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Bonus section. Everything above this page is deliverability fundamentals that apply year-round. This page is specifically about protecting deliverability through the highest-stakes sending period of the year — Black Friday / Cyber Monday.
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Deliverability is the foundation everything else sits on. If your emails don't land in inboxes, nothing else matters. A brand with perfect campaigns and terrible deliverability will be crushed by a brand with average campaigns and excellent deliverability during BFCM.
During Black Friday you break every normal email marketing rule at once: multiple sends per day, emailing your entire list including unengaged subscribers, daily frequency instead of your usual cadence. This aggressive approach will destroy a brand with weak reputation going in. The brands that win Q4 build pristine deliverability in Q3, specifically so their reputation can absorb the November push.
From July through October, stop sending campaigns to your full list. Send only to people who've opened or clicked in the last 30-90 days. Target: keep open rates above 50% consistently through Q3. Above 50%, inbox providers place you in primary/promotions. Below 30% is a warning sign. Below 20% going into BFCM is a serious problem.
Build this engaged segment: