5 Types of Emails to Send This Black Friday

We’re all used to getting a deluge of Black Friday / Cyber Monday emails. And most of them look nearly identical. They’re short, to the point, and often have colorful, flashing graphics.

Which is fine… in fact, straight to the point emails often perform well – they share the discount shoppers are looking for with no dilly dallying around. But, you can reach different kinds of shoppers and add unique value when you mix up your email styles.

Here are five types of email to consider for your Black Friday Campaign this year.

Before we get started though… did this email go to your promotions tab or spam folder? If so, I’d be super grateful if you moved it over to your primary inbox to signal that you do want to see these emails. Thank you!

1. Price Range Gift Guide

Most of us have price ranges in mind for our gift recipients. Sure, we’d love to spend $100+ on everyone, but the truth is there are tiers. You can help de-stress the shopping experience by highlighting gifts at different price points. If all of your products carry hefty price tags, this likely isn’t the best kind of email to send. If your products are all low-priced already, consider creating bundles to offer more options for gifting, while also increasing your AOV.

2. Recipient Gift Guide

You’ve likely seen a lot of these emails over the years, but they’re popular for a good reason – we usually organize our gift-shopping checklists by recipient. These gift guides make it easy to shop for everyone on your list – plain and simple. 

3. Encourage Shopping for Oneself

Black Friday isn’t only about gift shopping – it’s also a time for consumers to stock up on items for themselves. So encourage their self-shopping instincts with gift guides just for them.

M.M. LaFleur did this beautifully with a letter from the editor as an introduction. 

4. The Narrative Email

You can either add a bit of narrative to one of your gift guide emails, as M.M. LaFleur did above, or you can choose to send a more story-driven email all on its own. Direct response copy is long for a reason – it often performs well. This year, try sending a text-only, or nearly text-only email to see what happens.

5. Straight to the Point Promo 

The classic ecommerce promotion, this style email doesn’t leave any confusion – the sale is announced boldly. These are great for sending on Black Friday itself, when there are thousands of other messages crowding your subscribers’ inboxes. They’re also great for last chance messages just before your sale ends.