It’s Black Friday! 15 Best Practice Examples for Creative Newsletters
15 Best Practice Examples for Creative Newsletters
The Black Friday countdown has started! In eCommerce, Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) cause some of the most strong-selling days of the year at the end of November! To get your deals to your customers, we’ll show you 15 best practice examples of how other online shops shower their customers with their special deals!
Black Friday makes email servers run hot every year due to the incredibly high sending volume of email special offers. Our customers sent more than 17 million newsletters in 2019 – that’s about 820 emails per second! How many will there be this year?
To make your newsletter stand out on Black Friday, we have collected the best tips and sample newsletters that make lots of things right on Black Friday:
Create Urgency in Your Subject Line
Black Friday is only once a year! Why not point that out in your subject line? Phrases like “Last Chance“, “today only“ and “few hours left“ trigger the fear of missing outin your recipients – if they don’t go for it, they miss out on a great deal!
Screenshot: Adobe BFCM Newsletter 
Screenshot: Oasis Sample Newsletter 
Screenshot: Bose Sample Newsletter
Promote Specific Product Categories on Black Friday
Everything must go? You don’t have to make your whole product range a special offer. Suiting the occasion, you could only give a discount on black-colored products or only offer specific product categories in your big sale.
Screenshot: Modernica BFCM Newsletter – they offer a limited Black Friday edition 
Screenshot: Nike Discount on black colors 
Screenshot: Nice laundry Black Friday special edition
Time to Sale
The time for online shopping already starts before Black Friday. Some years ago, online shops would only give out discounted products on Black Friday. Now, only very few customers wait for this special day to do their shopping. It even looks like open and click rates are praticularly high some days before Black Friday than on the actual date. It pays off to start a pre-sale and promote first special offers before others do. At the same time, it also makes sense to provide people who missed Black Friday with newsletter offers; Cyber Monday offers a great opportunity to contact all Black Friday non-openers with an email newsletter.
Screenshot: Apple Black Friday Sale Newsletter 
Screenshot: BFCM Newsletter by Laneige 
Screenshot: Abercrombie & Fitch Newsletter 
Screenshot: Herschel Black Friday Newsletter
Be Something Special
Especially smaller online shops can’t always keep up with the discount promotions of big catalog companies. Sometimes, it’s a conscious decision to not let their brand look “too cheap“ in the eyes of the customers. This makes a sale something very special. Point this out in your newsletter text. Your long-awaited Black Friday sale will certainly be used by many to finally make a postponed purchase a reality!
Bag manufacturer Herschel send out their newsletter saying that Black Friday is their only sale and that the discount increases with the value of the shopping cart. Besides doing an extremely rare sale, this is also a great sales psychological trigger- your customer potentially spends more to save more.
Use Reverse Sales Psychology!
Instead of doing a pre-sale before Black Friday, you can also actively stop your customers from buying so shortly before the event.
Stop your customers from buying? We know, it’s a bit of a risk to recommend your customers to wait for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale. Especially, when you are selling high-priced products (e.g. furniture, as in our sample newsletter by Article) this is a good strategy for customer retention. Even a relatively small discount of 10% will be most appreciated by your customers – even more so, when you share that “insider tip“ with them. Your customer will be left with positive memories and will gladly return to your shop website.
Donations and Charity Work Instead of Black Friday Sale
Ever since the corona crisis has entered our lives, even more consumers have developed an awareness for sustainability. People only buy what they really need. Beyond that, consumerism has become a political statement for many people – they want to provide a sense of purpose with what they buy.
If your online shop also counts on the environment and sustainability, set an example on Black Friday. The focus in our sample newsletters still lies on sales. These offers often don’t contain discounts but additional payments of the shop. Promotions like „We donate 1€ for each purchase“ or „We donate 10 % of your shopping cart value on Black Friday to …“ are well-received by eco-conscious customers and boost your sales on Black Friday without any discounts.
Screenshot: Much better adventure BFCM Newsletter 
Screenshot: Patagonia Sample Newsletter 
Screenshot: Organic Basics BFCM Newsletter
Creative Newsletters for Your Black Friday Success!
A discount code alone doesn’t make a successful sale: everyone can send out discount codes via newsletter on Black Friday. Draw more attention to your deals with smart and unusual promotion ideas. Play around with different sending times in the weeks surrounding Black Friday and Cyber Monday, or exclusively promote single product categories. If you couple your promotion with serving a good cause or a subject line, that creates a feeling of urgency, your email will stand out in the inboxes of your subscribers – this will make your Black Friday Sale a huge success!
