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It’s Friday.

Somewhere in a doc you haven’t opened since August, there’s a Black Friday plan with eleven ideas in it and no data behind a single one.

You’ve got six weeks to turn two of those into facts. Here’s what we’d test, what we’d skip, and a prompt that writes the first test for you. 👇

• → The one number in your sending strategy that’s wrong for almost everybody on your list

• → The prompt that turns one discount into four offers worth testing

• → The button nobody tests, and the five versions worth trying

• → The brand that moved $1M out of Meta and what it got back

• → The investor who was on the monthly subscription first

5 tests to run before Black Friday (while there's still time)

One of the biggest mistakes we see every year is brands treating Black Friday like a giant A/B test. New offers, new messaging, new creative, new segmentation, all at once, in the week every email matters most.

Get the testing out of the way now. Six weeks is enough to gather real data, make adjustments, and go into the last week of November knowing instead of hoping. Here are the five we’d have on every list.

1. Test your offer positioning

A bigger discount doesn’t automatically mean more revenue. Often it’s how the offer is framed, not the offer itself, that moves somebody to buy.

Compare framings and watch revenue per recipient, not clicks or conversion rate.

• ✓ Percentage off vs dollar amount off

• ✓ Discount vs free gift

• ✓ Sitewide sale vs category-specific sale

• ✓ Buy more, save more vs a flat discount

2. Test your hero section

The hero sets the tone for everything under it. If it doesn’t grab attention or make the value obvious, most subscribers never get further.

Small creative changes move engagement more than you’d expect, especially in a season when every inbox is crowded.

• ✓ Hero product vs lifestyle imagery

• ✓ Benefit-first headline vs offer-first headline

• ✓ One featured product vs a collection

• ✓ Static image vs animated GIF

3. Test your segmentation strategy

One email rarely performs equally across every audience. The more relevant the message, the better its odds of driving a purchase.

Holiday campaigns are the best excuse you will ever have to stop sending every promotion to the whole list.

• ✓ VIP customers vs everyone else

• ✓ First-time customers vs repeat buyers

• ✓ Highly engaged subscribers vs your full list

• ✓ Recent purchasers vs lapsed customers

4. Test your product recommendations

Recommendation blocks usually end up an afterthought, and they are one of the easiest ways to lift average order value.

The right recommendation should read like a natural next step, not a second sales pitch.

• ✓ Best sellers

• ✓ Frequently bought together

• ✓ Recently viewed

• ✓ Complete the routine

• ✓ Staff favorites

5. Test your CTA

Everybody tests subject lines. Almost nobody tests the button people actually click. A clearer, more specific CTA can lift click-through without changing anything else in the email.

Keep each test to one variable so you can tell what moved the number.

• ✓ Shop now vs claim my offer

• ✓ Build my bundle

• ✓ Get early access

• ✓ See best sellers

• ✓ Unlock my discount

Black Friday isn’t the week to wonder which offer performs best, or whether a different audience would have converted harder. Those questions are a lot cheaper to answer now, while there is still time to collect data and act on it.

The brands that win Q4 aren’t running more tests than everyone else. They ran the right ones earlier.

Section one of today’s article says to test how the offer is framed before you test the offer itself. Here is the prompt that writes the test for you.

Paste it into ChatGPT or Claude with your planned promo underneath:

The last line is the part that earns its keep. Ask a model for four options and it hands you four and leaves the choosing to you, which is how eleven ideas end up in a doc nobody opens.

Ruggable moved $1M out of Meta and into creators

About 10% of total marketing spend has shifted from performance channels into influencers and connected TV since last August, per Modern Retail. The creator program did roughly $3 million in revenue in month one, doubled in month two and tripled by month three. Influencer management went from a team on spreadsheets and DMs to one person. Brand spend grows another 15 to 20% next year.

A self-funded hair extension brand priced at $425

Alex Brown spent two decades as a celebrity stylist, including a stint assisting Jen Atkin, and launched Ruti Ruti on August 31, per Beauty Independent. Self-funded, no outside money, no retail. A seven-piece set starts at $425, a four-piece at $225, in 15 shades, aimed at fine to medium density hair rather than more hair.

Two details worth stealing. Every set ships with a sample weft so you can check the color before opening the box, and customers can send a photo for a custom match. That is a return rate problem solved in the packaging instead of the policy page.

The investor was on the monthly subscription first

Something & Nothing raised a $6.4 million seed led by Venrex, per Food Business News, taking the premium soda brand founded by Olly Dixon and Rupert Pugsley in 2020 to $15.7 million total. It sells through H-E-B, Whole Foods, Erewhon, Amazon and its own site. Venrex co-founder Mark Esiri said he was a genuine customer first, on a monthly subscription, before he was an investor.

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me. If this gave you an idea for your next send, share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS: Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

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