The all-time best Black Friday email examples & templates

Black Friday is the peak period for sales for ecommerce stores. You need to make sure that you’ve got the best Black Friday email examples and templates to ensure your success.

Of course, we all know the main problem with Black Friday email marketing—the astronomically high level of competition.

Every year, every retailer sends emails non-stop during the Black Friday sales season.

Not only that, but retailers are starting to reach out via other channels too—with SMS proving particularly popular. According to our reports, Omnisend customers sent 47% more promotional SMS and 36% more total SMS the first half of 2022 than during the same period in 2021.

This shows that savvy marketers are keeping their email campaigns at the forefront of customers’ minds. They’re using timely and personalized text messages that are almost never ignored.

The challenge for email marketing is to find as many ways to stand out in their customers’ inboxes as possible. Merchants need to make sure that all their amazing holiday deals are getting noticed.

That’s where we come in. We’re here to provide you with the best Black Friday email examples out there, so you can really stand out amongst your competition and maximize the potential of what is sure to be a record-breaking holiday season.

Even better, we’ll provide you with three of the best Black Friday email templates too, so you can quickly adapt it for your brand and send it off.

That way, you can focus on preparing the other aspects of your Black Friday strategy.

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10 best Black Friday email examples

To get the proper motivation, let’s look at 10 of the best Black Friday promotional email examples you can steal for your Black Friday campaigns.

#1 Greats: FOMO, psychology, and more

We’ve mentioned before how vital email marketing psychology is. Here, we see a lot of psychological principles in play.

First, we have the FOMO/exclusivity with the reddened words “moving fast” and “almost sold out” in a clear display.

Besides that, we’ve also got the model pointing to the most important message: free shipping.

This allows the reader to easily follow along, helping them to reach the ultimate decision to buy.

#2 Lou & Grey: Get giffy with it

This is a great-looking, inspirational Black Friday email example.

The colors are bright, catchy, and clean. The copy is minimal, but you get the main idea: shop now, time’s running out on the 50% off everything deal.

I would buy, wouldn’t you?

#3 EyeBuyDirect: Simple, clean GIF

Continuing with the clean, giffy vibe of the previous example, we’ve got EyeBuyDirect’s nice-looking Black Friday BOGO (buy one, get one) email.

If you didn’t get the point previously: people like GIFs. And if you can build up your brand image at the same time, you’ll get the best of both worlds (sales and advocacy).

#4 Storq: Simple and no fuss

Storq is differentiating itself in both this article and in their customers’ inboxes by focusing on simplicity.

Technically, this email is more geared towards Thanksgiving (or, cleverly here, Thanksgiving). However, it’s generally considered the Black Friday period.

Here, they’re offering a gift (tank top) for all purchases above $75. But beyond that, they’re personal with an honest image and a message for a specific group of mothers and soon-to-be mothers.

#5 Inch2: Highlights bestsellers

DTC brand. “Inch2” stays true to itself. The email design is clear and minimalistic. They use classical colors (black, white, and red) and stay bold.

Apart from a clean look and clear email structure, I like that the brand highlights its best sellers. Showcasing the most lovable and the most popular products is a smart move, I would say.

I used that deal and bought a pair of those shoes myself. Seeing the shoes I’ve been dreaming about, and knowing that they were 50% OFF pushed me to make a decision. So this particular email worked well for sure.

A very similar email was sent by Machine Fitness last year.

#6 Machine Fitness: Using black for Black Friday

As you can see, this brand implemented a straightforward design solution for its email campaign.

You can see a clear, white-on-black offer, a handsome model who looks at you and makes it personal, a CTA button that stands out, and a few best-sellers with discounted prices.

If all these elements were on a white background, the email would probably look boring. But the black is a game-changing design decision.

#7 Maurices: Modern and fun

Maurices here has a great, visually-pleasing Black Friday email example.

It’s held together by the strong title of “BOGO is the new black” – a shoutout to the popular TV show.

This helps make them relevant in terms of pop culture, which adds to their branding.

Also, of course, the offer is quite irresistible.

#8 Bonobos: More GIFs

OK, this is the last GIF here—promise. However, it’s easy to see that they’re quite effective and can be really fun.

Here, Bonobos is building up a little anticipation (psychologically) by having the blank paper be the first thing the reader sees.

In a second, the paper gets ripped to reveal the important information below. This is important because by that time they’ve already gained the reader’s attention, which is essential for highly effective email marketing campaigns.

