25+ Black Friday Email Templates & Ideas to Inspire Your Campaigns

Why develop Black Friday email campaigns

Black Friday follows Thanksgiving Day and is one of the key periods for a business to make money. With the right approach, you can get a month’s revenue in a few days, promote your brand, and expand your customer base.

According to Adobe, in 2025, consumers are forecasted to spend $253.4 billion vs. $241.1 billion in 2024. Moreover, Black Friday alone brought $11.7 billion, second only to Cyber Monday.

Historically, Black Friday has meant miles of traffic jams, crowds, and even fights for products. Thanks to modern e-commerce technologies, shopping can be done in a couple of clicks, which has undoubtedly contributed to the revenue growth during the event in recent years.

Not only that, but Black Friday marketing campaigns have also become longer.

For example, Jot sent this Black Friday email on November 10 — almost three weeks  ahead of the holiday.

Most likely, this tendency will continue this year which makes email marketing a great option for such extended e-commerce sales.

Here’s why email marketing is a great sales channel for Black Friday email campaigns, long and short:

• It allows you to tell about your campaign in detail in several comparatively lengthy messages.
• You can create compelling visuals to further engage your customers.
• It’s very cost-effective compared to SMM and other marketing channels.
• It complements your omnichannel strategy.
• You can use marketing automation so that technology runs the campaigns for you.

So, let’s take a closer look at how to put together compelling Black Friday email campaigns that will really work.

How to create good Black Friday emails: With some of the best Black Friday newsletter examples

Let’s imagine you have already analyzed your stock and know what products you can give discounts for. You need to figure out how to tell about them in your holiday marketing emails to make them both beautiful and catchy.

Picture your inbox in late November — overflowing with Black Friday deals. What will you remember? Anything that’s different from the rest and holds some value. But to offer something valuable, you have to know your audience.

Analyze your audience

You know how important it is to build an email list. Each subscriber becomes even more valuable as Black Friday approaches.. By the way, we have a comprehensive guide on building email lists, be sure to check it out. And don’t forget to also clean up your lists, because it’s not quantity, but the quality that matters.

Then think about what you want to say to your audience. How can you surprise and attract customers, convince them to make a purchase?

You don’t need to be a copywriting genius to write compelling copy. The most compelling and effective marketing copy comes from the audience, not the marketer. Here are some ways to get insights:

• Review mining — browse through customer reviews to look into people’s heads and get ideas for your products and features that you couldn’t come up with on your own.
• Qualitative surveys — gain detailed and descriptive information about the opinions, beliefs, and values of a target audience.
• CustDev interviews — find out your customers’ pain points, what solutions they’re looking for, and how you are doing compared to your competitors.

Also, ask yourself the following questions:

• What did you do last year that really worked?
• What holiday deals were the most effective for your brand?
• What product did your customers purchase the most?
• What did your competitors do?
• How can you segment your audience according to the findings?
• What can you do to make your customers’ experience better? What new technology, platform, or strategy to use?

If this is your first holiday sales season, analyze your competitors’ experience using any information available, and come up with some hypotheses for your own business.

Craft an attention-grabbing subject line

Attractive subject lines are crucial to the success of every email campaign, especially when the competition is at its peak. So, the task is to come up with a subject line that will definitely make the recipient read the message. This will help:

• Specify the discount percentage, or better yet, indicate the pricing change in dollars or other relevant currency.
• Specify the categories of products with discounts.
• Offer the maximum discount to the first customers.
• Add information about additional free services or gifts.
• Add keywords like “Sale”, “Now”, “Free” (don’t overdo it, though, or it might look spammy to email services).
• Add a catchy phrase that resonates with your brand.
• Add emojis.
• Make it super short and intriguing.

Here are some Black Friday email subject line examples:

• 💥 20% OFF ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING💥
• A Better Black Friday Deal
• Black Friday Sale Live Now
• ⚫ BLACK FRIDAY JUST GOT BETTER.
• It’s here! Shop 30% off for Black Friday.
• A note about tomorrow…
• Why Wait? Fill Your 🛒 Now for Black Friday!
• Enjoy Black Friday Now
• Starts NOW: Exclusive VIP Stack Friday Offer 🌟
• Beat the Black Friday rush.
• VIP Black Friday Sneak Peek Inside!
• Free. Bundle. Gift.
• Biggest holiday deals end tonight
• Flash Sale! Sweaters now $24.99
• SURPRISE‼️ Who says Black Friday has to be in November⁉️

Need more inspiration? Here are some more Black Friday email subject lines, along with a bunch of helpful tips on composing them.

