3 Winning Email Templates To Smash Your BFCM Sales Goals

While the 2020 holiday shopping is already well underway already, peak consumer spending activity will happen the week of Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM). That means there’s still time to take advantage of email marketing, an ROI-driving powerhouse that allows you to capitalize on the subscribers you already have and spend less on paid marketing--a win-win for ending the year on a revenue high note. 

Email marketing drives more conversions than social media, direct traffic and search, with an average return of $32 for every dollar spent on the channel (source). Fifty-nine percent of marketers say it’s their leading source of ROI. 

Together with our partners at Klaviyo, a leading email and SMS platform for eCommerce brands, we’re sharing three of the top-performing email templates to use in your BFCM marketing campaigns plus six best practices for maximizing the effectiveness of every send. 

1. Single-Column Blocks

You’ve seen this email layout used by brands again and again, and so have your customers--it’s a common design choice because it converts. The single column of tidily arranged blocks looks great on desktop, tablet and mobile and stacks cleanly across devices, without any of the funky formatting issues you sometimes run into with multi-column layouts. 

Here are the essential elements to include in this layout:

• Header/navigation. Include your logo and your main shopping categories. There’s probably not enough room to mirror the navigation on your website, so instead, choose three or four of the most important navigation items for shoppers. 
• Hero image with call to action. An eye-catching image with a central focal point (preferably including your product) and a big, clear CTA button. 
• Body content with imagery. Again, use captivating images that showcase your product. This is a great place to call out your featured Black Friday deals, suggest your best-selling items or point shoppers to your most popular gifting categories. 
• Key selling point. Use this section to highlight a special discount, free shipping, or another reason to buy.
• Social links/footer. Link to your social media profiles and provide the required footnotes, like your address and an easy unsubscribe link. 

2. “Eyetention” Triangle

This direct, action-oriented layout is great for automated emails like your new subscriber welcome message, abandoned cart email and back-in-stock alerts. It’s simple and clean, with all of the elements drawing the eye down to one driving call to action. 

Here’s what makes this layout work:

• Header/navigation. Consider simplifying this even further than your standard email header so there are fewer distractions from the main CTA. 
• Direct headline. Are you introducing a new product? Announcing a flash sale? Reminding customers to shop before the shipping deadline? Whatever your message, sum it up in a few short and snappy words. 
• Hero image. This should be tied to the offer you’re promoting. 
• Minimal body copy (or none at all). Depending on your offer, the headline and image might speak for themselves. If you do opt to include body copy, keep it to a minimum or use this real estate for a high-converting widget like a countdown timer.
• Call to action. Use a bold font and eye-catching color. Remember, the call to action should be the main focal point of your email. 

3. Product Centric

A detailed, high-resolution product photo is the star of the show in this highly visual email template. The navigation moves out of the way to the bottom of the email while minimal copy and a single call to action encourage maximum click-throughs. ‘Shop Now’ or similar language work well for the CTA.

One note about image-centric emails: when you’re using large images in a campaign, it’s best to include just one or two of them. Messages with many large images are more likely to get trapped by spam filters.

6 Best Practices for High-Converting BFCM Emails

Less is more. Don’t distract the recipient from your call to action with a ton of additional copy. 500 characters or fewer is a good ballpark to shoot for on length--that includes your navigation, footer and any other text in the template. 

Stick to one main offer per email. When you have more than one offer--like announcing a new deal and promoting your gifting collections--those calls to action compete with one another. Instead, focus on one core offer or CTA per email campaign. 

Design in accordance with your brand. Lead with your logo at the top of your email so subscribers instantly recognize who it’s from. Use copy that supports your mission and aligns with your brand voice. Match the messaging in your email to the copy users see on the landing page when they click through one of your links. 

Be mindful of your mobile audience. Though you’re probably designing on a desktop, the majority of your emails will be opened on a mobile device. Therefore, you should be designing first and foremost for a mobile audience. Klaviyo has some great tips for designing emails for a mobile audience in this post, like limiting the number of different fonts and creating easily scannable content. 

Try new ideas with A/B testing. Trying something new? Don’t neglect the opportunity to A/B test. Every test you run provides valuable data on what resonates best with your audience and which design tweaks yield the biggest impact to conversions. 

Monitor your results. In addition to tracking the money metrics--opens, clicks, and conversions--monitor the health of your email sending domain by keeping tabs on bounces, unsubscribes and spam reports. If too many recipients are flagging your messages as spam, it can do a world of damage to your email marketing performance. 

Wondering where you stand when it comes to your campaign metrics? Here are some cross-industry benchmarks to help gauge your performance:

For more tips and ideas to win with email marketing this holiday season, check out Klaviyo’s Black Friday Bootcamp series here. If you need a hand strategizing or executing any aspect of your BFCM plan, from email to social media to paid advertising and more, schedule your free consultation to chat with our passionate eCommerce marketing team today. 

Check out the rest of the BFCM Last-Min Strategies:

Rob's Quick Guide to BFCM: Our Head of eCom, Robert Befumo, gives unique insights on unprecedented holiday season to ensure you're prepped and ready.

Increase Your Subs By 7x: Yes. You read it right. Increase your subscribers 7x in the run up to BFCM with these copy and paste strategies for your pop-ups and fly-outs.

Maximize Your Site Conversions: Put your conversions into overdrive!  10 strategies you can use right now to build the foundation for a successful 2020 holiday season.

Grow Sales Thru Stellar Support: Turn your customer support experience into a revenue generating machine with key insights for your site and reps.

Crush Your Holiday Sales Targets: Use your customer reviews to drive sales this holiday season and beyond.

Grow Your Sales With Process Automation: See five areas where you can employ automation to simplify your operations, save time, and boost sales this holiday season.

High-Converting Templates for SMS, Facebook Messenger & More: Use these ten templates to craft engaging, high-converting messages for SMS marketing and Facebook Messenger during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Don’t Blow Your Budget!: 10 tips to help you navigate paid media strategies this Black Friday / Cyber Monday (BFCM).