Master The Inbox

Black Friday Emails Done Right: Insider Tips from Copywriter Nikki Trailor

• Season 2 • Episode 9

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Most people assume that Black Friday emails are simple—just announce a discount, and you’re done. But let’s be honest, crafting these emails can feel too ‘salesy’ and a bit off-putting. The experts, however, approach it differently. Today, I’ve brought in a fellow copywriter to share some tips on how to write Black Friday emails that not only drive sales but also feel authentic and engaging

In this week’s episode of Master the Inbox, I sat down with launch copywriter Nikki Trailor to dive into how to craft Black Friday emails that feel authentic and still drive serious sales.

We covered a lot of ground, but here are the top takeaways:

1.Simplify your offer to reduce overwhelm.

2.Don’t wait for Black Friday to start building trust with your audience.

3.Segmentation can help you avoid the “email overload” problem while still maximizing your reach.

Meet my guest, Nikki Trailor

Nikki Trailor is a Launch Copywriter + Strategist who helps online business owners make more money from their courses and coaching programs, in a way that feels good to them and their audience.

She's helped coaches sell out brand new offers, and even doubled one client's revenue goals - all using her signature lauch framework.

Connect with Nikki:

  • www.instagram.com/nikki_trailor
  • www.linkedinin.com/in/nikki-trailor
  • www.nikkitrailor.com

Get the freebie:  Do this after every promo or sales campaign to see better results every time.

—

Hey, this season of Master the Inbox is all about helping you get ready for a profitable Black Friday.

You’ll learn from experts what are the exact steps you should be taking to create a no-brainer offer, build a profitable funnel, keep your list healthy and even write emails that convert without damaging your reputation.

Follow for the full season here 

Ready to Plan Your Black Friday Campaign?

If you want to run a successful Black Friday campaign but need some guidance, I’ve got something special for you. There is a Black Friday resources vault right here.

Hi. And welcome.
My name is Monica Badiu. I am a marketing consultant turned conversion copywriter and copy coach. I help online course creators and info product businesses sell more through persuasive, non-spammy, no fluff copywriting.

I teach about copywriting, digital marketing, and conversion strategies tested in my businesses and with my clients.


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[00:00:00] Monica: Most people assume that Black Friday emails are simple, like just announce a discount and you're done. But let's be honest, crafting these emails can feel a bit too salesy and off putting for the majority of business owners. The experts, however, approach it a little bit differently. So today, I've brought in a fellow copywriter to share some of her tips on how you too could write Black Friday emails.

[00:00:25] Monica: That not only drives sales, but also feel authentic.

[00:00:36] Monica: Hey, you're listening to Master the Inbox, the podcast where course creators, coaches, and consultants learn how to sell with email in a non spammy way. I'm your host, Monica Badiou, a customer centric copywriter, course creator, and fellow entrepreneur. And today. We're going to learn from Nikki Traylor, launch copywriter strategist who helps online business owners make more money from their courses and [00:01:00] coaching programs in a way that feels good to them and their audience.

[00:01:03] Monica: She's helped coaches sell out brand new offers and even doubled one client's revenue goals all using her signature Welcome Nikki to the show.

[00:01:14] Nikki: Hey, thanks. Honestly, I feel like that intro just makes me sound so much more exciting. Thank you. I'm really excited to be there having this conversation with you.

[00:01:23] Monica: A lot of copywriters are doing like really cool things behind the scenes for their clients. And I think we need to like show them more, show them more. Cause um, it's also a really good opportunity for business owners to learn. And see exactly, I mean, what does a conversion copywriter do? What does a strategist do?

[00:01:42] Monica: So.

[00:01:43] Nikki: Agree. Cause there's so much more to it than just writing the copy and they see the end product, but not the process that goes into it. And yeah, I fully agree. Exactly.

[00:01:51] Monica: So before we jump right into the whole Black Friday madness or awesomeness, depending on how you want to look at it, how did you get [00:02:00] into Copywriting and specifically funnels and doing launches.

[00:02:07] Nikki: Yeah, good question. It was a little bit of a winding journey in, um, but for most of my career, I was working in the travel industry and I kind of had what most people thought would be like a dream job and it was great. Like I did get to travel, but I always felt like I was missing something else. And I had this urge of sitting at my desk that I wanted to work for myself, but I had these fears around, I don't know what I would do for a business.

[00:02:30] Nikki: I. Didn't know that I could just monetize skills that I had. So I would sit there for ages thinking like I'd have to build a product or make a tech brand or something, and I just put it off for ages. So when the pandemic rolled around and the travel industry was kind of on its knees, I had some time where I had just had no work to do.

