Black Friday marketing ideas for your business.

Dive into the world of Black Friday marketing with Adobe Express.

Black Friday is more than just shopping madness – alongside Christmas, it’s your chance to end the year on a high note. But the competition never sleeps. Everyone is vying for attention – mainly online, but also offline. Whether you’ve just launched your online business, run a small shop or are an established retailer, this guide is full of creative ideas, practical tips and strategic insights to help you stand out from the crowd.

Speaking of standing out: we’ll also show you how to use Adobe Express to design eye-catching social media assets for your Black Friday marketing campaign.

What are you waiting for? Get your business ready for Black Friday.

Why Black Friday marketing is important for your business.

Black Friday marketing is one of the most powerful tools in your end-of-year strategy. Why? Because consumers are actively looking to buy – and they’re expecting deals. A strong Black Friday marketing strategy allows you to position your brand at the centre of this buying mindset.

But it’s not just about sales – even if these are likely to be at the heart of every Black Friday marketing campaign. Black Friday is also an opportunity to:

• Acquire new customers: With attractive offers on Black Friday, you can attract new customers – and, with the right strategy, turn them into regulars.
• Increase brand visibility and awareness: Black Friday marketing measures can increase the visibility of your brand – both online and offline, depending on the nature of your business.
• Collect customer data: Analysing customer behaviour during Black Friday sales can provide valuable insights into purchasing habits and preferences.
• Test new products and ideas: Launch limited editions or bundles to see what resonates with your customers – and draw conclusions for your Christmas marketing campaign.
• Move older inventory: Shift stock that’s been sitting in your warehouse for months.

And with the right approach, you won’t just take part in the Black Friday rush – you can generate real added value for yourself and your company.

When is Black Friday – and what is it?

We jumped straight into the topic, now let’s take a quick look at is the basics. Black Friday always falls on the Friday after the US holiday Thanksgiving – in 2025, that’s on 27 November, so Black Friday is on the 28th. Originally a US phenomenon, Black Friday has grown into a global shopping event that marks the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season.

The numbers are more than convincing: in 2024, global spending on Black Friday reached a new record high of 74.4 billion US dollars, representing a 5% increase over the previous year. That’s massive! And if you’re now wondering where people were spending all this money: last year saw record spending in online retail. In the United States alone, consumers spent $10.8 billion online on Black Friday, an increase of 10.2% over the previous year, when spending stood at $9.8 billion. Globally, around 87.3 million people shopped online on Black Friday 2024, while 81.7 million people shopped in stores.

But it’s not just consumers who are spending more and more money on Black Friday. More and more companies of all sizes are getting involved – from large online retailers to small local shops. And with the rise of online shopping, Black Friday has expanded into Cyber Weekend and even Black Week.

In short, Black Friday is more than just a date – it’s a mindset. Customers expect special offers, and it’s your job to meet those expectations with a clear, creative and customer-friendly strategy.

In the next section, you’ll find useful guidance on how to best approach your Black Friday marketing strategy to get the most out of it.

Getting started: How to develop a Black Friday marketing strategy.

As in life, timing is also important in your Black Friday marketing strategy. A well-planned Black Friday marketing strategy doesn’t start in late November. Ideally, you begin planning in September or October.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Set your goals: What do you want to achieve? More sales, new customers or email sign-ups? Having a clear goal will shape your entire campaign.
2. Understand your audience: Use past data to understand buying behaviours and segment your audience. This will help you target them more effectively with relevant Black Friday offers.
3. Plan your offer: Think beyond discounts. You could offer:
   • exclusive bundles
   • free shipping
   • early access for subscribers
   • limited-edition products
4. Choose your channels: Where will you promote your offers? Email, website banners, pop-ups, Black Friday social media posts? Pick the platform(s) that matter most to your audience.
   
   Sounds like a lot of assets to prepare? Don’t worry, Adobe Express has you covered. Whether you need email signatures, website banners or social media posts, Adobe Express has thousands of professionally designed templates for your Black Friday offers. You’ll find step-by-step instructions for creating outstanding social media posts at the end of this article.
5. Create a content calendar: Don’t leave anything to chance. Map out when each piece of content will go live – from teaser emails to launch-day announcements and post-sale reminders.
   
   Adobe Express can help you with this, too. With the free content planner, you can easily plan your social media posts in advance for all your channels.

Every campaign plan starts with a specific campaign goal – whether it’s for Black Friday, Christmas or other holidays. To make this a little more concrete, we’ve included a very specific example of a Black Friday email marketing campaign for you in the next section.

Excursion: How to plan a Black Friday email marketing campaign.

Black Friday email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to convert. But inboxes are crowded – If you send emails to promote your Black Friday offer, you should have a plan.

Here’s how to plan a Black Friday email marketing campaign:

1. Clean up your mailing list: Remove outdated or irrelevant subscribers to improve deliverability and engagement. What’s more, you’ll already have done the groundwork for your Christmas email campaign.

