The BFCM train left the station long ago! While your campaigns are already in motion, a complete overhaul is unrealistic and unnecessary as BFCM 2025 draws near. However, there are still quick wins you can make to BFCM marketing campaigns to optimize their performance!

With a few minutes and a few smart tweaks, you can boost your email open rates, click-through rates (CTR) and conversions. As the final countdown to BFCM begins, here are 25 quick wins to help your Black Friday email campaigns and Black Friday SMS strategy perform their best!

25 BFCM Marketing Tips & Last-Minute Quick Wins

BFCM Marketing Tips to Increase Email Open Rates 

1. Add Urgency to Subject Lines & Preview Text
FOMO is powerful, motivating 69% of consumers to interact with an e-commerce message. Urgency-driven subject lines are especially effective for limited time campaigns. Use phrases like “Last Chance” or “Ends Tonight” in your BFCM messaging mix!

Make the most of tools like email subject line generators to spark ideas on how to incorporate FOMO in succinct, eye-catching ways.

2. Personalize Your Subject Lines
Including a subscriber’s name or referencing recent behavior (e.g., “Emily, your cart misses you!”) can lift open rates. Personalized subject lines make your Black Friday email campaigns feel tailored and relevant. They also tap into consumer expectations. 71% of people expect personalized emails, so make sure you’re delivering!

3. Keep Subject Lines Short
Aim for anywhere from 3–9 words at ~50 characters in length. Shorter subject lines avoid getting cut off on mobile devices and feel more conversational. Place the most compelling words at the beginning. 

Some examples on how to do this are: “15% OFF Everything 🔥” or “ONLY 3 hours left to save!”

4. Optimize Your Emoji Use
A relevant emoji like ⏰ can draw the eye in crowded inboxes and communicate urgency as well. One or two emojis are enough, as including 3+ in subject lines bring a higher risk of your messages being marked as spam.

5. Optimize Your Preview Text
Treat preview text like a second subject line. Be sure to use it as an opportunity to bring further value to your email, touting the timeliness and relevance of your offer. This will help your message surface to the top of Gmail’s Most Relevant Promotions tab.

Preview text should support your subject line, not repeat it. For example:
Subject: “50% Off Ends Tonight” / Preview: “Grab your favorites before midnight!”

6. Resend to Non-Openers
Give unopened campaigns a second life. Change the subject line and preview text, and resend to those who didn’t originally open it 24–48 hours later. This is particularly effective during high-urgency periods like BFCM marketing campaigns, as resending to non-openers typically increases the original campaign’s open rate by 8.7–30%.

BFCM Marketing Tips to Boost Click-Through Rates 

7. Have One Clear CTA
Avoid decision fatigue by focusing on one primary CTA (e.g., “Shop the Sale”). Use contrasting colors to ensure this button can’t be missed!

8. Write Benefit-Driven, First-Person CTA Copy
Ensure your primary CTA’s copy communicates value or drives action. Button text like “Claim My 30% Off” or “Get My Skincare Set” do this well. First-person CTA phrasing boosts conversion rates by 90% on average, compared to using second-person ("your").

9. Put the CTA Above the Fold
Don’t bury your CTA. It should appear early in the email, ideally before the user scrolls. Place your primary CTA within the first 300–500 pixels. Repeat it at the bottom for longer messages, too.

10. Make Content Scannable
Use short paragraphs, bullet points and bolded text to guide readers. Scannable formatting increases click-throughs by helping readers quickly understand your offer. You can learn more about the best ways to structure scannable emails here.

11. Add Social Proof
95% of consumers consult customer reviews before making a purchase. So if your products have excellent reviews, make the most of them!

Add a short customer quote or product rating to your BFCM email marketing. Adding a simple line of copy like “4.8 stars from 3,000+ happy customers” can ease shopping hesitation.

12. Use a P.S. Section for a Secondary CTA
While “above the fold” content is your primary focus, many readers scroll straight to the bottom of an email. Use that space for a final nudge or alternative link, such as “P.S. Not into seasonal boots? Shop bestsellers instead.”