[00:02:49] Nikki: And I started looking around online and trying to figure out what I was going to do. And I discovered that. I was doing a lot of copywriting for my business and that I could monetize that skill. And I started going through that [00:03:00] process. I discovered the online course space. I discovered all these people who were teaching really great things.

[00:03:05] Nikki: And I use so many courses to help me upskill, to help me learn how to run a business. And I realized that. There are a lot of course creators who are amazing at teaching, they have this incredible gift, but they hate selling or they don't know how to sell and they also don't know how to communicate well in words, um, so that they can sell their products.

[00:03:23] Nikki: So I realized that I was able to fill that gap for them and that's kind of how I got into it.

[00:03:29] Monica: That's awesome. I love how the more I talk to other copywriters, The more common it is, like, I wasn't born to be a copywriter, I kind of happened to become one, and I was good at it, and I love that. I think there could be, like, some kind of a connection to, you know, how different personalities have different, you know, Strengths and teachers.

[00:03:56] Monica: They're amazing at what they do. They're amazing at explaining [00:04:00] things, but they're not that good when it comes to selling or talking about themselves. So you get like a copywriter who kind of naturally comes in to fill in those gaps. And some people do it in a way that it's so authentic even if, like, they're not writing for themselves, right?

[00:04:19] Monica: They're writing for somebody else. And I think it's an amazing profession we have. I think it's so powerful what you do. I'm giddy right now. It might be, like, the coffee I've just had, but Yeah. Okay, coming back to this. So in this season of Master the Inbox, we're going really in depth into Black Friday strategies.

[00:04:43] Monica: So I've been strategizing and writing the sales pages, the funnels, the emails for these Black Friday promotions for a few years now. And I've also coached people to write their own. And there's something very interesting about this. It's like [00:05:00] the only time of the year when you're kind of allowed to have Sales in messaging and even then most people are like this doesn't feel good Even myself like as a copywriter.

[00:05:13] Monica: I have a hard time just saying hey, we have a discount and just Throwing it out there and in my experience Black Friday has become so much more complicated. I'm kind of missing the days of, I don't know, 5, 7 years ago when it was enough to just say, Hey, we have a Black Friday sale. Get it now. Do it for like 2 days.

[00:05:37] Monica: And that was it. And the more I'm looking into this, the more I'm seeing trends and patterns shifting. Last year, I saw a big brand starting their Black Friday campaigns almost one month and a half before the actual event. And it's both terrifying from the point of view of like, [00:06:00] overconsumption. But at the same time, it's a sign that we need to take into account because, again, Black Friday isn't just one day anymore.

[00:06:09] Monica: It's not as easy as it used to be. And you can't just go with, hey, let's have a purely sales message. Because that's what the majority of people are doing, including your competition. So you need messaging that helps you stand out in the crowd, but it's also salesy or actionable enough for people to take action.

[00:06:32] Monica: It's, I don't know, for me, Black Friday is becoming like a nightmare, and at the same time it's really fun. So interesting to see what's happening. So I'm curious to hear about your experience, you being a strategist. I assume you've seen some of these trends before, but your industry or your niche in the industry is a bit different from mine.

[00:06:54] Monica: So I'm curious to hear about what you discovered.

[00:06:58] Nikki: Yeah. I mean, as you [00:07:00] said, I'm seeing a lot of the same things as you. I am. Definitely seeing that big brands, small brands, course creators are feeling this pressure to really drag the holiday out, like to give people warning. And it's almost turned into a two month holiday versus a one day holiday.

[00:07:15] Nikki: And it's overwhelming. And I think, you know, a lot of people who are course creators are obviously small businesses and seeing that you feel like you have to jump on that bandwagon. I think because it's such a noisy period of promotion, actually. The things that are working are kind of things that you're doing to help you stand out versus just Shouting a sales message, you know, so like as you said like having really great messaging is going to really help you But it's not that straightforward.

[00:07:39] Nikki: But yeah, i'm seeing exactly the same things as you I think because I do work with course creators and like people in a similar price bracket to you I also work with people who have like higher ticket programs and because of the type of the type of offer that is. A lot of people don't really want to heavily discount it, so a lot of people aren't necessarily using those for their Black Friday promotions.[00:08:00]

[00:08:00] Nikki: So I am seeing even people with those kind of offers finding smaller things they can sell and heavily discount, and they're still feeling those same pressures. But actually, I have got a client that I worked with where we just bucked the trend. We didn't drag it out for two months. And it worked really, really well.

[00:08:15] Nikki: So that's what I want to kind of dive into today a little bit, because I want to show people who don't have all the capacity to do this massive, dragged out promotion, that maybe they don't need to do that, if they think about it differently.

[00:08:27] Monica: That sounds amazing, and I would love to do that. Just like a, a note, you don't have to have a Black Friday campaign.