Then, they’ll let the Cyber Monday offer do the rest to get the reader to buy.

#9 Huckberry: A call to authenticity

There is something particularly authentic about this Black Friday email example from Huckberry.

It’s probably because of the font, the Dylan Thomas quote, or the image of a relaxed in a wooden house.

Either way, it does break away from the product-focused or hyped-up Black Friday emails, so this could grab their attention quickly.

#10 FatFace: A different focus for Black Friday

FatFace is going here for a charity-focused Black Friday.

This is a great idea, seeing as there has been some backlash to the mad sales rush of the Black Friday weekend, seeing as it comes right on the heel of the gratitude and family-focused Thanksgiving.

That’s the angle FatFace is going for, and it can really make a difference for consumers. It’s great for brand-building, but the jury’s still out on whether the campaign is good for sales.

3 Best Black Friday email templates with Black Friday copy

Now that we’ve got a pretty good idea of great Black Friday email campaigns, let’s use that to create some brilliant Black Friday email templates.

We’ll present you with three that we’re pretty sure will give you everything you need to stand out this Black Friday.

Remember, you should always include the likes of social links, addresses, and unsubscribe links at the bottom of your emails.

#1 The minimal, bold Black Friday email template

Inspired by Bonobos’ great Black Friday email example, we took the liberty of using that to create a great Black Friday email template.

Black Friday copy

The copy we’re using for this Black Friday email is:

50% off

Black Friday Sale

Shop now [CTA/button]

…Ends Monday 11:59 PM

You can even use the exact wording (adapting the offer based on what you can do).

We always recommend adding urgency, especially to Black Friday emails.

We’d set it to expire at midnight on Cyber Monday, while customers are still in the urgent shopping mood.

Here’s what one example would look like:

To fit the image I wanted to use, I simply moved the text to justify-right and changed the CTA color.

#2 The simple, no-fuss Black Friday email template

We enjoyed Storq’s approach to their Black Friday email, so that inspired this layout.

Here, make sure your top image is brand-focused, not product-focused.

It can include the product, but by brand-focused we mean something that creates a mood consistent with your brand.

That can be calmness, happiness, excitement, exclusivity, or whatever your brand most resonates with.

Here’s the email template:

Black Friday copy

The Black Friday email copy here is a little longer:

Make your Black Friday memorable. We’re giving away FREE SHIPPING on absolutely EVERYTHING.

No matter what.

But the more you buy, the more you save.

Shop now [CTA/button]

Offer ends Monday 11:59PM EST

The copy here is essential.

We recommend you keep one big, easy-to-see CTA button. You can use that same color to highlight one important part of your copy. In this example, we highlighted the free shipping offer.

Alternatively, you can focus your email copy on connecting, like Storq did, with your specific audience.

Here’s what one version of the template would look like:

#3 The product-focused Black Friday email template

This one was inspired by some famous fashion brands’ email campaigns.

They’re both focused on the products, but present them as being curated specifically for the audience.

Here it is:

Black Friday copy

For this one, we’re using minimal (actually no) Black Friday email copy. Instead, we’re letting the products speak for themselves.

The only “copy” we have is the CTA and offer expiration:

Shop now [CTA/button]

Offer Ends Monday 11:59PM EST

Mainly, we’re leading in with a nice image (not product-focused, but reflecting the sale) and then go into the products.

The products are all linked by image and product titles, but there’s only one obvious CTA button.

If you’re using this email template, try to actually segment your users (by either behavior or other data) and work on curating that list specifically for that segment.

For example, those customers that have bought a lot of shoes—focus on shoe or shoe-related products.

For dresses, you’ll add a different group of products, etc.

Here’s one example:

These are just some examples of what you can do with these high-quality Black Friday email templates. With any luck, they’ll inspire you to create similar Black Friday emails.

Final tips and takeaways

• Choosing a responsive and mobile-friendly email template is the most important thing when planning your email campaign. Make sure that your email subscriber can view your email correctly.
  
• Stay true to your brand identity. A Black Friday email should be bold and stand out, but it should still be in line with your brand. Take a look at our research which Black Friday emails perform the best.
  
• Don’t overuse email elements. Stick to clear structure, focus on the offer and a call-to-action button.
  
• Send more than one Black Friday email. Schedule at least five or seven Black Friday/Cyber Monday emails throughout the week. This will help you get more traction and sales.