Limited spots, unlimited potential. 
When it comes to Black Friday and Cyber Monday (what we like to call BFCM), the brands that win aren’t the ones scrambling the week before. They’re the ones who started planning months in advance. With inboxes flooded, competition in every corner, and technology under strain, preparation is the key difference between a smooth, revenue-driving weekend and complete chaos.
At our agency, we approach BFCM like a special ops gig: Strategize early, build fast, and double-check everything before the big day. Here’s our complete pre-launch checklist to guide your team through a seamless BFCM season.
When to Start BFCM Planning
We recommend kicking things off about 8–10 weeks before Black Friday. By mid-September, you should already have:
- Your BFCM package and client strategy locked in
- Draft concepts for early bird campaigns in progress
By early to mid-October, flows and campaigns should be built out. By two weeks before Black Friday, everything should be finalized in Klaviyo. We’re talking approved, scheduled, and ready to go.
EXPERT TIP: Schedule campaigns 4–5 days in advance so the final week is purely monitoring, not last-minute stress-building. Because stress leads to sloppy work and mistakes!
Setting the Right Email Frequency
This isn’t the time to go quiet. It’s the time to ramp up your sends strategically. You want your content to stand out against the noise, but it requires a little more tact than spamming your client’s inbox on one sunny afternoon. Here’s a little in-house recipe we stand by:
- Early November → 4 sends per week.
- Mid-to-late November → Ramp up your sends to daily.
- Black Friday & Cyber Monday → 3–4 sends each day (launch AM, midday reminder, PM last call to maximize your sales around the clock).
Frequency depends on the scope of your campaign and the marketing used towards specific client segments, but a 25% increase over your baseline volume is a strong benchmark to aim for.
Coordinating Email with SMS & Other Channels
Omnichannel consistency is key for several reasons. Not only does it help you reach a larger audience, but it also maximises customer trust based on the combination of channels you use.
Stagger touchpoints to maximize exposure without overwhelming:
- Example → Launch your Black Friday announcement email at 8 AM, follow up with an SMS at 12 PM. Align promotions across ads, socials, and website banners for cohesive storytelling.
The goal is to create multiple, timed reminders rather than blasting everything at once. Like we said, maximize, don’t overwhelm.
Scheduling & Approval Workflow
Remember how we spoke about stress leading to sloppy mistakes? Well, a clean workflow reduces them. Our process looks a little like this:
- Draft campaign copy and design
- Internal review
- Client review + edits
- Final approval
- Built in Klaviyo
- Morning and midday checks
- Schedule 5–7 days in advance
Having approvals locked before crunch time eliminates bottlenecks when every hour counts.
Handling Timezone Considerations
When you’re dealing with a global audience, the “perfect send time” isn’t one-size-fits-all.
What lands in someone’s inbox at 9 a.m. in New York might hit a London subscriber at 2 p.m. and someone in Sydney at midnight. If you don’t plan for this, you risk sending your most important campaigns at times when customers are least likely to open—or worse, when their inboxes are already buried by competitors.
- Local send times → Segment lists by geography and deliver in each audience’s morning/evening window.
- Proximity batching → For concentrated regions (e.g., US/Canada), choose a single anchor timezone (EST or PST) to keep execution simple.
Your send windows should already be backed by historical data – don’t wait until Black Friday to experiment. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are unlike any other time of year. Inbox competition skyrockets, consumer attention is increasingly fragmented, and even minor timing mistakes can have outsized consequences.
Contingency Planning for the Unexpected
This is definitely the time of year that puts everything tech-related under pressure: Websites crash, inventory runs out, platforms like Klaviyo or Shopify glitch. To stay ahead, here’s what to do:
- Schedule campaigns 4–5 days in advance and triple-check the details.
- Confirm inventory levels with clients in advance to ensure timely delivery.
- Have backup campaigns/offers ready in case products sell out.
- Keep alternate discount codes prepared in case one fails.
We like to plan for any emergencies.
Our motto? Expect that something will break, and plan your safety nets accordingly.
Building a Campaign Calendar
Every BFCM strategy should be visualized in a content calendar. Here’s a simplified version of a typical rollout starting at the beginning of November:
November:
- Early bird offers (2–3 weeks before)
- Warm-up campaigns (product spotlights, bundles, sneak peeks)
BFCM Week:
- Monday–Wednesday → “Coming soon” hype campaigns
- Thanksgiving → Teaser or early access for VIPs
- Black Friday → 3–4 sends (launch, reminder, last call)
- Weekend → Additional deal extensions
- Cyber Monday → 3–4 sends mirroring BF cadence, with a fresh angle
Your calendar is your roadmap to success. Everything you need to execute a timely and successful (MAXIMIZED) campaign is in it. So, don’t skip this step!
The Key Takeaway & Next Steps
A flawless BFCM campaign doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of careful planning, precise execution, and smart contingency preparation. By starting early, strategically ramping up your frequency, aligning all channels, and double-checking every detail, your team can enter October and the BFCM season feeling confident and ready to scale.
Remember: The week of Black Friday should be about monitoring performance and reacting in real-time, not rushing to build last-minute campaigns. Plan early, plan smart, and your campaigns won’t just handle under pressure, they’ll excel.
