Email Automation Examples: The 6 Flows to Have Running Before Black Friday

If your automation stops at abandoned cart, Black Friday exposes the gap fast. New people sign up every day of the sale, and nobody hears from you again until you build the next campaign by hand.

This post is a map, not a deep dive. Each flow gets a short explanation and a link to the post where we cover it in full.

Why campaigns alone can't keep up with Black Friday traffic

A campaign goes out once, to whoever is on the list at that moment. Someone who subscribes an hour later misses it.

During Black Friday week that happens all day. People join from your pop-up, buy for the first time, browse and leave. Each of those moments needs an email that fires on its own, triggered by what the person did.

That's the job of a flow. You build it once, it runs on every new subscriber and every new order, and you get your week back for the campaigns.

Flow 1: welcome, for the subscribers BFCM brings

The welcome flow is the first email a new subscriber gets, and the one they're most likely to open. Use it to say who you are, deliver the sign-up offer if you promised one, and point to your best-sellers.

Two or three emails is enough before the sale. If you need ideas for the copy, our welcome email examples post has a full set.

Flow 2: browse abandonment, for people who looked and left

Someone viewed a product, didn't add it to the cart and left. A browse abandonment email reminds them what they looked at, without a hard sell.

It needs the subscriber to be known (signed up or logged in), so it works best once your welcome flow is collecting addresses. See our browse abandonment email examples for what to send.

Flow 3: abandoned cart, the one you probably already have

This is usually the first flow a store turns on, and for good reason: the shopper got as far as the cart. Check that it's live, that the product images load, and that the discount (if any) matches your Black Friday price.

If yours hasn't been touched since last year, our guide to abandoned cart emails walks through the sequence and timing.

Flow 4: post-purchase, for the first-time buyer

Black Friday brings buyers who have never ordered from you before. The tracking email is not a relationship.

A post-purchase flow thanks them, tells them how to use what they bought, and sets up the second order. We cover the whole sequence in how to craft the perfect post-purchase follow-up.

Flow 5: win-back, for January

The win-back flow goes to customers who bought once and went quiet. Switch it on now so it catches Black Friday buyers when they hit the 60- or 90-day mark in early 2027.

The subject line does most of the work here. Our list of win-back email subject lines is a good place to start.

Flow 6: sunset, so the list stays healthy

A sunset flow is the last email to subscribers who haven't engaged in months: "Still want to hear from us?" Those who click stay. Those who don't are removed.

It protects your sender reputation. Since February 2024, Google requires every sender to keep the spam rate in Postmaster Tools below 0.3%, and recommends staying under 0.1% (Google Workspace Admin Help, as of October 2026). Mailing people who stopped caring is how that number creeps up.

In SmartrMail you find those subscribers with a Smart Segment: no clicks in your chosen window, added before that window, and no orders. The help center's list cleaning guide shows the exact conditions. Inactive contacts already don't count toward your SmartrMail bill, so the sunset is purely about deliverability. More on timing in our sunset emails post.

What to check before you switch them on

In SmartrMail, the welcome, browse abandonment, abandoned cart, post-purchase and win-back flows start from ready-to-edit automation templates. On the Essential and Pro plans, AI drafts the copy in your automations, and you review and approve it before anything sends.

Before the week of the sale, run this check on every flow:

1. Trigger. Does it fire on the right event (sign-up, product view, cart, order)?
2. Timing. Is the first email's delay right for Black Friday, when people decide fast?
3. Offer. Does any discount in the flow match the price on the site this week?
4. Links and images. Send a test to yourself and open it on your phone.
5. Overlap. A new subscriber can get the welcome email and your Black Friday campaign on the same day. Decide if that's fine, or hold one back.

Coming from another email tool? The SmartrMail migration team moves your lists, automations and templates for you, at no cost. See what's on each plan on our pricing page.

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FAQ

What is email automation?

An email that sends on its own when a subscriber or customer does something: signs up, views a product, leaves a cart, places an order or goes quiet. You set the trigger and the content once, and it runs for everyone who meets it.

Which email automations should an ecommerce store set up first?

Welcome and abandoned cart. The welcome flow reaches every new subscriber, and abandoned cart reaches the people closest to buying. Add post-purchase next, so Black Friday buyers hear from you after the order.

Do flows still send during a Black Friday campaign?

Yes. Flows run on their own triggers, separate from campaigns. That's why you check for overlap before the sale: one person can get a flow email and a campaign on the same day.

How many emails should a welcome flow have?

Two or three is enough before Black Friday. The first sends right after sign-up with the offer you promised. The next ones introduce your best-sellers and your story.

Can I move my flows from another email tool?

Yes. In SmartrMail the migration team moves your lists, automations and templates, and sets up DNS and authentication for your sending domain. It's free.

The flow is what talks to them the next day

On Black Friday the campaign brings the customer in. The flow is what talks to them the next day, and the day after that. Switch on the six now, while you still have time to test them.

Try SmartrMail free for 15 days. Free forever up to 200 active subscribers, and on paid plans you only pay for active subscribers (pricing page, as of November 2026).