Countdowns, discounts, social proof. They’ve got it all.

Last year online purchases on Black Friday reached over $9 billion for the first time — that’s 20% of all sales in the year on one day. Wild.

Who knows what it will be this year.

But what we do know is brands are at the ready.

Someone told me that e-commerce brands can make up to 50% of their annual profits around Black Friday. Scary. It’s no wonder my email inbox is full to the brim with Black Friday offers already, and we still have a few days to go.

Let’s have a look at six different email templates from across Direct-to-consumer (D2C)/e-commerce, Mobile apps and B2B for Black Friday that have graced my inbox over the past week. Including:

1. The time-is-running-out template
2. The FOMO template
3. The authentic template
4. The beautiful branded template
5. The enormous discount template
6. And, lastly, the we-don’t-do-Black-Friday template

Let’s go and meet them one-by-one.

Uxcel

Uxcel is a training resource online where you can up-skill in UX and product design. As you’d imagine from UX-pros, their UI, UX and CRM are **mwah** 🤌

Their Black Friday email is no different. Bold header. Clear CTAs that contrast well. A CTA present in every scroll.

They also use a common user psychology tactic: the countdown timer.

Countdown timers create a sense of urgency that propel users into action. It plays into Loss Aversion, as people think they will miss out after the time is up and are therefore more likely to convert.