September BFCM checklist: 3 steps to take

Fall’s rolling in.

If you’re anything like me, you’re holding a latte close while you make your way through a long list of Black Friday/Cyber Monday to-do’s.

Some brands have held off on preparations until now and are just getting started. This is more common than you might think, so you’re not alone!

If that’s you, the BFCM July and August checklists prepared by the Klaviyo team can help. Check the recommendations then continue with the tasks listed here to catch up.

For those of you who’ve been preparing since July, you’re already ahead of the game. Here’s the next round of plays to set yourself up for success come November.

1. Reactivate cold segments of your list

If you’ve followed the recommendations shared in the July checklist, your email deliverability is healthy and email providers view your brand as a trusted sender.

Most of the time, you want to limit campaign sends to your most engaged segments, which ensures good reputation and strong deliverability. That said, September presents a brief window when you can contact cold segments—subscribers who haven’t engaged with your marketing emails in the last 3 months or so—without putting your deliverability at risk before BFCM.

Any time you email cold segments, their engagement will be much lower compared to the active segments of your list. This can impact your deliverability, so you want to build in sufficient time to repair your sender reputation. This will make sure your deliverability is in a good spot for the BFCM rush.

Here’s why the reactivation process is essential:

Some segments of your list will be unengaged 80% of the year—partly because some subscribers are just waiting for your BFCM deals. They’re waiting for your best discount.

If these segments haven’t received any emails from you for most of the year, and the first time they hear from you is on Black Friday, you likely won’t reach their inbox. You’ll get sent straight to spam, or buried in their promo tab. Yikes!

So instead, take 1 to 3 especially interesting campaign emails and send them to your cold segments in addition to your active segments.

Each time you do this, a small percentage of cold recipients will engage. This will grow your active segments by bringing unengaged recipients back into the fold.

When you reactivate subscribers with enough time to build your deliverability back up before November begins, you can reach a larger percentage of your list during BFCM. Maximize the value held within your existing list and any list growth efforts done before Black Friday.

2. Customize your 4 core flows

Customize your standard, always-on flows for BFCM week. You can make these changes specific to your BFCM offers or more evergreen so they’re relevant for the whole holiday season.

Some brands underestimate this impact because they’re focused on planning BFCM campaigns and offers. They may also miss this step because they’re busy reminding people of their upcoming sale across social and other channels like SMS.

Some might say it’s too early to start customizing flows for BFCM in September, but you can definitely start preparing your email templates. That way if there are content revisions, you have plenty of time to make them.

So what flows should you focus on? My agency, ebusiness pros, calls them the ”core four.”

These are your welcome series, abandoned checkout, new customer thank you, and repeat customer thank you flows.

Prepare these as specific email templates stored in Klaviyo, ready to implement as soon as your BFCM promo starts. Then, you can easily switch them with your standard emails without overwhelming your team in the weeks leading up to BFCM.

Here’s how to customize your flows to BFCM:

• Add a pre-footer section linking to a gift guide or quick shopping links for holiday gifts under $50, $500, etc. Help people get to what they’re trying to buy faster.
• Add a holiday shipping banner above the header.
• Remind people when the sale ends in the pre-footer or with a banner above the header.

You don’t have to overhaul your flow content. Simply remind people of relevant offers with every touch point you get through BFCM.

Customization tip: If your team doesn’t have a BFCM-specific template, consider saving a block as universal content—that way, you can add it to any existing template. This type of move can be a valuable time saver for small teams.

3. Grow your list with a partner giveaway

One thing I like to do for my clients is launch a giveaway with complementary partner brands as a way of growing their email list. September is far enough in advance of BFCM that you can gain a final boost before the holiday rush starts.

Partner with a few different brands to build an exciting package of prizes. I’ve seen packages for first prize winners be worth $5,000–$10,000—a giveaway like that can add several thousand new emails to your list in one go.

When you acquire new recipients, onboard them with a specific welcome flow that reminds them of how they met you, reintroduces them to your brand, and recommends the best products for their first order. If you use this strategy, your retention of those new subscribers can be higher than the average for most brand giveaways.

Come BFCM, you have a bigger and more engaged list.

This play has been really valuable for some of my top clients.

MTN OPS, for example, have succeeded with this as a yearly tradition called Opstober. For a whole month they offer weekly prizes, including various partner products complementary to their catalog.

Each participating brand walks away with valuable list growth just before Black Friday.

Pro-tip: Use brand giveaways like this to reactivate cold subscribers, too.

Related content:

• 2024 BFCM calendar
• Your complete guide to email deliverability
• 10 omnichannel tactics proven to drive BFCM sales