Choose an appropriate template

Create a separate set of custom templates for Black Friday emails to make your campaigns look special on a special day. And you might want to go with a different structure, design, or color scheme to convey the e-commerce holiday spirit.

It may seem challenging, but you can always take ready-made templates prepared for you by email marketing services and platforms and use them as a starting point. Templates are time-savers, especially when you’re racing to launch your campaign. They are easy to edit, display beautifully across all email platforms, and adapt to mobile devices — plus you don’t need any coding skills to work with them either.

For example, you can try our free Cyber Monday and Black Friday templates right in your Selzy account and edit them in our email builder.

There, the editing process is super simple with our visual editor and AI tools, and if you want something more sophisticated — you can switch to the HTML mode in one click. Moreover, you can import templates from other sources and edit them in this builder too!

Promote your best deals

If your e-commerce business is having a massive holiday sale, stating the percentage off is a no-brainer. But sometimes your customers need a little push. And although you may want them to purchase every single product on sale, focusing on your bestsellers or most lucrative deals may prove a better strategy. Another great option is using technology to your advantage. Thanks to segmentation and automation, you can send laser-targeted product recommendations and provide each subscriber with a personalized shopping experience.   

For example, this email’s recipient probably purchased men’s shoes before. That is why men’s styles are shown first, and the recommended product in the yellow frame is men’s as well.

Keep your content short and on point

OK, now that you’ve got a template to work with, let’s fill it. The main idea: keep it short and clear. People know you’re having a sale, so cut to the chase, tell them what it’s about, promote your best deals.

According to Litmus, subscribers spend an average of 9 seconds reading emails. They have this time to determine whether a message holds something interesting or not. It means that you have little time to get them to do what you want, so don’t overload your marketing message with a lot of text. That’s your brand website’s job. There, you can tell in detail about everything you want to offer.

Some tips on making your Black Friday email on point:

• Be clear about the subject of the message and the preheader by directly announcing the discounts. You are not alone in competing for customer attention. The winner is the one who formulates the most relevant proposal.
• In the body of the email, include product photos, pricing, and descriptions. And don’t forget to add a button or several ones with links to your e-commerce website or landing page with discounts.
• Place the most important information in the first screen area and highlight the most significant parts of the message.
• Emphasize that the offer is limited: the sale period will end quickly, and the goods may run out of stock even before the end of the promotion. You can also highlight the exclusivity/limited availability of the deal, as shown in the example below.

Moleskine sent a minimalist email stressing the exclusivity to motivate customers to make a purchase. The email has an effective copy and a big button leading to the page with deals.

And here’s another example from quip:

Make sure your emails stand out

Many companies change their email design during the Black Friday period to emphasize the importance of holiday deals. So your task is to make your campaigns look different from both your regular mailings AND from whatever your competitors might come up with. Typical Black Friday emails usually follow a total black-and-white design. OK, everybody knows it’s BLACK Friday, we get it. Why not change it?

Here’s what you can add to your message to stand out from the holiday inbox clutter:

• Whatever colors you want, preferably vivid
• GIFs
• Countdown timers (more on them later in this article)
• Interactive product carousels and other interactive elements
• Videos
• Partner promotions with bloggers, celebrities, or other brands, and partner content integrations

Another example from Electric Objects:

This Black Friday email from Blume doesn’t use black at all!

A couple of points deserve special attention:

Put your best graphics forward

We recommend not sending Black Friday emails with the corporate design that you use in all other mailings.  Brand identity is key, but during Black Friday, don’t be afraid to break your usual design rules. It will look original and memorable enhancing the customers’ experience.

Remember, the point of seasonal e-commerce campaigns is that they are… seasonal. Using vivid colors and fonts, combined with a cool proposition, will help increase your click-through rate and conversions to purchase.

Add GIFs

GIFs are great for turning people’s heads because they are dynamic and simple, and get more attention than static illustrations.

If done wisely and tastefully, GIFs:

• Attract attention.
• Showcase the product.
• Enliven the copy.
• Illustrate the idea.
• Are a great alternative to video.
• Just look beautiful.

However, with GIFs, moderation is key: 1-2 animated elements per email are usually enough. You don’t want to overload your subscribers and attract the attention of spam filters, so make sure your emails don’t weigh a ton. Also, remember to run a few tests to make sure your GIFs display OK before sending.

Pay attention to your CTAs

CTA or call-to-action is an element that motivates a user to take a certain action: go to the website, buy, sign up, subscribe, leave a request. There are different kinds of CTAs: buttons, links, images.

Whatever the kind, the main rule of CTA design in emails is to make them as clear and visible as possible for a smoother shopping experience:

• Use bright or at least contrasting colors.
• Surround them with a lot of white space.
• Get down to business right away, place the main CTA on the first screen.
• Don’t dilute your main CTA’s impact with a lot of other buttons. It will confuse subscribers and they may end up not knowing what to do next.

Read more about CTA placement and looks (and lots of other stuff) in our article about email design.

Use urgency in your emails

“What?” and “How?” are very important, but your customers are also interested in “When?”.

It might look overused, but copy phrases or subject lines like “Don’t miss this chance!” or “Buy now!” (or even “BUY NOW!”) make people do things.

It works because creating urgency is a psychological trick that attracts attention by triggering the FOMO effect (fear of missing out). This mechanic helps to stimulate demand and increase sales even at times that are unfavorable for the business.

There are several ways you can create the urgency effect:

• Tell that some products are limited in quantity.
• Offer big discounts but make them available to the first 10 customers only.
• Give 50% off for the entire stock but only for 24 hours on a specific day.

The exact numbers can change, of course — but you get the general meaning.

And of course, you can combine several elements such as colors, GIFs, and FOMO in one email, as done in this example:

Timers deserve special attention since they are a simple but powerful e-commerce technology that stimulates people to make a purchase. Looking at a timer, one feels like the clock is literally ticking away. To avoid missing the opportunity, people click on the CTA button, and the results can be impressive.

Adestra describes a case study of how adding a timer to an email got it a 171% higher click-to-open rate and a 400% higher conversion rate.

Don’t be afraid to use some humor

Humor can be an effective marketing tool that melts the ice between a company and its customers. A simple joke or a pun is a versatile thing:

• It sets an email apart from messages that only try to sell something.
• It increases sharing potential.
• It creates a unique experience for the reader.
• It gets you closer to your subscribers, creating a dialogue that takes on a friendly, partner-like tone.
• It makes a brand more memorable.

Add a personal touch

Even though Black Friday is a massive sale, you can still offer customers something special. Take into account the interests and preferences of each subscriber and make them personalized offers.

Call them by their names, provide discounts on products that they are interested in the most. Or try out other personalization techniques to enhance the customer experience.

Optimize for mobile

Almost 56.1% of total revenue during the 2025 holiday season is forecasted to be brought from mobile devices. Plus, according to a Litmus study, mobile is the most popular environment for reading emails. It means that mobile versions of emails are a prerequisite for high conversions.

Email service providers like Selzy usually have responsive options in their email constructors that allow you not only to adapt your messages for mobile devices but to create separate versions for the purpose.

Here is one of the good mobile optimization examples:

What’s the best time to send out Black Friday emails

Black Friday falls on the first Friday after Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. So, the sales season is roughly at the end of November each year. In 2025, Black Friday will take place on November 28.  

But as is with all holiday campaigns, sending Black Friday emails on this exact day is not the best strategy. To make sure your messages work, start sending them several days in advance. Ideally, you should prepare an email sequence that stretches about 10 days around the date. In the next section, we will explain how to do it in more detail.  

More Black Friday email examples, ideas and strategies

Now that you’ve learned tips and tricks for creating Black Friday emails and seen a bunch of examples, let’s go over some of the ideas that can make your Black Friday email campaigns perform even better.

Create an email sequence

On the eve of discount sales, inboxes will be filled with a variety of product offers from e-commerce businesses. So if you send just one Black Friday email, your offer may go unnoticed. An email chain is another matter.

A movie starts with its trailer, right? Same with a big email campaign — you need to announce it first and then reveal the details. Basically, there are 3 stages:

1. Announcement — 7-10 days before Black Friday. Describe what promotions and discounts you have but be careful. Subtly hint, but don’t reveal all the cards at once.
2. Notification at the start of the promotion — on Black Friday or just before your sale starts. Now describe all the conditions: what products are on sale, what the discounts are, how long the promotion will last, etc. The clearer the offer, the better your customers’ shopping experience.
3. Last chance notification — send this message to those who have not bought anything yet. If they didn’t shop for themselves, try a different approach. Showcase that your star product can be a great gift to their partner, friend, or family member.

Below is the 3-part Black Friday email campaign by Bose. Earlier in the article, we’ve already demonstrated how the scratch-off trick works. Now swipe to see all emails in the sequence:

You can expand on this scheme with something like this:

• Sales announcement (start date, conditions) — 7-10 days in advance.
• Notification at the start of the event — a few hours before the start.
• A selection of interesting offers during Black Friday — after the start of the sale.
• Updates on how many popular items are left in stock.
• Alert about the end of sales — 3-4 hours before the end of the discount period.
• Exclusive offer for subscribers (additional discount with a promotional code or offering products that don’t participate in the general sale) — a couple of hours before the end of the sale.
• “Last Chance” (unannounced offer for latecomers) — immediately after the end of the discounts.
• Announcement of Cyber ​​Monday — a couple of hours after the end of Black Friday.

Sounds complicated? Email automation will make your life easier by allowing you to basically set your campaign on autopilot. Create templates, choose lists, and set actions and reactions. For example, don’t send the Last Chance email to people who have already bought something.

Explore different mechanics

There are several email mechanics you can explore to run your Black Friday promotion:

• Weekly promotion. Use automation to set up an email chain that reminds users about the promotion during the week and gives a promotional code to those who did not have time to make a purchase.
• Daily promotion. This option is suitable if you’ve managed to collect a separate list of subscribers with the help of a landing page and you need to send them a message with a separate deal.
• The best products. This is a simple chain where you send all users 2-3 bestseller collections one after another.

Arrange a private sale for regular customers

Your loyal customers are your main asset and best partners. They generate significant revenue and often provide extra advertising. The more often they shop, the more your business grows. So why not single them out into a separate segment? Reward your loyal customers and show them that you care with a closed sale like this one:

Create matching Black Friday and Cyber Monday email campaigns

Cyber Monday is a couple of days after Black Friday so these two events are very closely interconnected and are often perceived as one. Why not capitalize on it and make Black Friday and Cyber Monday email campaigns look alike for further brand promotion?

Don’t do Black Friday

Say what? Yeah, you can do just that. If you don’t have the resources to arrange a super-deal for your customers, you can still be a part of the Black Friday hubbub by playing on the subject to your advantage. REI Co-op doesn’t promote anything directly but you’ll remember them:

FAQ about Black Friday email examples

What makes a good Black Friday email example?

A great Black Friday email combines a clear offer, attention-grabbing visuals, and a strong CTA. Top examples use product photos, short copy, urgency elements like countdowns, and designs that stand out from typical black-and-white templates.

How do you write a high-converting Black Friday email?

Start with an engaging subject line, keep your message concise, and lead with the discount or benefit. We recommend including key details — product images, prices, and CTAs — above the fold, while using a friendly tone or a touch of humor to make the message memorable.

When is the best time to send Black Friday emails?

We suggest starting your campaign 7-10 days before Black Friday, sending the main offer a few days before the event, and following up with reminder and “last-chance” messages through the weekend. Avoid sending only on Friday itself — inboxes are overcrowded that day.

How many Black Friday emails should I send?

Don’t stop at one. The most effective brands send 3–5 emails:

1. An early announcement
2. A “sale starts now” message
3. Ongoing offer reminders
4. A last-chance email
5. A transition into Cyber Monday deals

Automation in Selzy makes this easy to set up in advance.

What are the best Black Friday email subject lines?

Short, punchy lines with emojis and action verbs. Examples:

• 💥 20% OFF ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING
• BLACK FRIDAY SALE LIVE NOW
• VIP Black Friday Sneak Peek Inside!

Use numbers, words like Sale or Now, and personalize where possible to boost opens.

How can I make my Black Friday email stand out in crowded inboxes?

Break the “all-black” rule. Experiment with bright colors, GIFs, interactive elements, or countdown timers. Add humor, personalized recommendations, or exclusive subscriber deals to catch the eye and keep readers engaged.

How do I create urgency in Black Friday emails without sounding pushy?

Show scarcity instead of shouting it — mention limited stock, short sale windows, or “exclusive for subscribers” offers. Visual countdown timers and copy like “Only a few hours left!” trigger FOMO while keeping your tone friendly.

What are common mistakes in Black Friday email marketing?

Avoid:

• Sending only one email instead of a sequence
• Overcomplicating designs or CTAs
• Writing vague subject lines
• Forgetting mobile optimization
• Skipping email testing before launch

10. How do Black Friday and Cyber Monday emails work together?

Treat them as one campaign. Use matching colors, layouts, and messaging to extend your sales period and maintain brand consistency. A “Black Friday ends — Cyber Monday begins” sequence keeps momentum and customer attention high.