📧 Black Friday Email Playbook: How to Win the Inbox War Before It Begins

Hey Founder,

Every year, I watch brands spend weeks obsessing over discounts, landing pages, and ad creative…
and then treat email like an afterthought.

But your inbox strategy can make or break your Black Friday performance.
Email and SMS are where your best margins live, and the sales you don’t have to pay Meta or Google for.

So, let’s walk through how to get this right in 2025.

1. Start Capturing Emails Now

The biggest mistake I see is brands waiting until mid-November to start growing your list.

If you’re not building your audience by early November, you’re already behind.

Here’s what works:

• Run a giveaway: “Win $200 in time for Christmas” via ads and social.

• Use two-step popups: name/email and then SMS capture.

• Consider a quiz popup: “Find the perfect gift under $100” to capture higher intent.

👉 Pro tip: Focus on list quality, not just size. Warm new leads with 3–5 value-based emails before dropping your first offer (UGC, gift guides, founder stories).

And before launch week, test this tactic if it works for your brand: you can send a plain-text “Hey, what’s on your Christmas list this year?” or “need any help choosing“ type from the founder. It boosts replies — and your deliverability.

2. Consider An Early Access Play, to Reward Your VIPs

This tactic will reward your best customers, create scarcity, urgency and exclusivity by giving VIPs a gated head start.

Use a password-protected page or SMS reply (“Text VIP to unlock early access”).
Add real scarcity: “300 units reserved for VIPs, hold expires at midnight.”

3. Flow Updates: Key changes to make now

Welcome flow:

• Decide if you are allowing stacked discounts (eg. welcome discounts) during your sale, and update message accordingly.

• Update flow to holiday and gifting messaging

Cart Abandon: 

• Speed this up during BF week - send the first touch within 1–2 hours.

• Add timers, inventory callouts, and other Black Friday or gifting messaging to your flow temporarily

Browse Abandon: 

• Trigger quickly - within 4–8 hours.

• Use dynamic price callouts (“As low as $X during Black Friday”).

• Update copy for the season

Post-Purchase:

• Push gift messaging and upsells post-purchase, along with shipping cutoff dates for key holiday dates.

• Exclude recent buyers from discount blasts for 24 hours.

Winback & Sunset:

• Pause aggressive winbacks during BFCM week. Don’t let winback discounts stack with BF codes.

• Keep sunset flows active to protect deliverability.

4. Other Important Updates

Smart sending and resend settings:

• Turn OFF send caps during the 3–4-day sale push.

• Offer opt-downs: “Too many emails? Get one daily recap.”

• Send again to non-openers 8–24 hours later with a new subject and rewritten first lines.

Tracking

• UTMs set consistently (utm_campaign=bf2025_xxx)

• Klaviyo revenue attribution checked

• Landing pages QA’d on mobile & desktop

5. SMS Ideas (Keep It Simple + Compliant)

• Capture SMS phone numbers in your pop-up ahead of sale.

• VIP Keyword: If you are doing a VIP access offer, send a campaign to “Text VIP to get early access.” Auto-reply with code + gated link.

• Consider a two step flow: Early Access → 6h later “Low stock on [bestseller].”

• MMS: Use short unboxing clips or product GIFs. Keep copy under 150 chars.

6. Deliverability Safeguards

• Send a plain-text “heads up” email 24–48h pre-launch to boost engagement.

• Make sure you balance image-to-text ratio (don’t bury your discount code in images).

• Test your campaigns across inboxes and ISPs to make sure they are legible and clear.

• Add a preference center, let subscribers choose “Only VIP updates” or “Just last-chance emails.” or even let them opt out of Black Friday altogether.

• Segment: engaged 30/60/90; suppress or send less often to inactives

7. Campaign Calendar Example

During Black Friday - sending daily or twice daily emails is pretty typical and the best way to cut through the noise. Below is an example calendar that you can use as a starting point.

8. Final Thought

Black Friday email success isn’t just about sending more. It’s about aligning your strategy, your message and your touchpoints to get the most out of your audience.

Start early. Segment clearly. Protect your deliverability.
Then, when the sale hits, you’ll already be sitting in your subscribers’ primary inbox — not the promo tab graveyard.

Want help getting this done?

We are running a Black Friday Email Session with guest Expert Omer Hazer inside Ecomm Rockets, my accelerator for eCommerce brands in two weeks time. Consider joining now to have us support you through the whole peak season.

Here is a link to my Calendly where you can book a call at a time that works: https://calendly.com/jessiehealy/coffee_with_jessie

x Jessie