Black Friday
What is Black Friday? Origin of Black Friday
Black Friday began in the United States more than 40 years ago, but nowadays this shopping day has spread to practically every corner of the planet and moves billions around the world.
It is celebrated on the fifth Friday of November every year (just one day after Thanksgiving Day). It is a day when B2C companies make very eye-catching offers to boost their sales just before the Christmas sales campaign. In fact, many people use it to buy most of their Christmas and Three Kings gifts.
1. Origin of Black Friday
The origin of Black Friday has nothing to do with shopping; surprising, isn’t it? The expression Black Friday is considered to have originated on Friday, September 24, 1869, when two Wall Street brokers (Jim Fisk and Jay Gould) tried to corner the entire gold market in alliance with a New York politician (Boss Tweed).
They failed in their attempt as the price of gold plummeted within minutes and many investors were ruined. That is why that day became known as “The Black Friday”.
2. The evolution of Black Friday
It was not until almost a century later, in the mid-1950s, that, according to the Telegraph newspaper, the city of Philadelphia was brought to a standstill on the Friday right after Thanksgiving Day, forcing every police officer in the city to work 12-hour shifts to try to control the crowds of people who had flocked to Philadelphia. As a result, that day came to be known as “The Black Friday”.
The reason for this flood of people? Well… it was none other than an American football game between the Army and the Navy, which generated huge anticipation and packed the city with spectators.
After that, the merchants of Philadelphia began to use the term to refer to the huge number of people who went to the city’s stores the day after Thanksgiving.
Later the term Black Friday evolved and took on a more commercial meaning, as it was the day when stores’ accounts went from being in the red to being in the black, thanks to it being one of the days of the year with the highest sales.
Nowadays it has become the day that marks the beginning of shopping for the Christmas holidays. For that reason, it must be taken into account in any marketing plan, and you need to plan your email campaigns for Black Friday carefully.
3. Keys to your Black Friday email marketing
Good planning is often the difference between a successful Black Friday for your sales and an unsuccessful one. Therefore, you must take great care when sending mass mailings for this important date. To do so, keep these recommendations in mind:
- Plan your email marketing campaign in advance.
- Review the statistics of previous mass mailings.
- Set the KPIs you want to achieve with your Black Friday mass mailing campaigns.
- Check the health of your subscriber list and clean it up.
- Define the deal or offering you want to promote on Black Friday.
- Design a newsletter with calls to action and a simple layout.
- Run A/B tests and… always have a plan B (other offers).