Black Friday means the official launch of holiday shopping; it’s an important occasion for e-commerce players to create a strong connection with subscribers, based on engagement: users are expecting to be rewarded with special offers from now on, during holiday season. Let’s see some interesting communication strategies used by top brands in their email marketing approach to launch Black Friday.

In the preheader of this newsletter, Walmart jokes on the presence of elves working overtime referring to justify the previous email sent with a wrong subject line. As we can see on NewsletterMonitor, on the 21^st  November they sent the same newsletter twice: the first in the morning had this subject New! Free Shipping on Electronics + Last Chance For Incredible Online Specials, and during the day another email has been sent to introduce Black Friday Specials, where the subject line was Plan Your Black Friday Store Trip & Save on Pre-Black Friday Specials With Free Shipping.
Isn’t it curious? Or should we think that is depends on a strategic plan to send the same newsletter twice?

It’s interesting to watch Samsung and the early newsletter sent on 13^th November, in which the user is engaged to choose the favourite category of products, in order to respect relevance and send proper offers. In this approach we can see a best practice of email marketing: ask directly to the users what they want, in order to send them the right and relevant communication by email.
We notice as well a special project developed for Black Friday: an entertainment guide to enjoy the beginning of holiday season. In this, we see Samsung’s positioning on a wider engaging approach: not only electronics consumer products but also entertainment.

The last example comes from H&M, just to show a double-step communication: in the first newsletter sent on the 17^th November there is a teasing approach, inviting the users to get ready to Black Friday and offering a selection of fashion products at a low price. This is the newsletter used to introduce the theme:

After few days (21^st November), the communication is totally focused on Black Friday, starting by the subject Black Friday! . In addition, they are including elements in the layout renewing the topic and repeating several times the same message:

What is the challenge for e-commerce retailers?
In the US market holiday season start today, users will be more sensitive to offers in order to be ready with presents for Christmas time. The challenge is to catch the moment with an email marketing plan able to give to the users what they are looking for.
Use NewsletterMonitor, the benchmarking platform for email marketing, to find the most interesting strategies wordlwide in digital direct marketing for holiday season.