5 BFCM Email Strategies That Work All Year Long (114 Examples Analyzed)

Ever wonder what the top DTC brands actually did for BFCM 2024?

We went deep. Really deep.

We analyzed 114 emails + landing pages from the Funnel of the Week brands to see what actually moved the needle this Black Friday / Cyber Monday.

Want to see all 114 examples? They're waiting for you inside the Funnel of the Week Members Area:

The best part?

These aren't just BFCM strategies. 

These are proven tactics you can use for ANY promotion - whether it's Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, or just because.

Here are the 5 most powerful takeaways you can apply to your very next promotion… 

(spoiler: brands like Ridge and Truvani are already using these for their holiday campaigns...)

Takeaway #1 - Start Early, Sell More: The Pre-BFCM Advantage

No need to wait for Black Friday to start your Black Friday offer.

If BFCM is your biggest revenue days of the year…

…Why not milk it as much as possible and promoting early?

Ridge Wallets started promoting one of their (many) BFCM offers two days before Black Friday:

Airmoto (tire inflator) took it to another level and sent the first BFCM email on SUNDAY, before the week even started, 5 days before Black Friday…

And Truvani sent this offer the day before Black Friday:

This “Early Access” email drove traffic to their Amazon store specifically…

…Which leads us to Takeaway #2.

Takeaway #2 - Platform-Specific Offers: How to Win Both Amazon & DTC

If you also sell your products on Amazon, maybe you’re worried about Amazon cannibalizing your shopify sales.

Here’s one way to have your cake and eat it too:

Have BFCM deals specific to Amazon, and other deals specific for your site visitors.

Here’s how Truvani did this:

Amazon: Truvani sent emails driving their audience to Amazon for one deal (like the email you saw above, and this one they sent actually on Black Friday)

…While also sending emails promoting a separate BFCM bundle offer + site-wide discount, on their own site:

Here’s the on-site offer:

Takeaway #3 - Multiple Offers, Maximum Impact: Beyond The Single Discount

BFCM is a great excuse to remind your audience about all your products.

Ridge Wallets did a great job of this.

They sent 20 emails during BFCM… 

(see all of them inside Funnel of the Week Members Area)

…all promoting many different products/offers.

For example:

• Email #1 pointed at a $70 off kit offer:

• Email #2 promoted their luggage line with a “Free Travel Bag” offer:

• Email #14 promoted sub-$50 “impulse buys”:

(Check out the 20 emails + offer pages they sent in detail inside the Funnel of the Week Members Area)

Takeaway #4 - The Mystery Gift Strategy: Turn Browsers Into Buyers

The Woobles has a MASSIVE catalog of product skus. (Here’s just a quick look)

And they’re always launching more, like these new Batman Woobles they launched during BFCM 2024:

To get people excited to click through the email and explore the store, they used this “Mystery Gift” offer to incentivize browsing:

Or this one from another email:

Once clicked, the prospect is dropped into the full store, ready to browse and select the specific Woobles products that will “unlock” their free sticker packs & free Mystery Gift Packs.

Takeaway #5 - The Personal Touch: Building Loyalty During High-Volume Sales

It’s easy to forget that the reason for Black Friday / Cyber Monday is the US Thanksgiving holiday.

See how Ridge Co-founder Daniel sent this personal note on Thanksgiving Thursday, giving thanks while also sharing simple links to 3 of the many offers they were promoting during BFCM: 

Notice how Daniel followed up with another similarly personal style email on Black Friday as well:

5 Key Takeaways & Next Steps: Your Promotion Playbook

The most successful BFCM (Black Friday/Cyber Monday) brands are crushing it with 5 key strategies:

• They're starting early - like Airmoto launching 5 days before Black Friday, getting ahead of the inbox chaos

• They're splitting platforms smartly - take Truvani's approach of separate targeted offers for Amazon vs their own site

• They're showcasing everything - Ridge Wallets didn't just push one deal, they ran 20 different email campaigns to highlight their full catalog

• They're driving exploration - The Woobles used mystery gifts to get customers browsing their entire store

• They're keeping it personal - Ridge's co-founder messages showed how to balance promos with authentic gratitude

The best part? These aren't just BFCM-specific moves.

You can adapt these strategies for any promotion - whether it's Christmas, Valentine's Day, or just because.

Want the full deep-dive? Check out all 114 BFCM emails and landing pages in the Funnel of the Week Members Area.

Have a great weekend!

The Funnel of the Week Team

PS - in case you’re wondering, what Funnel of the Week is all about…

More on What’s Inside Funnel of the Week Members Area

Funnel of the Week has been live just one month now, and if you haven’t logged in for a bit, here’s what you’ve been missing:

We continue to stack full funnel breakdowns each and every week inside the Members Area:

We’ve got: 

• ecomm funnels

• VSL funnels

• Info Products funnels

• (and more)

…And we add a new funnel breakdown & swipes each week.

So if you have a funnel you want us to break down?

(Including all the landing pages, order bumps, upsells, downsells, email/sms followup & more…)

Just let us know and we’ll add it to our Funnel of the Week “next up” list. 

We’ll go through the funnel, document all the funnel steps, email/sms followups, etc. as we become a real customer (we don’t ask for refunds), and document the whole process so you have it at your fingertips.

If you’re not yet inside the Members Area? Go here to learn more about Funnel of the Week & get access.

The big idea of Funnel of the Week is this:

We break down a new DTC funnel (including ads, front end offer, upsells, post-purchase emails/sms/etc.), each and every week.

Here’s a quick Google doc walking through what we at Funnel of the Week has got in store for you, each and every week:

Check it out. We’re doing a special “early bird” price for access for a limited time.

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That’s all for today.

Have a great week!

The Funnel of the Week Team

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