[00:08:37] Monica: You don't have to. I mean, it's profitable, It actually, no, it can be profitable, but that's the thing, and this is the reason we're doing this podcast season all about Black Friday. It's not as easy as it used to be, and you need to have a lot more time thinking about your strategy. Even if you're going [00:09:00] with like a low offer, that's fine.

[00:09:02] Monica: But you need to have a sales funnel behind that offer that actually helps you increase the average order value. or work with those buyers in a way that can increase your revenue down the line. So it's not necessarily about discounting a major course. It's about finding something that's going to help people who are usually reluctant to buy to overcome the resistance.

[00:09:27] Monica: So back to you now. Tell me, tell me more. Tell me about, uh, your client. Tell me what was the price point, whatever you can share.

[00:09:36] Nikki: Yeah, sure. I have got all the details ready for you. So the case study that I would love to dive into, I had a client who, around the time of Black Friday, was due to go on maternity leave.

[00:09:46] Nikki: So she was literally due to be in hospital giving birth on Black Friday. So we really had to make sure this promotion was hands off, simple, like, Not intrusive and [00:10:00] something that wouldn't come with a ton of customer service requests because although she would have team on standby, she really didn't want them to be bothered because she was offline.

[00:10:09] Nikki: They were already going to be dealing with a lot more than normal. So yeah, a lot of the background of this promotion is basically that. And I'm thrilled to say that it worked really well. We had one of their best promotions ever just by stripping it back and keeping it simple. So we did not do a two month rollout.

[00:10:25] Nikki: We did not stop warning people a month and a half in advance. And we had a really simple offer. So what we did for the offer, Originally we had planned to bundle together some individual courses. So my client, their business model is they have a group coaching program, which is high ticket and they have a membership and then they have a load of standalone individual courses at price points between 97 and 300.

[00:10:50] Nikki: So relatively low ticket, more affordable, and generally one of the first steps that people take with them because they are at that more affordable and price point. We [00:11:00] thought about bundling them together and having them as a package for Black Friday, but then we knew we were going to get customer service requests from people who had one of the courses.

[00:11:08] Nikki: And we're like, Oh, well, what happens if I already have this? Can I swap it in for another one? So we really had to go back to the drawing board and think. What is going to cause the least amount of problems. And that was simply just putting a big discount on every single individual course, putting them all on a landing page.

[00:11:26] Nikki: So people could choose the courses that they wanted and taking a big discount off them and giving people the choice. And then having strategic upsells on each checkout page for each of those courses. So we decided. because she didn't want to have a big long promotion period to just strip it back to that 24 hours like Black Friday should be and how it used to be.

[00:11:49] Nikki: And it was a risk, but it paid off. So we bought in 36, 000 from those low ticket courses in that space of 24 hours without having any kind of [00:12:00] warning for their audience, really. We did send a couple of emails in advance like, hey, we are going to be doing something for Black Friday. But that's all we did.

[00:12:06] Nikki: We didn't tell them necessarily what it was going to be. We'd said it's only going to be available for those 24 hours and that's it. So people who were interested in that audience, their attention was spikes. We asked them to put a note in their calendar and then they had a reminder to say that it was coming.

[00:12:21] Nikki: And so people were aware of it, but there was a bit of curiosity there as well. Cause they didn't know what was coming.

[00:12:26] Monica: I like that a lot. So what happened in between the kind of announcement? Like, hey, we're doing Black Friday and I love that tactic, like put it in your calendar. And the actual Black Friday day when the announcement went out, were there any, I know, nurturing emails?

[00:12:46] Monica: Did you send anything for like Thanksgiving? How was the audience engaged in between these emails?

[00:12:53] Nikki: So they had, I think, five emails that went out before the campaign. So one of them was, [00:13:00] well, I think it was two weeks before the actual campaign went live. So like, hey, mark this in your calendars. Um, and we just kept it very conversational and very short.

[00:13:07] Nikki: It was literally just to make sure people were clicking that link and getting it in their calendars. And also that meant that we could see how many people were interested as well, because we had a note of how many people were, We had people tagged when they clicked that link, so we could track the actions that people were taking.

[00:13:21] Nikki: So we also knew to retarget people who hadn't seen the email or hadn't tagged the link, with another reminder that it was coming, just in case. Because we wanted to get as many eyes on this promo as possible, because it was going to be for such a short window of time. And then, We sent a couple of nurturing emails, just, you know, some storytelling, talking about things related to the courses that were going on sale, but not selling, not really doing any pressuring and just reminding people that the offer was coming.

[00:13:47] Nikki: So it was very simple. I think there were five emails that went out beforehand. And then on the day there were about another Five emails, maybe seven. I think we sent seven sales emails. It was a lot of emails [00:14:00] for one day to make sure we got as many sales in.

