7 Best Practices in CRM to Prepare for Black Friday 2018.

Now that you’ve thought about Black Friday and know how to reach your customers and prospects, what best practices should you implement before planning your campaign?

1. Segment your database— from the most active users in terms of email opens to the least active—to improve deliverability. Be sure to keep your database clean, especially by excluding unsubscribed users from your mailings, as this can cause your emails to end up in Spam or bounce back as invalid. Since your Black Friday communications will be sent to your entire database, you should treat your campaigns as small“ramp-ups”to avoid damaging your deliverability. Consequently, consider dividing your audience and launching campaigns by segment and at different times, for example.
2. Adopt the funnel approach: your email campaign will start with a generic message, such as“Black Friday: Where will you be on November 23?” and evolve into a more specific message:“Your fall-winter 2018/2019 essentials will be oversized sweaters—the star product during Black Friday on our website and in our stores!” You’ll be telling your readers a story, and they’ll want to know what’s coming next. Don’t hesitate to build anticipation by announcing the date of your next email.
3. Tailor the content of each of your emails to each target audience. You’ll need to create different scenarios for your campaign, offering different content based on your readers’ profiles, since your goals will vary by segment. For example:
   • For your prospects and one-time customers, tell a story highlighting the best-sellers during the Black Friday period and remind them about the wish list feature available on your website.
   • As for your loyal customers, go beyond the usual content and offer them an experience. You can invite them to a Black Friday “preview” on Thursday afternoon, offering them early access to discounts so they can choose when to take advantage of your deals and feel special. You’re sure to turn them into the perfect ambassadors for your Black Friday event among their friends and on social media. Not only will you strengthen your relationship with this customer segment, but you’ll also gain new followers for the big day. You can also offer them exclusive access to online deals, making them available before they’re open to the rest of your customers.
4. Set yourself apart from the competition by paying special attention to your email subject line. It should be engaging and impactful, but not overly salesy, to pique your audience’s interest and make them want to learn more by opening the email. Keep your subject line brief—30 characters or fewer—to prevent it from being cut off depending on the device your recipient is using (computer, smartphone, tablet, etc.). Don’t hesitate to use emojis and play around with punctuation to convey emotion and catch your recipient’s eye. Remember to test your emails: emojis don’t display the same way in all email clients!
5. Limit the number of calls to action. We believe it’s important to convey a single key message per email, which means no more than one call to action (CTA) per email. Choose it wisely! Ask yourself what your readers expect from your emails and provide the answer in the call-to-action. Just like your email subject line, your CTA text needs to be compelling. Ideally, it should specify a specific action and include a sense of urgency.
6. Conduct A/B tests on 10% of your audience by customizing the send time, sender, subject line, structure, call-to-action…Anything you think is important. Analyze the different metrics—open rates, click-through rates, website conversion rates, and unsubscribes—to identify the key trends in an email optimized for your target audience. However, be cautious; for an effective A/B test:
   • Test only one parameter at a time, or you won’t be able to determine which variable is responsible for your success or failure;
   • Run multiple tests: the more data you have, the more you’ll be able to optimize your future emails;
   • Send all your tests at the same time to get more accurate results (unless you’re testing the send time, of course);
   • Pay more attention to the results than to your gut feeling.
7. Re-target abandoned carts and send emails to contacts who opened or clicked on your previous emails before the campaign launch. This will help you avoid unnecessary stress on D-Day, and—most importantly—since these three user segments are already interested in your offers, you’ll be able to send them a personalized email that takes their experience to the next level and increases the likelihood of a purchase.

We'll be publishing more articles on this topic soon. Until then, if you'd like personalized advice, feel free to contact our teams.