early. Build hype around your Black Friday offerings and integrate your social media and email campaigns for the best results.