It’s the most wonderful time of the year – for boosting your sales.

Yep, Black Friday is drawing closer, falling on November 23^rd this year, with Cyber Monday just behind it.  As an email marketer, it can be a difficult time to come up with email campaigns that won’t get lost amongst the dozens of other emails that your consumers will be receiving each day.

Standing out in the inbox and making an impact is essential if you want to boost your sales.  So, listen up, because it’s time to start thinking about your Black Friday email marketing.

Why Black Friday Email Marketing is Important

Black Friday to Cyber Monday is considered to be the busiest shopping weekend of the year, and consumer shopping habits are still evolving.  Every year, more and more people are choosing e-commerce over brick-and-mortar.

According to the BBC, last year, online sales came first place before high street sales.  UK spending on last year’s Black Friday was up by around 12% on the year before, and 2018 is predicted to surpass that.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday offer a huge opportunity to be creative with your marketing, and your email communications can be an extremely effective method of engagement.

With that said, now is the time to create the perfect Black Friday email marketing campaign.  Feeling the pressure?

Fear not!  Just follow these simple steps and you’ll earn your winning place in the inbox.

1. Give your subscribers a heads up

Getting your existing and potential customers excited about your upcoming Black Friday sale is essential.  You need to pique their interest just before your sale kicks off, so be sure to make your customers aware of your Black Friday sale ahead of time.

Informing your customers of the type of deals you plan to offer is a great way to engage your readers and followers.  Wired Plus email marketing software makes this easy for you.  It provides you with a drag-and-drop email builder, so you can quickly craft an email campaign to announce your Black Friday sale to your customers.

2. Let your customers have a lie in

It doesn’t make sense to try and compete with the bigger stores by giving your customers early morning deals as soon as the clock strikes midnight.

Each year, Black Friday emails are being sent earlier and earlier.  Invite your subscribers to hit the snooze button and save your discounts and promotions for slightly later in the morning.  You don’t want to send your campaign too early and your subscribers be asleep and end up not reading your email.

Be patient!  Getting your email sent out first before anyone else isn’t necessarily a good thing.  While waiting for your readers to wake up, your email will be getting pushed further down their inbox and quickly lost amongst all the other Black Friday email marketing they’ll be receiving.

3. Get the subject line right

The subject line is the element of the campaign that all your subscribers see first.  It’s your chance to make an impression, you want your subscribers to read your Black Friday subject line and immediately want to open the email.

Whether the subject line is good or not will define your open rate metric.  An engaging subject line that stops your readers in their tracks will ultimately lead to more open and click rates.  You can read about what email marketing metrics mean by clicking here.

Your subject line should be straight to the point, telling your readers what’s inside the email.  Using specific keywords will help, such as ‘Black Friday’, ‘Discount’, ‘Sale’ and ‘Offer’.

If you want to go the extra mile and make it more fun, then adding one or two Emojis will help your Black Friday subject line stand out.

4. Use a GIF or two

Using an animated GIF will increase your email campaign’s click-through rate.

You can use a GIF as an image replacement – maybe you want to bring some of your actual products to life – or you could reveal your offer(s) with a GIF. It’s visually appealing and it requires the reader to pay more attention to the content of your campaign.

5. Add a sense of urgency

It’s important for you to create urgency in your Black Friday email marketing campaign.  You want to give your readers a push to make a purchase.

Using phrases such as ‘Expires on…’ or ‘Deals end on…’ will help you do this.  Another great idea is to use of an animated countdown timer, letting your subscribers know the exact date and time when the sales will finish.  This will encourage the reader to want to buy sooner rather than later.  They won’t want to risk missing out.

Be careful, though!  Don’t get mixed up between wanting to create urgency and just being a bit annoying.  According to Entrepreneur.com, 69% of readers unsubscribe after receiving “too many” emails.

6. Offer an incentive to spend

Consumers have come to expect big deals during the Black Friday weekend, and no doubt will their inboxes be flooded with them.  Regardless of the type of promotion that you’re running this Black Friday weekend, you should consider offering incentives to motivate your readers to buy.

Shoppers love receiving free shipping, free add-on gifts, or discounts for spending over certain amounts.

People also like to feel special.  You could also offer an “exclusive” discount to your loyal customers by using a segmented email list.  Not only could that lead to a purchase this Black Friday, but it will also encourage future conversions, and your customers will feel rewarded for their loyalty.  Everyone’s a winner!

Read the reasons why you should be segmenting your email lists by clicking here.

Remember to deliver on your incentives.  Don’t exaggerate your sales in your Black Friday email marketing campaigns.  If your readers click through to your website and feel like they’re not getting the value that they were promised, then you’ll lose their trust.

So, are you ready for Black Friday?

There are some tips to help you kick-start your Black Friday email marketing campaigns.  If you don’t have an email marketing strategy yet, then an email marketing platform can save you a lot of time and effort.

Want to get more email marketing inspiration?  You can download our Complete Guide to Email Marketing by clicking here.

So, what are you waiting for?  With Black Friday just over a month away, now is the time to start planning and designing your Black Friday email marketing!

The post 6 Top Tips for your Black Friday Email Marketing Campaigns appeared first on Wired Plus Marketing Hub.