Black Friday – often called the Olympics of sales – is the most anticipated shopping event of the year.

For business owners, it’s that one weekend when customers are practically throwing their wallets at you, right?

But, here’s the catch: this only happens if you have a killer strategy in place.

Let me start with some jaw-dropping numbers.

Last year, online Black Friday sales in the U.S. alone hit $16.4 billion. Globally, Black Friday sales skyrocketed to a staggering $70.9 billion!

Now, the real question is:

Are you prepared to get your slice of that pie?

Or are you just hoping for the best?

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How We Pulled in $92K Last Black Friday

Last year, my team and I ran a Black Friday email campaign that brought in $92,000 in sales—an incredible 95% increase from the previous year. But we didn’t just get lucky; we followed a proven strategy.

The strategy wasn’t only successful for us—it also helped one of our clients, an e-commerce brand, pull in $178,000 during their Black Friday campaign. That’s a 110% increase from their previous year’s result.

And here’s the kicker: this simple email strategy I’m about to share made all the difference.

I’m going to walk you through every step we took to plan, segment, and execute our Black Friday email campaign, so you can make this year’s Black Friday your most profitable one yet.

Why Most Black Friday Campaigns Fail

Let’s face it: Black Friday campaigns fail more often than they succeed.

In fact, 85% of businesses have no idea how to run a proper Black Friday email campaign.

They either don’t plan well or fail to execute effectively.

As a result, their sales hardly increase from what they would normally make during any other promotion.

Here’s the reality: for every business that crushes its Black Friday campaign, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into it.

Planning is crucial, and the earlier you start, the better your chances of success.

How To Plan And Execute A Successful Black Friday Campaign

Step 1: Choose the Right Products or Services to Promote

The first step in planning your Black Friday campaign is selecting which products or services to promote.

This decision can make or break your campaign, so it’s essential to choose wisely.

Here are a few approaches that can help maximize sales:

• Focus on Best-Sellers:
  Consider promoting your best-selling product at a discounted rate.
  
  Best sellers often have the most social proof and customer trust, which makes them an easy sell.
  
• Bundle Products:
  Another approach is to create product bundles.
  
  For example, you could bundle your high-margin products with a popular item to increase your average order value (AOV).
  
• Segmented Offers:
  If you have multiple offers that appeal to different segments of your audience, you can create customized promotions for each.
  
  For instance, offer Product A to Segment A, and Product B to Segment B. This personalized approach ensures that your email content resonates with your audience.

Pro Tip:

Decide which products or services you’ll be promoting well in advance.

This will make the entire planning process smoother, and ensure you can create offers that will be irresistible to your audience.

Step 2: Segment Your Email List for Maximum Personalization

Segmentation is one of the most important factors in any successful email campaign, and Black Friday is no exception.

Your audience isn’t made up of identical people, so sending the same offer to everyone is a recipe for mediocre results.

Let’s say you have an email list that includes people interested in content marketing, freelancing, affiliate marketing, and e-commerce.

If you send a generic affiliate marketing offer to everyone, you’ll likely see a low conversion rate.

But if you tailor your emails – offering content marketing products to those interested in content marketing, and affiliate marketing deals to the right segment – your results will skyrocket.

Personalization is key here.

Each segment of your audience has different pain points, desires, and motivations.

The more personalized and relevant your email, the more likely they’ll click through and make a purchase.

Step 3: Craft an Irresistible Offer

Your offer is the heart of your Black Friday campaign. During Black Friday, customers are bombarded with deals from every direction.

So, your offer has to stand out and make your customers think, “If I don’t take this, I’ll regret it!”

Here are a few strategies to craft a no-brainer offer:

• Big Discounts: Offering significant discounts is an obvious strategy, but it works—especially on Black Friday.
  
• Exclusive Bonuses: Add something extra that your audience can’t get any other time of year, like premium content, extra products, or extended support.
  
• Bundle Deals: Create a bundle that feels like a steal. For instance, package your main product with a few smaller items for an incredible value.
  
• Free Shipping: If you’re selling physical products, free shipping can be the tipping point that gets customers to hit “buy.”
  
• Money-Back Guarantees: Alleviate any buyer hesitation by offering a no-questions-asked money-back guarantee.
  

Think about the incentives you can offer that will make your customer think, “If I don’t take this now, I’ll be missing out all year.”

Step 4: Warm Up Your Audience Before Black Friday

A common mistake businesses make is waiting until Black Friday to start promoting.

By that time, your audience is already receiving a flood of emails. The trick is to warm them up before the big day.

We start warming up our email list two weeks before Black Friday with a series of emails that build anticipation.

Here’s our usual schedule:

• Week 1: Send two emails teasing the upcoming sale and asking for feedback on what your audience wants to see.
  
• Week 2: Send two follow-up emails providing more information on what the deal will include, sharing testimonials, and creating excitement.
  

This buildup makes sure your audience is primed and ready to take action when the cart opens.

Step 5: Open the Cart and Create Urgency

On Black Friday, we send three emails throughout the day:

• Email 1 (Morning): Announce that the cart is open and create a sense of urgency. This email should include a countdown timer and emphasize that the best deals are available for a limited time.
  
• Email 2 (Afternoon): Highlight bonuses and remind them that the early bird offers are expiring. You can also introduce new bonuses to entice fence-sitters.
  
• Email 3 (Evening): Send a final reminder before the cart closes. This email should be short, packed with urgency, and include a countdown timer.
  

Pro Tip: Don’t be afraid to send multiple emails. Your audience will be receiving tons of emails from other businesses that day. If you only send one, it’s likely to get buried in their inbox.

Step 6: Pre-Test Your Cart (Bonus Step)

Here’s a strategy we used last year that made a huge difference: a few days before Black Friday, we opened our cart for 24 hours as a “test run.”

We sent an email to a select group of subscribers offering a special discount code, with the explanation that we wanted them to test the checkout process and give feedback.

This “testing” period gave us early sales, helped us catch any technical glitches, and built up even more anticipation for the big day.

Step 7: Post-Black Friday Strategy

Don’t stop after Black Friday is over!

Some businesses extend their promotions through the weekend, ending on Cyber Monday.

If you want to squeeze every possible sale out of this shopping frenzy, consider extending your campaign across multiple days.

Additionally, you can follow up with your customers post-purchase to thank them and offer complementary products or services.

Are You Ready to Maximize Your Black Friday Sales?

By following this detailed Black Friday email strategy, you’ll be well on your way to making this your most profitable sales period yet.

Whether it’s carefully selecting products, personalizing your offers for each segment, or warming up your audience well in advance, the key is planning and executing with precision.

And to make it even easier for you, I’ve created a free Black Friday Campaign Checklist and Email Templates that you can download right now.

This checklist will walk you through every step I just outlined, and the email templates will give you a head start on your campaign.

Let’s make this Black Friday your best yet!

Grab the free download in the link below and start planning your killer campaign.