Black Friday will kick off on November 27th. Despite the health crisis, Black Friday remains a major event. This period often means a tenfold increase in workload for online sellers and marketers. By automating the sending of email and SMS campaigns, you’ll save valuable time that can be useful for managing other logistics or operations emergencies. Your communication will prove to be even more effective and relevant.

Example of an automation scenario for Black Friday

As Black Friday approaches, your contacts are on the lookout for good deals. Spontaneity in purchases increases when the offer is limited in time. This is closely linked to a sense of urgency and fear of missing a good opportunity, also known as the FOMO (fear of missing out) factor.

With automation marketing, you can plan a workflow, such as a countdown, to arouse curiosity and generate a sense of urgency among your prospects and customers. Mailify allows you to trigger the scenario a specific number of days before that date with the automatic campaigns feature.

Email 1 at D-8: announce your offers

Start the scenario a week before the launch of your Black Friday special offers to arouse the curiosity of your contacts. Launch a first general campaign to announce the products that will be on sale, the percentage discount your customers can expect, the other benefits you will offer (free shipping and/or returns, etc.) and include a CTA with a link to your site or landing page dedicated to Black Friday. Above all, announce the launch date and the duration of the offers. Of course, Black Friday is on Friday, November 27th, but some brands are already offering offers from the beginning of the Black Week.

Email 2 at D-6: reminder to non-openers

Two days later, send a reminder email to non-openers. To encourage your contacts to open your campaign, change the subject and the preheader of the email. Highlight all the advantages you offer (discount, free shipping, free return, one item purchased = 1 item at half price, etc.).

Email 3 at D-4: collect data on your readers

Send a campaign to the openers of your first email and those of the follow-up email. Highlight your products or product categories on sale for Black Friday. You can then customize your campaigns based on your users’ interests.

Email 4 at D-2 : customize your Black Friday campaign

At this stage of your automation campaign for Black Friday, highlight products or product categories your contacts clicked in your previous campaign. Customize your message based on your users’ behavior and the products they clicked. Mailify allows you to change your scenario depending on the reader’s behavior (opening, clicks, etc.). Also remind the launch date and customer benefits.

Email 6: D day

Send an SMS campaign to announce the official opening of Black Friday. This way, you can generate visits to your shop or your landing page dedicated to Black Friday. If you use a landing page, make sure that it is perfectly adapted to mobile reading to optimize the user experience. If you have a brick and mortar store, make sure that geographic targeting is relevant. For contacts whose mobile phone numbers you don’t have, schedule an email campaign.

Email 7: announce the end of your offers

A few hours before the end of the operation, send a campaign generating a sense of urgency by insisting on the end time of your special Black Friday offers with email objects like «Black friday: less than 4 hours to enjoy -70% on our products» or «Your favorite items at -50%: 3 hours left only».

Avoid spamwords

During Black Friday, you must be especially careful about the use of spamwords. But what is a spamword? It is a term to avoid in your emails since it is often used in spam campaigns.Spamwords affect the deliverability of your emailings. This means that your email marketing may not reach your recipients’ inboxes. For example, in the content of your emails, avoid the words «discount», «special offer», «cheap» …

However, there are solutions to fight against spamwords. For example, we advise you to use images to display the amount of your discounts.

Maintain other automation scenarios during Black Friday

Abandoned cart workflow

Remind your contacts of abandoned products in their shopping carts. This scenario is particularly important in a period as competitive as Black Friday. Your contacts are contacted through several communication channels, they visit your site, are shown advertisements and compare your offers with those of your competitors. It is then key to capture or recapture their attention.

Welcome workflow to retain your new customers

If your marketing campaigns have the expected effect, you will see a significant increase in the number of new customers in the week preceding Black Friday. A well-designed welcome workflow can help you consolidate your communication strategy and transform one-shot Black Friday buyers into loyal customers over time. Also remember to collect your customers’ mobile phone numbers. This will allow you to launch campaigns to generate visits to your site or store.

Cross-sell workflow

After a purchase, remember to highlight products that are complementary to the order placed. You may e.g. consider sending a discount code for any purchase made on Black Friday that is valid for a future purchase.

If you want to save time and optimize your conversion processes, automation is what you need. Even a simple and basic scenario can be useful. So get started! The only limit to automation workflows is your imagination. If you need help creating your automatic campaigns, feel free to take a look at our tutorial on the topic.