The ultimate guide to Black Friday 2022 email marketing

Black Friday is right around the corner. Every year, millions of e-commerce stores are carefully preparing their Black Friday marketing campaigns in hopes of a great turnover during this global shopping spree. In 2020, Black Friday spending reached a whopping $9.03 billion, and in 2021 retail sales grew by 14.1%. Now in 2022, sales are estimated to increase even more. Email marketing is the most popular way e-commerce businesses and online retailers are promoting their Black Friday deals. It’s highly effective, with the highest average order conversion rate compared to social media, direct, or search traffic. 

With the tremendous opportunities that email marketing offers, there are also some challenges. The market has never been as saturated as it is today. With email marketing being one of the most popular and effective marketing methods, you need to make sure you stand out from the crowd. If you’re getting ready for your Black Friday marketing campaign, you’ll need to put in extra effort to make your campaign a success.

Click to jump forward:
What makes Black Friday email marketing campaigns successful?
Black Friday email marketing examples
4 must-haves in your Black Friday 2022 email marketing campaign

What makes Black Friday email marketing campaigns successful?

As we already established at the beginning of this article, email marketing is one of the most popular marketing methods used in promoting Black Friday deals. But why? 

Let’s start with the big numbers. There are more than 4 billion email users worldwide, making it one of the best communication channels for marketers to reach their target audiences. With personalized email campaigns, you can engage your audience and build a rapport with your customers. Also, it’s a cost-effective marketing method where you can easily measure your results without significant expenditures.

Black Friday is all about urging people to take action to purchase, and email marketing provides a great platform for reaching people that are already interested and aware of your business, so they’re more likely to buy. That’s why email marketing is particularly useful for nurturing existing relationships and generating returning customers. 

Discover why Black Friday is unimaginable without email marketing in the following Black Friday infographic.

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Black Friday email marketing campaign examples

If you’re juggling different ideas for a Black Friday email marketing campaign, it’s helpful to take a look at some great email marketing campaign examples. Notice what attracts your attention and why. 

A good email marketing campaign speaks directly to the target persona, understands their needs and motives, and piques their curiosity. There’s always a sense of urgency and a clear call-to-action that urges the reader to act now. Here are some good email marketing examples from previous years’ Black Friday campaigns. 

Early Black Friday sale at Tease

Tease offers botanical-based goods ranging from tea to beauty products. What Tease did well in their Black Friday email marketing campaign is that they started their promotion early while still creating a sense of urgency. Days before the actual Black Friday sale, they created an email marketing series, motivating their customers to start their Black Friday shopping early. 

In the example, you can clearly see the countdown timer at the bottom of the email, which creates a sense of urgency. To motivate their customers, even more, they mention next to the timer that it’s their “only sale of the year”. As a result, they created an exclusive and limited-time offer that triggers the reader to act now before it’s too late. Also, the call-to-action is strategically placed in the center of the email and at the bottom next to the timer. 

Carhartt’s Black Friday animated email campaign

Carhartt is an American apparel company selling heavy-duty working clothes. They succeeded in standing out amongst their competitors because of the highly engaging email design. 

Adding animation to an email marketing campaign is a great way to catch people’s attention and intrigue them to read it through. We’re used to seeing static images and text in emails, so movement in different formats (stickers, videos, GIFs) really stands out and grabs our attention.

In Infogram’s content library, you can discover a wide range of stickers, videos, and GIFs that you can easily import into your projects (infographics, emails, posters, reports, and others). Explore Infogram’s library and create an eye-catching email marketing campaign that’ll stand out from the rest!

Forever 21’s Black Friday gamified email campaign

People love gamified experiences, and that’s exactly what Forever 21’s Black Friday email marketing campaign offers. Forever 21 is playing with our natural curiosity to uncover what’s hidden and pokes at a dopamine-infused emotion people get from gambling – feeling like we’re about to win something. 

The simple yet highly effective gamified email campaign engages people and makes it a memorable experience. With the use of scratch cards, they ensure that people will want to click through to uncover additional offers.

In your Black Friday email marketing campaign, think about how you can create a gamified or interactive experience that’ll motivate everyone to click through. You can incorporate a fortune wheel, a scratch card, or another exciting activity that’ll engage your readers.  

Levi’s discount email campaign

Who doesn’t love an additional discount? Levi knows that people are always on the lookout for better deals and want to feel like they’re getting the best possible offer. That’s why adding an extra discount motivates people to make a purchase even if they weren’t sure about it before. By advertising an extra discount, you’ll motivate people who were close to buying but decided not to at some point in their purchasing journey. 

