The Black Friday Playbook
Bird
20 Nov 2025
1 min read
How Marketers Win with Unified Omnichannel Campaigns—and How Bird Makes It Happen
Most retailers send 15+ promotional messages during Cyber Weekend across email, SMS, and WhatsApp. But when each channel operates through a different platform with separate workflows, you get duplicate sends, conflicting messages, and no visibility into what's actually driving revenue.
The top-performing retailers approach Black Friday differently. They orchestrate campaigns across all channels from a single platform, creating customer journeys that adapt based on real-time behavior. Research shows that marketers using three or more channels earn a 287% higher purchase rate than those using single-channel campaigns.
Bird powers these unified campaigns for hundreds of retailers during Black Friday. Our platform connects email, SMS, and WhatsApp in a single workflow—so you can trigger a text when someone doesn't open an email, send a WhatsApp reminder to your VIP segment, or automatically shift budget to your best-performing channel. Everything you need to execute an intelligent omnichannel strategy lives in one place.
Here's what we've learned from processing billions of messages during Cyber Weekend—and the playbook top retailers use to turn Black Friday from chaos into their most profitable weekend of the year.
Start with Segmentation, Not Blasting
The biggest mistake retailers make is treating Black Friday like a megaphone opportunity. They blast the same message to everyone, across every channel, hoping something sticks.
Top performers do the opposite. They segment ruthlessly before the weekend even starts:
VIP tier customers get early access via WhatsApp 48 hours before public launch. WhatsApp messages achieve 98% open rates and feel more exclusive than email—perfect for your highest-value segment.
Engaged email subscribers receive the full catalog with detailed product descriptions and comparison tools. Email open rates during Black Friday average 25.4%, making it ideal for customers who want to browse and compare before buying.
SMS-opt-in list gets flash sale alerts and time-sensitive offers. During Black Friday 2023, SMS campaigns achieved 5.58% click rates compared to email's 1.41%—because texts demand immediate attention.
Cart abandoners enter automated recovery flows across all three channels. With proper orchestration, you can recover up to 60% of abandoned carts by reaching customers on their preferred channel at the right moment.
The key is using Bird's unified platform to ensure these segments never overlap in ways that annoy customers. Someone who opened your WhatsApp message doesn't need the same offer via email two hours later.
Channel Selection: The Right Message, The Right Medium
The 72-Hour Strategy
Black Friday isn't one day anymore. Top retailers spread campaigns across 72+ hours:
Thursday Evening (Thanksgiving)
Email: Preview tomorrow's deals to build anticipation
SMS: Early access code for your most engaged customers
WhatsApp: VIP-only pre-launch for top 10% of customers
Friday Morning (6-10 AM)
Email: Full sale announcement with hero products
SMS: "Doors open" message with bestsellers
WhatsApp: Personal shopping assistance for VIPs
Friday Afternoon (12-6 PM)
Email: "Still deciding?" messages with social proof
SMS: Flash sale alerts for limited inventory items
WhatsApp: Cart abandonment recovery starts
Friday Evening (6 PM-Midnight)
Email: Last chance messaging
SMS: Only to customers who showed intent but didn't convert
WhatsApp: High-value cart recovery only
Saturday-Sunday
Continue the sale with different product focuses
Use data from Friday to double down on what worked
Reserve SMS for only the most compelling offers
Cyber Monday
Treat as a distinct event with online-exclusive offers
Email takes the lead here (69% of consumers prefer receiving holiday deal information via email)
SMS for last-call urgency in final hours
Real-Time Optimization Changes the Game
This is where unified platforms create the biggest advantage. When all your channels run through separate tools, you're flying blind. You can't see what's working until days later when you manually compile reports.
Bird's platform shows you real-time performance across all channels simultaneously. That means you can:
Shift budget mid-campaign. If your SMS messages are converting at 3x your email rate by Friday afternoon, you can send more SMS messages to your remaining segments instead of sticking to a predetermined plan.
Kill underperformers fast. If a particular offer is getting opened but not clicked, pull it and replace it with something else within the hour—not next year.
Replicate winners across channels. When you identify your top-performing message, you can adapt it for other channels immediately. A subject line crushing it in email might become your next SMS alert.
Prevent oversaturation. The platform tracks who's receiving what across all channels. If someone opened your WhatsApp message, clicked through, but didn't buy, you can automatically suppress them from your next email blast and instead put them in a different sequence.
Post-Purchase: Where Most Retailers Leave Money on the Table
The sale doesn't end at checkout. In fact, Black Friday buyers are in a perfect mindset to buy again—they're already primed for deals and their wallets are open.
Smart retailers use omnichannel campaigns for post-purchase engagement:
Immediate confirmation (within 5 minutes via email + SMS)
Order details and timeline
Upsell: "Complete the collection" or "Customers also bought"
Shipping notifications (via SMS or WhatsApp based on preference)
Real-time tracking updates
Reduces "Where is my order?" support tickets by 40% — Needs source.
Delivery confirmation (via email)
Product care instructions
Review request with incentive
"Shop the rest of the sale" with items similar to what they bought
7-day follow-up (via email)
"How's your purchase?" check-in
Cross-sell related products
Loyalty program enrollment
Brands using omnichannel customer engagement retain 89% of their customers, compared to 33% for brands with weak omnichannel engagement. That retention compounds over time—turning one Black Friday sale into a long-term customer relationship.
How Bird Enables All of This
Everything in this playbook is possible when your channels work together instead of competing for budget and attention.
Bird's platform gives you:
Unified customer profiles - See every interaction across email, SMS, and WhatsApp in one place. Know exactly who's engaged, who's ignoring you, and who's ready to buy.
Cross-channel automation - Build journeys that span channels automatically. "If email not opened in 4 hours, send SMS. If SMS clicked, send WhatsApp follow-up." No manual work, no gaps.
Real-time analytics - One dashboard showing performance across all channels. Make decisions based on what's happening right now, not last week's data.
AI-powered optimization - Let the platform determine the best channel and timing for each customer based on their behavior patterns.
Enterprise deliverability - Your messages actually reach inboxes and phones. We process billions of messages during peak periods without degradation.
The retailers who dominate Black Friday don't just work harder—they work smarter. They let unified platforms handle the orchestration while they focus on strategy, creative, and customer experience.
Your Next Steps
Black Friday 2025 is 1 week away. If you're still running your channels in silos, now's the time to unify them. The setup work you do now—building segments, creating cross-channel automation, testing workflows—pays off exponentially when you're processing thousands of orders per hour.
Start with your VIP segment. Build one unified journey that moves them from WhatsApp early access, to email product details, to SMS urgency. Get that working perfectly. Then scale it to your full customer base.
The brands winning Black Friday aren't sending more messages. They're sending smarter ones. And they're doing it from a single platform that makes omnichannel strategy possible, not painful.
