Black Friday falls on November 27 in 2026, and Cyber Monday on November 30. In the days around them, shoppers get more sale email than in any other week, so a Black Friday message has to be clear at a glance. This guide collects Black Friday email examples in two forms: free templates from our library that you can open, edit and copy into your email tool, and real brand campaigns, described from a public roundup, that show which ideas stand out. After that come design ideas, a sample 2026 calendar and the checks to run before a big send.
For sale emails outside the holiday season, see our roundup of promotional email examples.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday templates at a glance
Every template below is free to preview and copy as HTML, and each one is under Gmail’s 102 KB clipping size. Editing in the browser needs a free account.
| Template | Category | Best for | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black Friday Early Access | Promotional | Subscriber preview before launch | 23.9 KB |
| Black Friday Lifestyle Sale | Promotional | Main sale day, fashion and home | 21.6 KB |
| Black Friday Tech Sale | Promotional | Electronics deals | 25.8 KB |
| Black Friday Gift Card Boost | Promotional | Gift card bonus offers | 19.8 KB |
| Cyber Monday Gadgets | Promotional | Online device deals | 22.2 KB |
| Cyber Monday SaaS Deal | Promotional | Software plans and subscriptions | 20.7 KB |
| Cyber Monday Plain Code | Coupon | A text-first code email | 11.1 KB |
Black Friday email templates you can copy
1. Black Friday Early Access
Black Friday Early Access uses a cream serif headline on warm black, a moody bedroom photo, three bedding picks with their old prices and a short note from the founder. It is built for the preview email that goes to subscribers before the public sale opens, which makes the list feel like an inside group. Swap the bedding for your own products and keep the founder note short and personal.
2. Black Friday Lifestyle Sale
Black Friday Lifestyle Sale leads with a huge condensed headline on black and a red Shop now button, then a product photo and three top picks with sale prices. It suits the main launch email on the day itself, when the job is to say “the sale is live” in one look.
3. Black Friday Tech Sale
Black Friday Tech Sale pairs glowing speakers on black with a heavy caps headline and a neon yellow button. Three gadget deals show old and new prices, and an extra code sits below them for readers who scroll. It fits electronics shops and any store whose products photograph well against a dark background.
4. Black Friday Gift Card Boost
Black Friday Gift Card Boost is type only, set on bright orange: buy a gift card and get a bonus. Countdown boxes, three gift ideas and the bonus code near the end complete it. With no photos, it loads quickly and loses nothing if a reader blocks images, and gift cards suit shoppers who are buying for someone else and are unsure of sizes.
Cyber Monday email examples
5. Cyber Monday Gadgets
Cyber Monday Gadgets is a neon on black layout for a gadget shop, with a mint button, a glowing laptop photo, three device deals and an extra code. Its colors differ from the Black Friday tech layout, which helps readers see it as a new email rather than a repeat.
6. Cyber Monday SaaS Deal
Cyber Monday SaaS Deal shows that the weekend is not only for physical goods. A big caps headline on navy, a cyan button and a laptop glowing at night lead into a list of plan perks, a code and a separate panel for team plans. Software companies can use it to offer an annual plan discount with one clear call to action.
7. Cyber Monday Plain Code
Cyber Monday Plain Code skips the hero image completely. The code sits first in a black box, followed by one line on the rule, two buttons and the end time in small print. At 11.1 KB it is the smallest of the seven files, and it works well as the final reminder of the weekend when readers already know the offer. More code layouts sit in the Coupon category.
Around the weekend
The same season has emails that are not sales. Thanksgiving Client Thank You is a plain letter with no images for service firms, Giving Tuesday Match covers the charity appeal on the Tuesday after Cyber Monday, and Christmas Gift Guide and Christmas Last Order Dates take over once the weekend ends. Browse the full Holiday category and the Promotional category for more.
Real brand Black Friday email examples
These campaigns come from Klaviyo’s roundup of Black Friday Cyber Monday email examples, which shows each email and its source. We describe the idea behind each one; the images and full details are on Klaviyo’s page.
- Tiered savings (Shinola). A holiday shopping event with a “spend more, save more” structure, so bigger carts earn bigger savings, plus a shoppable gift guide below the offer.
- Site-only offers (Beekman 1802). “The Kindest Black Friday Ever” promoted products available only on the brand’s own site, with up to 60% off and free shipping.
- Last chance (Nēmah). A “Final Hours to Save” headline, up to 40% off sitewide and a button that reads “Stock up before midnight”.
- A heads up before the sale (Little Beast). A plain, letter style email told subscribers the sale started the next day and warned them not to buy at full price, ahead of a 25% discount.
- A 24-hour exclusive (Art of Play). A mystery collection deck of cards available to order for one day only, “while supplies last”.
- A brand’s own event (Fussy). The deodorant brand ran Green Week around BFCM, pairing a discount with information on its sustainability work.
- Daily drops (Beyond Yoga). A week of new product releases alongside a sitewide discount. Klaviyo links this approach to a 274% increase in the brand’s campaign revenue from October to November.