In Levi’s email, the brand places the new offer at the top, so it’s the first thing that catches people’s attention. It’s followed by an image of a dog with more discounts and advantages written on top of it. Seeing all those discounts together urges people to buy as the deal seems too good to miss out on. 

Peel’s Black Friday deal’s teaser email

We all love getting a sneak peek. Peel’s Black Friday email is another great example of how you can spark curiosity, so the reader is intrigued to click through and find out more about the deal. 

Instead of laying all the cards on the table, you’re creating an interest in what the actual Black Friday deal is. It’s a great technique that helps you stand out and get more clicks to your landing page.

4 must-haves in your Black Friday 2022 email marketing campaign

Now that we’ve explored some effective Black Friday email marketing examples, it’s time to think about your own email marketing campaign. If you want to stand out, nail these four characteristics of your email marketing campaign. 

1. A dazzling subject line

The subject line says it all. That’s the first thing your audience will see. Depending on how good your subject line is, people will either open or ignore your email. If you’re struggling to come up with a good subject line, consider implementing the following effective email subject line words.

• Available
• Free
• News
• Alert
• Updates
• Latest
• Special
• Upgrade
• New  

Here are a few subject line examples you can get inspired by:

1. Last Chance to Save Up To 80% OFF
2. Jaw-dropping deals are available now! – 50% OFF
3. Black Friday 2022 Special: Free delivery!
4. Get your upgrade now – 40% OFF!
5. Don’t miss out on our latest deal! 
6. Alert: Black Friday 40% OFF! is closing 
7. Black Friday surprise! 25% Off Sitewide
8. New must-haves for your home
9. Good news: You can now get an extra 10% OFF!
10. Meet our new Black Friday 2022 deal!

2. Eye-catching visuals

A good subject line will entice people to open your email, but good visuals will hold their attention. The visual content of your emails can make or break your campaign. Make sure you choose eye-catching visuals that directly speak to your target audience and encourage them to keep reading. 

With Infogram, you can create your own email header or choose from our pre-designed templates that you can customize for your needs. Don’t be afraid to incorporate animations such as stickers and GIFs that you can also find in Infogram’s content library. Here are some pre-designed email headers you can find in Infogram.

Browse email marketing headers 

3. Visually appealing layout

If you want your audience to actually read your email, create a clean and visually appealing layout that stands out but is easy on the eyes. 

Organize your email layout with user experience in mind. Apply effective design techniques like leaving enough blank space between text and visuals, and strategically placing your CTAs, visuals, and headlines. Create your layout while thinking about where you want your customer’s attention and how you can place your visual and textual elements to persuade them to click on the “buy now” or “get the offer” button. 

4. Impeccable call-to-action (CTA)

The goal of your email marketing campaign is to convert readers into buyers. To do that, you need a CTA in your marketing email that directly sends email receivers to a landing page, designed to urge them to complete their purchasing journey. 

Whether or not someone clicks on the CTA depends on what it says, and where and how it’s placed in the email. That’s why you should spend extra time crafting a catchy CTA that’ll motivate your readers to click on it. 

The most common CTAs used in e-commerce are: 

• Buy
• Shop
• Order
• Add to Card
• Save
• Reserve

Other popular CTAs are:

• Try
• Subscribe
• Sign Up
• Download
• Join 
• Learn more
• Continue
• Swipe up
• Start
• Click here

When crafting your CTA, think about the exact action you want your customers to take and what appeals to them. You can also A/B test your CTAs to find out what works best. 

Black Friday offers endless marketing campaign possibilities for many businesses. Email marketing is one of the best ways to reach, engage, and motivate your audience to shop. When creating or improving your Black Friday email marketing campaign, pay extra attention to your visuals, subject line, layout, and CTAs. To simplify the email design creation process, use Infogram’s pre-designed email headers, infographics you can turn into interactive designs, and the extensive content library filled with stunning visuals and engaging animations. Discover how you can enrich your Black Friday 2022 marketing strategy even more with data visualizations and video content to really stand out from the competition. 

Interested in discovering how Infogram can enhance your team’s work? Join a brief Zoom session with our Infogram representative to explore key features, get answers to your questions, and understand how we can assist. It’s quick, informative, and just like a coffee break chat. Schedule your call now!