As Black Friday and Cyber Monday approach, email deliverability is at the forefront of a lot of email marketer’s minds. We recently sat down with Lauren Del Vecchio, our very own Email Deliverability Expert, to get all the top tips on ensuring your emails reach your subscribers during this crucial time.
From list warming and segmentation to balancing email frequency and engagement, Lauren shares her best practices to help you prepare your email strategy for the holiday rush.
Kallie: First off, when should brands start thinking about their email deliverability ahead of Black Friday?
Lauren: Brands should be thinking about their email deliverability all year round. If you haven’t been, now is the perfect time to start.
With Black Friday in our sights, September is a great time to conduct a deliverability audit and set clear campaign goals for the holiday season. Doing so now will give you plenty of time to fix any issues and ensure all of your automated flows (welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, etc.) are set up, tested, and ready to go before the big day.
These checks are extra important for those planning to send to a US audience this year. The upcoming elections mean that inboxes are even more crowded than usual and subscribers are likely to be feeling overwhelmed by the email volume. It’s more important than ever to stand out in the inbox.
Kallie: Great to know that now is a good time to start preparing. What are the deliverability basics that brands should make sure are in place?
Lauren: There are a couple of things that all brands should start with:
- Authenticating your sending domain is the first one. This should be properly configured and tested. In doing so, you’re confirming to email providers that your emails are legitimate, reducing the likelihood of them being marked as spam. For more information on this, see here.
- Check that your email KPIs (open rate, click rate, purchase rate) are in line with industry benchmarks or better. If they aren’t, then build a plan to get them up to scratch. Smart segmentation, personalization, and A/B testing email copy and designs can all help.
Ultimately, brands should be regularly sending great, valuable content to opted-in subscribers who are expecting to receive emails from them.
Kallie: Once those are covered, what else can brands do to stand out in the inbox?
Lauren: To stand out in a crowded inbox during Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM), brands should start preparing early by using other holidays, such as Labor Day (US) and Halloween, as “dry runs” to refine their strategies. This is a great time to A/B test key elements of your email campaigns, such as subject lines, content, and CTAs, to see what resonates most with your audience.
By experimenting now, you can gather valuable insights and make data-driven decisions, ensuring you’re fully prepared when the high-traffic BFCM season arrives. Testing early allows brands to refine their approach and maximize impact during the busiest shopping days of the year.
Kallie: Makes sense! Now, we hear the term ‘list warming’ a lot around this time. What is it and why does it matter?
Lauren: List warming is a process email marketers use to gradually increase their email sending volume ahead of a major event, like Black Friday, to ensure strong deliverability. Around this time, brands often aim to send emails to a broader segment of their list than usual—such as inactive subscribers who haven’t purchased since last Black Friday, or those who haven’t engaged in recent months.
However, sending a large volume of emails suddenly can raise red flags with inbox providers, potentially leading to your domain or IP being flagged or even blocklisted. To avoid this, be strategic about your increased volume. Gradually ramp up sending, and communicate with your subscribers in advance, letting them know they may receive more emails.
Kallie: Are there any other steps brands should take here?
Lauren: As mentioned, the first step is to gradually increase send volume. We recommend starting this process in October.
If you’re a marketer at a brand, you should begin by engaging your most active subscribers first—those who regularly open and click on their emails—to boost open rates and enhance their sender reputation. Additionally, you should segment your list to tailor your content for different audiences, increasing relevance and minimizing unsubscribes or complaints.
Throughout the process, closely monitor key metrics like open rates, clicks, complaints, and bounces to ensure your campaigns are performing well and to address any issues before they escalate.
This steady, data-driven approach will help you optimize your campaigns for the busy holiday season.
Kallie: You talk about increasing email send volume, but you also mentioned that subscribers are likely to get overwhelmed with their inboxes during this period. How can brands balance the two?
Lauren: Good question. To strike the right balance here, brands should focus on delivering dynamic, personalized content that resonates with their audience. Instead of sending the same generic email to everyone, use dynamic content and personalization to make your emails more relevant, which helps you stand out in a crowded inbox.
You should also tailor your email frequency based on subscriber engagement. Highly engaged subscribers with clear buying intent can likely handle more frequent emails, while those who are less engaged may need fewer.
Ultimately, transparency is key here. Let your subscribers know what to expect from your holiday emails and offer them the option to receive fewer or opt out temporarily, if they prefer. This approach can help you maintain strong engagement while avoiding email fatigue during the busy holiday season.
Kallie: Great. And finally, how should brands handle deliverability if they notice a decline in performance leading up to Black Friday?
Lauren: If brands notice a decline in email deliverability performance leading up to Black Friday, they should act quickly to address the issue.
Start by re-evaluating your segmentation: ensure you’re sending to engaged subscribers who have shown recent interest in your emails. If needed, tighten the engagement time window to focus on more active contacts, and ensure your content is highly relevant to each segment.
Pull back on email volume if deliverability issues persist, as sending too many emails to disengaged contacts can further hurt your reputation. If bounces are an issue, particularly from invalid addresses, make sure you’re only emailing contacts who have given consent and consider using a list validation vendor to clean up your list.
Additionally, setting up Google Postmaster Tools can provide valuable insights into your domain’s reputation and help you address any issues before BFCM.
Kallie: Got it, thanks so much Lauren! So, to summarise, your email deliverability can make or break your Black Friday campaign. And now is the time to get it in tip-top shape. By following Lauren’s advice—warming up your list, segmenting your audience, and monitoring your key KPIs closely—you can ensure that your emails reach the right inboxes at the right time.
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