Black Friday Cyber Monday Marketing Strategy Guide 2025

Marketing strategy tip: Stay on top of marketing milestones year-round with our 2025 marketing campaign calendar.

To make the most out of every channel this festive season, you have to meet your buyers where they are. Omnichannel marketing—integrating data from multiple channels to create a complete customer experience—enables brands to drive higher revenue, customer satisfaction, and trust. 

With more timely, relevant, and personalised messages across channels, brands can stand out during BFCM and other important retail dates and engage their audience across every channel and step of the customer journey.

Marketing strategy tip: Put your omnichannel marketing plans into action with Klaviyo’s omnichannel campaign builder.

• Grow your SMS and WhatsApp lists. Target email-only subscribers and encourage them to sign up for your SMS and WhatsApp lists to stay informed and get discounts. We recommend brands gather consent and grow their SMS and WhatsApp subscriber lists separately.
• Build a segmentation strategy. Create segments for SMS subscribers, including highly engaged SMS subscribers, high-intent shoppers, SMS VIPs, and individuals who prefer SMS. 
• Consider timing and frequency. According to our 2024 SMS marketing report with Recharge, 72% of consumers who subscribe to SMS marketing expect to receive a message at least once a week. During BFCM, you can stretch the limits slightly, but don’t go overboard. 

• Optimise your sign-up forms. Consider your form copy, display, design, images, timing, and fields. AI-powered forms display optimisation can automatically display your sign-up forms at the time when your site visitors are most likely to convert.
• Build segments. Don’t blast the same email to everyone on your list. Improve conversion rates by sending tailored messages to your most engaged subscribers, VIP subscribers, and previous holiday purchasers. 
• Use different email campaign types. Switch it up by providing limited-time discounts, exclusive offers, bundle deals, gifts, and free shipping via email marketing campaigns.
• Take advantage of flows. Automate the customer journey with customisable pre-built and AI-created flows, like welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, back-in-stock, and VIP rewards automations.

• Employ retargeting strategies. Using zero- and first-party data, suggest relevant products to past shoppers and use social media ads to retarget folks who have visited your website but haven’t purchased. 
• Tap into lookalike audiences. Find more customers and drive conversions across Instagram, TikTok, Google, Facebook, and Pinterest by building lookalike audiences that match your existing segments, like VIPs. 

• Drive urgency and curiosity. Use time-sensitive language and messaging to encourage app users to make a purchase. For example, send an in-app message that says, “Sale ends in 2 hours: Get an extra 15% off.”
• Offer app exclusives. Encourage engagement with offers—like an extra 10% off or extra gift with purchase—that are only available to app users. 
• Optimise the mobile shopping experience. Remove friction—make it easy for shoppers to purchase directly in-app.  

• Connect the dots. Klaviyo’s future of consumer marketing report found that consumers are most likely to shop on mobile or in-store, so create a cohesive omnichannel experience between physical stores and digital touchpoints.
• Drive sign-ups. Use QR codes to provide exclusive in-store offers in exchange for SMS and email sign-ups.
• Promote special offers. Train staff on key promotions and design in-store displays highlighting special holiday bundles and gift ideas.

• Use social channels to grow your list. Add a link to your brand’s social profiles to capture more subscribers or share festive contests or giveaways that require an email or SMS sign-up to enter.
• Consider the nuances of each social platform. Schedule platform-specific content for each phase of the holiday season. 
• Make buying easy. Create shoppable social posts with links to special festive offerings.
• Design interactive content. Help shoppers find the perfect gift with quizzes and polls. 

• Identify niche influencers. Find influencers whose audience matches your ideal holiday customer.
• Repurpose influencer content. Get the most value for your money—use festive-themed influencer images and videos across channels like email, your website, and SMS.
• Create special offers. Design exclusive influencer bundles or limited-edition seasonal products to build excitement and interest.

• Up- and cross-sell. Post-purchase, check in and follow up with personalised recommendations that can improve the customer experience. For example, a few weeks after BFCM, send a special one-time deal code via an up- or cross-sell flow for an item that would complement the original purchase, like a moisturising mask to go with a skin cream, or a 1:1 consultation to make the most of a new hair tool.
• Unify customer service and marketing. Use Klaviyo Customer Hub to gain deeper access to customer data, so you can recommend personalised products and deals at the right time.
• Streamline the process with AI. Using AI agents, you can help customers quickly make festive purchase decisions and answer questions right away.

Many companies discount their products but don’t understand their cost of goods sold (COGS), making it challenging to determine the appropriate discount amount. 

To calculate your COGS, multiply the cost to manufacture an item by the number of products you sold. For example, if it costs £2 to manufacture each gadget, and you sold 3,000 of them, your COGS is £6,000. Use that information to determine your seasonal discount strategy.

And consider implementing tiered rewards for BFCM spending. For example, offer a 10% discount if a customer spends £30 and a 20% discount if they spend £50 or m

Increase average order value by testing bundles for different segments during peak traffic periods. Suggest complementary products or offer bundle discounts.

To get started, we recommend creating 3–4 bundles for BFCM and testing price points, naming, and offer cadence in early Q4.

This festive season, consider fostering brand loyalty by partnering with a local charity or nonprofit to raise awareness or funds for a cause your brand is passionate about. You might, for example, run a donation matching programme or even donate some of your products.

London Sock Co. donated two pairs of socks to a homeless charity for every purchase during BFCM, and the strategy contributed to a 180% increase in AOV during Black Friday.

Use consistent messaging and design elements throughout your marketing efforts, from promotional channels (like SMS, email, and ads) to landing pages.

Customise your website experience to speak to the retail event you’re promoting. Implement event-specific navigation, dedicated landing pages for each promotion, inventory and back-in-stock alerts, and clear shipping policies.

And don’t forget to test the flows yourself to ensure it’s easy for buyers to purchase.

Make your festive campaigns more effective and efficient by using AI and predictive analytics to:

• Identify high-intent buyers.
• Deliver messages to each customer’s preferred platform.
• Use send-time optimisation to improve open rates.
• Serve dynamic product recommendations based on browsing behaviour.
• Test AI-generated subject lines.

The buying experience goes beyond the products you sell. Driving customer loyalty and retention hinges on effective customer service. 

Create specialised flows for common issues, like shipping delays and returns. You should also schedule additional support coverage for peak shopping periods.

Elevate pre- and post-purchase customer experiences by using Klaviyo Customer Hub to combine marketing and service interactions in one place. You can also use AI to provide timely answers to shopper questions.

The holidays are a great time to re-engage past customers. Build win-back campaigns to capture customers who haven’t shopped with you in 30, 60, or 90 days. And pique people’s interest with specialty drops or exclusive deals.

“This is a great time to ask unengaged subscribers if they are still interested in remaining on your list, and tease that you’re about to drop a huge sale,” says Monica Grohne, Klaviyo consultant and founder of Marea Wellness.

During BFCM, traffic is high and intent is strong. 

Capitalise on increased traffic and interest by testing different elements and offers, like bundles, price-sensitive flows, product detail page layouts, or subject lines. Start small—even changing the colour of a button can give you new insights.

Then, apply your learnings throughout the rest of the festive season and beyond.

BFCM isn’t about getting a customer to purchase just once. Implement strategies like SMS reactivation, email flows, and loyalty programmes to create long-term value. 

“Brands that focus on keeping customers around after the holiday season see higher customer lifetime value and expand their customer base beyond this season surge,” says Annette Snow, manager of partnerships at Stamped.io.

Snow recommends:

• Giving new customers bonus points for signing up for your loyalty programme
• Launching a referral program before the festive season
• Including points updates in emails

Then, take the insights from these efforts and refine your Q1 marketing strategies.

Premium British accessories brand London Sock Co. focused their BFCM efforts on segmentation, automation, and nurturing high-value customers.

Months before peak season, they built out targeted email flows centred on key intent signals—like abandoned basket and checkout flows—while giving their VIPs early access to exclusive offers. The result was a highly efficient and personalised experience that scaled without stretching their small marketing team.

The results:

• 63% YoY increase in revenue per email recipient
• 67% of BFCM email revenue driven by automations

Activewear brand Gym+Coffee ramped up their SMS strategy ahead of BFCM with a smart focus on early acquisition and list growth.

By launching their SMS sign-up pop-up in September and offering an exclusive incentive for early subscribers, the team tripled their SMS audience by the time Black Friday rolled around. They used this channel in tandem with email to send timely reminders and high-converting early access messages to their most engaged fans.

The results:

• 3x SMS subscriber growth in the run-up to BFCM
• 20% of BFCM revenue attributed to SMS
• SMS click rate 2x higher than email for last-minute campaigns

Represent, a fast-growing UK streetwear brand, leaned into exclusivity and list-first marketing for BFCM.

Instead of relying on discounts, Represent focused on building hype through early access drops, personalised email journeys, and tightly timed campaign windows. They used segmentation to deliver the right messages to the right customers at the right time, driving serious demand without diluting brand value.

The results:

• £800,000+ in revenue from BFCM campaigns
• Over 50% of BFCM sales attributed directly to Klaviyo
• Record-breaking engagement from product drop emails

In an era of economic uncertainty, customer loyalty is key. Brands must take a unified omnichannel approach and deliver a consistent message across channels to earn shoppers’ trust and business.

Today, leading marketers at companies like London Sock Co. and Represent use Klaviyo B2C CRM to create long-lasting relationships during the festive season and beyond. With built-in support for marketing, service, and analytics, teams can design a more engaging and cohesive buyer journey.