Black Friday Email Examples (And the Strategy Nobody Shows You)
For a lot of founders, Black Friday is a wee bit intimidating. The competition is FIERCE. You’ll be buried in inboxes if you haven’t spent this time becoming their fave brand to open emails from, and ads too can get lost in a sea of noise.
You've come here looking for Black Friday email examples, and you're going to get them. But we're not going to just show you pretty emails and tell you what to send on which day, because copying someone else's calendar won't fix a full inbox, bad deliverability, or an audience that doesn’t trust you (or love you enough to prioritise opening your stuff!).
What will fix it is doing things in the right order. Here's the exact process we follow for our clients, with the thinking laid bare.
AND P.S You need to start earlier than you think. By the Monday before Black Friday, over 40% of email campaigns already contained Black Friday discounts, helping those companies lock in sales before the holiday weekend rush.
1. Brand the entire thing
Before you write a single subject line, ask yourself: what does Black Friday look like for us?
Shoppers have seen every version of "up to 50% off" there is, and they've become pretty numb to it. Which? even found that not one of the 175 products it tracked was at its cheapest on Black Friday 2024, so your customers are more sceptical than ever (and in the UK our Prime Minister has spoken on this - he wants to stop businesses hiking prices up before Black Friday and claiming there is a discount!)
The advice for Black Friday is the same advice we give for email marketing. How can you be different, and how can you show your customers that you know them, you get them, and you LURRRVE THEM (enough not to send spammy stuff to them).
A branded Black Friday feels like an event. That could mean:
Giving it a name. Something that sounds like you.
Giving it a look. A signature colour, a graphic treatment or a photo style you use across every single touchpoint. And don’t trust AI to do this for you, because customers are savvy.
Giving it a feeling. Is your Black Friday cosy? Cheeky? Exclusive? Decide, and write every email in that tone.
Then carry it everywhere: your pop-up, your emails, your Instagram, your website banner. When someone sees it anywhere, they should know it's you before they've even read the brand name.
2. Make a plan for your flows
For someeee reason, people forget flows all the time. THEY’RE SO IMPORTANT! You can’t have your normal Welcome flow offering 10% off running alongside your Black Friday offer. You need to give your entire email account the BF/CM treatment.
Picture this. Someone signs up to your list on Black Friday because they saw your sale. They get your usual welcome email offering 10% off their first order. Meanwhile, your sale is 25% off. Awkward. Or someone abandons their basket and gets a reminder at full price, with no mention of the offer they came in for.
It happens all the time, and it costs brands sales. So before you plan a single campaign:
Update your welcome flow so new subscribers hear about your Black Friday offer straight away.
Update your abandoned cart and browse flows to mention the offer (and the deadline).
Set up a pre-Black Friday pop-up that tells people "you're in", so they sign up to get first dibs rather than waiting to see what you do. If email subscribers will get the best deals (or early access or a free gift), you’re WINNING ALREADY.
3. Build a campaign plan
Now it's time for campaigns. A rookie error is thinking you send one sale email out and just repeat it as necessary. No-no-no ma petit cheri. Every email should have one job.
A classic Black Friday story arc looks something like this:
The tease. Something's coming. Get on the list, turn on notifications, keep an eye on your inbox.
Early access. Your favourite people get in first (more on that in step 4).
The launch. It's here. What's included, how long it lasts, and why it's worth it.
The nudge. Social proof, bestsellers, gift ideas. Remind people why they wanted it.
Last chance. It's ending, genuinely. Clear deadline, clear button.
When you plan it like this, every email earns its place, and you stop sending the same "SALE NOW ON" email five times to the same segments OVER AND OVER (pls don’t do this!).
4. Send to the right segments
Not everyone on your list should get every email. We know it's tempting to blast the lot, but a smarter send almost always performs better.
Here's how we usually split things:
🧚🏻♀️ Your VIPs and repeat customers get early access, first pick, or a little extra. They've earned it.
💌 Your engaged subscribers (people who've opened or clicked recently) get the full campaign run.
⭐️ PREVIOUS BF/CM BUYERS These are people who converted on Black Friday Cyber Monday emails or texts in previous years.
🪩 Recent buyers get a softer approach. Maybe gifting ideas rather than "buy the thing you just bought, but cheaper".
🍸 Your unengaged subscribers get held back or sent just one or two emails. Hammering people who never open can damage your deliverability, which means your emails land in spam for everyone.
The data backs up looking after your loyal lot. In Klaviyo's 2025 Black Friday recap, revenue from repeat buyers grew 13.6% year on year, while revenue from new buyers grew 9%. Even better, the brands offering the lowest discounts saw the highest growth. So if you've been lying awake worrying that you can't afford to knock 40% off, STOP LOSING SLEEP OVER IT, buy an eye mask, have some CBD drops and chiiilll. Rewarding the people who already LOVE you can matter more than the size of your discount.
5. It doesn't end on Friday!
So many brands put everything into Friday, send one limp email on Monday, and call it a day. Please don't be one of them.
Klaviyo found that in 2025, Cyber Sunday was the biggest growth day of the whole weekend, with revenue up 14% on the year before. Shoppers are browsing, comparing and waiting, so your Sunday and Monday emails deserve just as much love as your Friday one.
And then there's what happens after the sale. Black Friday brings in more new customers than almost any other time of year, and all of those people are deciding whether you're a one-off or a new favourite.
These next few months are CRUCIAL for planning, an example plan would be:
⭐ October, week 3: email and SMS BFCM VIP early access opt-in
⭐ October, last week: season kick-off email to highlight discounted overstock (or similar offer)
⭐ November, week 1: gift guide email
⭐ November, week 2: free shipping weekend email
⭐ November, week 3: VIP early access to bundle promotion or escalating discount
⭐ Black Friday to Cyber Monday: Black Friday Cyber Monday announcements (but note that many brands are sending these way before the big day)
⭐ Tuesday: extended final sale
⭐ December, week 2: last chance for guaranteed holiday delivery
So, that's the bit nobody shows you
Pretty emails are the part everyone sees. Behind them is the branding, the flow updates, the campaign plan, the segments, the testing, the scheduling, the segments and the post-sale plan. And it all needs doing while you're also packing orders, answering DMs and trying to have a life.
Which is where we come in.
Want us to do it for you? Our Black Friday packages take care of everything from a couple of beautifully planned campaigns right up to the full works: pop-up, flows, campaigns and segments. But spaces are limited (we’re in demand gals, and we know that a good Black Friday doesn’t start the week before).