13. Add a Countdown Timer
Timers consistently drive up click-through rates by as much as 30–35% when added to emails. For BFCM campaigns, a simple “Sale ends in 02:14:07” countdown clock next to a CTA is likely to lift clicks and conversions.

BFCM Marketing Tips to Boost Conversions

14. Match Email & Landing Page Themes
Ensure message alignment across channels. If your Black Friday text or email promises 40% off winter gear, your landing page should reflect that exactly with the same offer, visuals and headline.

15. Check Mobile Friendliness
Over 50% of emails are opened on phones. Use your ESP’s preview tools to check that your email design and landing page load fast, display correctly and support quick checkout on mobile. You can get a comprehensive look at how to design emails for mobile here.

16. Follow Up on Abandoned Carts
Set up automated emails or SMS to recover abandoned checkouts. Example: “Still thinking it over? Complete your purchase in the next hour for 10% off.” For BFCM campaigns, urgency and timing are everything, and automated follow-ups show shoppers that you remember them and have an exclusive offer for them.

BFCM Marketing Tips for SMS Engagement 

17. Keep SMS Marketing Short & Punchy
Front-load a message’s value when sending a marketing text. This could look like the following example:

“20% OFF today only! 🙋Use code FLASH20. Shop: [link]”. 

Make your Black Friday SMS sends short, sweet and around 160 characters, if possible.

18. Add a Direct Link
Always include a short, trackable link so the customer can go straight to the product page or promotion, bypassing extra steps. 

This may seem like a no-brainer, but some brands do avoid direct links in their texts, as a means to drive responses via keyword replies or shortcodes. This can limit tracking and immediate sales performance, which are critical during BFCM.

19. Time It RightAvoid odd hours. Schedule texts during business hours or early in the evening. It’s the law! For nationwide audiences, use timezone-based scheduling.

20. Reinforce Urgency
We can’t stress the importance of FOMO enough! The highest performing SMS campaigns use personalized, timely urgency to drive maximum impact on their conversion rates.

Use SMS to communicate same-day or last-chance reminders, such as:
“2 HOURS LEFT 🚨Save 25% sitewide before midnight! [Link]”

21. Use SMS to Follow Up Email
Target those who left your Black Friday email unopened or unclicked with a different medium! Follow up with a short SMS reminder later in the day to drive final conversions.

22. Ask a Question
Have a conversation with your subscribers, just like you would with your friends! Inspire them to think of your brand or click by asking them questions. For example, you can ask something like: 

“Which shade do you love more: Plum or Nude? Reply PLUM or NUDE.” 

This strategy can also help segment your list based on the preferences subscribers show in their replies!

23. Reward Subscribers
Offer early access or exclusive deals to SMS subscribers. Try: “You’re first! 🥇Shop our Cyber Monday collection 1 day early: [link]”.

24. Segment When Possible
Segmentation is just as critical and impactful when incorporating it into your SMS program. In fact, it’s reported that segmented SMS messages get 100%+ more clicks, compared to blast messages without segmentation.

AI tools make this easier than ever, customizing text content based on your audience segments, behaviors and preferences. For example, you can use it to segment your VIPs, recent purchasers or inactive subscribers, then generate content that taps into their interests and habits.

25. Test, Learn, Repeat
Take every send—whether via email or SMS—as an opportunity to learn and help your future campaigns succeed! Specifically for texts, we recommend A/B testing CTAs vs reply-to messages, send times and message lengths.

Black Friday Marketing Success Can Be Achieved in Minutes

Whether you’re sending your first Black Friday SMS or refining Cyber Monday email subject lines, these quick optimizations can drive real performance across your marketing efforts throughout the holiday. Thanks to today’s e-commerce technology—like powerful, proprietary e-commerce data and generative AI to help with creative execution—2025’s marketers are set to build their most successful BFCM campaigns to date!

So next time you have 15 minutes between meetings, run through this list and find a task or two to execute on. Your open rates, CTRs and conversions will thank you.

Here’s to smart, scrappy wins this BFCM season!