11 Black Friday email examples, templates, and tips for great sales

Black Friday is arguably the most important shopping day of the year in the United States, and even around the world.

The holiday started in the 1960s and marked the day where people typically flocked to bigger cities and shopping centers to start buying holiday gifts. Since then, it’s evolved into the beginning of the holiday marketing period for most retailers and is characterized by deep discounts and limited-time offers.

Even though some businesses feel overwhelmed by the chaos that comes along with Black Friday, it’s essential to make the most of it to maximize your sales, reward your customers for their loyalty, and grow your business.

Email marketing is a great way to share information about your Black Friday sales while thanking your customers for supporting you and staying true to your brand identity. We’ve compiled eleven of our favorite Black Friday email designs below, so scroll down and get ready for some email marketing inspiration.

Of course, you’ll build your Black Friday weekend email campaigns depending on your brand and the specific promotions you’re offering—but including the following elements is always a good idea:

The following eleven Black Friday email examples will provide you with fantastic inspiration for your own marketing campaigns. Let’s dive into their best features so you can emulate them.

Hair for the Girls is an ecommerce business that specializes in natural hair extensions and wigs. 

Their above email is a fantastic example for a few key reasons. First of all, they’ve kept their copy simple and to-the-point. They don’t waste any time getting to the good stuff—they know their customers are probably getting lots of other Black Friday emails so they get straight into promoting their deals.

We also love that Hair for the Girls focuses on their Black Friday deals without coming across as too salesy. They’ve done this with their elegant, consistent email design and clean newsletter formatting.

Harper the Label is a responsible leather accessories brand that’s passionate about timeless, ethical, and genderless design. Their company came to be in 2019 because the founder couldn’t find the perfect leather bag that was both beautiful and sustainable.

We think that Harper the Label has done a great job in capturing their thoughtful brand identity in their Black Friday email campaign, which isn’t easy to do.

Rather than putting together a Black Friday email that’s all about sales, Harper the Label focuses on gratitude and sustainability in their marketing campaign. We love how they playfully replace “Happy Black Friday” with “Happy Green Friday” to showcase their brand’s eco-friendly ethos.

Harper the Label also does a great job of keeping their email copy simple but still guiding their customers towards a clear CTA at the end of their message. Their “Shop Now” button signals a clear place for people to click if they’re interested in taking advantage of the shop’s 20% off offer.

Jane & Tash is an ecommerce business that specializes in luxury outerwear and accessories like leather jackets, faux fur coats, and shearling mittens.

We love the way this brand has laid out their marketing email. This is a great strategy because Black Friday can often be an overwhelming time to shop for customers. They might want to take advantage of the great deals, but feel bombarded with promotions from different shops and not know where to start with all the products on sale.

Jane & Tash has found a way to stand out and cut through some of the noise by featuring individual products in their Black Friday campaign. Even better, they’ve even included specific pieces that make ideal cozy gifts for the holiday season.

They’ve also included CTA buttons for each featured product, which makes their email even more shoppable.

Supercrush is a Vancouver-based, mother-and-daughter business that sells hair accessories like scrunchies, clips, headbands, and dry shampoo. The online store started as a hobby just a few years ago, and has since turned into a successful local business.

They’ve taken a slightly different direction with their Black Friday email campaign, which is becoming increasingly popular with small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs). Because many SMBs either don’t have the profit margins to offer deep Black Friday discounts or just don’t want to participate in the craziness, they choose to promote their brand a bit differently.

As you can see, Supercrush decided to offer their loyal customers a 20% discount, but they also committed to donating 20% of their Black Friday proceeds to a local charity.

We also like that Supercrush found a way to weave some holiday marketing into their marketing email even though they’re not offering a traditional Black Friday sale. The call to action button and the cute, high-quality pictures of their scrunchies at the bottom are a nice touch.

Freshly is a meal-delivery service based in the United States. They have over 30 different menus filled with all-natural dishes and you can heat them up at home in as little as three minutes. They’re a great solution for busy professionals who want to eat healthy and avoid takeout but don’t have much time to cook.

The marketing email example above goes to show that you don’t have to be an ecommerce business to put together an awesome Black Friday email. First, Freshly has done a great job of communicating the urgency of their offer without being too pushy or salesy. The orange circular “This Week Only” graphic paired with a clear call to action does the trick.

We also love that Freshly’s Black Friday email is consistent with their website design and overall branding. That means their loyal customers will feel a sense of trust and familiarity when they see their marketing content.

Bellroy is a certified B Corporation that makes sustainable accessories like wallets, bags, and mobile phone cases. They’re passionate about creating products that add a sense of simplicity and ease into their customers’ lives.

Their Black Friday teaser email pictured above showcases how effective simplicity can be. They’ve done a great job of getting their point across while keeping their message brief. We also like how they’ve told their email subscribers that they’d be receiving some kind of special promotion for Black Friday without giving everything away. It adds an element of mystery and intrigue into their email.

It’s also a great idea to encourage your existing customers to start browsing before the big day. Big Friday typically gets hectic and products sell out fast, so it’s easier when people know exactly what they want to add-to-cart beforehand.

Brooklinen is an American bedding and linen company. They stand out in the market because they offer hotel-quality products at accessible prices. Their biggest sellers include sheets, pillowcases, comforters, throws, and towels.

Like many successful ecommerce stores, Brooklinen started their Black Friday sale a week early. They’ve done a great job of informing their customers that their deals have landed early in a straightforward yet friendly way. We also like that they’ve brought attention to the fact that they don’t often do sales, so Black Friday is the time to grab their products at unusually low prices.