[00:14:05] Monica: Oh my God. Five to seven emails. I mean, some people are freaking out right now, I'm sure.

[00:14:12] Monica: But it kind of makes sense. I mean. Everything that's happening on that Friday is insane. So, uh, I'm a copywriter, I keep swipe files. I have two different inboxes because of all the amount of emails I'm getting. And on Black Friday is insane. So you actually have to increase the frequency. Okay, five, seven emails.

[00:14:37] Monica: I'm curious, you don't have to answer if you don't want to or if you can't. What were the open rates on those emails?

[00:14:45] Nikki: They were pretty good, especially at the start. People really wanted to see what the alpha was. And, I think with Black Friday, You have to be aware of people's customer behavior. It's like, people know that there were going to be a lot of deals coming out on that day.

[00:14:58] Nikki: So they're not [00:15:00] always buying in the first email. Some of them are, some of them see those great big discounts and they're like, I'm ready to go. I've been waiting for this company to host an offer and I'm there, but some people are like, I'm waiting to see what else is out there first. So you have to remind them that you exist.

[00:15:15] Nikki: You have to remind them that you have an offer because otherwise they're seeing your email in the morning. And then they've seen 20 other emails in the next 20 minutes from other companies offering something else and they're distracted. So it's all about regaining that attention from them throughout the day.

[00:15:32] Nikki: So that's what we really tried to do. We were so aware that we had such a limited time that we wanted to maximize the people. who were ready to go immediately by sending a couple of emails right at the start of the day. And then we also wanted to make sure we were reminding people, um, because we had so many different offers available, there were, I can't remember how many courses it was, unfortunately, but around eight individual courses that we wanted to showcase a little bit of each of those courses.

[00:15:58] Nikki: So they kind of had a sense [00:16:00] of which one was for them if they weren't clicking through to the landing page. So there was a lot of work to be done.

[00:16:06] Monica: Oh yeah, I can't imagine. I mean, personally I like to do that before Black Friday just because it allows me to actually create the kind of demand and to help pre qualify the audience.

[00:16:21] Monica: Before Black Friday hit with all the discounts, so that on Black Friday, even though they are waiting to see what other people are doing, they have already kind of decided whether or not the offer I'm putting in front of them is something they want. Because I have this, like, luxury of time, taking stories and all of that.

[00:16:43] Monica: So, what was the curiosity factor? Because you said that. Before the Black Friday day, you had a few emails where you were kind of showing them the courses that are going to be available in like a value based way. So the curiosity factor [00:17:00] was the amount they were going on sale for during Black Friday.

[00:17:04] Nikki: Yeah, so we tried to pique their curiosity on the topics of some of these courses. We didn't have, unfortunately, because of the time window, so I'm going to be real, my client booked me quite late for this promotion. I would have liked to have done what you said and give people enough warning and pique their curiosity specifically for each course so that they had made that decision already.

[00:17:23] Nikki: We unfortunately didn't have the luxury of time, so we did the best we could with the time we had. And I mean, it obviously worked pretty well. If I was to do the promotion again, I would. Obviously we convinced my clients to book in a little earlier, so we had that time to do that. But yeah, what we tried to do was just showcase people, just the main benefits of kind of each program.

[00:17:44] Nikki: So they run a productivity coaching company. All of that courses are kind of linked to that in some way. So there's nothing, there's no real outliers. Everyone kind of knows like, okay, these are the people I go to, to learn productivity. So anyone in that audience [00:18:00] is already interested in this topic. And.

[00:18:03] Nikki: We didn't have to do a lot of work, um, I think most of the people that bought were already the warm audience, already people who had their eye on them but hadn't necessarily purchased or had been a part of their membership and were ready to just hone in on a different topic, like a really specific topic within what they teach as a whole.

[00:18:20] Monica: How about the positioning, the messaging in those emails? So I'm just going to share what I like to do just because of the insane competition during Black Friday. So when everybody screams, hey Black Friday is on, I kind of find something so disruptive that feels like it's not necessarily towards Black Friday.

[00:18:42] Monica: It's like, so you hate Black Friday too? And then I use the preview text to hook them even more. And out of those Three Black Friday emails that would go out on that day. Maybe only one of them actually says, Hey, Black Friday goes away now. But the other two, [00:19:00] I'm aiming for as much disruptive content as possible because when you go into the inbox and everything says, 75 percent off, get it now.

[00:19:10] Monica: Now, Black Friday, whatever. That email actually stands up. So what are you doing? Is it in going like towards the disruptive? How are you dealing with that? Yeah, I,

[00:19:26] Nikki: I love that and I love your approach to it because I'm the same. If I'm looking in my inbox and I see a ton of Black Friday emails, I'm probably not going to click on any of them unless it's a company I've specifically been like, Oh, I know I need something from them at some point, so I'll probably see what else is there.

