14 Cyber Monday email examples and tips for maximum sales

This article will help by introducing 14 of our favorite Cyber Monday email examples and key takeaways from each one. We’ll also dive into best practices, Cyber Monday email timing schedules, and marketing ideas you can use to make this your best year yet.

Cyber Monday is the busiest shopping day of the year. In 2023, people spent $12.4 billion—that’s $2.5 billion more than was spent on Black Friday! 

Making the most of the shopping frenzy is the perfect opportunity to generate boatloads of extra income. Here are 3 essential Cyber Monday marketing ideas to get you started. 

Create a sale and promote it in your newsletter

An easy way to make sales on Cyber Monday is to promote your discounts in your newsletter. Since your email list is full of people already interested in your brand, a simple discount can be the encouragement they need to buy again. 

While promoting your sale with a newsletter seems like a simple strategy, it can have a huge impact. Online store KC Tool put off creating a post-Thanksgiving sale, but when it finally did, the brand had one of its best days ever: All thanks to promoting the sale in their email list.

Offer a lead magnet to generate new customers 

Cyber Monday is a great opportunity to bring new people onto your list. Create an offer that potential shoppers can’t resist and give it away in exchange for an email address. Use forms and pop-ups to promote the lead magnet on your website.

Once you’ve got someone’s contact details, you can promote your Black Friday sale and all future sales to them directly. 

Here are 2 Cyber Monday offers you could create to generate newsletter subscribers:

1. Give people who sign up for your email list early access to the Cyber Monday sale. Then send the offers to your list a day before you promote them on your website. The downside is this may cause people to put off buying until the day of the sale.

2. Offer an extra discount to anyone who signs up for your email list during the Black Friday period. The discount means you’ll earn less per purchase, but you’ll get the opportunity to make future sales and increase the number of sales you make.

E-commerce store Fridja used the latter strategy to boost revenue and grow its list during the holiday season. The brand used a pop-up to offer anyone who joined the mailing list an additional 10% off the sale price of its small home appliances. 

Fridja then used a simple welcome email automation to send the discount the moment someone signed up for the list via a relevant form. 

Encourage people to sign up for longer subscriptions

Cyber Monday isn’t just for e-commerce sellers. Subscription businesses like newsletters, online courses, communities, publishers and software companies can also bring in big sales with a Cyber Monday offer. 

That’s exactly what we did last year. Our Cyber Week offer included a 90% discount off the first month of a monthly subscription for new customers, and a 33% discount off annual plans to encourage people on monthly plans to sign up for a longer period. We had hundreds of people sign up for the latter offer, resulting in a big boost in retention.

Sending emails at the optimum times can help build sales. Here are some Cyber Monday email timing tips you can use to send your campaigns at the right time.

Start early

It’s common practice to tell people about your sale in the days leading up to it. This builds anticipation and lets people know not to spend their money elsewhere! 

Consider sending an email in the days before your sale opens mentioning your upcoming discounts and letting people sign up to be alerted when they start.

Send multiple emails

A good campaign involves multiple emails that build anticipation the week before Cyber Monday and continue until the sale ends. Many businesses combine Cyber Monday with Black Friday. In this case, your email sequence will include Black Friday promotions too.  

Here’s a typical series of emails you can use:

• Email 1: Send in the days before your sale to build anticipation

• Email 2: Send as soon as your sale opens so people can buy right away

• Email 3: Send a reminder to give people who missed the first email a chance to buy. You may want to send multiple reminders or add sale reminders to other campaigns sent during this period

• Email 4: Send an update email if relevant. This could include information such as further discounts, new products being added to your sale, or new offers 

• Email 5: Send a message targeted at customers who showed interest in your product but didn’t buy. For example, send an extra discount to people who click on the link to your product 

• Email 6: Send a last-chance email letting people know they don’t have long left to take advantage of your offer. Build urgency with a countdown timer or limited stock warnings    

You don’t need to use all the above emails when creating your Cyber Monday email sequence. Just choose the ones that make the most sense for your business or product and adapt the ideas to your needs. 

Marketing automation can help 

If you're worried you won’t have time to send emails during such a busy time of year, you can use automation to streamline your Cyber Monday email marketing campaign. 

Start by using MailerLite to create and schedule your campaign to go out at the time of your choosing. Create your campaign as usual, then choose Send later from the Schedule your campaign section. Finally, set the time and timezone that your campaign will start sending. 

You can also create workflows to automate the sending of specific emails. Here are some Cyber Monday-related email automation examples:

• Send abandoned cart emails to people who start the checkout process but don’t complete the purchase. These are some of the highest converting types of emails as they go to people who have a proven interest in your product 

• Send follow-up emails promoting your product to people who have clicked on links in your campaigns but not made a purchase

• Resend your emails to people who didn’t open the first message to ensure as many people as possible see the offer

These are just some ideas—you can automate emails based on a ton of different triggers. Read this article to find out more about 10 automation triggers you can use.

There’s no universal method for creating an effective Cyber Monday email campaign. But these Cyber Monday email examples highlight some of your best options. For each example, we’ve included a screenshot and an explanation of the key lesson.

1. Herschel Supply Co.: Make your offer clear

Use your email design to make your offer super clear and direct people to your sales page. This Cyber Monday email example from Herschel Supply Co. does this perfectly. 

• The black-and-white design focuses on the Cyber Monday deal

• The email highlights the three main offers and relevant discount codes

• It includes a single call-to-action (CTA) button that leads to the sale

Key takeaway: When creating your Cyber Monday email, make sure your offer is instantly obvious. Include a link to the sale to make buying as easy as possible.

2. Loft: Add an animation

Interactive content draws the reader's attention. When you have their attention, you can send them to your sales page. This creative Cyber Monday email example by Loft does this well.

• The email uses a cool loading bar GIF, which relates to the “Start loading up your closet” theme

• The bright pink highlights stand out, making the CTA button super clickable

• The offer is obvious thanks to the huge text 

Key takeaway: Highlight elements in your email by turning them into an animated GIF. You’ll stand out among all the non-animated emails in the recipient’s inbox.

3. MailerLite: Use a countdown timer

Countdown timers create a sense of urgency—recipients know they must act soon to take advantage of the deal. We used one in our Cyber Monday promotion email.

• The email has two countdown timers for maximum effect 

• The CTA button is directly below the timer, so subscribers can take action immediately

• The copy highlights the limited nature of the offer. It mentions that this is a “Last chance,” that the sale is “Practically over” and the offer is “Today only”

Key takeaway: Most Cyber Monday sales run for a limited period. Make this clear with your copy, headers and countdown timers. 

4. Soccer.com: Use personalization

People’s inboxes are full of offers during the holiday shopping period. Stand out by adding personalization to your campaign, just like this Soccer.com email.

• The subject line contains the subscriber’s name

• The email makes the Cyber Monday deals super clear

• Dynamic content allows the brand to send offers related to the buyer 

Key takeaway: Personalizing emails is super easy if you have the right tools. Use the customer’s name in your copy or include content based on the products they have bought previously.

5. Quiz: Connect email with your social media accounts

Extend the reach of your campaign by connecting your newsletter with your social media channels, just like Quiz did in its Cyber Monday email.

• The email asks people to add the brand on Snapchat

• The promise of behind-the-scenes photoshoot content is an appealing offer

• The account name is super clear, which makes it easy for people to add the brand

Key takeaway: Think about how to connect your email and social campaigns. Ask for follows, tell people to share their product experience or embed social media posts.

6. Everlane: Take a different approach

The best way to stand out is to go against the grain. Clothing brand Everlane did this to great effect in a recent Cyber Monday email.

• The brand stands out by opening with ‘This is not a sale” 

• The email points out that the brand’s prices are already 50% lower than most retailers, satisfying the Cyber Monday craving for a bargain

• It includes a single link to the collection so buying is easy

Key takeaways: Send an email promoting your online store to generate sales, even if you don’t want to offer a Cyber Monday discount. 

7. Perigold: Use cart abandonment emails

Customers often forget about their order or leave your shop to browse other deals. When this happens, abandoned cart emails get them back to your store. 

Perigold’s abandoned cart email ticks all the boxes of an effective message.

• The email has an image of the product

• It has a single link back to the shopping page

• It has a simple design that isn’t too pushy

Key takeaways: Abandoned cart emails are an effective way to get customers to complete their purchases. Connect MailerLite with your e-commerce platform to set them up, then read this article to learn how to create an abandoned cart email. 

8. Zenni Optical: Send a last-chance email

Remind subscribers about your Cyber Monday offer by sending a last-chance email before it ends, just like Zenni Optical does in this email. 

• The email mentions that this is the last chance to shop the sale

• The text highlights exactly when the sale will end

• The email includes product images with links readers can use to buy

Key takeaways: With so many sales going on, people may forget about yours. A last-chance email is a good reminder. 

9. Sleep Doctor: Extend your sale

Sleep Doctor sent out an email extending its sale. This is the last chance for people who missed out on the original sale to finally make a purchase. 

• The email is personalized with the recipient's name

• It has a super simple design with 4 main elements: a headline, an image, the offer, and a CTA button

• The email copy is fun yet adds urgency by highlighting that the deal ends on Wednesday

Key takeaways: Consider extending your sale by a short period to let people make a final purchase. Don’t overuse this tactic though as it will lessen the impact of your original deadline.  

10. Periodic Audio: Create a VIP offer

There are so many Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales that it’s hard to make customers feel special at this time of year. Get around this by creating a sale just for VIPs. 

Periodic Audio’s eye-catching VIP offer works for the following reasons:

• The offer is only for existing customers

• Combining a 50% discount with early access is very generous

• The brand builds a connection by calling VIP customers' family and friends

Key takeaways: If you know who your most loyal customers are, create an offer just for them. If you don’t know your loyal customers, segment your email list to find out!

11. Ryanair: Use a limited-time offer

Many Cyber Monday sales start on Black Friday and continue until the following week. This gives customers more opportunities to buy but makes the sale less urgent. 

Get around this by creating a sale that only lasts for a single day, just like Ryanair did in this email.  

• The email mentions the sale is for 24 hours only

• It includes a countdown timer to highlight the fact

• It advertises really low prices

Key takeaway: Create a 24-hour sale and make it clear that your offer only stands for a day, so recipients know they have to buy now.  

12. Teachable: Team up with other businesses

Teachable teamed up with Pat Flynn to offer his course about building online courses to people who take up the Teachable Cyber Monday deal. This increases the value of the offer while helping new signups launch their course.

• The course teaches skills that are valuable to new Teachable customers

• It’s only available for the first 200 buyers, which gives the offer a sense of urgency

• The course’s high ticket price makes the deal even more appealing

Key takeaways: Find other brands with audiences similar to yours and see if you can create a Cyber Monday offer that’s even more appealing to potential buyers.

13. Later: Promote your SaaS or digital product offer

Cyber Monday and Black Friday aren’t only for physical products. Software businesses and digital product sellers can also get involved. 

Social media tool Later created a special Cyber Monday offer and promoted it via email.

• The offer is clear—get two weeks of the service for free

• The copy focuses on the tool’s value 

• It includes super clear CTA buttons

Key takeaways: Create a Cyber Monday offer to convert customers who stay with you beyond the holiday shopping period. 

14. GQ: Promote affiliate offers

You don’t need a product to sell to get in on the Cyber Monday action. GQ recommends other brands’ products in its newsletter and earns a commission when someone buys after clicking through one of its links. 

• Product boxes show an image of each item, the price, a description, and a clear link to the relevant store

• The copy in the description is fun and entices readers to buy

• The products are carefully selected to appeal to GQ’s audience

Key takeaways: Promoting affiliate offers is a good way to earn if you have a newsletter but no product to sell. Choose the products carefully so they appeal to your audience.

Get a head start on your Cyber Monday emails with a customizable template. We have templates built especially for Cyber Monday and Black Friday, as well as plenty of others that you could easily edit to be relevant. 

