This year, marketing departments of businesses globally mark their calendars for December 2. On this day, the entire ecommerce market celebrates Cyber Monday, the biggest online sale event that takes over the feverish atmosphere of Black Friday. Participating in this event with effective email promotions means a lot for brands who want to capitalize on the holiday season.
Don’t know where to start? Here, we share working Cyber Monday email marketing strategies and ideas based on our own experience and industry best practices.
Cyber Monday Email Marketing 2024
Looking at the stats for Cyber Monday email marketing from previous years allows us to understand the significance of this event for businesses in terms of brand promotions and potential revenue.
For example, on Cyber Monday 2023, U.S. shoppers spent $12.4 billion online (a 5% rise from 2022) setting a new record. The consistent increase in spending allows marketers to expect even more purchases this year.
Regarding significant email performance rates, Cyber Monday campaign KPIs also show consistent dynamics. Click-through rates for email marketing briefly increased, but high bounce rates and customer opt-outs became problematic. Targeted email advertising and personalization were still essential for sustaining engagement after the holidays, even with a spike in revenue.
Here are some highlights from statistics for your Cyber Monday 2024 campaign.
- Cyber Monday is predicted to be the second-busiest day of the year, with over 120 million shoppers.
- Cyber Monday has 15–25% higher email open rates and 10–15% higher click-through rates than other days.
- Personalized Cyber Monday emails are 15% more likely to be opened, and emails with dynamic content are 20% more likely to be clicked through.
- Compared to emails sent to non-buyers, emails sent to prior customers have a 15% higher open rate.
Top Cyber Monday Marketing Strategies
Every business chooses its own Cyber Monday promotion approach that fits its resources and goals. When it comes to email marketing, there are a lot of possible routes you can take but not all of them might be effective for this particular occasion. Based on our experience as professional email marketers, Flowium’s specialists are happy to share some of the best Cyber Monday email strategies that they personally have used for promotions.
Start Cyber Monday Email Promotions Early
Dropping the news about a Cyber Monday sale like a downpour on subscribers’ heads isn’t a good approach. Especially, if you sell pricey products or services, people simply might not be ready for your sale. Take advantage of the entire Black Friday week (or even earlier) and start your sales before your competition. Additionally, unlocking access to your sales for VIP clients can be a favorable Cyber Monday marketing strategy meant to show your appreciation and build a stronger connection.
Offer Special Percentage or Dollar Discounts
Of course, for the special occasion of Cyber Monday, you need to present your customers with special deals bringing appealing incentives. The most common options here are percentage and dollar discounts. They attract clients to make purchases with the thought of saving money while bringing you more revenue thanks to the increase in sales. When deciding on which type of discount to offer to your clients, we recommend using the “Rule of a hundred”. This is a simple practice that suggests opting for a dollar discount when the product you’re promoting costs over $100, and a percentage discount if less than $100. Make sure this offer stands out in inboxes among the sea of other offers.
Pro Tip: A good discount for holidays is 5–10% higher than your usual discounts. The practical experience of Flowium’s experts and professionals at the top marketing firms shows that offering 5% off sitewide brings more results than 60% discounts for some brands.
Offer Free Shipping
According to Adoric, 61% of buyers abandon their carts due to the high cost of shipping. So, to ensure your marketing effort doesn’t go in vain and bring sales, think about offering free shipping as a part of your Cyber Monday email marketing strategy. Create a better customer experience with a well-thought-out delivery system. Focus on aligning with the customer’s pain points, balancing cost and practicality.
Pro Tip: For small and medium businesses, we recommend making free shipping your single deal, i.e. don’t offer any discount. The reason for this is that since the shipping is usually expensive, offering additional incentives can lead to excessive expenses.
Organize Gift Giving
It’s always good for your reputation as a brand to show your generosity and appreciation on during the holiday season. Some businesses use gift giving as their strategy in Cyber Monday email along with the deal. Additionally, a well-timed gift can differentiate your company from rivals, adding a special touch to your Cyber Monday offer. Additionally, giving generously during the holidays frequently results in good word-of-mouth since happy consumers are more inclined to tell their friends and family about their experience. Depending on what your brand specializes in, giving a gift does not necessarily mean sending something in a physical form—it can be anything of value to your clients e.g. a free subscription, access to particular services, informational guides, etc.
Pro Tip: Read more about how to creatively and effectively send physical mail and gifts in our guide on direct mail marketing.
Provide “Try Before You Buy” Cyber Monday Option
Thanks to the “Try Before You Buy” Cyber Monday promotional strategy, customers can test a product before making a purchase. This strategy works especially well for products that people might be hesitant to purchase without firsthand experience, especially if they’re costly, such as apparel, technology, or subscription services. Businesses lower purchase risk and promote higher conversion rates by providing a trial period or letting clients receive and test things before paying. If customers are happy with the product, this tactic increases trust, draws in more hesitant buyers, and may result in enduring customer loyalty.
Offer Double Points To Loyal Customers
Loyal clients absolutely deserve special attention on holidays. During the campaign, giving loyal customers double points can increase engagement and promote repeat business, giving your rewards program more value. In addition to increasing customer happiness, this Cyber Monday email tactic encourages customers to make more frequent purchases to acquire more points.
Make Tiered Discounts
By providing increasingly larger discounts based on purchase value, a tiered Cyber Monday discount approach promotes more spending. To encourage customers to add more goods to their cart, a business can, for instance, give 10% off orders over $50, 15% off purchases over $100, and 20% off purchases over $200. By offering savings alternatives for varying budget levels, this top Cyber Monday marketing strategy not only raises the average order value but also appeals to a wide spectrum of customers.
Segment Your Cyber Monday Email List
Since we’ve already touched on the topic of loyal customers, which is a separate segment of your subscribers, let’s go on with the segmentation strategies for Cyber Monday promotions.
To generate targeted marketing, Cyber Monday email list segmentation is breaking your audience up into several groups according to their demographics, preferences, or habits. High-spenders, first-time visitors, inactive consumers, and previous purchasers are examples of important categories. You can improve relevance and engagement and raise open and click-through rates by customizing offers and content for each segment. Segmentation also makes personalized messaging possible, enhancing overall campaign performance and increasing conversions.
Best Cyber Monday Email Ideas
After reviewing the best strategies, it’s time to see more practical Cyber Monday email marketing ideas that you can implement for your campaigns.
Cyber Monday Early Bird Sale
Take the lead in promotions, offering clients the chance to save money ahead of time in addition to a heads-up. The idea of this Cyber Monday email campaign is that it should be launched at least one week before the event. Give your subscribers first dibs on any discounts or exclusive offers you’ve planned. You may start making sales now while other brands wait.
An Early Bird Sale email for Cyber Monday provides customers with special discounts so they can browse the best offers before the public. It generates urgency by emphasizing limited-time deals and including a countdown timer or phrases such as “while supplies last.” The email contains a clear call-to-action (CTA) that encourages recipients to shop early. It may highlight popular products and personalize them based on user behavior.
Cyber Monday Special Deals
Remember to highlight the limitations of your offers because Cyber Monday is simply a one-day event. It’s also a smart idea to use FOMO to tell customers that they must act quickly to make purchases or else the chance will pass. The Cyber Monday marketing idea of introducing special deals encourages customers to buy by generating a sense of exclusiveness around your offers.
VIP Cyber Monday Email
Apart from giving VIP clients special early-bird access, offer them additional incentives like bonuses, gift cards, gifts, etc. Emphasize personalized suggestions and provide these devoted clients with extra benefits or a unique discount tier. Finish with a heartfelt thank-you note that highlights their cherished partnership and the extra benefit of being a VIP. This simple Cyber Monday email idea allows businesses to strengthen connections and build customer loyalty.
Gift Card Email
Give your email list (or a VIP segment if you have limited resources) the present of their dreams on Cyber Monday by taking advantage of a special discount on gift cards. As a Cyber Monday email promotion idea, emphasize how easy and customizable gift cards are, allowing recipients to choose exactly what they want and benefit from Cyber Monday discounts. To make gift card purchases even more valuable, provide a time-limited bonus, such as a small credit for future use.
Limited Offer Cyber Monday Emails
Declare a thrilling, time-limited Cyber Monday promotion that customers won’t want to pass on, with special discounts accessible for just a few hours. For Cyber Monday email designs and copy, use countdowns or “only a few left” messages to emphasize urgency, plant a sense of exclusiveness, and motivate prompt action. End with a compelling call to action, urging customers to make purchases right now before these time-limited deals expire.