- Going minimal (Baboon To The Moon). A short plain email that admits the reader’s inbox is full, then links to the sale and to a video and a quiet page unrelated to shopping. A second email offered a gift guide for items under $50 and a link to digital gift cards.
The common thread is one clear idea per email. None of these try to explain the whole sale, every product and the shipping policy in the same message.
Black Friday email design ideas
Lead with the offer in live text. Put the discount and end date in real text near the top, not only inside a banner image. Readers with images off still see it, and it keeps the email readable on a small screen.
Plan for dark mode. Black and neon looks are popular for Black Friday, and most templates above use them. Litmus’ dark mode guide explains that some apps use a full color invert, which changes dark backgrounds as well as light ones, and that clients using it, including the Gmail app on iOS and Outlook on Windows, currently ignore code written for dark mode. Test a dark design in those apps so a black hero does not turn pale with dark text.
Show the countdown in text too. Timers built as images can fail to load. Add the end time as a plain line, such as “Ends Monday at midnight ET”.
Keep the button count low. One main button, with a second only if it leads somewhere different, such as a gift guide.
Use a heavier and lighter version. A full product email for launch day and a plain code email like Cyber Monday Plain Code for reminders give readers variety without new design work.
A sample 2026 Black Friday email calendar
Klaviyo’s guide on when to send Black Friday emails suggests sending early access and gift guide campaigns in early November, and, just before BFCM, emailing your most engaged segments on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays and your VIPs on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before Black Friday. It also reports that in its 2024 BFCM data the busiest sending hour for its customers was 9 to 10 a.m. ET on Black Friday, with over 420 million messages, and orders peaked at 1.3 million between noon and 1 p.m. ET.
Here is one way to map that onto the 2026 dates. Treat it as an example, not a rule; your own results decide the final plan.
| Date (2026) | Template idea | |
|---|---|---|
| Early November | Gift guide | Christmas Gift Guide |
| Tue Nov 24 | VIP early access | Black Friday Early Access |
| Thu Nov 26 (Thanksgiving) | Thank you, or preview for engaged readers | Thanksgiving Client Thank You |
| Fri Nov 27, morning | Sale launch | Black Friday Lifestyle Sale or Tech Sale |
| Sat Nov 28 | Gift card offer | Black Friday Gift Card Boost |
| Mon Nov 30, morning | Cyber Monday launch | Cyber Monday Gadgets or SaaS Deal |
| Mon Nov 30, evening | Final reminder | Cyber Monday Plain Code |
| Tue Dec 1 | Giving Tuesday | Giving Tuesday Match |
| Early December | Shipping cutoffs | Christmas Last Order Dates |
Klaviyo also advises shortening the delays in abandoned cart and browse abandonment flows during BFCM, swapping in the holiday offer and adding urgency, so your automated emails match the campaign.
Deliverability checks before the weekend
Big seasonal sends are when inbox rules bite hardest. Under Google’s rules for people who send to Gmail, even small senders need SPF or DKIM in place, and the spam rate their recipients report must stay below 0.3%. Once a sender crosses Google’s bulk line of 5,000 Gmail recipients in a day, DMARC and one-click unsubscribe become required too. Yahoo’s sender best practices ask bulk senders to honor unsubscribe requests within 2 days.
Before the weekend:
- Confirm your authentication records still pass
- Remove addresses that bounce and readers who have not opened in months
- Warm up volume over October and November instead of jumping on the day
- Leave the unsubscribe link plainly visible at the bottom
Black Friday subject line ideas
Subject lines are your first design element. A few patterns that match the templates above:
- Early access: “You’re in early: our Black Friday sale opens today”
- Launch: “Black Friday is live: 30% off everything”
- Gift cards: “Buy a gift card, get a bonus card”
- Cyber Monday: “Cyber Monday: your code is inside”
- Final call: “Last hours: the code expires at midnight”
Replace the numbers with your real offer. For many more patterns, see our collection of email subject line examples.
FAQ
When should I send my first Black Friday email?
Many brands start in early November with gift guides and early access, as Klaviyo’s timing guide suggests. Your sale date and your list’s habits matter more than any general rule.
How many Black Friday emails should I send?
There is no fixed number. A launch email, a reminder and a final call are a common minimum for the weekend. Watch unsubscribes and complaints and ease off if they rise.
Should a Black Friday email use a dark design?
It can, since dark designs feel bold and match the theme. Test it in apps that fully invert colors, and keep the offer in live text so it stays readable.
Do these layouts work in my email platform?
Yes. Take the code with Copy HTML or the .html download, then paste or import it into your email platform’s custom code option and send yourself a test. Exporting the .html and .zip files needs a free account.
Getting ready for November 27
Strong Black Friday email examples share a simple pattern: one idea per email, the offer in plain text near the top, a design tested in dark mode, and a calendar planned weeks ahead. Start with a layout from the Promotional category, adapt it to your offer and test it well before November 27.