2. Segment your audience: Divide your list into groups based on purchase history, interests, and engagement to send personalised and more relevant content, such as special offers for former customers or VIPs.

3. Plan your creative concepts and schedule: Design your email templates and create a schedule for emails, from pre-sale teasers to the main sale to post-sale follow-ups. What you should also consider: More than half of emails are opened on mobile devices. Thus, you should use short paragraphs, large CTAs and responsive layouts.

Adobe Express offers hundreds of editable email templates that you can customise to suit your needs. With the free email signature banner creator, you can also customise your email signature to refer to your Black Friday offer in your regular newsletter – without being too pushy.

4. Optimise your customer journey: Once your subscribers click on your email, the journey begins. The path to checkout should be seamless. Make sure the landing page matches the offer in the email, whether that’s a discount or free shipping.

5. Write compelling subject lines and a clear CTA: Write subject lines that grab attention, are clear, and spark curiosity or urgency to improve open rates. Your call to action should also be clear, concise and strategically placed to guide your target audience to the next step, whether that is making a purchase or visiting your website.

6. Tease early: Send teaser emails weeks before Black Friday to highlight upcoming discounts and build anticipation.

7. Create urgency: When Black Friday is coming closer, use phrases such as “limited-time offer” and add countdown timers to your emails and website to encourage immediate action or even extend your Black Friday countdown to social media. With Adobe Express, you can easily prepare and schedule social media posts for your channels – always in the right format and with no design skills required. More on that later.

8. Take an omnichannel approach: We’ve already mentioned this before, but we believe this topic deserves its own bullet point in your email marketing campaign: Make sure to coordinate your email campaign with your other channels to provide a consistent experience.

9. Test and track: Use A/B testing to optimise elements such as subject lines and offers and track your campaign’s performance to gain insights for the future.

And the best part is, once you’ve set up a plan for your Black Friday email marketing campaign, you can use it again every year – and adapt it based on what you’ve learned from the previous year.

15 Black Friday marketing ideas to help you shine.

Emails are just one way to draw your customers’ attention to your Black Friday offer. Ready for some fresh inspiration?

Here are fifteen Black Friday marketing ideas that help you shine:

1. Run a countdown campaign: We said it once, we’ll say it again. A Black Friday countdown helps you build anticipation and draw attention to your offer early on. Integrate your countdown into all relevant customer touchpoints: on your website, your online shop, on social media or in your physical shop.

2. Offer exclusive early-bird access: Give loyal customers or newsletter subscribers early access to your deals. It creates urgency and rewards loyalty.

3. Create Black Friday bundles: Instead of discounting single items, create product bundles that offer added value and increase average order value.

4. Offer free shipping: Offer free delivery or another extra for orders above a certain value. This creates an incentive for your customers to buy more – a win-win situation for both sides.

5. Launch a gift guide: Position your product(s) as the perfect gift. Create a downloadable or interactive guide tailored to your target audience.

If you’re wondering which format is particularly well suited for a gift guide, how about your own blog? Especially if you plan to run such campaigns frequently, you can use the blog to publish guides of all kinds, tips for sustainable packaging or even product reviews that might otherwise go beyond the scope of your website or online shop. With Adobe Express’ online blog maker, you can start your own blog in no time at all.

6. Use user-generated content: Encourage your community to post product photos or testimonials using a branded hashtag – then reshare them.

7. Partner with another brand: Team up with a complementary business to create a joint Black Friday offer – double the reach, double the fun.

8. Use retargeting ads: Retargeting ads are a powerful tool for re-engaging customers who have shown interest in your products but have not yet purchased them.

9. Try gamified promotions: Spin-the-wheel discounts, mystery deals or digital scratch cards make shopping more interactive – and more attractive.

10. Extend your campaign: Black Friday doesn’t have to end on Friday. Continue with Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday or even a full Black Week.

11. Highlight sustainability: If discounting doesn’t fit your brand, consider offering donations for every purchase or highlight sustainable collections.

12. Share behind-the-scenes content: Show your team packing orders or prepping for launch – people love seeing the human side of your business.

13. Offer custom merchandise: Create unique branded products that offer your customers something special that no one else has. If you limit the number of your merchandise to a certain quantity – and let people know they have to hurry to not miss out – you not only create a real FOMO moment. When your customers show off the branded item, they’re also advertising for you for free.

14. Promote vouchers: Some people need a little longer to make a purchase decision. To also appeal to these people and relieve them of the stress of making a decision, offer a voucher with a special Black Friday deal – for example, “Buy a voucher worth £10 and use it to shop for goods worth £11”.

15. Utilise influencer marketing: By collaborating with influencers who resonate with your target audience, you can generate buzz and increase traffic to your website, online shop or retail store.

With these fifteen Black Friday marketing ideas, you can give your sales and brand awareness an extra boost and hopefully have a lot of fun with your team too.

And fun is guaranteed, especially if you plan your Black Friday campaign in good time and without stress. In the next section, you’ll learn how Adobe Express can help you create stunning Black Friday social media posts – completely stress-free.