Last-Chance Reminder Email
Remind shoppers that Cyber Monday deals are almost gone, giving them one last chance to save big before the clock runs out. To ensure that your subscribers do not let your exclusive deal expire, set up the countdown as shown in the example below and reiterate your offers with an additional focus on the benefits. The goal of the “Last-chance” Cyber Monday email is to encourage them to complete their purchase now to avoid missing out on these unbeatable, end-of-season discounts.
Cyber Monday Extended Sale
Give people who were unable to take advantage of the promotion another chance to buy with benefits, and give yourself another chance to sell and keep people interested in your business. You can take advantage of the occasion and influence the audience to choose your brand by using this Cyber Monday email campaign idea.
However, to avoid financial losses, we advise against prolonging the sale for more than a day. Establish a countdown or explicit deadline, preferably a specific hour, as this will also instill a sense of urgency.
Cyber Monday Campaign Tips from Flowium
- Complete your campaign calendar for November and December
Make sure to include all pertinent holidays and events in your campaign schedule for December. You can also find inspiration for campaigns and keep yourself organized by relying on our email marketing calendar.
- Set up your campaigns in advance
Create email copy and subject lines that appeal to your audience and support the objectives of your campaign first. There won’t be time to modify your campaigns on Cyber Monday, so make sure to set everything up with your email service provider well in advance. Ensure that everyone on your team understands their roles and due dates. Everything will go smoothly during the event if you streamline your campaign process.
- Check your inventory
Verify your stock to make sure you have all you need for the sale. Make a plan for how to notify clients in the event that you are unable to deliver their orders on schedule. We recommend using Cyber Monday email and SMS marketing channels as the best methods for notification. To keep customers happy in the event of stock shortages, think about providing gift cards or other incentives.
- Test and optimize your site speed
To guarantee that users have a seamless experience, test and improve the performance of your website. Because poor loading times can result in greater bounce rates and lost sales, make sure your website loads swiftly on both desktop and mobile devices. To find places that need work, you can utilize tools such as PageSpeed Insights.
- Check mobile user experience
Examine the mobile user experience before beginning your Cyber Monday email campaign. Ensure your emails have responsive designs, readily clickable links, and quickly loading content because many customers browse and shop on mobile devices. Because customers are more inclined to make purchases on a platform that is easy to use, a seamless mobile experience increases engagement and conversions.
- Organize and target customers across all sales channels
To maximize your marketing efforts, efficiently arrange and target your customers across all sales channels. Make sure you’re utilizing the appropriate messaging for each audience and speaking consistently across these media. In addition to expanding your reach, a well-coordinated multichannel approach improves consumer engagement and brand visibility, eventually boosting revenue.
- Ensure top-tier customer service
To stand out during the hectic Cyber Monday rush, prioritize customer care by extending support hours to address questions quickly. Use AI-driven chatbots to handle routine inquiries, freeing up human agents to handle more complicated problems. For clarity, state return guidelines, shipping schedules, and terms unique to Cyber Monday. Create thorough FAQ pages to foresee frequently asked questions and lower the number of support tickets. During times of heavy demand, this strategy helps sustain customer happiness and guarantees more seamless client interactions.
Best Cyber Monday Email Examples
Here are some additional Cyber Monday email examples that we would want to look at in more detail. Let’s examine these fantastic advertisements and describe the strategies and tactics they employ to guarantee success and maximize the ecommerce event.
Fossil
Subject Line: Cyber Monday is HERE – Shop 40% Off (Our Best Deal!) 🛍️
American lifestyle brand Fossil is well-known for its retro-inspired timepieces and accessories that combine fashion, technology, and functionality at reasonable costs. In the company’s Cyber Monday campaign example, we can see some of the mentioned strategies and practices used. Right at the top of the email, the designers placed their special offer of free shipping, which we already marked as one of the best strategies. The main title in a simple font is meant to efficiently convey the message while not overloading the design. The company offers a 40% percentage discount making it a generous incentive that for sure will attract clients. Along with the excellent showcase of products, they use direct CTAs with personalization, offering separate buttons “For Her/Him”.
