This is the very first update to our Art Marketing Calendar.

Going forward, all posts and emails in this series will be labeled [Art Marketing Calendar] for easy sorting.

The amount of commerce that goes down online over the next week is prolific.

For some motivation, check out the stats below…

Data via Email Monks

So let’s make the most of it.

Your task this week:

1. Create a Black Friday Deal
2. Create an email in your ESP (email service provider)
3. Email your entire list
4. Re-send that email to the subscribers that did not open.

Let’s break each of these tasks down and give some direction and context.

1. Create a Black Friday Deal

Given the current online landscape, an incentive of some type is expected during Back Friday.

All of the leading online art retailers are going to send out an aggressive offer, and many customers with available wall space are anxiously awaiting discount offers. A lot of the available demand is going to be fulfilled on Friday and through Cyber Monday.

So you have to come up with a deal.

In addition to an incentive of some type, you also need to add some scarcity. i.e.: the deal expires on a certain date.

You are set up to succeed if you have these two items in place.

1. The Deal – this part is up to you. It can be anything from free shipping, to a % off site-wide, to BOGO (buy one get one free), whatever you are most comfortable with.
2. The Scarcity – We recommend you have the deal expire on Sunday. As you will soon see, we will extend this same promo on Cyber Monday by just making a couple of text changes to the same email as well as the subject line.

Thanksgiving. Black Friday. Cyber Monday. This is the time to give 25% off.

If you are not comfortable doing that, do 20%.

If you want to try a free shipping, fine, but it wont be as powerful.

The bottom line is that this is the time when people have their wallets out, so GET aggressive. You will be competing for attention from all the major art players.

2. Create an email in your ESP

If you use MailChimp, we have created a template that you can use to get started.

If you don’t use MailChimp, you can still take a look at the template and copy it/use it for inspiration to create the email in your ESP.

You will see the template contains all of the above mentioned items.

We have also made a video that instructs you on how to add it to your MailChimp account. Check that out here if you need the extra help:

3. Email your entire list

Back in the day, the day of or day before Black Friday was good enough. Nowadays, it seems like Black Friday deals started 5 days ago. So don’t worry about timing too much, the most important thing here is that you send it.

We recommend you send it either the day before Thanksgiving or on Thanksgiving Day.

Then, re-send that email to the subscribers that did not open it.

Do not underestimate the power of re-sending the email to those that did not open. Often times it will convert just as well as the first email.

We are all busy during the holidays, so it’s great to have two different emails to remind your users.

If you have never done this before, we outline the process if you use MailChimp in this post. If you use a different ESP, then Google how to do it. Most ESP’s support the feature.

Subject lines for the second send

Here at ASF, you will often see us use the “ICYMI” acronym. It means “In Case You Missed it.”

So if your original subject line was “Save 20% off Patrick’s Fine Art Photography” then your send to unopens can be as simple as “ICYMI: Save 20% off Patrick’s Fine Art Photography”.

Or you can also completely change up the subject line to try and attract your email list with different language.

The Reminder Email

Once you work out the timing that you are comfortable with, you should send a reminder email letting your audience know that your deal is about to expire.

So if you are going to keep your deal running ’til Sunday night, and you are going to send the first email the day before Thanksgiving or on Turkey day itself, then you can send a 24hrs left email.

You can even use the same exact email. Just change up the subject line and send it out Sunday morning reminding subscribers that your awesome deal expires in 24hrs.

For instance, in our earlier example the subject line was “Save 20% off Patricks Fine Art Photography”.

You could change it up to say “ENDS TONIGHT: 20% off Patricks Fine Art Photography”

Summing things up

Don’t get bogged down too much in what the deal is, when you send it, or the subject lines.

The most important thing to do is send the emails.

Your subscribers are looking for a deal, and it’s your job to give them one.

Extra Help – For ASF customers Only

Go to this special post in our Private, Members’ Only Forum if you want our team of experts to review your email and provide direct feedback, or if you have any further questions about how to maximize your success on Black Friday.

Look out for our next email on Cyber Monday game plans.