[00:19:40] Nikki: I ignore it so hard. And so I do think there is with Black Friday, when you're coming up to a deadline, I do think there is some merit in telling people that an offer is just the pairing. just so that they're aware. I do honestly think you need some of that, but I also like to play around with the subject lines and try and do something different.

[00:19:58] Nikki: I think the hardest thing with Black Friday with [00:20:00] subject lines is that everyone is trying to stand out. So you have suddenly companies that never do this having emojis everywhere, capital letters everywhere, and I think we know on most other days of the year, like the subject lines that perform really well and ones that look like it's coming from a friend or, you know, where you've got maybe some lowercase letters or it just looks really conversational, it's really hard to make that work on Black Friday because like people are scrolling.

[00:20:25] Nikki: Yes. It's going to look slightly different, but it's also not doing anything to really like grab attention or stand out. So I think it's really hard to find that balance. So yeah, I like to try and think and look at my inbox of what is happening and try and do the opposite of that.

[00:20:40] Monica: And I think it also goes back to this whole idea of don't wait for Black Friday to email your audience because I think the decision is made a lot earlier.

[00:20:52] Monica: So what I do and what I teach people who wants to listen, um, it's, Focus a lot [00:21:00] on engagement and showing proof that what you're teaching is actually working. And it's not about the brand. It's not like, Hey, look at me. I'm amazing. No. It's like communicating case studies, testimonials, and showcasing the people who were able to achieve some kind of element with your help.

[00:21:20] Monica: And that's what I kind of tried to do throughout the whole month of November, but it actually starts a lot earlier. It kind of starts in October with a re engagement campaign to get rid of the people who are not interested anymore. In September, I like to do a challenge or some kind of free trial limited, so they actually get the taste of what's inside.

[00:21:43] Monica: And that's an awesome strategy. And then, November, when Black Friday hits, if a small percentage of the whole audience, obviously, has been interacting with those emails. They're actually waiting just for like give me the checkout link and I'm just gonna buy [00:22:00] and in my personal experience I've been doing that with copy hackers.

[00:22:05] Monica: I think three years ago. I was waiting for their Black Friday discount I got the first email I instantly bought The second year, same thing. And it was happening, I think it was one week before Black Friday, and it was not a salesy message at all. It was just like, Hey, yes, we're doing something for Black Friday.

[00:22:26] Monica: And I was like, fine, I mean. Here, take my money, please. So a lot of this is happening before. What other things should our audience right now, people listening, know about the whole Black Friday campaign and things like consumer behavior and preparing your campaign ahead of time? What are some things you think people should know more of?

[00:22:52] Monica: When it comes to the whole month of Black Friday.

[00:22:58] Nikki: Yeah, firstly, what you said about [00:23:00] re engaging your email list, I just think that's one of the most important points. So I really would just love to reiterate that, because it's really hard to come back from not emailing your list to go into a really heavy sales period.

[00:23:10] Nikki: Like, to make that successful, it's going to be so difficult. But also, one thing that I've noticed so much about Black Friday, and I hate this, is people reopening the cart for like another week after Black Friday. They'll be like, oh yeah, Cyber Monday, here's the offer back. And it's available for another week after I've told you it's closing on Black Friday.

[00:23:30] Nikki: And a lot of people are just, because it's been done by big companies, so many people replicate it. Everyone is doing it. And everyone is now seeing this holiday, like dragged out for so much longer. So And it's really frustrating as a consumer because you just don't believe, you don't have any trust in these companies that they're going to do what they say they're going to do because they're like reopening the offer to everyone.

[00:23:52] Nikki: And. If you didn't buy for first time, you might still buy the second time, you might have just missed the offer, but it's pretty [00:24:00] unlikely, so I'm not a big fan of this tactic.

[00:24:04] Monica: I have done it. Sorry, this is actually a very good point, because people are expecting So they're not going to buy in the first part of your Black Friday campaign.

[00:24:16] Monica: They're just going to wait for Cyber Monday. Yeah. Yeah. You were saying, sorry, I interrupted. No,

[00:24:22] Nikki: no, sorry. That was, that was my bad completely. Um, yeah. What I wanted to say was that I did do that in this campaign I was speaking about with my clients, but actually what we did was because we were tracking the links of people who were like, people who were opening emails, people who put the sale in their calendar, reopened the cart for Cyber Monday only.

[00:24:41] Nikki: But we only sent the email to people who had put it in that calendar. So people we knew who were like waiting for an offer from them, rather than sending it to the whole list and annoying people who just weren't necessarily ever going to buy anyway. So I think this is something that people can do a lot more successfully is using segmentation in really smart [00:25:00] ways during Black Friday so that they're not actually annoying everyone on that email list.

