How to Optimize Your Email Flows for Black Friday & Cyber Monday

Author

Victor Godsk
October 21, 2025

Hey, it's Victor here from Obzia.

If you think your regular email flows are going to cut it during BFCM, I've got bad news for you.

During the biggest shopping period of the year, every inbox will be flooded with deals from every brand.

Your flows need to adapt, or they'll work against you.

Your Regular Flows Won't Work

Here's the thing…

During BFCM, people are in a completely different buying mode.

They're expecting deals. They're comparing offers. They're moving FAST.

Your normal "brand story" welcome email? Not gonna cut it.

Your educational abandoned cart flow? Too passive.

You need flows that match the energy of the shoppers, or you're basically handing revenue to your competitors.

The 2 Ways to Set Up BFCM Flows

You've got two options here, and which one you pick depends on your bandwidth.

Option 1: Create Brand-New BFCM Flows

  • Build entirely new flows with BFCM-branded emails.

  • More work upfront, but you get highly-relevant emails that are built specifically to maximize revenue during this time.

Option 2: Duplicate and Tweak

  • Copy your current flows and add “Black Friday” banners with your offer on top.

    • Way faster, and honestly — still super effective.

  • Or tweak just the header designs to show your Black Friday offer, update the CTAs, and you're 80% of the way there.

If you're short on time or resources, go with option 2.

The Flows You Need to Update

Don't overthink this. Focus on the flows that actually drive revenue.

Welcome Series (2-3 emails) New subscribers during BFCM are hot leads. Hit them with your offer right away.

Site Abandonment (1 email) They visited. They left. Remind them what they're missing.

Browse Abandonment (1-2 emails) They looked at products but didn't add to cart. Show them the deal.

Abandoned Cart + Checkout (2-3 emails) The biggest one. Make it aggressive, urgent, and offer-focused.

Buyer Upsell (1 email) Someone just bought? Great. Show them what else they can grab while the sale's live.

Extra Strategy Tips for BFCM Flows

1) Speed up your timings

Don't wait 4 hours to send that site abandonment email. Send it in 45 minutes.

People are moving fast during BFCM. They could be buying from another brand 15 minutes after browsing your products. Your flows need to match that speed.

2) Use plain text emails

Seriously. A short, punchy plain text email can EASILY outperform a designed one during BFCM.

It feels personal, it doesn't look like fancy marketing, and it gets read.

3) Lead with the offer

This isn't the time for storytelling. Lead with the deal, make it obvious, and make it easy to act on.

4) Hammer urgency and scarcity

"Sale ends tonight." "Only a few left." "Last chance."

Use them. They work.

5) Remove your evergreen discounts

You’re likely offering massive discounts during BFCM.

Remember to turn off your evergreen abandonment discounts, winback discounts, etc. if you don’t want people to use them on top of your BFCM offers.

My Favorite Email of the Day

The email: Click here to view »

Subject line: We've Got Bad News....

The brand: Big Blanket

My thoughts: This is what I mean when I say your emails need to match the energy of consumers throughout BFCM. There aren’t even 40 words in this entire email. It’s just scarcity, products to purchase, and the offer.

That's it for today!

Until next time,
Victor from Obzia

P.S. Ready to scale your email revenue? Book a call with me here.