Your Black Friday email subject lines can help or hurt your holiday sales. However, with so much on your plate already, coming up with creative, compelling campaign ideas this late might feel like starting a 10K at the marathon finish line (woof).
Black Friday has grown from a one-day, in-person shopping event to a week-long (or month-long) digital deals bonanza. Many businesses record the highest sales of the year during this period—thanks in no small part to hefty marketing efforts.
The inbox has become one of the most frenzied marketing channels. Did you think cramming 1,000 customers into a Walmart at midnight was hard? Try stuffing 1,000 brands into a single customer's inbox.
With the avalanche of Black Friday emails that pour into your customers' inboxes, your email subject lines act as your first point of contact. You either get your subscribers’ attention and earn a click, or you don't.
Need some help coming up with engaging Black Friday email subject lines for your campaigns? We've got you covered with catchy, funny, irresistible, and straight-to-the-point subject lines.
First, let's cover some best practices. Then, we'll dive into the Black Friday subject line examples and templates.
Crafting a successful Black Friday email campaign demands more than attractive deals (although that's crucial too). You need strategic planning, attention to detail, top-notch technology, and deep familiarity with your audience. Here are some top considerations:
Remember, less is more: Twilio SendGrid data found that four-word subject lines delivered the highest unique open rate (10.62%) during the 2022 Black Friday and Cyber Monday email campaigns.
Use emojis (or don’t): SendGrid processed 769 million emails during Cyber Week last year containing the fire emoji 🔥. Emojis help subject lines stand out, but if everyone does it, not using an emoji might stand out even more.
Play the numbers game: Featuring a big discount? Don't say "Massive Deal" in the subject line—say what the deal is. That might be "50% Off" or "BOGO on Clearance Items."
Segment, segment, segment: Your brand only has limited opportunities to engage with each customer. Make them count. Send them hypertargeted emails that you know relate to them.
Personalize to the max: Modern consumers expect more than a "Hello [Name]" in their emails. Dive deeper. Use browsing history, past purchase data, and other behavioral indicators to tailor your email subject lines and content.
We'll brain dump all our favorite ideas for Black Friday email subject line examples. Some will work perfectly to copy and paste for your brand, while others will require you to personalize and zhuzh up.
Find what works best for your brand, experiment, and have fun.
Let your discounts do the talking—don't make the customer have to guess what your point is. If you have a big sale to talk about, put it front and center in your subject line.
Humor can be a great transition from the traditional pushy and urgency-driven Black Friday emails. If wit and humor align with your brand's voice, try these subject lines.
"Black Friday: Less Frenzy, More Freebies"
"Why Camp Out? Shop in Your PJs"
"Who Needs Leftovers? Feast on Discounts"
"No Pushing, Just Clicking"
"Black Fry-Day: Deals Hotter Than Fries 🍟"
"This Sale Has More Spice Than Pumpkin Latte"
"You Woke Up Like This: 70% Off"
"Doorbusters Without the Busted Doors"
"Shop It Like It's Hot 🔥"
"Couch, Coffee, Click, and Collect"
"Less Bucks, More Bang"
"Don't Let These Prices Ghost You 👻"
"Fashion's On Fire: Get It or Regret It"
"Our Sales Bring All the Shoppers to the Yard"
"Prices Too Low—Don't Tell the Boss"
"Our Prices Did a Limbo: How Low Can They Go?"
"Books Discounted: Literally a Novel Idea"
"Cameras: Snap Up These Flash Deals 📸"
"Get These Laptop Deals Before We Ctrl+Alt+Delete"
Highlight scarcity to push would-be customers over the sales finish line. Give these email subject line examples a try when you need to seal those final deals—these are excellent with abandoned cart emails too.
Deals, discounts, and deadlines tempt some, but a mix of curiosity, value, and emotional appeal tempt others. Try these irresistible email subject lines when you want to focus on the fear of missing out factor.
A catchy, funny, irresistible, and straight-to-the-point Black Friday email subject line is only one part of your campaign. You'll also need a responsive, user-friendly design that gets readers to click your call to action (CTA) buttons and make a purchase.
Our designers at SendGrid built some free-to-use, downloadable Black Friday email templates. While we have more templates within the SendGrid user interface (which you can access by signing up for a free account), the following are the templates we provide free to anyone—even if you're not a SendGrid user or customer.
Want to promote various items or categories? This is the email template for you. It's fully customizable and responsive, meaning it'll look perfect and on brand regardless of where your customer opens it.
Need to highlight a specific deal and put it front and center? This email template uses a strategic blend of bold CTA buttons and white space to highlight your products or services.
But don’t stop there—check out our other free templates. Customize them to meet your unique needs, whether for Cyber Monday or your weekly newsletter.
You can't afford to botch your Black Friday email campaigns. Partner with an email service provider you can trust to send your emails at scale, whether hundreds, thousands, or millions.
Speaking of a trusted email service provider, Twilio SendGrid processed8.8 billion emails on Black Friday 2022 and 8.9 billion emails on Cyber Monday 2022. That’s over 50 billion emails between November 21 and 28.
You can definitely trust that scale and volume.
However, don’t wait. Black Friday is just around the corner. Sign up for a free SendGrid account, import your contacts, build your campaigns, insert those Black Friday email subject lines, and prepare for record sales.