[00:25:04] Nikki: Because a lot of people see a ton of sales emails and their natural reaction is to unsubscribe. And in a heavy period like Black Friday, you're probably going to lose quite a few subscribers. So, what can you do to mitigate that? And I think segmentation is one of those really great things that you can use.

[00:25:20] Nikki: You know, make sure you've got people who are interested. If people really don't want to hear from you at Black Friday, give them a chance to opt out of your Black Friday emails, but get your regular newsletter back afterwards. So you're not losing people unnecessarily.

[00:25:32] Monica: Well, I do that as well. Towards the end of the email, it's kind of scary.

[00:25:37] Monica: It freaks out every client I write for. They're like, but what if thousands of people are going to unsubscribe? They're, no, it's fine. They're just going to skip this promotion, but I don't want them to skip the promotion. And I'm like, if they don't connect with the email, why would you want them to ignore your email?

[00:25:57] Monica: I mean, the goal is to get the people to [00:26:00] open and engage and click your emails rather than just ignore them. So yeah, I do that as well. For Cyber Monday, what I like to do, and I've been using this strategy before being a copywriter, working with course creators. So for five years, I was a unicorn, basically.

[00:26:18] Monica: My official title was PR and marketing manager at the fashion luxury designer and we were doing Black Friday and Cyber Monday. So Black Friday was a very limited stock of dresses for prices that were discounted up to 75 percent to get people in. After that we had Cyber Monday and we would reopen the cart but we'd give them something else.

[00:26:45] Monica: And it's not a deal as good as Black Friday, but it's still appealing. And it's something that I'm doing with course creators as well. It could be a smaller percentage in savings, so 20 [00:27:00] percent rather than 75%. It's two days rather than one week. That works. So good. Sometimes it's another offer with a payment plan, that's a bit more tricky and I don't recommend it because of the monthly payments.

[00:27:18] Monica: It's, yeah, it's awful. And other times it's just like something else. Something completely different from Black Friday with 30 percent So the discount is never as high as the Black Friday one Just because I like to keep that exclusivity And when I say I like, it's just like you I am offering consultancy to course creators To help them figure out their offers Because most people are like They bought now, why wouldn't they continue to buy and it's like well Why don't you just do Black Friday in December as well and in January and in February?

[00:27:56] Monica: There's a reason Black Friday works and is the best [00:28:00] sale season of the year Because people come for the really exclusive, really high discount. You can't really afford to do that every month because you're definitely going to damage your brand reputation, you're going to train your audience to wait for the massive discount.

[00:28:17] Monica: So why do that? Instead, you can just do your regular launches, teach, share value, and then when Black Friday hits, all the people who are waiting for the, like, a really good reason to just Say, here, here, take my money. You're just gonna come in. Yeah. Absolutely.

[00:28:38] Nikki: I'm here for the ranting, yeah. No, I completely, completely agree with you.

[00:28:42] Nikki: I just think everything comes back to integrity, and how your audience sees you. You know, your audience is really smart, so if you're gonna try and trick them in that way, It's never going to go well, and you're not going to build that long term trust with them, which is what we want, to get them to keep buying from you.

[00:28:56] Nikki: It's not just about that one sale. Um, so yeah, I absolutely love that, and I love your [00:29:00] strategy for opening the cart, but with a different offer. I think that's something that can work really beautifully.

[00:29:05] Monica: I love that, uh, when you think about it, so every copywriter or brand is kind of doing Black Friday in their different way, right?

[00:29:12] Monica: There is no, like, I know, secret recipe. But at the end of the day, what we're all doing is thinking about the actual strategy, the consumer behavior, the long term aspect of running Black Friday. And I love that you mentioned respecting your audience, because I think a lot of people, they're just like, well, if I give a discount, even though I haven't emailed them for two months, I haven't given them anything of value.

[00:29:41] Monica: They're just going to buy. I mean, I'm discounting it for 99 percent or 95%. They're gonna go in the funnel, they're gonna buy that for five dollars, they're gonna buy my order, buy my upsell. So the worst case scenario, I'm still making some money, right? I mean, who can resist this big of a discount? [00:30:00] And I can agree, I mean, the FOMO is and like tapping into the hoarding behavior of stuff.

[00:30:08] Monica: That works for some people, but it's gonna put off the majority of people. What do you think?

[00:30:15] Nikki: Yeah, I completely agree. I think that people have different buying behaviors and I think with Black Friday it's really easy to consider those people who are fast decision makers and are ready to go at the drop of a hat, but most of your audience, probably 75 percent of your audience, is not like that.

[00:30:32] Nikki: They like to take a considered decision. They like to You know, they like to build trust with you. They like to understand your brand, and there's a reason you always hear that you need to have no lack and trust with people to buy from you. And I think that's so true with Black Friday. It's like those people are gonna buy faster if they, that trust is already built with you.

