Around here, we like to think of November as Go-vember—’cuz in the ecommerce world, it’s GO TIME. 👊

In mere weeks, the biggest online sales season of the year will be upon us. But even before BFCM, this month of bounty is packed full of opportunities to text your subscribers. (And we want to keep those lists warm before it’s time for those promo-heavy sends!)

We’ll dive into some of them—and of course, end with a major splash of Black Friday and Cyber Monday ideas and examples.

Jump on our gravy boat, and let’s set sail. 🦃⛵

In this article (click to navigate to a particular section):

• November 1: Start of National Gratitude Month

• November 6: End of Daylight Saving Time

• November 8: Election Day

• November 11: Veterans Day

• November 17: National Take a Hike Day

• November 24: Thanksgiving Day

• November 25: Black Friday

• November 26: Small Business Saturday

• November 28: Cyber Monday

• November 29: Giving Tuesday

• Other Holiday-Related Campaigns to Try

  • Gift Guide Campaign

  • Contact Card Campaign

  • Pre-BFCM Gift Card Campaign

  • Holiday Bundles Campaign

This month is all about being grateful for what we have—and there’s no need to wait until Thanksgiving to feel and show your appreciation. Kick off the month with a campaign to simply thank your subscribers for their loyalty to your brand. Whether or not you opt to provide a discount, you’ll get the good feelings flowing before BFCM—which certainly won’t hurt when it’s time for them to buy.

Here’s a gratitude-themed campaign bead and charm brand LBL Creations sent to subscribers in early November to warm them up for the bigger sale season.

And here’s one from hair health brand Collective Labs.

Cue up the Cher memes y’all; we’re gonna turn back time. As if we didn’t love this month enough already, we also get to “fall back” into our cozy beds for an extra hour of sleep on November 6—so why not make this day even better for your well-rested subscribers by sending them a nice SMS offer as well?

Or, simply text them a friendly reminder the night before so they don’t forget!

Here are a couple of cute examples from Gravity Blankets and The Comfy.

The 2022 midterms are happening Tuesday, November 8. No matter what side you or your subscribers are on, this is an important day for Americans everywhere to get out and exercise their right to vote. Encourage your subscribers to cast their ballots—and reward them with a special offer or discount to redeem after they hit the polls. You could even make it interactive and ask them to text a selfie with their “I Voted” sticker in exchange for a deal.

Here’s an example sea moss brand Plant Based Jeff sent on Election Day back in 2020.

Here’s one women’s clothing brand SEDA sent encouraging folks to shop while waiting at the polls.

Artist shop By JLaw opted for a purely voting-focused—and much more personal—message.

Today, folks across the nation recognize, honor, and appreciate all who have served in the United States military. If it aligns with your brand, send a message in celebration of their heroism. This is also a popular sale day, and if your brand chooses to run any deals or promos, consider testing your offers and/or segmentation and using the results to optimize your plans for Cyber Weekend.

Here’s a simple example from bathing product brand Bath Daddy.

Phone and watch accessory brand Bullstrap offered subscribers an $11 discount in honor of 11/11.

Veteran-owned supplement brand CardoMax took a more charitable approach, incentivizing subscribers to shop by pledging to donate a portion of every sale to a fund benefiting other veteran-run businesses.

Personal care brand Bravo Sierra partnered with a fellow military-supporting merchant—rucksack, boots, and apparel brand GoRuck—for a special Veterans Day promotion.

It’s almost time for the snow to fly in many parts of the country, so why not take this opportunity to encourage subscribers to get out on the trails one last time before all the holiday hubbub? Share your favorite hikes, ask subscribers to share theirs, or—particularly if you’re in the sports and outdoors space—celebrate with a promo code for anyone who makes a purchase in the next 24 hours.

Here’s an example from personal journal brand My Bucket Journals.

Time to carve the bird and slice the pie! As your subscribers settle in for a big meal and some quality family time, shoot ’em a quick text thanking them for their support.

Consider having your message come straight from the founder to give it a personal, heartfelt touch. If you’re giving SMS subscribers exclusive early access to your Black Friday deals, you may want to mention it—but save the more aggressive sales pushes for tomorrow.

Here’s a lovely example from women’s clothing company By Egreis.

Wool apparel brand Woolx made their CEO’s Thanksgiving message even more personal by delivering it via video. (Here’s the link included at the end of their text message if you’d like to check it out.)

Four Sisters Boutique made their Thanksgiving message short and CTA-free—instead using it to show genuine appreciation for their customers (and remind them of the BFCM sales to come).

Many brands kept their Turkey Day messages light and playful while teasing or opening their Black Friday deals to too-full-to-move subscribers. Here are some fun examples from recycled bag brand RAREFORM, home furnishings brand Meble Furniture, water bottle brand Hydrojug, and candle brand Homesick.

Today 👏 is 👏 the👏 day👏!

This is your biggest opportunity to go all in and convert subscribers who are hunting for a deal.

And don’t forget—even if you waited until the last minute to build your BFCM sends, we’ve got templates to get you started right within Postscript.

It’s also an important time to make your messaging (and creative, if you choose to use it) stand out. Here’s a great example where herbal blends brand Apothékary “rebranded” Black Friday as Green Friday.

Handcrafted watch brand Original Grain made good use of attention-grabbing imagery and emojis for their earliest send of the day.

Luxury hair extensions brand Yummy Extensions made a splash with their Black Friday sale announcement text, building FOMO with not only the size of the discount, but also the quality of the product—something that customers can expect to use for years.

Weighted blanket brand Hush opted for a personalized message from their co-founder. In some cases, this sort of authentic simplicity could be a breath of fresh air to folks with an inbox full of promo texts.

Pro tip: For time-sensitive Black Friday messages (e.g., those promoting flash sales or limited-time deals), we recommend sending SMS-only—particularly during the mid-day to late afternoon hours, when there’s the most time zone overlap. In fact, if you really want to be on the safe side, you may want to make all of today’s messages SMS-only.

This will greatly reduce your risk of deliverability issues due to high traffic. (That being said, Postscript’s expanded partnership with Twilio greatly reduces the risk of delays for brands on our platform.) 

Bonus pro tip: Send multiple messages promoting your deals throughout the day. At the very least, send one morning message and one evening message, as we found this to be a trend among our highest-earning merchants last year.

Here are a few examples from brands that sent two or more messages over the course of the day in 2021.

Death Wish Coffee kept things fresh with punchy copy and emojis for both of their Black Friday messages.

Hands-free shoe brand Kizik used dual CTAs (one for their men’s collection, and one for their women’s collection) and sent SMS-only for their first text before switching over to an eye-catching MMS to close out the day.

Collagen protein brand Obvi created urgency with both their morning and afternoon sends by opening their messages with the exact number of hours subscribers had left to shop the sale.

Original Grain followed up the text featured above with a reminder message as well as a “sale extended” message later during the weekend.

Not participating in Black Friday this year? If there’s a thoughtful reason behind that decision, text your subscribers to let them know. In some cases, not running a sale might actually get your brand noticed more. Here’s a perfect example from sustainable toothpaste brand Bite.

Whether they’re shopping online or on Main Street, holiday gifters across the country are showing their support for small businesses today.

If you’re a small-biz operator, this is your chance to shine. Text your subscribers to remind them of how important it is to shop small during the holiday season. Let them know that it’s when your brand makes the majority of their sales (if that’s the case), and consider mentioning other brands they can support as they shop today.

The founders of Maryland clothing brand Route One Apparel and handmade ski brand J Skis took this opportunity to reflect on their journeys and share their stories with subscribers.

Wellness accessories brand Whimsy + Wellness and handmade clothing brand Kantha Bae both sent MMS texts with a personal feel and an authentically grateful tone.

Wandering Bear Coffee and personal safety alarm brand She’s Birdie also took the opportunity to thank their supportive customers.

Keep the BFCM energy going for Cyber Monday—the OG annual deal day for ecommerce. Whether you run a separate sale or simply extend or continue to promote the deals you launched last week, there’s still plenty of revenue to be generated.

Similar to Black Friday, we recommend considering SMS-only sends for any time-sensitive messages, as this high-traffic day could lead to slight sending delays—especially for MMS.

Jack Mason and Braxley Bands took similar approaches in their playful, straight-to-the-point messages reminding subscribers that today is no ordinary Monday.

Hair products brand KALEIDOSCOPE created a sense of urgency and FOMO with a limited-time, VIP-only deal—while skincare brand Glow Recipe emphasized the rarity of their deep discount offer.

Handmade shoe brand Stubbs and Wooten opted for a simple sale reminder angle, while scooter brand Micro Kickboard took more of a gifting-focused approach to their messaging.

Finally, we really love this Cyber Monday text from personal organizer brand NOTIQ. It features a personal message of gratitude from the founder, something that may stand out to subscribers who have been inundated with sale messages all weekend.

The holidays aren’t just about giving gifts to those we love—this season is also about giving back to our communities and those in need. So, after a frenzy of bargain-buying, shoppers across the country are turning their focus to philanthropy.

It’s also a great time to connect with subscribers about your brand’s charitable efforts. Whether you consistently donate throughout the year, or you plan on making a one-time donation for Giving Tuesday, let subscribers know what non-profit organization or cause is most important to you and encourage them to contribute, too.

Women’s apparel boutique Prep Obsessed and athletic clothing brand Fourlaps both pledged a percentage of the day’s sales to specific causes in support of Giving Tuesday.

Zero-waste toothpaste brand Bite marked the occasion by donating $1 of every sale to a non-profit organization, and recycled clothing brand Dudley Stephens upped the ante with both a monetary and physical donation to their cause of choice.

Handmade jewelry brand Turquoise Skies took this opportunity to shine a spotlight on their scholarship program, while fair trade crystal shop Wild Alabaster extended their Cyber Weekend sale and pledged to plant a tree for every order placed that day.

The pressure’s on for gift-givers to find something for everyone on their list. Capitalize on the gifting mindset by doing some of the heavy lifting for your subscribers with a gift guide organized by category, recipient, budget, gift type, interests, etc. Bonus points for creating an interactive campaign where folks respond with the types of gifts they are looking for and you reply with tailored suggestions. Here’s how to create one using Postscript’s campaign Flow Builder.

Here are a couple of examples from handmade ski brand J Skis and reptile enclosure brand Zen Habitats.

As we explained here, the most impactful change included in the iOS 16 update is the ability for users to quickly report texts from unknown senders as “junk.” To get ahead of that, send a campaign to your full list urging them to save your brand as a contact in their phones. This will make you a “known” sender—which means they won’t see the option to report junk directly within the message thread.

You can easily send subscribers a contact card for your brand by following the instructions here. We’d also recommend adding a contact card message early in your welcome series. That way, the BFCM traffic you convert into SMS subscribers will immediately be prompted to save you as a contact.

In these examples, beauty and accessories brand Shop Miss A cleverly teases a “surprise” for subscribers in the notes section of their contact card, while personal care brand Native keeps their messaging light and cheeky—like something you’d get from all the other friends in your contacts.

The BFCM anxiety is building. Take some of the shopping stress off of subscribers by allowing them to buy for hard-to-please family and friends early. Give them the chance to snag an exclusive deal on the present everyone loves to receive: a gift card! Consider using an upsell incentive to get them to spend more (e.g., throw in a free $10 gift card for every $100 you spend or a free $25 gift card for every $200).

Here are a couple of simple examples from HydroJug and Route One Apparel.

Group your top 2-3 products together for a limited-time bundle during the holidays. This is an especially great play for subscribers who have yet to purchase.

Here are some examples from snack brand Froning Farms and apparel brand Lane Frost.

Well folks, that’s it for us—now it’s up to you to get out there and make those sales! We’re so pumped to see what you all can do with SMS this BFCM, and we’ll be rooting for you every step of the way. If you’re a Postscript customer, our incredible support and success teams also will be standing by to help make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible for you.

On that note, if you haven’t installed Postscript yet, there’s still time to get up and running before the biggest sales week of the year! And we’ll give you $1,000 worth of messages totally free, to boot! Simply follow this link to start your free 30-day trial now.