Key objectives
As Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) approaches, it’s important to plan a content strategy that will drive results. After completing this resource, you’ll be able to:
- Explain why you should create an omnichannel BFCM strategy.
- Identify how to use each owned marketing channel effectively (email; text, including SMS and RCS; WhatsApp; and push).
- Implement best practices to unify your marketing messages.
Why build an omnichannel strategy?
You may have already heard that it takes a prospective customer six separate touchpoints for them to commit to purchasing a product from your brand. That already means your brand needs to be in the right place at the right time six different times, and during BFCM when every brand is screaming for consumers’ attention, it’s even more crucial that you don’t miss the mark when it comes to cohesive messaging across channels.
Omnichannel marketing unifies your customer-facing content across multiple channels. This involves integrating key brand assets: your website, brick-and-mortar store, owned marketing channels, and any additional tools you use (mobile apps, social media, etc.).
During BFCM, your goal is to maximize revenue. Omnichannel marketing helps you do just that, as well as:
- Improve efficiency
- Reach subscribers on their preferred channels
- Unify your messaging strategy, so no content feels disjointed
All of your branded content should look, feel, and sound like they are coming from the same company… because they are. Make that your priority this BFCM and stand out from the crowd with well-thought-out marketing messages.
Provide unique value through each channel
As you begin planning your BFCM campaign strategy, it’s important to ask yourself: when should I send content across each channel? Let’s run through why, how, when, and who to target across Klaviyo’s main marketing channels.
Why use email: Send ongoing reminders to subscribers to shop during BFCM.
How to use: Email is less intrusive than text and push, and often less costly than paid ads. Send the majority of messages via this channel.
When to send: Send about 2-3 emails per day during the week of BFCM, and schedule a series of campaigns teasing deals in the weeks prior. We recommend ‘soft launching’ your BFCM content in October.
Who to target: Send to email subscribers who have opted in for marketing messages. Target specific segments with content relevant to them (e.g., a local segment for in-store only deals). To maintain good deliverability, send to engaged subscribers. However, if you would like to target a larger audience than your highly engaged subscribers, you can ramp up and expand your audience by broadening your engaged segment definition (avoid volume spikes by not sending more than double the previous day's volume). During this ramp up in volume monitor your deliverability closely and slow down the ramp if you encounter any issues.
Text messages (SMS and RCS) and WhatsApp
Why use text: Incentivize subscribers to shop exclusive or time-sensitive sales.
How to use: Text (SMS, RCS, and WhatsApp) is a direct line to subscribers. Send exclusive deals and time-sensitive alerts. For non-time-sensitive content, use email.
When to send: When to send: In general, we recommend sending text messages (SMS, RCS, and WhatsApp) consistently 1 or 2 times a week. During BFCM, this may increase if you see high engagement. If you are using MMS, avoid sending them during peak BFCM hours as this may slow delivery. Each business is different, so build a schedule that works for you.
Who to target: Send to text subscribers. In general, they are loyal to your brand, so treat them like VIPs. As with email, segment your text subscribers so content resonates with them; common segments include location-based, budget shoppers, and prefers text (for those who also opt into email).
Push
Why use push: Drive mobile app usage with timely, relevant, and helpful alerts.
How to use: Like text, push notifications alert folks immediately with time-sensitive content, often related to your mobile app. Unlike text, they are often less sales-focused.
When to send: Use push notifications sparingly; do not send more than 1 push a day to subscribers. Sending guidance is similar to text, but when increasing your cadence, focus on shopping behavior over clicks. Otherwise, automate action-triggered push in flows. Prioritize push when you want to drive app usage or provide helpful alerts (e.g., update profile info or fill out a BFCM wishlist).
Who to target: Send to mobile app users who opt into push. Key segments may include VIP push users and folks who recently downloaded your app. As with email and text, segment by interest, location, etc. to personalize and target your messages.
Follow omnichannel best practices
Now that you know why omnichannel marketing is crucial, and when it’s best to send through Klaviyo’s owned channels, let’s dive into best practices. Here are 6 tried-and-true strategies that unify your marketing across channels.
Create an enticing multi-step form
Leading up to BFCM, particularly in September and early October, focus on growing your email, text (SMS and RCS), and WhatsApp lists to ensure you have a substantial audience to send promotions to. Push consent is collected directly within your mobile app.
The most efficient way to gain new, multi-channel subscribers is within a multi-step form. That way, you can collect compliant consent at each step. Those who only want to subscribe to one channel can do so and close the form. You’ll be able to reach them there and encourage them to subscribe to other channels in the future.
SWAK wants to start collecting phone numbers in the run-up to BFCM. They use Klaviyo’s form library to find a template for a multi-step form to show to new visitors. They ask for name and email in the first step (so they can personalize communications across all owned channels) and text consent in the second step, with an attractive offer for those who choose to share their phone number.
Best practices:
- Collect name and email in the first step, as more people are more willing to fill that out.
- Add a form teaser, so if someone isn’t ready to submit but would like to think about it as they browse your site, they can minimize the form and fill it out later.
- Set the frequency of your form to show again after just 5 days, so that returning visitors who didn’t convert the first time around have another chance to submit.
Leverage owned channels together in one sending strategy
Did you know that you can use email, text, and push to either promote each other, or promote deals that were teased in past messages? That way, you can continue to increase your subscriber lists and remind folks of key BFCM deals.
SWAK adds a banner to their email newsletter template encouraging recipients to opt into text (SMS, RCS) or WhatsApp to get exclusive deals during BFCM. They’ve already planned that text subscribers will get an extra 10% coupon, while push subscribers will get the added perk of being able to shop the sale 3 hours early on their mobile app. Messaging within their app encourages signing up to text, and vice versa.
