1. Most e-commerce brands miss out on sales & create a confusing customer experience during Black Friday by not optimizing their email flows
2. Your Welcome, Buyer Intent, Post-Purchase Nurture, and Winback flows should all be updated for Black Friday to boost both immediate sales and long-term customer retention.
3. Optimize them with a reminder on your Black Friday deals, drive urgency with timers and 'last chance' messages, and consistently remind customers of the sale with banners.
4. Remove other offers during this period to keep the focus solely on your Black Friday deals, avoiding confusion and simplifying the customer's decision-making process.
5. Lastly, remember to remind customers of holiday shipping dates in your post-purchase nurture emails to encourage early holiday shopping.
Black Friday is THE biggest revenue-driving opportunity for any DTC e-commerce brand. Most brands know that your email campaigns are a critical part of a successful Black Friday strategy, but most overlook another key revenue driver – their email flows.
The cost of not optimizing your email flows for Black Friday? Lost sales and a subpar customer experience.
Why? Because even in the midst of Black Friday chaos, these flows don't stop. New email subscribers, interested shoppers & lost customers keep receiving these automated emails but they're not updated to reflect your Black Friday deals.
Here are a few common customer experiences & missed opportunities most e-commerce brands make during the Black Friday sale:
- Picture a new subscriber joining your email list an hour after promotion announcement email campaigns gets sent out on Black Friday They get a standard welcome email with no notification to the Black Friday sale.
- Or consider all the shoppers who are abandoning their carts during the Black Friday weekend... who are still receiving your standard Abandoned Cart emails with no reminder or urgency on the limited-time Black Friday savings.
- Likewise, all of the lapsed customers who haven't bought from you in a while keep getting standard winback emails without mention of the Black Friday deals
Lastly, the Black Friday is when you're getting a huge influx of new customers that you have the opportunity to get to repurchase during the holiday season, and keep as returning customers in the new year with an optimized Post-Purchase Nurture flow.
Your email flows are a missed opportunity to convert more customers during your Black Friday sale and & retain these new customers into the new year. In this blog post, you'll learn the basics to optimizing your email flows for Black Friday.
Flows vs Campaigns
Before we get into each of the email flows to optimize for Black Friday, let's do a quick refresher on the difference between email flows and email campaigns in email marketing.
Unlike campaigns, email flows are tailored based on your customer's journey and behaviors. They're not one-off promotional blasts, but sent automatically when an individual customer takes a certain action.
That's why optimizing your email flows for Black Friday is a unique opportunity. It isn't about building more Black Friday email campaigns; it's about updating your existing flows to incorporate the Black Friday deals. The question you want to ask yourself isn't just about promoting Black Friday offers, but how you can utilize these offers to guide your customers towards their next action.
Welcome Flow: Tailoring Your Welcome Flow for Black Friday Success
When optimizing your Welcome Flow for Black Friday, start by updating the first Welcome Flow email to reflect the Black Friday offer. This simple tweak instantly aligns your messaging with the ongoing shopping event.
However, simply mentioning the offer isn't enough. You want to drive urgency & guide these new subscribers to making a purchase as quickly as possible. Include a timer indicating when the sale ends & a section to introduce them to the products or collections for them to shop.
During this period, you should also remove your typical welcome offer reminder because it dilutes the impact of your Black Friday offer and create unnecessary confusion. Focus on promoting the Black Friday deal in your initial welcome email, without any distractions.
Lastly, to maintain consistency and reinforce the Black Friday offer, include a banner in the rest of your Welcome Flow emails. This visual reminder of the ongoing sale will keep the momentum and encourage subscribers to make a purchase before the sale ends. Remember, every touchpoint is an opportunity to boost conversions during this golden period of retail.
Buyer Intent Flows: Enhancing Buyer Intent Flows for Black Friday Conversions
Black Friday shoppers are getting flooded with Black Friday deals in their inbox and are comparing savings across multiple brands. So that means you'll notice much more browse abandonments, cart abandonments & checkout abandonments.
Your buyer intent flows – namely browse abandonment, add to cart, and abandoned cart flows - will see an huge influx of sends. One effective tactic is to include a simple banner as a reminder of the Black Friday offer in each of these emails. This constant visual reinforcement keeps your Black Friday sale top of mind throughout the customer's shopping journey even if they shop and return a few days later.
You also want to be sure to remove any other discounts in these flows, such as your Abandoned Cart Flow, to avoid confusion. And if you want to take it up a notch, add a "Last Chance" email to each of these flows that gets sent out the last day of your Black Friday sale to remind them it's their last chance to save!
In the case of your abandoned cart flow, consider removing any other offers. You want your customer's focus to be solely on the Black Friday deal, eliminating any distractions that could lead to indecision.
Post-Purchase Nurture Flow: Keeping Your Black Friday Customers
Black Friday will be a period for the biggest acquisition of new customers for your e-commerce brand. While the initial Black Friday revenue is great, wouldn't it be even better if you could retain these customers & get them to repurchase in the holiday season or the new year?
This is your opportunity to nurture & retain your customers by optimizing your Post-Purchase Nurture Flow. Update your Post-Purchase Nurture emails to thank them for their purchase & set expectations on shipping timelines.
You can also create urgency to get customers to make another purchase during the Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) period by reminding them of holiday shipping dates, encouraging them to start their holiday shopping early & giving them a limited-time offer.
Winback Flow: Using Black Friday To Win Back Lapsed Customers
With the biggest deals of the year, Black Friday is a prime opportunity to win back lapsed customers that your e-commerce brand has lost over the year, and an optimized Winback Flow can help you do this.
Update the first Winback Flow email to feature the Black Friday offer & drive urgency by including a timer for when the sale ends. You can also include dynamic product recommendations for specific products or deals the customer may like based on their previous purchases.
And lastly, to keep the emails consistent, make sure to update the rest of the emails in your Winback Flow to remove other offers and keep the Black Friday offer visible. By focusing on the Black Friday deal, you avoid confusion & simplify the decision-making process, increasing the likelihood of a purchase.
Conclusion
As we wrap up, it's crucial to remember that Black Friday presents a unique opportunity to leverage your email flows in ways that not only drive immediate sales but also foster long-term customer relationships. By optimizing your Welcome, Buyer Intent, Post-Purchase Nurture, and Winback Flows for Black Friday, you're maximizing your chances of reaping significant benefits during this retail extravaganza.
Remember to update your email content to reflect the Black Friday offer, drive urgency through timers and "last chance" emails, maintain consistency with banners, and simplify your offers. As a new e-commerce brand, these strategies will give you a competitive edge, enhancing your sales and customer experience.