30-second summary:
- 116.5 million emails were sent on Black Friday in 2021. Cutting through the noise is more difficult than ever on this day each year
- Dynamic content automation is a route to eye-catching emails that make your Black Friday deals stand out from the crowd
- From countdowns to content personalization, Cynthia Price, SVP of Marketing, Litmus, provides six ways to optimize your Black Friday email strategy through dynamic content automation
On Black Friday 2021 — the single busiest email day each year — companies sent 116.5 million emails.
To compete with the tremendous volume, marketers must design email campaigns that stand out from the noise while providing true customer value.
Dynamic content automation capitalizes on Black Friday’s unique features to drive personalized email messages. It uses inventory numbers, customer behavior, and other data sources to craft real-time in-message displays best representing the needs of each customer. Different dynamically generated graphics and message options create more eye-catching and attractive messages while giving customers resources to find the best deals.
Brands build Black Friday sales on two components of customer behavior: urgency and impulse. Limited time and inventory incentivize customers to act and buy quickly. Effective Black Friday campaigns embrace the sense of urgency, demand, and relevance inherent to the day.
Here are a few dynamically generated tools for email marketers to add to their toolkits this Black Friday season:
1) Black Friday countdowns
Spice up your campaign with a countdown. This is the perfect interactive element for building Black Friday anticipation. An animated counter displaying the limited nature of a sale time or product inventory creates immediate urgency, for example. Include a clock above your message content (Read more...) off the seconds left to act on Back Friday offers. Or strategically place stickers next to images that update product inventory in real-time. Tying countdowns to call-to-actions encourage customers to act fast.
2) Reveals and lightning Black Friday deals
Want to build excitement ahead of sale day? Use a deal reveal. Highlighting your best offers, while emphasizing their scarcity, is a crucial step of the Black Friday customer journey. Implementing dynamic content into this pre-event message elevates the message’s value since product deals automatically update inventory and price changes. Pairing deal reveals, including short-term ‘lightening deals,’ with a countdown feature extends the message’s lifetime and heightens the urgency.
3) Reviews and bestsellers
Dynamic content automation enhances demand by bringing the most popular items from your website directly to the customer’s inbox. Want to give your customers a sense of the most in-demand, relevant offers — and drive their desire to purchase? Connect the review partner feed and design to show:
- Most purchased items.
- Best-reviewed items.
- Most often viewed items.
Including your most popular items is especially fruitful for building Black Friday demand. Shoppers often want gifts for others or exclusive discounts on things they would not usually buy for themselves. These shoppers approach Black Friday wide open to ideas and inspiration.
4) Customer behavior
Beyond your business sites’ general data, referencing CRM data to personalize emails generates direct, individual demand.
This strategy is especially prudent for campaigns that include pre-sale and day-of messages. For example, a pre-sale email might lead customers to your site, where they spend fifteen minutes browsing through clothing discounts. Then, the day-of message can include a personalized item carousel personalized based on their response to the first message.
This day-of message can resurface an abandoned shopping cart or the latest offers on the items they have spent the most time browsing. Incorporating customer behavior data into email content increases demand and extends the buyer’s journey.
5) Image and content personalization
Beyond elevating demand through individually personalized product carousels, personalize email content according to each recipient’s past behaviors and interests. If one customer regularly checks out your website’s shoe section, send Black Friday emails personalized with marketing images for the shoes.
Another consideration: nearly half of all email recipients open emails based on the subject line alone. Do not set your email up for the spam folder or trash.
Dynamic content automation allows senders to categorize subject lines based on each recipient’s interests, preferences, or budget.
6) Weather and location-based Black Friday content
Displays can incorporate location-based weather data. This ‘identity-blind’ data source does not rely on consumer behavior or shopping trends data. If local weather reports project snowfall on Black Friday, create a dynamic display suggesting customers dodge the weather and browse online instead of in-store. Similarly, incorporating location data into displays like pins on a map highlights the best, closest deals. Include other practical details like store hours or projected foot traffic.
Overall, components supporting dynamic content automation help your campaigns embrace every opportunity that Black Friday presents. On the day email inboxes are most inundated, dynamically generated visual elements will stand out. Moreover, data-driven content ensures every message has a chance to connect and convert your customers.
Cynthia Price is the SVP of Marketing at Litmus. Her team grows and supports the Litmus and email community through content marketing, demand generation, and events. She has been in the email marketing industry for over 10 years and was previously VP of Marketing at Emma, an email service provider. She is enthusiastic about creating authentic communications and harnessing the power of email — the heart of the marketing mix.
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