Black Friday health check: get your email list ready for the biggest sale of the year

The biggest sales season of the year is just around the corner. If you’re a small business, this is a critical time for you. But before you hit send on those high-stakes sales emails, let’s pause for a moment and make sure your Flodesk account is ready to perform its best.

Think of this as your Black Friday health check—a quick, focused tune-up to ensure your list, forms, and workflows are working in harmony. When your backend is running smoothly, you can focus on showing up with confidence, creativity, and those irresistible offers.

Here’s how to get email-ready for your most profitable season:

1. Verify that your domain is properly authenticated

The first step to being seen by inboxes as a legitimate sender is to send from a custom domain email address, and properly authenticate it. This boosts your credibility with inbox providers and improves deliverability.

If you’re using a custom domain and have not authenticated yet, you can learn how to authenticate your domain in our help center.

If you’ve already done this, great! Take a minute to make sure that it is still showing as authenticated in Flodesk. Sometimes domain providers can make changes, which could mean you’ll need to authenticate again.

2. Clean your list

Healthy and engaged lists = better deliverability, more opens, and higher conversions.

Before the holiday rush, remove cold subscribers who haven’t engaged in months. Continuing to send to this audience does nothing but harm your sender reputation, and makes it more likely that you’ll end up in the spam folder. Use Flodesk’s audience filters [link] to identify unengaged subscribers, and either delete them, unsubscribe them or move them to a segment that you can exclude from your sends.

3. Check your logo URL

Some Flodesk members have been around since 2019, and since then some things have changed—like most websites moving to a secure URL, which starts with https. Unsecure links (http) can often be seen as a threat in the inbox and can quickly land you in the spam folder. Take a minute to go into your brand settings, and ensure that your business URL is a secure link!

4. Test your forms and workflows

Are your forms working? Are your automations firing?

Now’s the time to run those  tests. Submit your own forms, check your confirmation emails, and walk through every step of your welcome or sales workflows. Use Flodesk’s “send test email” feature to experience your emails in your inbox. 

Pro tip: Take a look at your emails on both a computer and a mobile device.

5. Segment your audience

The more personal your emails, the more powerful they become.

Create segments based on past purchases, engagement level, or interests. Want to send a VIP-only early access email? Done. Want to reward your most engaged subscribers with a secret offer? You got it. This kind of targeted content helps build trust and will make your audience want to open every email you send.

6. Design your emails with intention

Looks do matter, especially when inboxes are flooded.

Use Flodesk’s beautifully designed templates and custom brand settings to create on-brand, eye-catching emails that stand out. Include countdown timers, bold CTAs, and clean layouts to highlight your offers.

7. Schedule in advance

You deserve to enjoy your pumpkin pie without panic-scheduling your Black Friday blast.

Let automation do the heavy lifting instead. 

Draft and schedule your campaigns now so they go out on autopilot. Add follow-up emails, abandoned cart workflows, and reminder nudges to keep your list engaged all weekend long.

A smooth system = confident sales

Your offers are amazing. Let’s make sure they get the spotlight they deserve.

With a few simple tweaks today, you can head into Black Friday knowing your email list is primed, your workflows are humming, and your audience is ready to buy.

Need help with any of the above? Explore Flodesk’s help center or connect with our support team.

Let’s make this your biggest sales season yet.