Black Friday lands on November 27 this year, and Cyber Monday on the 30th. From today, that leaves you ten weeks. It sounds like a lot. It isn't. The brands that bank the most in November decided on their offer in September, warmed their list in October, and tested their sends before the traffic arrived. The ones improvising in November pay for it twice: in lost reach because their emails land in the promotions tab, and in margin because the only lever left is the discount. Here is the calendar, week by week, on the email and SMS side.
Weeks 10 to 8: know where you're starting from
There is no point planning sends on a database whose condition you don't know.
Start by looking at the share of revenue your email channel produced over the last twelve months, then the same measure for last November. The gap between the two tells you how much Black Friday actually weighs for you, and therefore how much attention it deserves.
Then inventory the list: how many subscribers active over 30, 60 and 90 days, how many profiles haven't opened anything in six months, and what share of your base has already bought. A list of 40,000 addresses with 6,000 alive is not worked the same way as a list of 6,000 fully engaged addresses, however flattering the dashboard number looks.
Finish with the technical state: domain authentication, sending subdomain, order tracking, catalog sync. That is the kind of thing you fix painlessly in September and that costs you a day of panic on November 26.
“Black Friday is won in September and October, not during the week of November 27.”
Weeks 7 to 5: automations first
Your flows will produce part of the Black Friday number without you sending anything that day. They deserve to be ready before the campaigns.
Revisit abandoned cart and abandoned browse: during the promo period the volume of hesitating visitors explodes, and those two flows become your best sellers. Make sure their delays are short enough to catch someone comparing three stores within the same hour.
Build or review your welcome sequence. New subscribers arrive by the thousand in November because of ad traffic, and many enter through a form promising a discount. If your welcome isn't aligned with the Black Friday offer, you create confusion at the worst moment.
Prepare your segments ahead too: recent buyers, large baskets, inactives to win back, subscribers who clicked without buying. Building them calmly in September takes an hour. Building them on November 25, between two sends, is a segmentation mistake that goes out to the whole base.
Weeks 4 to 3: the offer and the calendar
This is when you lock the offer, and it is the decision that matters most.
A flat discount across the catalog is the simplest and the most expensive solution. Alternatives that protect margin exist: tiers by basket value, prepared bundles with higher perceived value, a gift with purchase instead of a percentage, early access reserved for subscribers, free shipping at a threshold calculated on your real average basket.
Once the offer is fixed, write the full send calendar: date, time, segment, subject line, angle. From the teaser the week before to the last Cyber Monday reminder. A written calendar makes it immediately obvious if you are hitting the same segment three times in 48 hours.
Weeks 2 to 1: deliverability
An inbox is won weeks before the send that counts.
If you plan to send to wider segments than usual, ramp the volume gradually rather than tripling at once. Clean bouncing addresses, remove the ones that haven't opened in a very long time, and watch your complaint rate.
Build and test your emails now, not the night before. Phone rendering, dark mode, images that don't load, links pointing to the right page. One broken link on a Friday morning costs a full day.
The week of November 27: cadence
During Black Friday week, frequency goes up. That is normal and your subscribers expect it. What makes the difference is not the number of sends, it is that each send brings a different reason to open: the announcement, early access, the reminder that stock is moving, last chance, the Cyber Monday extension.
Keep one rule: someone who just bought must stop receiving the sales reminders. Nothing is more irritating than a discount reminder received two hours after paying full price.
After: December belongs to retention
On December 1 you hold a base of new buyers who know nothing about your brand. That is where the real profitability of your November is decided.
Plan the follow-through now: post-purchase that explains the product, review request, suggested second purchase, and above all a clean removal of those new subscribers from your promotional sequences so you don't burn them in three weeks.
We can build this calendar with you
This is exactly the work we do in our email mandates: auditing the base, the flows, the promotional calendar and the sends during Black Friday week. If you want this year to be steered rather than improvised, there is just enough time left. See our email marketing offer
Frequently asked questions
When should you start talking about Black Friday to your list? The week before, for teasing and subscriber early access. Any earlier and you dilute the message and train your subscribers to ignore your promotional emails.
How many emails should you send during Black Friday week? There is no universal right number. What counts is that each send has a distinct angle and that buyers are excluded from the reminders. A brand sending six times with six different reasons irritates less than a brand sending the same discount three times.
Is a discount mandatory? No. Early access, a prepared bundle, a gift with purchase and basket-value tiers all work, and they protect margin better than a flat percentage. The discount is the easiest lever, not the most profitable one.