Your BFCM email,
checked before November.
Most brands find their BFCM email gaps on Black Friday morning, when there is nothing left to do about them. This finds them in October, while there still is. For Shopify brands on Klaviyo and the agencies behind them.
- ✓56 checks in the order we run them
- ✓The 14-send calendar, Nov 12 to Dec 2
- ✓A readiness score that shows your first gap
Finish Phase 1 by Oct 31. …
How do you want it?
The team behind email for 100+ D2C brands, including celebrity-founded ones.
That is about 5.7M emails a day across the seven days of BFCM week, from the same team that wrote this checklist. Every check on this page is one we ran on those accounts.
Most brands start in November.
Warmup needs three weeks.
Inbox providers need about three weeks of steady volume before they trust a spike.
Start on Nov 20 and you are still warming on Cyber Monday. That is all 5 peak days on a cold domain, landing in Promotions, on the one week the inbox decides your quarter.
So the checklist starts there.
What 2025
taught us.
Spending went up. Discounts went down. Owned channels carried the week.
Sources: Klaviyo BFCM 2025 report, and Superads ecommerce CPM benchmarks, median values. Those are their measurements, not ours. Ours is the 40M+ emails we sent through client accounts in that week, which is where every check in this guide comes from.
15 pages.
Your whole BFCM email plan.
Online or as a PDF. Same checks, same order.
- p.02Readiness scorecard10 questions. Know where you stand in 2 minutes.New
- p.03Calendar at a glanceKey dates and all 14 sends on one page.
- p.04DeliverabilitySPF, DKIM, DMARC, Postmaster and a warmup plan.
- p.05List hygiene, offer and dataSunset rules, your offer decisions and the 5 baselines.
- p.06The 10 segmentsIncluding the buyer suppression most brands skip.
- p.07Offer-aware flows and creativeWhat to automate and what to check by hand.
- p.08The 14-send calendarEvery send, its segment and its job, Nov 12 to Dec 2.
- p.10Ten-minute pre-send QA22 checks across offer, links, creative, Klaviyo and final.New
- p.11Send and bank itRules for the window and what to do after it ends.
- p.12Agency capacity checkFor teams running BFCM for several clients.New
- p.13Mistakes to avoidSeven common mistakes and the check that prevents each one.New
- p.14Final 24-hour checklistPrint it, assign an owner to every line, tick it.New
Try the first 3 now.
Unlock all 56 free.
Your ticks save in this browser. After you unlock, we email you a link so you can pick up on any device.
Foundation
20 checksNow to Oct 31- Check at MXToolbox or dmarcian. A failing DKIM will not stop you sending, it will stop you landing.
- send.yourbrand.com. Root domain reputation damage hits your invoices and support replies too.
- Once two weeks of reports come back clean.
53 more checks, and your score.
List hygiene, offer and data, the 10 segments, offer-aware flows, the send rules and the post-BFCM cleanup. Free. We email you a link back to your progress.
Unlock all 56Build
22 checksLockedNov 1 to 11Send
7 checksLockedNov 12 to Dec 2Bank it
7 checksLockedDec 3 to 10We don't blast the full list.
Here's why.
Some playbooks tell you to unsuppress everyone and send four times a day. It works until Gmail sees your spam rate pass 0.30%. Then you are throttled on the five days that matter most, and every send after that lands in spam.
So we send wide three times. Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the last call go to the full list. Every other send goes to engaged 90 day or tighter, and resends go to non-openers only.
- 3 of 14sends go to the full list
- Under 0.10%spam rate, all week
- 40M+emails sent this way in BFCM week 2025
The numbers from
last season.
Client names are covered by NDA, so these are the dashboards. We wish we did not have the NDAs.
56 checks is a lot of November.
We'll build it for you.
Strategy, segments, copy, design, build, QA and reporting, inside your Klaviyo. Live by the date we agree, or your money back.
50% off until Oct 31. Full Funnel takes 14 business days, so order by Oct 21.
See the BFCM buildsStrategy rarely breaks in BFCM.
Capacity does.
Five clients with 14 sends each is 70 emails in three weeks. We add white-label Klaviyo specialists under your name for the peak.
Before you
sign up.
Is it free?
Yes. We ask for an email so we can send your link or the PDF, and three short BFCM emails after it.
Online or PDF, which should I pick?
Online if you want to tick as you go and see your score. PDF if you want to print it or share it with your team. You can switch later from the email we send.
I am not on Klaviyo.
The segments, calendar and deliverability checks apply to any email platform. Flow names and reports are written for Klaviyo.
Will you try to sell me something?
We will tell you about our BFCM build once. The checklist works without it.
How long does it take to work through?
The scorecard is 2 minutes and tells you where you stand. The full 56 checks take a couple of hours spread across a week, which is why it is built to tick as you go rather than in one sitting.
Can I share it with my team?
Yes. Send them the PDF or the link. The online version keeps your ticks in your own browser, so everyone tracks their own pass without overwriting anyone else.
Do I need to be technical?
For most of it, no. The deliverability section needs someone with DNS access for SPF, DKIM and DMARC, which is usually a developer or whoever set up your domain. Every check says who normally does it.
How late is too late to use this?
Warmup needs about three weeks, so the deliverability section stops being useful around Nov 6. Everything else, the segments, the calendar and the QA pass, still works right up to the first send.