Black Friday 2026: five practical email and SMS tips for small businesses

Black Friday lands on Friday 27 November this year, with Cyber Monday following on 30 November. Australians are expected to spend a record $7.2 billion over those four days, according to the Australian Retail Council, a 5.5 per cent lift on last year (AAP, 10 November 2026).

That is a lot of money changing hands. It is also a lot of noise. Every big retailer in the country will be in your customers' inboxes that weekend, shouting about percentages.

Here is the good news for a small, local business: you do not have to out-shout them. You have something the big brands don't, which is a list of people who already know you, already trust you, and have already paid you. Talk to them properly and you can have a very good weekend without spending a cent on ads.

And you still have two weeks. Here are five practical things you can do between now and the 27th.

1. Warm up your list now, before the noise starts

If the first email your customers have had from you all year arrives on Black Friday morning, it is going to look like every other sale email in the pile. Worse, if your list has gone quiet, a sudden big send can bounce and land you in the spam folder right when it matters.

So send something useful this week or next. Not a sale, just a genuinely helpful email: a seasonal tip, a recent job you are proud of, a quick update on your Christmas hours. It reminds people who you are, so when your Black Friday email arrives they open it as a familiar name rather than a stranger.

While you are at it, give your list a quick tidy. Remove any addresses that bounced last time, and check the people on your list actually agreed to hear from you. A smaller list of people who want your emails will always beat a big list of people who don't.

2. Make one clear offer (and it doesn't have to be a discount)

The most common mistake we see is a Black Friday email with five different deals, three conditions and no clear end date. People skim it, get confused and move on. Pick one offer, say it plainly, and tell them exactly when it ends.

It also doesn't have to be a big percentage off. Discounting eats into your margin, and Christmas is usually the more profitable season anyway. Deloitte's Retail Report 2026 found 86 per cent of retailers rate Christmas as profitable or highly profitable, compared with 76 per cent for Black Friday (ChannelNews, reporting Deloitte).

Service businesses in particular can offer value instead of a discount. A few ideas:

• A bonus with a booking, such as a free safety check, a free add-on service or an extra treatment.
• Priority booking for the busy weeks before Christmas, for anyone who books over the weekend.
• Gift voucher bonuses, such as a $20 bonus voucher with every $100 voucher. Great for Christmas gifts, and the money is in the bank now.
• Early access for your best customers, opening the offer to them a day before everyone else.

Whatever you choose, put the offer in your subject line and in the first two lines of your email. If someone only reads that far, they should still know exactly what is on offer and when it ends.

3. Plan a short sequence, not a single email

One email on Friday morning is easy to miss, especially on the busiest inbox day of the year. A short, planned sequence gives people a few chances to see it, without being annoying. Here is a simple plan that works for most small businesses:

• Tuesday 24 or Wednesday 25 November: a heads-up email, or early access for your best customers.
• Friday 27 November, morning: the launch email to everyone, with your one clear offer.
• Saturday 28 or Sunday 29 November: resend to the people who didn't open it, with a new subject line.
• Monday 30 November, afternoon: a short "last chance" email, plus a text message (see tip 4).

One important rule: once someone has bought or booked, take them off the reminder emails. Nothing says "we're not paying attention" like a "last chance!" email to someone who already said yes.

Not sure how often is too often the rest of the year? We cover that in how often should you send an email newsletter.

4. Save SMS for the moments that matter

Email is where you tell the story. SMS is the tap on the shoulder. Text messages get read quickly, which makes them perfect for time-sensitive moments, and also very easy to overdo.

For Black Friday, two texts is plenty: one when the offer goes live, and one a few hours before it ends. For a service business, that might be the only time you text your customers about an offer this quarter, which is exactly why it works.

A few rules for every text you send:

• Put your business name first, so people know straight away who it is from.
• Keep it under 160 characters, with one link and one action.
• Only text people who have agreed to hear from you, and always include a way to opt out. Australia's Spam Act applies to SMS just as it does to email.
• Send at a sensible time. Nobody wants a sale text at 6am on a Saturday.

We go deeper on texts that win work in SMS and automated follow-ups. It is written for electricians, but the ideas work for almost any service business.

5. Write for the phone and the crowded inbox

Most of your customers will read your Black Friday email on their phone, probably while scrolling past dozens of others. Make it easy for them.

• Make the subject line specific, not shouty. "BLACK FRIDAY MEGA SALE!!!" looks like everyone else. "Free safety check with any booking this weekend" tells them exactly what is in it for them.
• Use the preview text. That little line under the subject is free space. Use it to add the end date or the second half of your offer.
• One big, tap-friendly button. "Book now" or "Get your voucher", not a row of tiny links.
• Keep it short. The offer, why it is worth it, when it ends, and the button. That's it.
• Send yourself a test first. Open it on your phone, tap every link and check the button actually works.

And on Tuesday 1 December, say thank you

Once the weekend is over, send a short thank-you to everyone who bought or booked. Then have a look at what worked: which email brought in the most sales, and how many came from the text messages. Those numbers are gold when you plan next year.

The people who bought from you over Black Friday are also some of your warmest customers heading into Christmas. Look after them, and they will be the first to open your next email.

Want a hand with your Black Friday emails and texts?

Three Bites has been planning, writing and sending email and SMS campaigns for Australian businesses since 2017, and we are an official Mailchimp Academy Certified Partner. If you would like help getting your Black Friday, Cyber Monday or Christmas campaigns out the door, book a quick strategy call and we will talk through what makes sense for your customers.

And if you would rather never have to think about it again, our monthly email newsletter service is $290 a month, fully done for you. We plan, write, design, send and report, and all you do is approve the email.