It’s nearly pumpkin spice latte season again 🍁🍂🎃☕🍂🍁! And you know what that means – the biggest sales season of the year for small businesses is right around the corner: 4th Quarter.

This time of year, your customers are not only opening their emails, they’re actively seeking out compelling offers and great deals. They’re primed to make quick purchasing decisions and in the mood to buy. 😎 💸

Yes, we’re talking about Black Friday, but we’re not just talking about Black Friday. And yes, offering discounts is the most common strategy, but it’s not the only strategy.

Whether you’re selling courses, offering services, or running a small online shop, there’s a Q4 email strategy with your name on it. 

We’ve been in the trenches testing Black Friday and Q4 email campaigns for almost 10 years now, and in this post, we’re laying everything we’ve learned on the table – the good, the bad, and the surprising, to help you crush your year-end sales goals.

We’re also sharing a framework for planning your campaigns to help you make this your most successful 4th quarter yet.

But first, be sure to grab our free Monetize Your List Starter Kit before we dive in to help you put it all into action. 👇

Up first, some tea 🫖 😉 …

Q4 Email Promotion Strategies: What Worked For Us and What Didn’t

Before we pull back the curtain, keep in mind that every business and every market is different. The big takeaway, of course, is that you have to test things out to know what will work for your business and your audience, but hopefully the following gives you some helpful insight. 

First, let’s talk about what didn’t work…

Q4 & Black Friday Promo Strategies that Flopped

#1 Putting everything on sale 😭

We tried (because everything is worth testing at least once)… but no bueno here. We think it’s because there are just too many options to choose from and that’s overwhelming to our audience. Decision paralysis sets in and they choose nothing.

We’ve always had better luck with focused offers and messaging. 

Also, we’ve come to learn that our audience (awesome business owners like you) are looking for strategic investments to level up without breaking the bank, not just stuff that appears to be “on clearance.”

#2 “Kitchen Sink” Bundles of our “deep-inventory” products 😩

Meh. This looked good on paper and we were super excited about it: “Why not pull together a bunch of our products that we don’t promote as much and bundle them together for one price? We could create a “theme” and position those bundles around a specific topic or goal!” 

We worked hard on the messaging and we loved it, but it just didn’t fly. It just goes to show you that you never know until you try. 

If we had to guess, we think this didn’t work for us because people often buy a bundle so they can get that one really special thing – and we weren’t including any of our best sellers in the bundles.

#3 Offering “a different deal every day” during Black Friday week 🤯

Never again, my friend. This seemed clever to us at the time, but it was way too much effort for too little return – it just wasn’t focused enough and our audience got confused and frustrated. 

The same goes with offering multiple different products in the same email… we think it’s just too much mental work for people to process so they wind up getting overwhelmed with information overload.

Our Most Successful Q4 & Black Friday Promo Strategies 

Hopefully by now you’re catching on that you have to try different things to see what will work for your audience. Now here are some things that worked really well for us!

#1 New product launches 🙌

Absolute gangbusters. Introducing new products in the 4th quarter works so well for us, we often “hold products back” from launching until the timing is right. The seasonality of your business may be completely different, but we think this works for us because we have a pretty sophisticated business audience. They’re all about having the latest innovations, tools, and strategies. 

(That, and they’re looking for opportunities to get in all their business expenses before year-end.)

Some of our most lucrative and successful product launches have been when we’ve rolled them out during the 4th Quarter holiday season.

#2 “Black Friday Only” specials on products we don’t discount at any other time 🥳

Our audience goes wild for special discounts on products we never discount in any other circumstance or during any other time of year. We suspect that some people even wait to purchase certain products from us until they see our Black Friday discounts that we offer exclusively to our email subscribers.

For us, this has been a consistent winning formula.

#3 One KILLER Offer > Multiple “Pretty Good” ones 😘👌

Focusing on creating one killer offer has always worked better for us than having multiple “pretty good” deals for people to choose from. And it makes sense…

You can make your messaging laser-focused on that one great offer which makes it easier for your audience to understand and say “yes!” to. It also simplifies things for you and makes putting it together much easier. Win-win, yay!

I’ll say it one more time for good luck – what works for us might not work for you. You’ve got to give it a whirl and see how your audience responds to find your own magic formula, but I hope this gives you a good jumping off place.

Bonus 4th Quarter Lessons Learned

I wanted to include the following things we’ve learned along the way that don’t apply to any one specific promotion in particular, but 4th quarter promotional trends in general…

December is NOT just for gift-giving!

Don’t sleep on December for email promotions because you think what you sell isn’t “gifty” enough.

If you serve a business audience, for example, you might think that your products and services aren’t a good fit for seasonal promotions or flash sales. But remember: business owners often splurge on gifts for their business (a.k.a. investments) during 4th quarter.

We used to think December wasn’t ideal for our business, but instead of operating on that assumption, we tested running December promos and found it to be exactly the opposite. It’s actually one of our biggest promo revenue months of the year!