[00:30:50] Nikki: But if you are having to remind them who you are, like what you even sell, even that big discount is not gonna seem like it because they're not gonna see as much value in it because they don't know. Why it's valuable. They [00:31:00] don't know who you are. They don't know how great you are at teaching. So you have to build that in advance so that they see that value in that discount.

[00:31:06] Nikki: It's not just about the numbers. It's about the value, the perceived value from your customer's point of view.

[00:31:12] Monica: Can you give me like a practical example? Cause I tell people like you can sell without selling and you don't have to leave the discount. So personally, what they like to do with Black Friday emails, use social proof and testimonials as much as possible.

[00:31:26] Monica: Yeah. To overcome the resistance and to just make it more than, Hey, this is on sale, buy it. Do you have a favorite tactic you can use or someone who's listening can use?

[00:31:39] Nikki: I'm always a big fan of case studies. So similarly to you with sharing testimonials and stuff. I, with Black Friday, I think, um, because there's so many messages and there's so people are looking at so many emails, I really try and strip the story back.

[00:31:54] Nikki: So I will share a case study in an email, but I'll try and keep it like a shortened version so that, It's [00:32:00] really scannable. People can quickly see like where the person was at the start, what results they got and here's the offer and here's the discount that you're looking for because it's Black Friday.

[00:32:08] Nikki: So I think, um, so much of it comes back to simplicity, but not simply just shouting about your discount. It's more like the same as we would with any sales email throughout the year. It's kind of coaching people as to why they need the thing, but trying to keep that more simple and stripped back.

[00:32:25] Monica: I like that.

[00:32:26] Monica: My, my intro to that. It's Specific type of email would be like so everyone is shouting and throwing discounts at you today But which one is actually going to be worth it? Which one is going to help you get you closer to this specific outcome? You've actually joined this community for Well, for Maria, it was this, and I do a similar version of what you do, and I love to tackle that specific context you're in, because that's where they are, and if I get people to kind of nod, and I kind of already [00:33:00] get permission from them.

[00:33:02] Monica: So that they can continue paying attention to what I'm telling them. And having that micro connection moment, I think it really helps the end conversion. Even if it's like, for I know, 27 instead of 97. That, that doesn't matter. But it's, yeah, I like that.

[00:33:24] Nikki: Yeah, and I think just showing people how much it can impact on their life as well, versus, you know, They can go to Amazon or Costco or whatever, and they can put something in their car, a material possession, and they can have that possession, but maybe they're going to be excited about it for a day.

[00:33:38] Nikki: They're going to get a new gadget, and they're going to like sit on this thing for a day. Whereas if you're selling them a course or something that's truly transformational, it's like, well, that's going to benefit you a lot longer. So it's like, it's the gift that keeps on giving beyond Black Friday. You have this course, you have Either lifetime access or six months or whatever it is you give them.

[00:33:56] Nikki: They not only have time to like learn the skill that you're teaching them, but it's about the [00:34:00] impact that that keeps on giving to their life as well. You know, it's something transformational that you're offering. So you should really be talking about that as part of your sales process.

[00:34:09] Monica: I love that. I actually go to Amazon to see what's on sale and what would be something the audience wants.

[00:34:14] Monica: Yeah. And I put it in like, comparison. So, here are the Black Friday bargains you might have on your wish list. And I put all the dumb stuff that's on sale. It's trending on like Tik Tok, I don't know, ice boxes, you know, with different shapes and they're 7 discounted for 47 or whatever. And I make a list of like three things and I go with like, so you could buy this and it would be shipped in like three days.

[00:34:43] Monica: And by December, I don't know what you could enjoy an ice latte with, I know, cookie, Shaped ice, whatever, but is that going to change the problem we have right now? If we continue, I don't know, drinking that ice latte with [00:35:00] cookie shaped ice three months from now? Or, we could just make a commitment today?

[00:35:07] Monica: that you want next year to be different. It's not gonna be perfect, but every choice you make today actually helps you get closer to what you're going for. So, as you're kind of navigating through all these Black Friday bargains, just do your budget a favor and future self and think really well why you wanna buy those heavily discounted ice trays.

[00:35:32] Monica: Instead of this course, so I actually like to have fun with that kind of approach to Black Friday Because it's very hard to kind of resist the discounts. I mean I have that experience as well. I bought Frank Kern's I know Course Vault for 7, discounting from 99, haven't used them, but I bought them because you never know.

[00:35:56] Monica: So I get it. It's hard to resist. [00:36:00] Okay. This was awesome. So, so much fun. So we're getting close to the end of this episode, which I hope you enjoyed. I could go on for like hours, it would be so fun, but maybe next time. So, you mentioned before that you don't really like the fake urgency, right? Like extending Black Friday after Black Friday is done.

