Black Friday emails, email snoozing, and AI blog images.

Welcome to the 858 founders and marketers who subscribed this week! Some of you came from our dear friends Sahil Bloom, Katelyn Bourgoin, Corey Haines, and Chase Dimond. Thanks for joining.

Nick has let me (Neal) edit this week's edition. And since he’s gone, this’ll be like a weekend when the kids are left at home while the parents head out of town.

We’re covering 🖤📧, 😴, 🤖🎨, and 🧾.

I mean…Black Friday emails, email snoozing, AI blog images, and tax savings.

Let subscribers press the email snooze button 😴

Insight from Demand Curve.

Speaking of which…

The unsubscribe link is ubiquitous. In fact, you legally have to include it in marketing emails.

It also helps keep your list clean, so your emails don’t end up in spam or the promotions tab. (We cover more ways to improve your email deliverability here.)

But some subscribers may not want to permanently unsubscribe from your list. Maybe they just want a break.

For instance, someone who just maxed out their budget buying Halloween costumes and Black Friday deals might want a break from promo emails until after the holidays.

Letting subscribers “snooze” emails is a great alternative to an all-or-nothing approach. Give them the option to hold off on getting emails from your brand, e.g., for a month or two.

Here’s an example from the oral-care brand HiSmile:

Why this is worth testing:

It may reduce your total unsubscribes.
It might give insight into users’ email preferences and habits. If a bunch of subscribers snooze for a month, consider toning down the aggressiveness of certain promotional campaigns (coughBFCMcough).

BFCM email sequencing 🖤📧

Insight from Fuel Made.

Sending too many emails can turn your unsubscribe link into your CTA.

But there is a time of year when consumers welcome more emails: Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

A recent study showed that 63% of consumers want to be reminded of BFCM deals by email.

Hold on now. That doesn’t mean we’re telling you to send out multiple daily email blasts during your BFCM promo.

Instead, spread out your communications before, during, and after BFCM.

Before: Pre-promote your promotion. Use a countdown sequence to build anticipation for your sale—and to be first to mind before the onslaught of BFCM messaging.

During: Don’t wait until Black Friday to share your deal. Start at least a week early to literally get ahead of the competition. Make sure you’ve updated your site popups and email flows (like abandoned cart discount offers) to reflect your promotion. Once customers make purchases, filter them out from additional BFCM promotional and retargeting campaigns.
After: Make a plan in advance for post-sale content—like product tutorials or gift guides—to provide deeper value as we head into the December holidays. Or highlight your brand’s values, e.g., by sending out a personal message from your founder or sharing your brand story.

Email is still the top channel for convincing someone to buy online—so spend time crafting your holiday sequence to maximize sales and minimize bails (unsubs).

Let machines create your blog images 🤖🎨

Insight from Deephaven.io.

Stock photos could be hurting your conversion rate.

Why? They’re unoriginal and inauthentic.

Often, people have seen the same images way too many times. They associate their boredom with your content—and bounce.

Conversely, unique photos and illustrations feel more authentic and engaging.

But what if you don’t have many original images to use, or the budget to create them?

Consider our AI art–generating overlords, such as DALL-E and Midjourney.

For example, I got Midjourney to generate this image with a prompt of "a room filled with robot monkeys working on computers":

Not perfect, but it’s definitely scroll-stopping and interesting. And I could take a few minutes to tweak it to more of what I was looking for.

The software company Deephaven recently swapped out the stock images on its blog with DALL-E-created graphics. It cost $45 total (see them here).

It’s worth trying AI image generators like DALL-E if:

You don’t have the budget or resources to create original graphics.
Your niche isn’t easy to visually represent—whether because it’s very technical (like software) or because relevant photos simply don’t exist.

Some tips for creating better AI graphics:

Browse the DALL-E 2 subreddit for inspiration. Most posts include images and their prompts.
Include stylistic modifiers in your prompt. For example, include the name of a specific aesthetic or artist. Or use phrases like “a film still from [famous movie].”
Avoid using words/phrases that may violate DALL-E’s content policy.
Expect to do some post-production work. AI isn’t taking over the world yet. You may need to do some light editing to get rid of nonsensical text or elements you don’t like.

News and links

News you can use:

Have you heard that Elon bought Twitter??

OF COURSE. We won't be covering that.

Q3 was super cheery for the tech world. Here's a recap: Tech largely fell short of expectations—sometimes way short. Meta lost billions on its metaverse division and saw its stock reach its lowest point in six years. Google had their slowest revenue growth in almost a decade, with YouTube ad revenue falling 2% year over year.

But there were a few glimmers of hope. Pinterest’s revenue grew 8% YOY—and notably, their Gen Z user base had double-digit growth over that same period.

More news:

Feeling ready for the holidays? Neither are we. Check out these holiday marketing resources from TikTok and Meta. Plus, a three-day live Holiday Market starts today on Instagram.
Google news: Google’s bumper ad tool, which uses machine learning to reduce longer videos to six-second bumper ads, is now available to all advertisers. The sunsetting of Universal Analytics 360 is getting pushed back to 2024. And YouTube got some subtle new design enhancements.