If the Super Bowl is the grand stage for advertisers, Cyber Week is the ultimate arena for performance and lifecycle marketers. Across industries, brands pull out all the stops to engage customers and deliver financial results during the year’s most anticipated shopping event.
This year’s roundup draws inspiration from examples featured on Really Good Emails (RGE), showcasing a mix of standout campaigns.
From bold designs and engaging themes to effective cross-channel promotion, these holiday customer engagement tactics provide insights and practical takeaways to help elevate your campaigns in 2025.
Top Holiday Customer Engagement Tactics in 2024
Eye-Catching Layouts and Designs
Standing out in a crowded inbox during Cyber Week requires visuals that immediately grab attention. The following emails exemplify how clean layouts, bold visuals, and intuitive designs can guide readers from offer to action seamlessly.
Specialized: Creative Typography Meets Bold Offers
Specialized grabs attention with striking product imagery arranged in a clean, grid-style design that stands out in the inbox.
The bold red “Save” callouts and clear price reductions highlight value at a glance, guiding readers seamlessly to product details and the prominent “Shop Now” buttons.
GOAT: Bold, Edgy, and Interactive
GOAT’s Black Friday email pairs a dark, edgy design with interactive excitement. With $10 million in prizes, trivia, and exclusive drops, the sleek “Download Now” buttons make taking action effortless.
By blending style, exclusivity, and interactivity, GOAT delivers a standout Black Friday experience.
Altitude Sports: Balancing Elegance and Value
Altitude Sports combines a bright, gradient green design with bold, contrasting text to grab attention. The “CYBER MONDAY” header immediately pops, while the countdown timer and “disappearing tonight” messaging create a subtle but effective sense of urgency.
The clean layout and clear category buttons like “Shop All Discounts” make navigation easy, ensuring readers can act quickly before deals end.
Pro Tip: Streamline your email design process with Iterable’s drag-and-drop editor.
Whether you’re aiming for clean grid layouts like Specialized, bold and interactive designs like GOAT, or a balanced, elegant look like Altitude Sports, Iterable’s intuitive interface allows you to easily drag elements into place without writing a single line of code.
This allows your team to focus more on creating stunning, eye-catching visuals that guide customers to action while maintaining flexibility and consistency across your campaigns.
Themes That Captured Attention
This year’s Cyber Week messages stood out not just for their deals, but for how they creatively reflected brand identity, exclusivity, and uniqueness.
Here’s how some brands leveraged these themes to leave a lasting impression.
Field Station: Trade Shopping for Adventure
Field Station breaks the mold with a Black Friday campaign that trades retail chaos for relaxation and adventure.
Fun, nature-focused imagery, and calming messaging encourage readers to choose meaningful experiences over material purchases, perfectly capturing the brand’s adventurous and outdoorsy spirit—with the 40% off savings providing the perfect incentive to turn inspiration into action.
Miller’s Ale House: Celebrate the Season With Ease
Miller’s Ale House captures the warmth of holiday gatherings with vibrant food imagery and a festive design.
Clear calls-to-action guide readers to order online or plan a visit, ensuring seasonal favorites are just a click away.
Pro Tip: Use Iterable’s template builder to craft reusable, on-brand designs that reflect your unique identity and take it further with AI-powered personalization to deliver tailored messages that resonate individually with each recipient.
Cross-Channel Strategies That Work
Seamlessly connecting with customers across channels was a hallmark of best practice Cyber Week campaigns. Brands that mastered cross-channel strategies ensured consistent messaging while leveraging each platform’s strengths to engage their audience effectively.
This campaign from IPSY, one of Iterable’s customers, led by Nikki Russo, CRM Marketing Manager, and Amanda Ashline, CRM Associate Marketing Manager, shows us how consistent messaging and engaging content can boost customer interaction across channels.
Ipsy: Seamless Promotion Across Channels
IPSY engages customers with a unified Black Friday campaign across email and SMS. Bold, high-contrast emails feature eye-catching visuals, interactive elements like spin-to-save games, and clear calls-to-action.
This excitement is reinforced with a well-timed SMS that directs users straight to the deals, creating a seamless experience that keeps IPSY top-of-mind.
Pro Tip: Use Iterable’s Channel Optimization to automatically send messages on channels where each customer is most likely to engage.
By leveraging historical, behavioral data, you can ensure consistent messaging while maximizing the unique strengths of email, push, and SMS messages to create a seamless cross-channel experience.
Building Momentum and Urgency
The best campaigns don’t just deliver deals—they strategically guide customers through Cyber Week by building anticipation early and creating urgency at key moments.
From exclusive early access to final countdown reminders, these messages keep momentum high and motivate readers to act before time runs out.
Organics Ocean: Early Access to Drive Engagement
Organics Ocean gets ahead of the competition by offering exclusive early access to Black Friday deals.
The bold, focused design and direct call-to-action make readers feel like VIPs while encouraging them to shop before everyone else.
Hero Cosmetics: Building to the Final Countdown
Hero Cosmetics sets the tone with a compelling subject line—“<24 hours left. 20% off. The time is now. ⏰”—immediately creating urgency before the email is even opened.
The message reinforces this final push with a repetitive “Last day” theme, engaging visuals, and product highlights, making it clear that time is running out to save.
Pro Tip: Use Iterable’s Send Time Optimization and Frequency Optimization to reach customers when they’re most likely to engage.
By delivering messages at the ideal time and cadence, you can build urgency and maintain momentum without overwhelming your audience during high-stakes campaigns like Cyber Week.
Wrapping It All Up 🎁
Cyber Week 2024 demonstrated the power of thoughtful, well-executed campaigns to cut through the noise and drive meaningful holiday customer engagement.
Brands leveraged a combination of creative design, compelling messaging, and strategic timing to connect with their audiences during one of the busiest shopping seasons of the year.
By crafting cohesive experiences that resonated across channels, marketers effectively captured attention and inspired action when it mattered most.
It’s important to note that while this roundup didn’t focus specifically on personalization, it remains a crucial component of successful cross-channel messaging—especially during Cyber Week, when competition for screen time is at its peak.
Tailoring content to individual customer preferences can take campaigns to the next level, fostering deeper connections and driving higher conversions.
From personalized subject lines to product recommendations based on customer behavior, incorporating personalization can transform a good campaign into a truly outstanding one.
Finally, successful execution of these strategies requires more than creativity—it demands a robust orchestration platform.
The ability to set up, time, and automate the flow of cross-channel messages ensures every touchpoint works in harmony, maximizing impact without overwhelming your audience.
A platform that seamlessly integrates all channels and more allows marketers to stay nimble and adapt to real-time performance insights.
With creativity, sharp strategies, and the right tools, your Cyber Week campaigns won’t just score big—they’ll keep delivering long after the final checkout.
To put these holiday customer engagement tactics into practice with Iterable’s AI-powered, data-driven activation capabilities, schedule a demo today.