Use any of these templates today by signing up for a free trial of MailerLite, creating a campaign, and then choosing the template you wantto use. You can then customize them by adding new content relevant to your offer and changing the fonts and colors so they match your brand.

Focusing on your subject line is a great way to increase the open rates of your Cyber Monday emails. There are many strategies you can use to make your emails stand out in the inbox. 

Here are some of our favorites.

• Use the word Cyber Monday 

• Add a discount percentage

• Use words like biggest sale, save, discount, off, coupon, now and deal

• Create a sense of urgency (“Black Friday sale starts NOW”, “Cyber Monday ends in 4 hours” or “Last Chance to Save”)

• Use personalization fields to add the recipient’s name to the subject line

You can also play around with emojis in your email subject lines, this is a great way to make your brand feel fun and friendly. 

If you’re unsure about the types of content that lead to more opens, use MailerLite’s A/B testing tool to discover the highest-performing Cyber Monday email subject lines. 

You choose 2 subject lines for your campaign and MailerLite sends each one to a small percentage of your audience. The tool then checks to see which version gets the most opens and sends the winning variant to the remainder of your email list.

You can use these subject lines as provided or customize them to further speak to your audience.

Now you’ve seen some great Cyber Monday emails, it’s time to start crafting your own messages. Just be sure to keep these best practices in mind before you start. 

Take steps to avoid the spam folder 

45.6% of emails sent every day are considered spam. Even the best-planned emails are ineffective if they get lumped in with these emails and sent to the spam folder. 

The good news is that there are things you can do to stop this from happening. Take control of your email deliverability and reach the spam folder by cleaning your list, segmenting subscribers based on engagement, optimizing content for inbox placement and removing inactive subscribers from the list. 

Learn exactly how to do this in our Black Friday, Cyber Monday email deliverability course. It contains all you need to ensure your emails reach your subscribers’ inboxes maximizing your opportunities to make sales during the period. 

Make your newsletter mobile-friendly

53.2% of holiday sales are predicted to come from mobile in 2024. If people can’t read your newsletter, it will kill your conversions. Make sure you send mobile-friendly newsletters so your email looks good on all devices. 

All emails designed with MailerLite’s Drag & drop editor are responsive and display well on any screen size.

Include a clear CTA and write impactful copy

When writing your Cyber Monday email, make sure your email copy drives readers to buy. 

You don’t have to be an expert copywriter to write effective emails. Just include the following points in your copy where relevant:

• What the offer is

• How the product benefits the reader

• Why they should buy now (limited stock, limited time offer, first 100 people get the offer, etc)

• How they can take advantage of the offer 

Once you’ve made your offer clear, finish off with an email call-to-action that encourages clicks and sends people to the exact page on your website where they can buy your product. Also, check out our list of copywriting tips to find out more about writing effective emails. Hit the link below to find out more.

Maximize sales with recommended products

Amazon generates a big chunk of its revenue from product recommendations. Take a page from the e-commerce giant’s playbook by promoting recommended products in your Cyber Monday emails.

MailerLite customers with a connected e-commerce store can send product emails with recommendations based on previously bought products.

Target messages with personalization and segmentation

Personalization and segmentation can help you send messages that are targeted at each subscriber. 

Personalization lets you add information from a custom field in a subscriber’s profile to your email text. Typically this will be the person’s name, but it can be any information you collect such as their company, interests, or industry. The text changes depending on the person who receives the email. 

Segmentation lets you group customers automatically based on any number of factors such as campaign engagement, custom field data, purchases, their location, or how they joined your list. You can even create segments based on multiple conditions. 

Once set up, you can then send different emails to each group that are designed to appeal to the people on the list. 

Cyber Monday is an important online shopping day for retailers, and holiday email marketing is an excellent way to promote your brand. Use the examples and tips in this article to spice up your campaigns and give them the best chance of success.

For more holiday-themed shopping email examples, check out our article on the best Black Friday emails here. We also have a library of Cyber Monday and other holiday email templates you can use to create your campaigns.

Editor's note: This article was originally published in October 2022, but has been updated with fresh ideas and examples.