The holiday shopping mayhem will officially kick off with Cyber Week, starting on the last Friday of November. It’s high season for email marketers, so it’s time to lace up your boots and start preparing.
Once you’ve boosted your website speed, double-checked your checkout process, and prepared your deals, you can create a winning Cyber Monday email marketing strategy to maximize sales.
Read on for inspiring examples and tips to make this your best year yet.
Cyber Week is the busiest shopping period of the year. It’s the perfect time to create incredible offers and generate boatloads of extra income.
Just check out these stats about the holiday shopping period 👇
Shoppers spent $886.7 billion during the 2021 shopping season
Online sales hit $218.9 billion, an 11.3% increase over the previous year
179.8 million Americans shopped during the five-day holiday shopping period from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday
Shoppers spent an average of $301.27 on holiday-related purchases
77 million people shopped online on Cyber Monday
The takeaway? People love shopping on Cyber Monday, and emails are an effective way to promote your business during this period.
Check out our article on Black Friday emails. It contains 13 more examples and best practices you can use to create emails so good people can't help but buy.
There’s no universal method for creating an effective Cyber Monday email campaign. But these Cyber Monday email examples highlight some of your best options. For each example, we’ve included a screenshot and an explanation of the key lesson.
Use your email design to make your offer super clear and direct people to your sales page. This Cyber Monday email example from Herschel Supply Co. does this perfectly.
The black-and-white design focuses on the Cyber Monday deal
The email highlights the three main offers and relevant discount codes
It includes a single call-to-action (CTA) button that leads to the sale
Key takeaway: When creating your Cyber Monday email, make sure your offer is instantly obvious. Include a link to the sale to make buying as easy as possible.
Interactive content draws the reader's attention. When you have their attention, you can send them to your sales page. This creative Cyber Monday email example by Loft does this well.
The email uses a cool loading bar GIF, which relates to the “Start loading up your closet” theme
The bright pink highlights stand out, making the CTA button super clickable
The offer is obvious thanks to the huge text
Key takeaway: Highlight elements in your email by turning them into an animated GIF. You’ll stand out among all the non-animated emails in the recipient’s inbox.
Countdown timers create a sense of urgency—recipients know they must act soon to take advantage of the deal. Check out how we use timers for our Cyber Week deal.
The email has two countdown timers for maximum effect
The CTA button is directly below the timer, so subscribers can take action immediately
The copy highlights the limited nature of the offer. It mentions that this is a “Last chance,” that the sale is “Practically over” and the offer is “Today only”
Key takeaway: Most Cyber Monday sales run for a limited period. Make this clear with your copy, headers and countdown timers.
MailerLite customers can easily add countdown timers to their emails with our pre-built block. Just set the day and time, and the timer will automatically start. Check out this article to learn how to use an email countdown timer in your campaign.
People’s inboxes are full of offers during the holiday shopping period. Stand out by adding personalization to your campaign, just like this Soccer.com email.
The subject line contains the subscriber’s name
The email makes the Cyber Monday deals super clear
Dynamic content allows the brand to send offers related to the buyer
Key takeaway: Personalizing emails is super easy if you have the right tools. Use the customer’s name in your copy or include content based on the products they have bought previously.
You can easily personalize emails sent with MailerLite emails using custom fields. Or you can add content that changes depending on user interests with dynamic content blocks.
Extend the reach of your campaign by connecting your newsletter with your social media channels, just like Quiz did in its Cyber Monday email.
The email asks people to add the brand on Snapchat
The promise of behind-the-scenes photoshoot content is an appealing offer
The account name is super clear, which makes it easy for people to add the brand
Key takeaway: Think about how to connect your email and social campaigns. Ask for follows, tell people to share their product experience or embed social media posts.
The best way to stand out is to go against the grain. Clothing brand Everlane did this to great effect in a recent Cyber Monday email.
The brand stands out by opening with ‘This is not a sale”
The email points out that the brand’s prices are already 50% lower than most retailers, satisfying the Cyber Monday craving for a bargain
It includes a single link to the collection so buying is easy
Key takeaways: Send an email promoting your online store to generate sales, even if you don’t want to offer a Cyber Monday discount.
Customers often forget about their order or leave your shop to browse other deals. When this happens, abandoned cart emails get them back to your store.
