8 Inspirational Emails For A Successful BFCM Weekend 2024

November is just around the corner and marketers are about to ramp up promotional activity for the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend.

According to Adobe, in 2021, shoppers spent $33.9 billion on Black Friday through Cyber Monday.

With most companies looking for a piece of this humungous pie and sending consumers tons of seasonal emails, it can be difficult to stand out. That is where it is helpful to look at existing Black Friday/Cyber Monday campaigns to gain inspiration or search for best practices.

In this post, I’ll show 8 excellent examples of Black Friday, Cyber Monday emails that you can use for a dose of inspiration to engage your customers this holiday season.

1. EyeBuyDirect: Buy One, Get One Free Continues with Cyber Monday

What the Email is: A Cyber Monday promotional email that offers discount codes. Email uses a minimal design with a color theme of White, Black, and Blue. Employes static images and GIFs as the primary communication method.

The Good: This email stands out due to its minimal design. It boasts only two CTAs, one at the top and one at the bottom, both inviting the reader to shop on their website. No frills, no bells, it is straight to the point.

The animated Cyber Monday neon header catches your attention and invites you to find out what is in the email body. In the body, the primary CTA is supported by images of eyeglasses with light overlays that are easy on the eyes, calming and inviting.

Takeaways: A minimal design helps your viewers ease into your message. In this case, make sure you have a single primary message and don’t confuse readers with multiple offers.

2. Chubbies: Sweats + Shorts = THE SCHWORTS

What the Email is: A humorous email by the Chubby brand that uses comfort as an appeal to catch your attention. Email employs a witty combination of words and focuses on apparel as a solution to discomfort.

The Good: First thing that stands about this email is the harmony of words and visuals in relation to the brand image. Chubbies targets 20s somethings males looking for comfortable clothing. The tagline “ate the whole turkey. Need comfy shorts” perfectly complements the image of a guy slouching in his lounge eating straight from a container. Together they make the humor apparent and set the tone for the Call to Action.

Just below the CTA, the copy reads “May the shworts be with you,” a reference to Star Wars which the target market is well acquainted with. A message such as this shows that the brand understands the consumer, and makes the reader more likely to click on the CTA.

Takeaways: If you have a good understanding of your target market, humor combined with holiday themes can be a great tool to grab audience attention.

3. Uber: Flying to the Feast?

What the Email is: A reminder Thanksgiving email by Uber that preempts the consumers’ needs and offers them the advantage of extra planning.

The Good: A very simple email that is designed more as a reminder rather than a sales promotion. It appeals to the rational side of the consumer by pointing out that they should plan their car rides just as they plan their flights to avoid holiday season delays.

Another appealing thing about this email is the balance between the copy and the images.
You aren’t bombarded with images, and neither is it loaded with heaps of sentences. The gif animation user appropriate symbols such as calendars, airplanes, and turkeys to promptly induce a mood of holiday traveling. This mood makes the reader want to learn more about the offer and thus increases the chances of a CTA click.

Takeaways: BFCM emails don’t all have to be about deep discounts and amazing deals. You can also appeal to a customer’s rational side if you can make your message relevant to the holidays.

4. Huckberry: Black Friday deals announcement

What the email is: The email from Huckberry is announcing the start of its Black Friday sale. 

The Good: What’s good about this email is that it doesn’t beat around the bush and comes straight to the point. The recipient is attracted by the email banner that says “Black Friday: Up to 40% OFF on Best Seller.” So, the recipient knows that Huckberry is announcing its Black Friday sales and will likely click on the CTA button.

You can realize from the email copy that the email's central theme is Indulgence, hence the chic colors, fonts, and design elements.

Takeaways: The design of your email must complement the email copy and shouldn’t be incoherent.

5. Nike: Black Friday Exclusives

What the Email is: A Nike Black Friday exclusive email that offers discounts in black colored catalog items, celebrating the black in Black Friday. I’ve shared only the first portion of this email for brevity’s sake. If you want to view the full email, click here.

The Good: Right of the bat, the first thing that one notices about the email is the professional design. Nike uses classy images of its products, and they are assembled in a manner where each item pops out and catches your attention.

One thing that Nike does differently from other emails is that they’ve inserted multiple Call To Action buttons, in defiance of common best practices. They do this for a few reasons:

• They have high brand equity, meaning customers are already engaged with the Nike brand and so have more reason to go through their emails
• Nike has a dynamic customer base. With multiple CTAs, they attract more people from various segments
• This is quite a long email. If a reader has scrolled down till the end, it is safe to assume they have high interest in the email and therefore it makes sense to have multiple CTAs

Takeaways: If you have high click-through rates and customers love reading your email content, don’t be afraid to add multiple CTAs to different sections of your website.

6. Google: A Black Friday reminder email

What the email is: This email from Google is a simple reminder email that reminds recipients about their upcoming Black Friday sale deals.

The Good: When you see this email, only two words will come to your mind: simplistic and elegant. From the header banner, the recipient gets the message loud and clear that it’s a reminder email. Also, just below the header, a CTA, “Preview Deals,” takes the recipient to the deals page. 

The minimalist font, colors, and design elements give the email a clean cut that perfectly matches Google's branding.

Takeaways: You don’t need to be flashy with your emails. A simple and minimalistic design coupled with an excellent email copy can do the trick.

7. Julep: EXTENDED! 50%. Off. Everything

What the Email is: A discount email that extends the BFCM weekend by offering 50% off on ‘cyber Tuesday.’ Email uses a minimal amount of text against a well-designed, shades-of-blue background.

The Good: Julep has taken their promotion beyond the weekend, and they’ve realized that they can capitalize on spill-over demand from the BFCM weekend. By offering 50% off on Tuesday, they are attracting those customers who may have missed out on favorable deals during the weekend.

The other admirable thing about the email is its straightforwardness. It is a simple email with one CTA and one bold primary copy message saying “50% OFF EVERYTHING”. And it's an effective email because it is unexpected.

Takeaways: Your promotion activities don’t have to end when Cyber Monday ends, you can send an email before or after BFCM weekend to maximize sales.

8. Bonobos: Our best deal of the year: Up to 30% off site-wide.

What the Email is: A Cyber Monday promotional email by Bonobos that offers 30% sitewide discounts. The email uses a gif animation to direct attention towards its offer.

The Good: The email has got an interactive design which keeps the reader involved. The fonts are easy on the eyes and color combinations of blue black and white are very effective. The right mix of textured background and font colors, the discount offer, coupon code all work in harmony to highlight the CTA.

Takeaways: Leverage your design elements such as fonts, colors, and graphics to drive maximum focus towards CTAs.

Drive sales on this Black Friday and Cyber Monday with Mailmunch!

So, here you have it. 8 inspiring examples that you can emulate and drive sales this Black Friday! If you are having trouble with Black Friday email campaigns, allow Mailmunch to help you.