With the holidays fast approaching, are your Black Friday email campaigns optimized and ready to go?

You’ve got a great offer in store for your audience, your email creative is on-point, and your list is clean and ready to go.  

But how good are your Black Friday email subject lines? During the most wonderful – and busiest – time of the year, it’s even more important to make a strong first impression to capture more opens, clicks and sales.

If your subject lines feel a bit lackluster, we have all of the tips you need to make your subject lines more urgent, compelling, and impossible to ignore.

Here’s how to do it.

9 Tips for Writing Enticing Black Friday Email Subject Lines

A good email subject line is absolutely necessary – especially during the busiest shopping season of the year when everyone is asking for attention in the inbox. Use these nine simple (yet effective) tips to increase open rates tenfold. 

1. Add Emojis

In past years, you may have added emojis to your subject line and been delighted with a nice bump in open rate. In 2024, however, emojis are not the novelty they once were. At the same time, a clever use of emojis can still allow your email to stand out among a sea of other appealing offers. 

Emojis add a splash of color and make your emails more fun and engaging. They also look great on smaller screens, which is crucial since mobile devices account for 81% of all email opens. 

Tech company VeSync uses eye-catching emojis to attract subscribers to take advantage of its Black Friday sale.

p.s. looking for a black friday subject line shortcut? check out our free, ai-powered subject line generator.

2. Create a Sense of Urgency

Tap into the fear of missing out (FOMO) to boost your open rate. You can do this by building a sense of urgency, making your subscribers feel compelled to take advantage of a Black Friday deal before time runs out. 

You can use phrases like “Time’s Running Out!” or “Last Chance! Deal Ends Tonight” to let your email list know that this is the final opportunity they have to save on a purchase. 

Here are some other examples of words or phrases you can use in your subject lines to generate a sense of urgency:

• Grab It Before It’s Gone!
• Time’s Running Out
• Final Hours!
• Ends Today
• Don’t Wait
• Hurry! 

Tailor Brands does this well in its Black Friday email campaign, reminding subscribers that there are only a few hours left to take advantage of amazing deals.

3. Personalize Your Subject Lines

Personalized emails easily outperform generic emails. In fact, they have 29% higher open rates and 41% higher click-through rates than non-personalized emails.  

This data shows that people want to feel connected to their favorite brands. They want to feel special and appreciated. Sure, you may have hundreds or thousands of customers. But they each want to feel like you’re dedicated to satisfying them individually. 

There are a few key ways to personalize your Black Friday email subject lines. For example, you can include each recipient’s first name in the subject line of your emails. 

You could also put their name in the email copy itself. Or, use words like “special” and “for you” to make subscribers feel like the offer was made just for them. 

Check out these examples:

• Hey, CUSTOMERNAME! Your Black Friday Must-Haves on Sale Now.
• CUSTOMERNAME, Exclusive Black Friday Deals Just for You!
• Something Special for You, CUSTOMERNAME, This Black Friday

To automate this process, use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. Each time a lead subscribes to your email, it’ll automatically capture their email address, name, and other information from your opt-in form. 

Then, you can set up your Black Friday email campaigns using an email outreach software equipped with email templates and integrate it with your CRM. 

As a result, you can create email marketing triggers that automatically send out personalized Black Friday emails that resonate with your target audience.

4. Use Exclusivity

Exclusivity is a great way to grab the attention of your email subscribers. You can do this by providing exclusive offers to your most loyal customers. Or, you could send out a special VIP message, like a teaser email, a few days before Black Friday to let subscribers know that the offer is only available to a select few. 

CVS Pharmacy offers members of its email list the chance to skip the Black Friday lines and gain early access to exclusive deals. This is a powerful way to build a sense of exclusivity.

5. Add a Price or Discount Percentage

There’s something about seeing actual numbers that grabs attention. It’s one thing to tell your customers that they have special holiday deals and offers waiting for them. 

But it’s another thing to let them know how much they’re actually saving. Consider this example. Imagine that your subject line says, “Shop Now for Amazing Black Friday Deals.” 

However, you could make the offer even more compelling by adding a set value. For example, you could say, “Shop Now to Get 75% Off Our Already Discounted Prices”. That way, customers already know what they’ll be getting when they click the email and open the link to your website. 

But keep in mind that this tactic works best if you’re offering big discounts. If you’re offering only a small discount, then it might not work as well to generate interest. 

Yoast does a pretty good job of this in its Black Friday email subject line. It provides its subscribers with an exact value that represents the discount (30% off) they’ll receive on all Yoast SEO products.

6. Include the Words Black Friday or Cyber Monday

The words Black Friday and Cyber Monday stimulate interest all on their own. When people see those words separately or together, they already know they’re in for some big deals. They also know that those deals are only available for a limited time.

So, during the busiest shopping season, make sure you’re including these essential words in your Black Friday email campaigns. Or else you risk subscribers overlooking and scrolling right past your email.

Consider starting your Black Friday email as early as possible. You could offer early Black Friday deals or send out Black Friday previews in October to catch consumers’ attention. 

Varo Bank skillfully integrates ‘Black Friday’ and ‘Cyber Monday’ in its holiday email subject line, capturing the best of both worlds. This is great for catching the attention of customers who want to get deals and exclusive discounts throughout the holiday shopping season.

7. Remember Thanksgiving

It can be easy to get so caught up in Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals that you forget the important day that comes before these days: Thanksgiving. 

Get your customers ready for the deals by mentioning Thanksgiving in your email subject lines, along with the sales and discounts you’ll be offering on Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday.

This is a great way to stand out because many brands just get straight to Black Friday offers and skip Thanksgiving. 

In its Black Friday email subject line, buy now pay later service (BNPL), Sezzle acknowledges the Thanksgiving holiday. Then, it introduces its Black Friday deals in the body of the email.

8. Pique Curiosity

Being as clear as possible in your Black Friday email campaigns is crucial. But who said you can’t add a bit of mystery to your subject lines to keep customers curious?

According to a study, subject lines that aimed to pique the curiosity of their readers performed a lot better than the typical “buy now” messaging. 

Consider these Black Friday email subject line ideas to add intrigue:

• Something Special Just for You This Black Friday…
• Black Friday: Something Big Is Coming
• Open for Special Savings
• Unveil Black Friday’s Hidden Gems  💎 Now
• Sneak Peek: Black Friday Offers Coming Your Way
• Secret’s Out 🤐: Explore Your Cyber Monday Delights Early
• Cyber Monday’s Deals 🛒Await

Let’s check out some real-life examples of subject lines that effectively pique subscribers’ curiosity:

Cleo, an AI-powered money assistant, leaves its customers wondering with the cryptic message, “we’re giving away $500”. 

The subject line doesn’t mention Black Friday or Cyber Monday. It doesn’t even talk about deals or discounts. But the intriguing offer of $500 is enough to get customers to click. 

Then, within the email, it talks about boycotting Black Friday, encouraging users to spend nothing on the big shopping day for a chance to win $500. 

While this is counterintuitive for brands looking to increase sales on Black Friday, it’s still a Black Friday offer‌ because the winner will get a reward. Plus, it’s an excellent example of how you can grab your subscribers’ attention in the subject line.

The NBA does this more subtly, telling its email list that they can expect something big for Black Friday. While subtle, it’s enough to make them curious. 

When they click the email, they’ll learn they can watch live games all season long for 50% off the original price.

9. Use AI to Streamline Your Black Friday Email Campaigns

An email marketing strategy for Black Friday can easily help you generate a lot of sales. But for a successful campaign, you need compelling subject lines and email copy that converts.

Not the best writer? Don’t have the time? 

An AI writer tool can help you quickly generate quality copy that convinces your recipients to buy your products or services. Using available online AI tools to start your campaign will save you time and get your creativity flowing. One of those tools is our our Free Email Subject Line Generator. Use it to help you generate Black Friday email subject lines today!

And the best thing? You can always edit the generated subject lines as needed.

Increase Your Open Rates and Conversions With Irresistible Black Friday Email Subject Lines

A high-performing Black Friday email campaign will boost your open rates, increase conversions, and drive sales. And it all starts with click-worthy subject lines. Your subject line is the first thing your subscribers will see in their inbox. So, make it worthwhile.

Create a sense of urgency, add personalization, and offer exclusive deals. The key is to include something in your messaging that’s hard for subscribers to overlook. 

Author Bio

Joanne Camarce grows and strategizes B2B marketing and PR efforts @ codeless.io. She loves slaying outreach campaigns and connecting with brands like G2, Wordstream, Process Street, and others. When she’s not wearing her marketing hat, you’ll find Joanne admiring Japanese music and art or just being a dog mom.