Five email marketing tips to increase Black Friday ecommerce traffic

Black Friday can be a great commercial opportunity for brands and email marketing can be an integral part of your marketing strategy. What’s the best way to increase its effectiveness?

It’s no secret that Black Friday is popular among brands as another occasion to increase sales. However, the increasing competition makes the task harder year by year, while the audience becomes more demanding.

Email marketing may be a very helpful part of your Black Friday strategy, especially if you want to turn this occasion into the starting point for newly acquired loyal customers.

I discussed with Thatcher Spring, founder and CEO of GearLaunch, how email marketing can be used during Black Friday, asking for more insights on how a short term opportunity can last for a longer period.

What’s the first tip you’d offer when trying to increase ecommerce traffic?

One of the easiest tactics to generate traffic to your site is something you should already be doing. Whether or not you maintain consistent email marketing efforts throughout the year, now is the perfect time to ramp up with a steady stream of communications.

Segment your email list carefully according to demographic information and the customer’s previous actions, that will allow you to tailor your offers.

Here is another benefit to cultivating your email list: the addresses on your list consists of an audience that has already expressed interest in your brand, and is more receptive to not only opening the email but also visiting your store.

What makes Black Friday special for email marketing?

Every year, online sales continue to account for a larger portion of Black Friday purchases. As more people expect deep discounts around Black Friday, more will eagerly anticipate or scout for special deals.

This is a huge opportunity for email marketing – the receptive audience will trigger higher email engagement rates in the hopes that the message contains a deal they can’t resist missing.

What’s the best way to approach email in 2016?

Personalization and customization is everything. As big brands make efforts to become more relatable, smaller businesses can take advantage of what they know about their customers. A few easy ways to do this include:

• Tailor your greetings using demographic data
• Customize your offers based on previous actions taken by the customer you’re contacting
• Actively engage on social media and provide channel specific offers

How does an ecommerce site stand out on Black Friday?

Making an effort to stand out with Black Friday offers alone is virtually impossible, and will be a race to the bottom for everyone. Set your store apart by reminding visitors about all of your other great promotions available both during and after the big day.

• Add reminders about unique or limited items in addition to Black Friday sales announcements
• Offer a coupon code to be redeemed after Black Friday
• Host a month-long sweepstakes that visitors can enter daily, which gives you a reason to email them daily

How can email marketing align with the wider marketing strategy for Black Friday?

Email marketing is an additional channel to distribute messaging; it is a powerful way to reinforce your overall marketing strategy.

• Remind recipients to follow your social channels for exclusive offers
• Use similar themes and images in your emails as on your site and social channels to strengthen brand affinity
• Create a sense of urgency by using email to promote when products get released or are on limited time offer