Remember the customer journey. It might feel like the marketing you’ve been doing all year long “isn’t working,” but many potential customers have been noticing and considering what you have to offer. The end of the year often provides the final push needed to make a decision. 

Whether it’s businesses looking to get their expenses in before the end of the year for tax purposes or people eager to start the new year with a bang, there’s just a built-in sense of urgency in the air and for the season that drives sales.

This is the time to capitalize on your customer’s “New Year, New Me” mindset

As the year winds down, people start thinking about investing in themselves. That “new year, new me” mindset kicks in and they’re thinking about:

• Gaining new skills or knowledge
• Committing to personal or professional growth
• Getting organized and boosting productivity
• Improving their health and wellness
• Setting fresh goals and achieving them

Imagine the possibilities! 

This is perfect timing for just about any business to show up with something special to help your customers end this year strong or kick off a fresh, new year.

If you think running seasonal promotions isn’t for you, you really just need a good theme and you’re off to the races. 

How about… 

• “Beat the New Year’s Rush” promo for a fitness or lifestyle businesses.
• “New Skills for the New Year” promo for coaches or course creators.
• “Winter Wellness” or “Holiday Stress Buster” packages for health and wellness professionals.
• “2026 Goal-Setter” packages for coaches or planning/goal-setting digital products.

For more inspiration, check out 4th Quarter Holiday Promotion Ideas

Black Friday can be spread out for multiple days

If you’re running a 🗓️ Black Friday promotion (Fri, Nov 28, 2025), don’t forget that you also have:

🗓️ Small Business Saturday (Nov 29, 2025)

🗓️ Cyber Monday (Dec 1, 2025)

🗓️ Giving Tuesday (Dec 2, 2025)

This means you can stretch your Black Friday promos out over multiple days. 

You can even throw in some surprising twists like adding new bonus or donating a percentage of your sales to a charity you love for one of the days as part of Giving Tuesday. 

📌 By the way, we share many more of our “lessons learned” from running email promotions like this inside our 1-Hour Email Promo Secrets Workshop – which you can get for FREE for a limited time (and save $97) when you purchase the Email Promo Builder for just $49. If you’re planning on running an email campaign before the end of 4th Quarter, you need this. 😉 Learn more here.

What You’ll You Need to Run a Killer Q4 Email Promotion

If you’ve never run an email promotion before, it’s easier than it sounds! Here’s all you need to put it together…

1. A special offer

This could be:

•  A significant discount on your most popular offering
•  An exclusive, limited time bundle
•  Early access to something new and exciting
• A limited-time service package
• A limited time bonus or gift with purchase

👉Do you need to discount? Not necessarily. If you don’t want to make it cheap, make it special. Consider adding value in the form of exclusive, limited-time bonuses. 

2. A landing page for the transaction to take place

You’ll need a place where the transaction will occur, but if you don’t have a fancy shopping cart or sales page, don’t sweat it! You can create something simple in Canva or even Google Docs and add a payment link (PayPal, Stripe, Gumroad, etc.).

Just be sure to include:

• A clear description of your offer
• Mockups/photos if it makes sense (so people can see what they’re getting)
• Can’t-miss-’em call-to-action buttons
• A countdown timer if you can (FOMO is real!)
• Testimonials if you have them
• FAQs to address common objections
• Information about your refund/return policy

3. A Series of Promotional Emails

Here’s a simple formula that works for us:

•  (Optional): A teaser email a day or two before the promotion starts to build buzz and get people looking out for your announcement 
•   The big announcement email that includes what it is, the discount, and details about the deadline
•    2-3 reminder emails highlighting different benefits and addressing objections
•   A last-chance email to create urgency a few hours before your promotion ends

Psssttt… All of the templates you need to run email promotions during 4th Quarter (or any time of year) are inside the Email Promo Builder!

Your Q4 Email Marketing Action Plan

As you plan your Q4 email strategy, remember these key takeaways:

1. Focus on creating one irresistible offer rather than multiple mediocre ones.

2. Don’t underestimate December – it could be your best month.

3. Don’t wait until the last minute to gather up everything you need. You want to have fun with your promotions and not feel stressed out and hurried… 

And for that, we’ve got a gift for you! Grab our free Monetize Your List Starter Kit here: 

Inside you’ll get:
Email Promo Calendar + 95 Winning Campaign Ideas
Get seasonal or “anytime” promotion ideas mapped across 12 monthly calendars. 
Email Monetization Blueprint
Your step-by-step guide to generating $1K+ monthly from your email list.
Email Promo Planner, Tracker, & Checklist
Use the planner to get a 10,000-foot-view of your email promos and keep track of your sales so you can scale what’s working and repurpose your best promos for even more sales later on – with no extra effort!
Email Strategies that Work
Discover the best practices for standing out in crowded inboxes and master the engagement secrets that drive sales authentically.

Now, over to you… 

We’d love to hear what you’re thinking of trying this Q4. Leave us a comment and let us know: What’s your biggest question about running a Q4 promotion?

Let’s make this your best Q4 yet!