AuthorAmelia Clarkson
LinkedIn
Black Friday is one of the biggest opportunities of the year but with fierce competition and inbox overload, a poorly timed or mismanaged campaign can cost you more than just a missed click. Use this cheatsheet to help you cut through the noise, maximise revenue and protect long term customer relationships.
Ways To Maximise Your CRM Ahead of Black Friday
1. Keep it Simple
Don’t overcomplicate incentives. Straightforward, easy to understand offers perform best.
“25% off everything” will outperform a confusing tiered promotion like “Buy 2, get 15% off / Buy 3, get 25% off.” Too much complexity can lead to missed conversions. Your goal is clarity, not cleverness.
✨Pro Tip: Competitors will also be vying for your customer’s attention. Your clarity becomes your edge. Big, bold, simple offers win attention.
2. Segment Smartly
Not every subscriber should get the same offer. For example:Sending a discount to someone who purchased yesterday risks buyer’s remorse (and returns).
Instead consider these options:
- Reward lapsed customers with stronger incentives (e.g. add free delivery)
- Give recent buyers softer perks (e.g. like early access or free gift with purchase)
✨Pro Tip: Use RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary) segmentation to focus your highest value discounts on the audiences most likely to convert.
3. Stagger Broadcast Sends
If you have a large audience, avoid blasting everyone at once. This can overwhelm your site, slow checkout and create a negative experience.
Options to mitigate risk:
- Use segmentation to break up the send across a few hours
- Send in waves by timezone
- Hold back smaller, tactical sends to test site load before your biggest push
✨Pro Tip: Use Send Time Optimisation to deliver at the best moment for each subscriber.
4. Reward Loyalty with Early Access
Your best customers should feel special.
Early access:
- Creates excitement and exclusivity
- Encourages loyal customers to shop
- Builds long term retention, not just short term revenue
✨Pro Tip: Give your very best customers a sneak peak or teaser before the launch to help build anticipation.
5. Use Countdown Timers
Urgency drives action. Placing live countdown timers in your emails and on landing pages reinforces that the offer won’t last forever.
Messages like “Flash Sale: 6 hours left” or “Black Friday ends at midnight.” helps push buyers over the line.
✨Pro Tip: Update timers dynamically so they are always up to date, if there is only 3 hours left, tell your visitors to encourage sales.
6. Leverage Scarcity
People act quickly when they fear missing out. For example:
- “Only 8 left in stock” on product pages
- “Deal ends at 11:59pm” banners
Be authentic. False scarcity kills trust.
✨Pro Tip: Pair scarcity with social proof (e.g. “120 people are viewing this now”) to amplify urgency.
7. Set Up Tracking Correctly
Black Friday moves fast, don’t miss out on data which could help frame future strategy.
Before launching:
- Add UTM parameters to every link
- Confirm all links track properly in your CRM and analytics
- Test attribution reporting so you can measure ROI accurately
✨Pro Tip: Tag campaigns by funnel stage so you can analyse which segments drove the most revenue later.
8. Test Everything
Broken links or invalid discount codes kill conversions instantly.
Triple check:
- Email rendering on mobile and desktop
- All links and tracking
- Discount code functionality
✨Pro Tip: Get more teams involved to test emails on different devices. They may notice something you would miss.
9. Monitor Frequency Capping
Bombarding customers with multiple emails in a single day leads to unsubscribes.
Set rules like:
- Max one promotional email per 24 hours
- Prioritise triggered flows (cart abandonment, browse abandonment) over bulk sends
✨Pro Tip: Use “snooze” options so subscribers can opt out of Black Friday noise without fully unsubscribing.
10. Plan Post-Sale Follow-Ups
The relationship doesn’t end on Black Friday. Post purchase flows are where long term LTV is built, such as a:
- Thank you email
- Limited time upsell (“You unlocked 20% off for Cyber Monday”)
- Review requests and loyalty sign ups
✨Pro Tip: Think beyond just the weekend. Black Friday is the spark but nurturing customers through December and January is where true retention and LTV happens. This increases customer lifetime value (LTV) and strengthens loyalty.
Get Your Black Friday CRM Checklist
We created the Black Friday CRM Checklist. A no fluff, high impact guide designed to help marketers, CRM managers and eCommerce teams maximise revenue without sacrificing the customer experience. You’ll get a practical, actionable checklist covering everything that’s been discussed in this article.
Whether you're running a small campaign or managing a multi stage approach, this checklist will help you stay organised, focused and ahead of the competition.
It's ideal for:
- CRM & Email Marketing Managers
- Ecommerce brands
- Growth & Retention teams
- Anyone planning Black Friday campaigns