5 Brilliant Black Friday Email Creative Examples and Tactics

With so many companies now sending Black Friday email campaigns at exactly the same time, you need to really innovate with email design to ensure your campaigns stand out from the crowd. In this blog, we’ve compiled some of the best email creative examples and design tactics to inspire your Black Friday campaigns this year!

Check out these 5 brilliant Black Friday email creative examples to get inspred by and then head over to our Ultimate Guide to Black Friday Email Marketing!

1. Lou & Grey: Evoke urgency with FOMO

Don't be tempted to go into bags of detail with Black Friday campaigns, especially if your offer can be explained in just a few words. Lou & Grey’s email campaign below simply and effectively creates a sense of urgency, with nothing more than a large ticking clock gif and a direct offer call to action.

2. Loft: Keep things simple

Keeping things on the topic of simplicity, going for an approach that values curiosity over clarity, Loft’s Black Friday email marketing campaign is certainly a bold choice. With a subject line that simply reads “OMG” and it's ironically small text, stating “THIS IS HUGE”, Loft’s email had customers clicking through just to find out if there was a sale going on at all.

It’s important to note that this was part of a series of emails, throughout Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Loft’s vibrant campaign is a welcome break from the standard Black Friday weekend email design layout. Consider how a series of messages throughout the day could help you stand out from the rest.

3. EyeBuyDirect: Display clear offer code

By not putting any discounts or prices on their email, Eyebuydirect aims to make its subscribers curious enough to click through. Instead, the email subject line is used to outline the simple offer (Subject Line: Buy One, Get One Free Continues with Cyber Monday).

The Cyber Monday offer code is so dramatically displayed in the email design itself, it's unlikely any customers are going to forget what to type in when they reach the basket on the website. This no-nonsense call to action shortens the customer journey, helping to turn more leads into sales. And remember, repeating calls to action and discount codes three times, always gets the best results:

4. Forever21: Reward loyal customers

While discounts for new customers are incredibly common across almost every industry, loyal customers are seldom rewarded for sticking with their favourite brands. This Black Friday campaign from Forever 21 challenged this by offering its regular customers with a VIP day of discounts, just for them.

A well segmented email database is all that’s needed here to make your customers feel special. Not only could that lead to a purchase this year, but will encourage future conversions from customers feeling valued and rewarded by the brand. This a key customer retention tactic for email marketing.

The creative is visually-appealing with black and gold colours, including a scratch card-style design to reveal the VIP discount.

5. Fat Face: Give something back

Happily, a growing trend across the Black Friday season is for companies to turn away from the heavy discounts that dominate the weekend. Instead, many are choosing to donate a chunk of their profits to charity or even just provide an easy way for their customers to directly donate themselves.

Fat Face’s down-to-earth black and white email, including soft tone and typography, is a nice change from the bold discounts and sales seen in the majority of Black Friday brand emails. The clear CTA and simple messaging all add up to a successful campaign for a good cause.

Wrap Up

We hope these 5 email creative examples and campaign tactics from top brands have inspired you to keep your Black Friday campaigns fresh this season. If you’re looking for a few more tips and tricks to maximise your campaign performance, our Best Black Friday Email Subject Lines blog will help you stand out from the inbox!