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​Welcome to the second edition of 'Making Money with Email.' Halloween was this past Sunday here. It was my daughter's first Halloween so my wife and I took her trick-or-treating.

Funny thing about babies... they can't eat candy. So here I am... at 11pm... on a Saturday night.. writing this newsletter... hopped up on her candy and sugar when I should be sleeping. Can any other parents relate?

Anyway, onto today's content...

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This Week's Deep Dive

Estimated read time: 2.5 minutes

This week, I want to talk about Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM). As a marketer, this is the most chaotic time of the year. Many of you probably have your game plan in place but for those of you dragging your feet, I have a few pointers on how to prep your email list and campaigns for this time of the year:

1) Start segmenting your list

Now is a good time to start segmenting your list into engagement buckets. For example, bucket 1 would be your most engaged audience (think those who have opened or clicked an email in the past 30 days). Bucket 2 would be anyone who has opened or clicked in an email in 31-90 days. Bucket 3 would be anyone who has opened or clicked an email in 91-180 days.

Use these buckets when sending mail during Cyber Week. Bucket 1 is your most engaged audience and should be getting more emails from you. Bucket 3 is less engaged and should be receiving fewer emails.

2) Ramp up your sending volume

If you plan to send more emails during Cyber Week, you should start ramping up your send volume now. For example, if you usually only send 1 email per week then you should start sending 2-3 emails per week leading up to BFCM. This will prep your audience for the promos coming up and also with maintaining strong email deliverability.

3) Start teasing promos

The BFCM "season" seems to start earlier every year. Go ahead and start teasing your promos now. Hint at what sales are going to be happening. Create a separate landing page with a countdown clock. Offer early bird specials to incentivize people to start shopping early.

4) Send at off times

Another trick that I've learned over the years is to schedule your campaigns to go at off times of the day. Meaning don't schedule on top of the hour. Instead, schedule for something like 8:13am and not 8:00am. Most marketers are scheduling emails to go out at the top of the hour and by avoiding that, you'll be avoiding the traffic jams in peoples' inboxes.

5) Don't be afraid to send

For your most engaged audience bucket, don't be afraid to send 1-2 emails (or even 3) per day. They're your most responsive audience and want to hear from you. Chances are their inboxes are being flooded this time of the year with promo emails from other brands. Which means they might just miss yours the first time you send it.

That's my advice for this week. Happy holiday mailing and good luck out there!

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Links Worth a Click

Philip Rivers dropped a monster Twitter thread this week that discusses how to 5x your Black Friday email marketing profits this year. (Twitter Thread)​

Need some inspiration for your November emails? Mailerlite dropped a killer blog post that showcases 93 ideas you can send during the month. (Mailerlite)​

Marketing Brew ran a deep-dive into how MrBeast built his massive brand through the use of hooks. And how you can replicate his success with your own hooks. (Marketing Brew)​

Eli Weiss wrote a mini masterclass on the art of the cart abandon email series. A must read for anyone in Ecom. (​Eli Weiss​)​

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I hope you found this week's content valuable! If not, feel free to hit the unsubscribe button below. I promise not to take it personal.

But if you are enjoying this newsletter, please consider sharing it with one person.

Have a good week, y'all. Check ya next Sunday ✌️.

-- Jeff

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