How email marketing performed on Black Friday 2020
The past friday 27 november the well-known - and by many people expected - Black Friday was celebrated. Last week we made an analysis We'll take a look at what the days leading up to the date were like, but today in this post we'll see which strategies were the most used in email marketing, if any particular trend stood out and if any changes have been perceived with respect to Black Friday 2019.
Strategies used
Anticipation of promotions
As we mentioned in the previous post, this year some brands and companies have anticipated Black Friday more than ever, quite possibly to compensate for the drop in trade triggered by the pandemic caused by Covid-19.
Private sales
As a result of this anticipation, some brands have chosen to use a private sale strategy. How? We have identified two ways of proceeding:
- Sending an email to the users of their database where they were given an exclusive code to be able to use it before anyone else in the e-commerce. Here are two examples that we have already mentioned of Clinique y MAC Cosmetics.
- Accessing discounts a few hours before via the app. In this case, users of the database were informed that Black Friday started a few hours earlier on the App. A good strategy to encourage the use of the app and get users used to using it. Here you can see the case of Stradivarius.
Prolongation of Black Friday promotions
This year there are more brands and companies that have joined to extend Black Friday discounts, leaving them active throughout the weekend and / or Monday. Also coinciding with Cybermonday and even, in some cases, extending the promotions until the week after Black Week.
Notable trends
Issues and copies related to Christmas shopping
Analysing the topics and copies used by brands, we have detected that a large part of them are aimed at encouraging the user to take advantage of Black Friday and its discounts to make Christmas purchases. Subjects like the ones you will see below are often repeated:
- Are you one of those who take advantage of Black Friday to do your Christmas shopping? 🎁 - Estée Lauder
- Christmas gifts are in our Black Week - Clinique
- 50%, 40% and 30% 📦 Get ready for Christmas! - Freshly Cosmetics
Use of GIFs in designs
This is a trend that we have been seeing for a few years now. The use of GIFs is becoming more and more established and we are seeing them being used in email marketing to make more attractive and original designs. We have seen it again in Black Friday campaigns. Here we leave you with two of them, the first one from Clinique and the second of Yves Rocher:
Black colour combined with fluorescent or very bright colours
Continuing in the field of design, to give a nod to the term "Black", we can see how the colour black is the most used for the background of the campaigns. The main titles of the copy stand out for their large size and bright colours. We have already seen this trend on other occasions, however, this year we have also detected something new: the use of typefaces with a fluorescent effect. Here you can see examples of headers using this type of design:
Changes compared to 2019
More email volume
This year we have seen an increase in the volume of emails sent throughout Black Friday or Black Week. Companies have relied more than ever on the email channel to drive e-commerce and drive forward one of the most important dates in the retail calendar, in a year that has been unlike any other. With the current pandemic and fight against the Covid-19 outbreak, brands have turned their efforts towards their digital strategy and wanted to encourage online shopping. A fact that has not only been perceived, as we said, in the volume of campaigns sent, but also in the next point we will see.
Highest discount percentage
As we said in the previous post, pre-Black Friday emails were already announcing higher discounts than last year. Companies have decided to be more aggressive in their incentives, whether they are offers, discounts or gifts. It is a clear way to reward online shopping and to encourage users to take action. Here are some examples:
Stradivarius
2019: The following amounts are included in the 20% to the 40%.
2020: discounts from 20% to 50%.
Pull&Bear
2019: 20% discount + free shipping (Black Friday and weekend).
2020: 20% discount + free shipping (Black Friday) and up to 50% discount on selected products (weekend).
H&M
2019: -20% discount + free shipping (Black Friday) and up to -60% discount on selected products (weekend).
2020: -20% discount + free shipping (Black Friday) and up to -70% discount on selected products (weekend).
Clinique
2019: -30% on the entire website, -50% on outlet and gifts for purchases over 79€ (Black Friday and post Black Friday).
2020: Private sale of -35% on the entire website with the code provided via email, up to -40% on selected products, -50% on outlet and gifts for purchases over £75 (Black Friday and post Black Friday).
More Black Friday
This year, not only have Black Friday promotions and offers started earlier, but also, in some cases, they have been longer than on previous occasions. This has resulted in a longer Black Friday or Black Week. In fact, this feeling has been further increased by the volume of shipments received, also taking into account the pre-Black Friday campaigns announcing the operation of this, showing in some cases the future discounts and encouraging the subscriber to prepare their basket.
And you, how have you perceived this Black Friday? Have you detected any interesting trend or any substantial change compared to 2019?