Balsam Hill
Subject Line: Happy Cyber Monday 🎉 Up to 50% Off
High-end, lifelike artificial Christmas trees, holiday decorations, and seasonal home décor are the specialty of the premium brand Balsam Hill. In their Cyber Monday email example, the company uses vivid visuals and holiday-themed colors to convey the festive atmosphere of both their products and the sale. The brand accentuates the huge discount of 50% and shipping as a bonus offer, which indeed can make it the “Best Monday ever” for many clients, as the copy says. The email also efficiently represents the most popular categories that clients can shop with the use of eye-catching images.
Moment
Subject Line: Cyber Monday Sale: LAST CHANCE to Save!
A company called Moment specializes in photography and videography equipment, providing top-notch smartphone lenses, camera accessories, and creative education materials. We find this “Last Chance” Cyber Monday email example great in terms of introducing an important offer while keeping up with the branding. The hero image of their email takes up space to show the neat aesthetics of the brand’s products. In the introduction of their offer, they use effective phrasing to create FOMO—“Here today, gone tomorrow”. This tactic highlights the uniqueness of the deal and urges subscribers to use the opportunity for saving. Moment also utilizes one of the top strategies that we mentioned, which is offering a tiered discount. The brand provides different percentages and dollars off for different product categories to match the value.
Mandrn
Subject Line: 😲 SURPRISE SALE: 30-65% OFF
Known for its belt bags and dedication to fine craftsmanship, Mandrn is a brand that produces fashionable, hands-free leather bags and accessories to complement an active, minimalist lifestyle. Their Cyber Monday campaign example attracts attention right from the start thanks to the use of animation in the hero image. Pastel colors in the email design go well with the overall branding concept of minimalism. The highlighted parts in the copy convey a clear message about the deadline for the sale and possible discounts. The brand’s marketers also know how to create a sense of urgency by adding “You won’t see again” to the copy and “Shop Last Chance” CTA.
Cyber Monday Email Subject Lines
Increasing the open rate of your BFCM marketing emails requires crafting captivating and eye-catching subject lines. These Cyber Monday subject line ideas cover a variety of strategies to make your emails stand out in crowded inboxes.
🛍️ Cyber Monday Madness: Don’t Miss Out on Huge Savings!
⏰ Last Chance! Cyber Monday Deals Ending Soon!
🎉 Unwrap Exclusive Cyber Monday Discounts Today!
🤑 Get Ready to Save Big This Cyber Monday!
💥 Cyber Monday Flash Sale: Prices Slashed for 24 Hours!
🌟 Cyber Monday is Here! Shop Now for Unbeatable Offers!
- Unlock Your Best Cyber Monday Deals Today!
- It’s Cyber Monday: Your Savings Await!
- Don’t Wait! Cyber Monday Discounts Just for You!
- Cyber Monday: Exclusive Offers You Can’t Resist!
- Shop Smart: Cyber Monday Deals Are Live Now!
- Your Ultimate Cyber Monday Shopping Guide!
FAQ
What is the best time to send Cyber Monday emails?
Sending an email on the Sunday before the event, between 6 and 10 a.m. on Cyber Monday is the best time.
What does a good Cyber Monday email look like?
Emails with eye-catching designs, compelling calls to action, and clear subject lines are more likely to be opened and clicked through.
How many Cyber Monday emails should I send?
Include your promotional emails in a strategically scheduled email marketing series to optimize your reach on Cyber Monday. One week before the sale, send out a teaser email. On Cyber Monday, follow up with the sale announcement. In the last hours of the sale, send out a last-minute reminder. By planning and scheduling these communications ahead of time with email automation, you can make sure that they successfully grab your reader’s attention in a packed inbox.
Launch Cyber Monday Campaign with Flowium
Ecommerce brands use Cyber Monday as a major day for online sales, and during the holiday season, email marketing is a great way to advertise your company. So, it’s important for your business as well to not sleep on the event on December 2. Promote your products and services in 2024 with our top Cyber Monday email strategies. Using the examples and tips from this article can make your campaigns more engaging and increase their chances of success. If you’re looking for a professional agency to delegate the creation and management of your email marketing campaigns, choose Flowium. Our team is experienced in providing top-notch email marketing services for ecommerce brands.
See our post on the top Black Friday emails for more examples of holiday-themed shopping emails.
