UK retailers can expect Black Friday sales to be even better in 2023 than in 2022. That’s according to a report from Mintel showing that nearly two-thirds (63%) of UK consumers agree that financial concerns make Black Friday promotions more important than ever. Black Friday deals are a way they can bring joy to the holidays – even during the darkest days of a recession.
Your job? Getting through their disillusionment.
Black Friday has been around for more than 60 years and consumers’ faith in the deals is not what it used to be. You can change that by prioritizing value, ensuring your promotions are clear and free from deception, and offering a personalized experience.
Every year, we pick out some emails from the previous year’s Black Friday campaigns to help you plan your killer creatives. Here are 10 of the best in our inbox with some stats that will prove which ones you should prioritise.
Tip: Click on the images to see the full examples.
1) Cart and browse recovery emails
Life is busy. And your shoppers are sometimes browsing and carting with only minutes to spare while waiting at the doctor’s office, killing time between meetings, or rushing to the next sale. For shoppers who might have left your site without completing their purchase, win them back with a cart or browse recovery email. And why stop at just one email? A cart abandonment email series generates 21% more revenue than a single cart email.
Kleertjes.com saw a 347% YOY increase in cart abandonment revenue and a 126% YOY increase in browse abandonment revenue with their multi-step abandonment emails. Their first abandonment email is sent 30 minutes after a shopper abandons their cart and the second email is sent 24 hours later if the shopper still hasn’t taken action.
Source: Kleertjes.com email
2) Price drop alerts
Another valuable triggered email for Black Friday is a price drop alert. Since the premise of the big day is saving money, shoppers will likely jump on a chance to buy something that they’ve already been shopping for that has now dropped in price — let them know the amazing news. Custom triggers, including price drop emails and back-in-stock emails average sales uplifts of 4%. This makes them both essential email marketing tactics for Black Friday.
With just a glance, it’s clear to the recipient what this email is all about. The subject line, headline, and bold image in this Country Living remind the shopper of the product they were looking at and the outstanding savings they stand to gain. The countdown timer makes the decision urgent.
Source: Country Living email
3) Dynamic countdown timer
Speaking of urgency … that’s always a good tool in your Black Friday toolkit. With just one day to get the very best deals (Well … now, it’s stretched into three or four days, but who’s counting?), the clock is ticking. So why not make the deadline visual and heighten the urgency with a dynamic countdown timer to show the quickly passing days, hours, and minutes to the end of this Black Friday deal?
The Diamond Store uses a countdown timer to quickly entice their Black Friday shoppers to make the right deals. Our clients have seen up to 40% increase in conversion rates with dynamic countdown timers.
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Source: The Diamond Store email
4) Product recommendations
Product recommendations are like looking at a personalized catalog. They help shoppers find just what they need – even when they have no idea what to buy. And even when the recommendations aren’t personalized, they can be very effective.
buyagift’s product recommendation email provides multiple categories from which to choose, including price-related, gender-related, best sellers, and gifts to delight kids or couples. They saw a 24% sales uplift when they introduced product recommendation emails.
Source: buyagift email
5) Popularity messaging
Popularity messaging is when retailers use real-time purchase and browse data to display how many other shoppers have recently viewed, carted or purchased a particular product. This tactic simultaneously increases urgency and makes products seem more desirable, making it a perfect tactic for your Black Friday marketing. It’s an effective way to help shoppers narrow down their options and highlight products that have resonated with other people.
Buyagift has seen a 13% increase in sales since implementing social proof tactics such as popularity messaging in their email marketing.
Source: Buyagift email
6) Dynamic content
Fresh Relevance SmartBlocks can be added to your Black Friday email templates so that when the email is opened, the blocks are automatically populated with relevant, personalized product recommendations based on the shopper’s behavior (i.e., browse, cart, purchases, etc). You can also include social proof, such as crowd-sourced information on what other people have recently shopped for or purchased.
VisionDirect has seen an impressive 557% increase in click-throughs since it started including dynamic product recommendations in their email marketing.
Source: VisionDirect email
7) Dynamic pricing
Black Friday sales can be chaotic. For the best customer experience — and to ensure top sales for the event — it’s important to deliver the most up-to-date pricing in your Black Friday emails. That’s where dynamic pricing comes in.
FFX uses dynamic pricing in their Black Friday emails. When customers open FFX emails, they see the current product pricing.
Source: FFX email
8) Payment options
While many merchants want to preserve the top email real estate for products, Get The Label! makes a wise choice to put their one-click checkout options front-and-center in this Black Friday email. This shows shoppers that the brand values their time. They aren’t forced to load up their shopping cart, only to notice at the end that the retailer doesn’t offer the payment option they prefer.
Additionally, retailers can display on the product details or checkout page a dynamic banner that automatically calculates and displays the exact monthly costs for the carted items if choosing a ‘buy now, pay later’ provider, such as Klarna, thus reducing browse and cart abandonment even further.
Source: Get The Label! email
9) Company ratings and reviews
Even when you have an ongoing relationship with a shopper, it’s still a good idea to validate their trust in your brand – especially during the most hectic shopping event of the season. Look Fabulous Forever solidifies their bond in multiple ways:
- They use the shopper’s behavioral data to provide relevant product recommendations.
- They use real-time onsite purchase and browse data to display social proof of other shoppers who desire this product.
- They include customer satisfaction statistics and a link to customer testimonials.
- They include their TrustPilot TrustScore at the bottom of their Black Friday email.
TrustPilot research found that a good TrustScore makes 77% of UK shoppers more likely to buy from a brand. So even though Ella may be stressing about her Black Friday shopping, she won’t stress about her Look Fabulous Forever purchases because they are coming from a 4.7 ⭐ supplier.
Source: Look Fabulous Forever email
10) Click-and-collect
Click-and-collect is a convenient fulfilment option for multitasking shoppers who want the thrill of picking up their TickleMe Elmo on the high-street while they also finish checking off the other items on their Christmas shopping list. When you include the option in your emails, you make it easy to choose your brand.
Anthropologie knows how busy the season is and even offers to have the gifts wrapped and ready for giving, helping boost conversions with a little extra peace of mind.
Source: Anthropologie email
Black Friday is an email marketer’s World Cup, Super Bowl, Grand Prix, and debutante ball all rolled into one. You plan for it all year. The software capabilities, the security, the workflows, the template designs and the content calendar. They all have to be brilliant if you hope to convince shoppers to snap up your best deals during this busy shopping season. That’s why we’re here for you with loads of creative ideas, integration suggestions, and partner endorsements.
Make sure you’ve optimized your customer experience ahead of Black Friday weekend with our eCommerce Guide to Peak Season Personalization.
Disclaimer
This blog post is for informational purposes only. Fresh Relevance is not claiming to provide its services to the companies and brand owners referred to in the blog post.
