With November just around the corner, your Black Friday plans are probably taking shape. Offers are being agreed, ads are being prepared and the website might already be getting a seasonal refresh. Your email journeys deserve a place on that list too.
Someone signs up to hear about your sale. A regular customer comes back to browse. A shopper adds a product to their basket, then gets distracted. Each is an opportunity to send a useful, relevant email, provided you’ve planned what happens next.
We’d use these last few days of October to get the key journeys in place, giving you time to test them before your promotions begin.
Some of these will be automated flows, triggered by a customer’s actions. Others will be scheduled campaigns around your sale dates. Here are the ones worth preparing.
If you’re inviting people to sign up for Black Friday updates, your welcome email should explain what they’ve signed up for.
Let them know when they’ll hear from you, whether they’ll receive early access and how any subscriber offer will work. A short follow-up could introduce your bestsellers or help them explore the products they’re interested in.
Keep the promise consistent from the sign-up form through to the inbox. If someone joins an early-access list, make sure they’re included when that access opens.
Before November, review any existing welcome discounts too. Decide whether they can be used alongside your Black Friday promotion, then make the terms clear in your emails and at checkout.
Giving loyal customers first access to your sale is a useful way to recognise their relationship with your brand.
Start by deciding who qualifies. That might be repeat customers, loyalty programme members or customers who have spent over a certain amount. Choose a definition that makes sense for your business.
A simple sequence could include an invitation, an email when access opens and a reminder before the wider launch. Explain the benefit clearly and give customers a direct route to shop.
Check that the early-access link or code works for the intended audience. If you’re promising exclusivity, the shopping experience needs to deliver it.
Prepare your launch emails around the information customers need to act: what’s included, when the offer ends and how to redeem it.
Segmentation matters here. A first-time shopper may need a little more introduction to your products, while a returning customer could benefit from recommendations based on previous purchases. You can keep the same core promotion while changing the products and supporting copy.
Plan your follow-up emails alongside the launch. Each should have a purpose, whether that’s highlighting a different category, explaining an offer or reminding interested shoppers of the deadline.
If you’re running a separate Cyber Monday promotion, make the change clear. Check that earlier emails and automated flows won’t continue promoting an offer that has finished.
Someone who leaves a basket behind may still be deciding, comparing products or checking delivery costs. Your follow-up should make returning to that purchase straightforward.
Review the emails in your existing basket flow. Check the product links, delivery information, discount wording and the rules that stop reminders once someone has bought.
During Black Friday, pay particular attention to timing. An email sent after your promotion ends could contain an expired code or a price that no longer applies. Decide how the flow will handle baskets created close to the deadline.
You also don’t need to add another discount automatically. Start with a useful reminder and clear information. If you include an incentive, check how it interacts with the sale and what it means for your margin.
Black Friday can give previous customers a reason to take another look, but the message needs to reflect their history with you.
Define “lapsed” around your usual buying cycle. Someone who buys skincare every few months will have a different pattern from someone purchasing furniture.
For suitable subscribers, build a short sequence around something relevant: a favourite category, a new addition to a range they’ve bought before or an offer on a product they may need again.
Keep the audience focused. A previous purchase alone doesn’t mean someone should receive every promotional email, particularly if they’ve stopped engaging. Review your exclusions before scheduling the sequence.
Prepare your closing emails while you’re planning the launch. You’ll have more time to check the wording, audience and offer details.
State the actual end date and time, and make the next step obvious. Where possible, tailor reminders to what customers have shown an interest in, and consider excluding people who have already bought the featured product.
Limited-stock messages should reflect current availability. If you can’t keep that information accurate, use the confirmed offer deadline instead.
It’s also worth preparing a template for any last-minute promotion, with the audience and discount rules agreed in advance. That gives you something ready to adapt if there’s a clear reason to send it.
Black Friday brings several email journeys together, so it pays to plan them together too. A customer could receive a welcome email, a sale announcement and a basket reminder in quick succession. Review how those messages overlap and whether each one adds something useful.
Check links, codes, mobile layouts, audience exclusions and what happens when an offer expires. Put a date in the diary to switch seasonal content back after the sale.
If time is tight, we’d start with your welcome and abandoned-basket flows, then build your launch and deadline emails around them. Getting those foundations ready now gives you a practical way to follow up on the interest your Black Friday activity creates, and one less thing to build when November gets busy.