Perigold’s abandoned cart email ticks all the boxes of an effective message.
The email has an image of the product
It has a single link back to the shopping page
It has a simple design that isn’t too pushy
Key takeaways: Abandoned cart emails are an effective way to get customers to complete their purchases. Connect MailerLite with your e-commerce platform to set them up, then read this article to learn how to create an abandoned cart email.
Remind subscribers about your Cyber Monday offer by sending a last-chance email before it ends, just like Zenni Optical does in this email.
The email mentions that this is the last chance to shop the sale
The text highlights exactly when the sale will end
The email includes product images with links readers can use to buy
Key takeaways: With so many sales going on, people may forget about yours. A last-chance email is a good reminder.
There are so many Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales that it’s hard to make customers feel special at this time of year. Get around this by creating a sale just for VIPs.
Periodic Audio’s eye-catching VIP offer works for the following reasons:
The offer is only for existing customers
Combining a 50% discount with early access is very generous
The brand builds a connection by calling VIP customers' family and friends
Key takeaways: If you know who your most loyal customers are, create an offer just for them. If you don’t know your loyal customers, segment your email list to find out!
Many Cyber Monday sales start on Black Friday and continue until the following week. This gives customers more opportunities to buy but makes the sale less urgent.
Get around this by creating a sale that only lasts for a single day, just like RyanAir did in this email.
The email mentions the sale is for 24 hours only
It includes a countdown timer to highlight the fact
It advertises really low prices
Key takeaway: Create a 24-hour sale and make it clear that your offer only stands for a day, so recipients know they have to buy now.
Cyber Monday and Black Friday aren’t only for physical products. Software businesses and digital product sellers can also get involved.
Social media tool Later created a special Cyber Monday offer and promoted it via email.
The offer is clear—get two weeks of the service for free
The copy focuses on the tool’s value
It includes super clear CTA buttons
Key takeaways: Create a Cyber Monday offer to convert customers who stay with you beyond the holiday shopping period.
Now you’ve seen some great Cyber Monday emails, it’s time to start crafting your own messages. Just be sure to keep these best practices in mind before you start.
If people can’t read your newsletter, it will kill your conversions. Make sure you send mobile-friendly newsletters so your email looks good on all devices.
Sending emails at the optimum times can help build sales. A good campaign involves multiple emails that start the week before Cyber Monday to build anticipation and continue until the sale ends.
Many businesses combine Cyber Monday with Black Friday. In this case, your email sequence will include Black Friday promotions too.
If you're worried you won’t have time to send emails during such a busy time of year, you can use automation to streamline your Cyber Monday email marketing campaign. Use MailerLite to create and schedule your campaign to go out at the time of your choosing.
A good subject line can be the difference between people opening your sale email and ignoring it. Consider including the following elements to optimize your open rate.
The word Cyber Monday
A discount percentage
Words like free, biggest sale, save, discount, off, coupon, now and deal
Urgency (“Black Friday sale starts NOW”, “Cyber Monday ends in 4 hours” or “Last Chance to Save”)
You can also play around with emojis in your email subject lines, this is a great way to make your brand feel fun and friendly.
CYBER MONDAY FOMO? 😰
💻 CYBER MONDAY 30% OFF ⌨️
⏰ Tick. Tock. Cyber Monday Sale Ends Soon: Save Up To 65% Off
Last call: Cyber Monday is ending soon.
🏁 Get Ready, Get Set...Book! Our Cyber Monday Sale Starts Now >> Rooms Up To 65% Off
Amazon generates 35% of its revenue from product recommendations. Take a page from the e-commerce giant’s playbook by promoting recommended products in your Cyber Monday emails.
MailerLite customers who run their e-commerce with Shopify can send product emails with recommendations based on previously bought products.
Cyber Monday is an important online shopping day for retailers, and holiday email marketing is an excellent way to promote your brand. Use the examples and tips in this article to spice up your campaigns and give them the best chance of success.
For more holiday-themed shopping email examples, check out our article on the best Black Friday emails here. We also have a library of Cyber Monday and other holiday email templates you can use to create your campaigns.
Sign up for MailerLite to build your Cyber Monday campaign today. Connect to your e-commerce provider and build automated workflows. Send up to 12,000 emails for free every month.