Nothing beats the excitement of a hearty Thanksgiving dinner with friends and loved ones.
Except for Cyber Monday, that is.
I mean, who doesn't love the massive deals and the opportunity to save big?
However, Cyber Monday is a different beast when you're not a consumer. It can be a challenging time of year when you're on the business side of things. After all, it’s one of the few days in the year that everyone runs (basically) the same kind of promotion. Let’s face it, your promo email is not the only one that your recipients will be receiving.
That’s why you need to design an email campaign that stands out and drives conversions.
How do you do that?
After a decade in existence, Cyber Monday (the online version of Black Friday) is one of the hottest sales of the year. According to Comscore, $6 billion was spent on Cyber Monday weekend of 2018, making it the biggest spend of any holiday ever.
Source: Comscore
That’s a lot of money for a single day of shopping, and you can have a nice chunk of the Cyber Monday pie. So, how do you attract traffic and drive sales for your business on this big day?
One of the best things you can do for your email campaigns is to segment your list. Yes, even if you’ve already done so for your general email marketing campaigns, you’ll need to revise your segments in preparation for your Cyber Monday campaigns.
Why should you revise your segments?
If there’s one thing that all email lists have in common, it’s the fact that they evolve. Your customers’ preferences change and, if you’ve done your job well, you would have gathered more data about them, too. With the latest data, create your Cyber Monday-centric segments. For example, use data such as:
Buying preferences: A good example is a segment of those who only made a purchase on the previous Cyber Monday promotion.
Deal seekers: These ones are easy to spot, after all, they only purchase when you have a promotion running (Cyber Monday was actually made for them).
Segmentation is not a new email marketing strategy, however, it can very well bring you new business. So go ahead, create some new segments just for Cyber Monday and watch your sales needle go up.
Another great strategy you can use to drive traffic and sales on Cyber Monday is personalization. Personalization goes beyond just using your recipient’s name. When running this special campaign, it entails tailoring your message for each of your customers. Besides tailoring your message to suit your customers, you can also take personalization a step further by offering products that you know your customers may want.
Source: Really Good Emails
Email Tees did a great job with their Cyber Monday email marketing campaign. Here are a couple of things they did really well:
Hyper-personalization: Email Tees know exactly who their customers are and they tailored a hyper-personalized email that consumers just can’t resist.
A relevant product: Who doesn’t need a new Tee to show off in the holiday season? However, Email Tees isn’t promoting a T-shirt – they are promoting a T-shirt tailored (no pun intended) for email marketers.
Adding intrigue: Near the bottom of the email is a “treasure hunt” for a mystery discount. This was a brilliant touch as everyone loves a good treasure hunt, particularly a relevant one.
To pull off a successful personalized Cyber Monday email campaign, you have to be very creative. Use data to discover what your customers love and use that to create a personalized message, product, and even email design that will touch your customers where it matters most—their pockets.
Yes, you guessed it—everyone is sending a Cyber Monday email marketing campaign. Your customers’ inboxes are particularly inundated with promotions at this time of the year—with many going unopened, and worse still, others getting deleted the moment they get into the inbox. To save your email from such a horrific fate you have to instantly grab your reader’s attention.
That’s where your subject line comes to your rescue.
Here are a few ways to increase the effectiveness of your subject line:
Personalization: According to research conducted by Campaign Monitor, personalized subject lines increase opens by as much as 26%.
Highlight your offer: One of the best ways to draw people into your email is to make an irresistible offer right in your subject line.
Inspire action: Inspire a fast response from your customers by employing scarcity in your email subject line. “This weekend only,” “Today only,” and “ending soon” are some of the phrases you can use in your subject line to get your readers to act.
Your subject line is one of the most important parts of your email, particularly in a busy season. Make sure to put in the effort to craft the perfect one for your audience.
Just as any other holiday email, your Cyber Monday email needs to look its part for the season. Unfortunately, however, Cyber Monday, unlike other seasons with a patron (Santa for Christmas) or a theme (red for Valentine’s), doesn’t have any cues you can follow. This makes designing Cyber Monday-themed emails a bit tricky.
Don’t lose heart, however, as this is actually a good thing. Use your creativity and unleash your inner geek for this one. One good idea is to leverage the “cyber” aspect of the season and incorporate it into your email design. Here’s a classic example from Allivet:
Source: Emma
If there’s one industry that’s difficult to associate with anything cyber, it must be the pet care industry. Allivet, however, exercised its creative juices and managed to incorporate a cyber “feel” into their Cyber Monday email design. From the eye-catching colors and digital-like fonts to the imagery, this email screams Cyber Monday. This is definitely one email that will move pet owners to get a Cyber Monday deal for their furry friends.
Don’t wait for Cyber Monday to send out your promotion. Start your Cyber Monday email marketing campaign early and build up excitement by sending out a series leading up to the big day. However, you have to mind your frequency as sending too many emails may annoy your customers or dull the effect of your emails.
To have the best impact, it’s best to send 3-4 emails leading up to your big sale. Here are some examples of some emails you can send prior to Cyber Monday:
Announcing your sale is a great way to put your customers on alert. You can send this email a week before Cyber Monday and use it to introduce your promotions.
Source: Really Good Emails
Everyone loves a countdown. Besides inspiring excitement, countdown emails are a great way of keeping your promotions at the top of your customer’s minds.
Source: Emma
On the day before Cyber Monday, send a final reminder to your customers’ announcing the big day. Make sure to highlight what they will miss out by not participating in the promotion. If there’s one thing people fear the most, it’s missing out on a good deal.
Source: Really Good Emails
Sending a single email for Cyber Monday is a great way to be forgotten. With the barrage of emails your customers’ are receiving this season, it’s best to remind your customers often about your big sale.
Another great way to drive more sales for your promotions is to create exclusive deals for Cyber Monday. Create an offer that is exclusive to Cyber Monday and make sure you let your customers know that it’s a “once in a lifetime offer." For example, you can give a massive (and unbeatable) discount on some products or offer an enticing freebie with certain purchases.
Don’t follow the trend and just make Cyber Monday an extension of Black Friday. If you’re to stand out, do something different. One of the reasons exclusivity works so well is that people love uncommon things, even if it comes in the form of an offer.
Cyber Monday is one of the biggest paydays for many businesses. For you to enjoy your share of the sales, you’ll have to come up with an email marketing strategy that wows your customers. With these tips in your arsenal, you’ll do just great this year.
For more inspiration of the types of emails you can create for your Cyber Monday email campaign, check out our top selection of Cyber Monday email examples from 2018.
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