Best practices:
- Cross-promote your owned channels
Encourage VIP email subscribers to opt into receiving exclusive text messages. Then, inform text and WhatsApp subscribers that they can get an even better mobile experience on your app with alerts sent via push. - Message audience segments based on engagement across channels
Send a text message to those who have opted in, clicked into a related email, and never purchased. Or, send a push to someone who received a text and made a purchase, but who you want to prompt to buy a complementary product on your mobile app. Get creative; the possibilities are endless! - Supply unique opportunities for each channel
Ahead of BFCM, solidify your promotion strategy like SWAK did. What deals are you running for everybody? Are your VIPs set to receive anything special? Weave channel strategy into this ideation by assigning specific promotions to each channel. For instance, VIP email, text, and WhatsApp subscribers may get early access to your Black Friday sale ahead of time, text messaging subscribers may get a special coupon code sent the morning of Black Friday, and push subscribers may be alerted about an exclusive 24-hour sale on your mobile app during Cyber Monday.
Exclude customers from receiving the same BFCM promotion across channels
Have multiple campaigns running that center around the same BFCM sale or promotion? If so, exclude recipients from one channel from receiving content elsewhere. That way, they aren’t overwhelmed or frustrated by duplicate messages.
SWAK sends their early access push notification early on Black Friday, giving their dedicated app users the first chance to shop their sale. Keeping the omnichannel experience in mind, they know they need to exclude those app users from receiving their email campaign later that day that launches the sale for the rest of their audience - instead, they’ll follow up with a reminder notification for those who didn’t swipe the first time.
Audit your omnichannel automations
As you prepare for BFCM, audit your core flows that automate the customer journey for you. In particular, take a look at how you’ve set up your welcome series, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, and post-purchase flows leading up to this high-traffic time. Make sure these automations are optimized across channels, including different message types when it makes sense to do so.
Now that they’re using text as a channel, SWAK updates their abandoned cart flow with a conditional split, adding a new path for those who are consented. Increased traffic over BFCM means a lot of abandoned carts, and they want to ensure sure they capitalize on the ability of text to drive urgency as products fly off the shelves.
Best practices:
- Use text and push sparingly. In either path, follow your text and push notifications with emails as follow-up messaging. If you are trying to keep costs down, add a text message after an email, only sending to those who did not interact with the email first.
- Follow text (SMS, RCS) and WhatsApp-specific flow rules to maintain compliance (e.g., only send 1 text per recipient in abandonment flow type (e.g., abandoned cart), and send within 48 hours of someone abandoning their cart/search.)
- Revisit the discounts you are offering in each flow message to ensure they do not conflict with your promotion plans for BFCM. Make changes where needed to support your vision, and then go back and revise them after BFCM.
Align your BFCM efforts outside of Klaviyo
While email, text, and push are Klaviyo’s core owned marketing channels, there’s a good chance you use other channels to promote your brand as well, such as:
- Website or blogs
- Direct mail
- Social media
- Mobile apps
- Brick-and-mortar storefront
SWAK Cosmetics is no different: they regularly use their Klaviyo data to inform their retargeting campaigns on Facebook, since it allows them to streamline the customer experience and only serve ads to those who need to see them, significantly increasing their return on ad spend (ROAS). This BFCM, they sent out an email about their 50% off lipstick flash sale. By creating a segment of those who opened and clicked this email but never purchased, they used the Klaviyo Facebook integration to sync this segment to Facebook as a custom audience, and retarget them with the ad below.
Best practices:
- Make your branding (tone, color, fonts, etc.) consistent across channels.
- Unite your messages around clear goals, and keep your BFCM-specific messages consistent, unless intentionally varied per customer-type (e.g., giving VIP shoppers a higher discount, or in-store shoppers a buy 1, get 1 deal). Otherwise, you may confuse those who see disjointed messaging across channels.
- If you have a brick-and-mortar storefront, collect email, text (SMS and RCS), and WhatsApp consent at checkout, or link to a subscribe page or your mobile app using QR codes on posters around the store. That way, you’ll grow your list efficiently in-store and online.
- Integrate your other marketing tools with Klaviyo to unlock deeper personalization. For instance, integrate with Facebook, Google Ads or Tiktok Audiences to target segments across social media with personalized ads.
Build and launch a BFCM omnichannel campaign in Klaviyo
Klaviyo’s omnichannel campaign builder lets you send coordinated email, text, and push messages from a single campaign. This helps you deliver a seamless brand experience while making it easier to manage segmentation, scheduling, and performance reporting, all in one place.
BONUS STRATEGY: Personalize the onsite experience for different segments
If you’re using Klaviyo CDP (Customer Data Platform), then you have access to the Group Membership API. This API allows you to personalize a customer’s onsite experience depending on their membership of a list or segment - perfect for crafting personalized omnichannel experiences.
This isn’t SWAK’s first BFCM rodeo, and they know they’ll have returning bargain hunters who shop their sale every year. The team at SWAK have created segments of customers who purchased from different categories - eyeshadows, lipstick, palettes etc - in last year’s sale, and they’ll use these to personalize their homepage for this year’s returning shoppers, crafting experiences around their known category affinities.
Best practices:
- Make sure you have sufficient developer resource allocated before you start using the Group Membership API - you’ll need them to manage implementation and ongoing changes/maintenance to your code as you begin to personalize.
- If you don’t know where to start with onsite content personalization, use your RFM analysis report to identify both champion and at risk customers, and prioritize personalizing the experience for these two segments.
In closing
Omnichannel marketing is the marketing of the future: it supports customer behaviors and interests, and helps consolidate messaging for your brand. This BFCM, align your channels around a clear goal and consolidated strategy. That way, you’ll set yourself up for success this holiday season and beyond.
Looking for even more BFCM tips? Learn from Klaviyo Champions in the following Community posts: