Every November, I watch the same thing happen.
A publisher sends three times a week all year.
Then Black Friday hits.
Twice a day. The whole list.
Including people who haven't clicked anything since spring.
The revenue forecast looks great.
The inbox has other plans.
Because putting “Black Friday” in your subject line doesn't give you permission to suddenly change everything about how you send.
More emails.
Less engaged subscribers.
All at once.
And now you're troubleshooting deliverability during the week you were counting on most.
The volume you want in November has to be earned in October.
This one's for anyone planning to increase sending during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Three things to get right:
Increase frequency with your recent clickers first.
Watch each inbox provider separately, especially Gmail.
Expand the audience only after the extra sends are working.
Start With the People Already Clicking
Your Base Sending Segment includes recent clickers, recent openers, and new subscribers.
For the extra sends, create a separate segment using the click criteria from your BSS.
These are the people already giving you a reason to send again.
Your regular sends continue to the full BSS. The additional sends go to this new clicker segment.
Start with one extra send this week.
Then look at what happened.
Did they keep clicking? Did complaints stay under control? Did delivery hold?
If those signals stay healthy across several sends, add another.
If engagement starts sliding, hold where you are.
An open rate that looks fine doesn't answer the question you're asking.
You want to know whether people are still responding when you show up more often.
The extra send has to earn its place.
Gmail Gets Its Own Check
While you're ramping, check Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook every day.
Separately.
Your overall numbers can look healthy while one provider is falling apart.
And if Gmail represents a big piece of your list, that average can hide a very expensive problem.
Watch clicks, complaints, and delivery errors by provider.
Keep Google Postmaster Tools in that daily check for Gmail.
If complaints climb or delivery deteriorates, stop adding volume. Reduce it if needed.
Let the signals stabilize before you increase again.
Your promotional calendar doesn't get to overrule what the inbox is telling you.
Then Widen the Click Window
Once your clicker segment is handling the higher frequency, bring in people who clicked a little less recently.
A little.
Widen the click window in both your BSS and your separate clicker segment.
Use the same window in both.
That keeps the click criteria consistent across your regular sends and your additional sends.
Leave the opener and new-subscriber filters alone for now.
Hold the sending frequency steady while you test the expansion.
Check clicks per send, but check the click rate too as the audience gets bigger.
More total clicks can hide weaker engagement when you're sending to more people.
Run a few sends. Review. Adjust.
If performance holds, you can widen a little further.
If it slips, tighten the click window back up in both segments.
You turn the dial based on what happens after you send.
You don't turn it all the way up because November is getting closer.
Openers Come Last
This is where people get impatient.
They see a big pool of recent openers sitting outside the segment and think about how much more they could send.
But an open still doesn't prove somebody read your email.
Apple's privacy features and automated image loading can make subscribers look active without a person doing anything.
Those ghosts don't become more valuable because it's Black Friday.
In my BSS setup, there are two opener filters.
Leave both alone until your clickers are stable at the higher frequency.
Then loosen one.
Run a few sends. Check clicks per send, click rate, and Gmail performance.
If everything holds, test loosening the second.
If performance slips, tighten back up.
Change one thing at a time.
If you add sends and loosen both opener filters together, you've created a problem you can't diagnose cleanly.
Was it the frequency?
The additional subscribers?
Both?
You want that answer before your biggest revenue week.
Your Move This Week
Create a separate clicker segment using the same click window as your BSS.
Send one additional email to that segment this week.
Your regular sends continue to the full BSS.
Record clicks per send, click rate, complaints, and delivery. Break them out by inbox provider.
That first send gives you a starting benchmark.
Compare the next few additional sends against it.
Give yourself more than one campaign’s worth of results before increasing frequency again.
Keep watching your regular BSS sends too. You want to see how the additional volume affects the overall program.
Once performance is consistently healthy, you can test a wider click window.
Make that adjustment in both the BSS and the clicker segment, while holding frequency steady.
By mid-November, you want to be sending at a pace your readers are responding to and the inbox providers have had time to adjust to.
That way, when Black Friday arrives, you’re continuing a pattern that’s already working.
Ramp in October so November looks normal.
See you next week,
Chris Miquel
P.S. If you want help planning your BFCM ramp, send my a reply. We’ll review your sending segments and inbox performance, then map out where it makes sense to add volume and where to hold.