437 is a luxury swimwear and apparel company based in Toronto, Canada. They’re well-known for their flattering swimsuits, influencer marketing, fun photoshoots, and captivating prints.

We decided to showcase their Cyber Monday email here because it does a great job of catching the reader’s attention. By the time Cyber Monday rolls around, it’s likely that your customers have already received hundreds of Black Friday emails. That means you’ll have to go the extra mile with your Cyber Monday email to stand out in their inbox.

The email above informs the reader about even deeper discounts, offers free international shipping, and shares a beautiful photo of their product. That’s a winning combination to get people to start browsing their site.

Baggu started out by making reusable shopping bags, but they’ve since expanded into all kinds of accessories and intentional home goods. Some of their top sellers include masks, different kinds of bags, hats, towels, and socks. One of their most recent product launches was a water bottle sling.

Baggu’s Black Friday email example is fantastic for a few key reasons. First of all, we like that their discounts increase proportionally with order value. This is a great way of driving sales while also rewarding customers for supporting their brand.

We also love their two-tone color palette. Black Friday emails are frequently criticized for being too busy or having too much going on, and Baggu shows that that doesn’t have to be the case. The result is clean, cute, and very on brand.

Baublebar is a luxury jewelry and accessories brand that aims to embellish their customers’ everyday lives. Their necklaces, bracelets, and rings are especially popular, but they also sell home goods and other accessories.

The above Black Friday email example really gets into the holiday marketing spirit. Since Black Friday kicks off the holiday shopping season, it makes sense that they’ve included festive design elements like lights and Christmas ornaments.

Baublebar has also provided their email subscribers with a deep 35% discount and only 12 hours to use it. That means the countdown timer begins as soon as they open the message, which is a great strategy to maximize sales at the beginning of the Black Friday period.

Article is a furniture company that’s taken off because they provide their customers with stylish, high-end furniture at a great price point. They also sell lots of different styles of furniture, including contemporary, Scandinavian-inspired, and mid-century.

The above Black Friday email is a great example for a couple reasons. First, it has a simple, elegant design that would work well on devices of all sizes. That means that customers would have a great experience with their email marketing content whether they viewed it on desktop, tablet, or mobile.

Article has also done a great job of casually announcing their upcoming Black Friday promotion. The subtlety of their message comes across as helpful rather than heavy handed, which is a breath of fresh air during such a chaotic sales period.

Now that you have some excellent Black Friday examples to draw inspiration from, you’re almost ready to begin creating your own email campaign. Keep the following tried-and-tested tips and best practices in mind and you’ll be good to go.

Black Friday presents a unique opportunity where you can generate leads, give back to your loyal customers, and drive sales at the same time. Here’s how:

If you only send out one Black Friday email, it’s highly likely the majority of your subscribers won’t see it. It’s a very competitive time of year for sales and it’s easy for messages to get lost in the mix. In fact, about 116.5 million emails were sent out on Black Friday 2021.

To make sure your Black Friday marketing messages get seen by the right people, plan out a campaign with between three and five emails. You can tinker with that number depending on the promotions you’re offering, but here are some examples of optimal times to send Black Friday emails:

Black Friday and the holiday season more generally is a crazy time of year. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can whip up a fantastic Black Friday email campaign just a day or two before the big event.

The most successful Black Friday emails are put together well in advance (right down to the subject lines) and even tested ahead of time. Ideally, you should have everything ready to go at least a week before Black Friday.

Generally speaking, the best time to send out Black Friday emails is between 6am and 8am in the time zone where most of your target audience lives.

As many as 58% of people check their emails first thing in the morning, so sending your campaign out early gives them lots of time to browse your online sales and take advantage of your promotions.

We’ve talked a lot about the kind of content you should include in Black Friday emails. Before we go, let’s touch on a few key things you definitely shouldn’t do:

All in all, putting together a great Black Friday marketing campaign is an essential move for any successful business. It might be a hectic time of year, but the following benefits are worth it:

Be sure to save this article so you can refer back to it when building your own Black Friday email campaign. You’ll be able to draw inspiration from our Black Friday email design examples, follow our tips and best practices, and remind yourself of common errors to avoid.

If you do so, we’re sure that you’ll develop an excellent Black Friday email strategy that will make a positive impact on your business.

There are many different ways to go about writing Black Friday emails, and the right approach for you depends on your business and what kind of Black Friday sale you’re offering. However, most successful Black Friday email campaigns have the following elements, so be sure to include them when you create yours:

It’s best to use an omnichannel strategy to announce your Black Friday sales. Of course, email marketing campaigns are one of the best tools at your disposal to share information about your promotions and build hype around your offerings. Many businesses also use Black Friday email marketing to reward their loyal customers by providing them with early access to their best deals.

Some other popular strategies to announce Black Friday campaigns include paid advertisements, social media marketing, website pop-ups, print advertisements, and influencer marketing.

Generally speaking, Black Friday emails should be sent out in the morning between 6:00am and 8:00am so people can check them when they read their morning emails. 

How many you send depends on what kinds of promotions you’re offering within your Black Friday strategy. 

If your Black Friday sale will extend from Black Friday to Cyber Monday or Giving Tuesday, you’ll need to plan out several emails to go out over a couple of weeks. Your first teaser email should go out at least a week before Black Friday. Your last email should go out on the last day you’re offering a deal.