Last year online sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday reached a combined $5.81 Billion, with 25% of all sales coming from email marketing. With the big days coming up this weekend, we’ve spoken with many retailers who are scrambling to prepare their email marketing campaigns. If you’re in the same boat, don’t panic – we’ve got your back. We’ve prepared 3 last minute email marketing tips that any store can implement in 30 minutes or less.
1. Schedule multiple emails before and during
Forget Facebook advertising, 46% of shoppers will hear about the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals via emails direct from the retailer. However with every ecommerce retailer across the globe fighting for space in the minds and inboxes of your customers, sending one email will likely result in your message being lost in the crowd.
Have your subscribers eagerly anticipating your sale launch by notifying them of your offer with a preview of a few popular products. Then when sale day comes around, stand out and create urgency by counting down the time left in your sale. To get started, schedule these 5 emails:
Email 1
Time: Monday or Tuesday
Content: Let your subscribers know that you will be having a Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale. Have a strong call to action driving them to your site, so they can familiarize themselves with your product.
Email 2
Time: Wednesday or Thursday
Content: Your subscribers will be starting to form ideas for what they are going to buy over the weekend. Now is the time to create a collection of popular holiday products that will be on sale (more info in tip 2) and email a preview with a link to the entire collection on your site.
Email 3
Time: Friday and Monday Morning
Content: You’re off to the races! Schedule your first email in the morning to start driving traffic to your site. Use a strong call to action with your offer. “Black Friday Starts Now! Take 30% Off Everything in Store”
Email 4
Time: Friday and Monday Evening
Content: With the amount of emails being sent on Black Friday, not everyone will read your first message. Follow up and create some urgency with another reminder of your offer and the time left in your sale. “3 Hours Left! – Black Friday 30% OFF Everything in Store”
Email 5 (Optional)
Time: Tuesday Morning
Content: Many retailers have begun extending their Cyber Monday sales into the week. However this extensions is up to you and limitations of your store. If you do choose to extend – send an email letting your subscribers know.
2. Create and send a collection
With every retailer fighting for the attention of your customers and a limited time for them to make a purchase, you don’t have a long to take your subscriber from email to checkout. Make it easy for them to find products they like by creating a holiday collection of on sale items and including a few popular suggestions in an email.
If all your products are on sale, you can also schedule an automated product recommendation email to send on sale day. SmartrMail’s product recommendation emails have proven to significantly improve sales by sending personalized product recommendations based on each customer’s past purchase history, browsing behaviour, and email clicks.
3. Enable Abandoned Cart Emails
Ecommerce cart abandonment jumped to a daily average of nearly 80 percent on and around Black Friday in 2022. Expect your abandoned carts to grow this weekend as your customers add products to their cart, only to search for better deals elsewhere.
Luckily with SmartrMail you can automate a hard sell to win them back. With our abandoned cart recovery feature you can send up to 3 follow up emails per abandoned cart at any time interval. Using our advanced recommendation engine, you can also include 2 product recommendations based on their past purchases and browsing behaviour – giving them other options in case their opinion on their first selection turns sour.
Set your first email to send an hour after your customer leaves your site so they don’t quickly forget about the items in their cart.
If that doesn’t win them back, send a second email 6 hours later urging them to come back before the sale is over.
In the unfortunate situation where they still haven’t made a purchase, send a 3rd email 12 hours later – offer a further discount or extend the sale for them with a coupon code.
Closing Note:
If you haven’t set up any Black Friday / Cyber Monday email campaigns yet, don’t panic. All these tips take less than 30 minutes to implement. We’ve built SmartrMail to be the quickest and easiest to use email marketing app for Shopify and BigCommerce stores. Using our product lookup you can add products to your emails in seconds – complete with images, descriptions, and links.
If you’re wanting to be more prepared for the ecommerce holidays next year, then check out a comprehensive guide on how to market for Cyber Monday here.
If you’re still finding yourself needing help with set-up, book an appointment with one of our ecommerce specialists and we’ll have you getting more sales from email marketing in no time.