[00:36:23] Monica: What is something else you wish more people would stop doing with their Black Friday emails or campaigns?

[00:36:29] Nikki: I think the main thing that I would love to see changed is copying other people's subject lines. So, I think, okay, so, um, I get that a lot of people are doing their own marketing and don't necessarily know what to say.

[00:36:44] Nikki: So there's a lot of pressure out there to put something together for Black Friday. But it is actually quite shocking to me. The number of people who, like, I remember last year scrolling my inbox and I had five emails in a row. That were the same following a format from the previous year that someone had [00:37:00] trended on.

[00:37:00] Nikki: And I think people underestimate how complex humans are, how many different email lists are signed up for in different industries and how they're probably going to see multiple of the same. So I think bringing back the originality, like not being afraid to have fun with it, especially with subject lines, because that is the thing that's so.

[00:37:16] Nikki: So important with Black Friday. It's like actually getting the attention in the first place. So yeah, bringing back originality into it is one of my biggest, uh, biggest takeaways.

[00:37:26] Monica: I can tell you what I'm expecting to see more of this year. Just in line with what you just shared. I'm subscribed to Chris Wazuzkowski's email list.

[00:37:35] Monica: I love his emails. And last year for Thanksgiving, he sent, I think, 30 turkey emojis. That was his subject line. And I think he did something like that for Christmas as well. I don't remember what was Black Friday, but I love that. And I know that many marketers are on his email list. I expect to see that kind of approach to being disruptive [00:38:00] this year as well.

[00:38:01] Monica: And we'll see who does it and who doesn't, but it's a very interesting tactic to test. And I think it works if. You're good with, like, deliverability, that's your tone of voice, that's your, like, brand personality. But, I don't know, I got, like, a weird idea now. So, you know how churches often send, like, newsletters?

[00:38:22] Monica: Yeah. So, imagine receiving, like, 30 crosses.

[00:38:29] Monica: Or a funeral service, right? It's sending, like, creepy bogey. several times.

[00:38:36] Nikki: I wonder how that would go down. I feel like you'd have to be a very tongue in cheek funeral home to make that work.

[00:38:43] Monica: But it would be fun. I mean, I'm sure you have, there's a, there's an audience for that. Yeah.

[00:38:48] Nikki: And that's the thing. It would definitely get attention.

[00:38:51] Monica: Yes, exactly. I mean, you're standing out in the crowd and for Thanksgiving, when everybody's like stuffing up with food, I think [00:39:00] there's some statistic for people who go into the hospital. Because they ate too much. I mean, this happens in my country during big holidays. So I assume a really good email would go out on Thanksgiving, just like putting things into perspective and saying, Have you thought about the day you're gonna die?

[00:39:21] Monica: Maybe not, not make this today. Don't make it today. So be careful, mindful about how much you eat. And when you're coming back from holiday, be Book a consultation call with us and we'll help you prepare for the afterlife. Okay, I was not expecting this to go dark, but I think it would be fun to write emails for a funeral service.

[00:39:43] Nikki: I love the way your brain works. Niki,

[00:39:47] Monica: this was amazing. I had so much fun recording this episode and learning from you. To the person who is listening this episode, still listening to this episode, Kudos. You, [00:40:00] you and I kind of have similar humor, which is awesome. Not many people do. Where can they go to find more about you, work with you, learn from you?

[00:40:11] Monica: Do you have some kind of a resource, some kind of a training they can get?

[00:40:16] Nikki: Yeah, absolutely. So if you go to my website, nikkichaylor. com, um, I have, um, a free series of launch debrief questions, which you can actually use for your Black Friday campaigns or for any kind of promotion you're running. And what I want you to get out of this resource is a way to get you better results every time you promote something.

[00:40:35] Nikki: So you're looking back at the data of what's works and every time you're learning from it and you're getting better. So. That's available on my website. I assume the link is gonna be in the show notes, um, and then I'm on Instagram quite regularly So you can find me at Nikki underscore trailer there.

[00:40:50] Monica: Thank you, Nikki. And for everyone who's looking for the link It's in the show notes. Just look below this episode. Thank you, [00:41:00] Nikki. This was amazing

[00:41:01] Nikki: Thanks again, Monica. Very happy to have this chat with you.

[00:41:05] Monica: You've listened to Master the Inbox. In this season of the podcast, we're focusing on strategies to help course creators, coaches, and consultants run successful Black Friday campaigns.

[00:41:16] Monica: If you want more resources, Go to monica. eu. com slash Black Friday resources for more. And if you found this episode useful, then please help us spread the word. Like, share, and subscribe wherever you're listening.