This No Discount Email Beat BFCM by 120%.
How We Crushed Black Friday Numbers… in July
🗓️ Thursday, 10 Jul 2025
Hi, and welcome back to Growth Espresso - your one-stop destination for everything e-com.
It’s July.
No holiday hype. No 12-email countdowns.
Your inbox probably isn’t bursting with “biggest sale ever!” campaigns.
But here’s the thing:
Your best-performing email of the year doesn’t have to happen during BFCM.
In fact, the highest-revenue email we sent for a client?
No discount. No urgency tricks. No sale season.
Just personalization done right.
Let me tell you what happened.
The Campaign That Quietly Beat Black Friday by 120%
We were working with HD Muscle—a DTC fitness brand with a loyal repeat customer base. It was an average week, somewhere in Q2. Nothing on the calendar suggested “record-breaking opportunity.”
But we’d been tracking buying behavior and engagement patterns for a while.
We knew there was more juice to squeeze from their email list. So instead of a flashy promo, we built a quietly strategic campaign rooted in customer behavior.
The result?
📈 120% more email revenue than their best-ever BFCM campaign.
💰 535% increase in AOV from hyper-personalized recommendations.
🔥 And every single order came from existing customers.
Yes—no discount. Just smart, customer-centric marketing.
Here’s how we did it.
🔍 The 3-Part Personalization Play That Made It Work
Here’s how we turned this simple campaign email into a sales machine:
Looks pretty standard, right? Not quite!
Each subscriber doesn’t see the exact same email. The images dynamically change based on their order history, making every email feel personal and tailored just for them.
1. Dynamic Hero Image Based on Last Purchase
Instead of showing the same hero image to everyone, we swapped in product visuals based on what the customer last bought.
If they purchased the blueberry pre-workout? That’s what they saw up top.
Bought intra-workout and nothing else? That’s what led the email.
Why it works:
Familiarity grabs attention. When a customer sees their product in the spotlight, it instantly feels personal—and gets more engagement.
2. Segmentation by Product Type → Smart Cross-Sells
We grouped the list based on product history:
Pre-workout only
Post-workout only
Intra-workout only
Everyone else
Then, based on historical buying patterns, we served the most relevant follow-up product in each segment.
Example:
Customers who only bought pre-workout got shown post-workout stacks that were frequently purchased together. No guesswork.
Why it works:
Because random recommendations are noise. Smart pairings = higher AOV + better CX.
3. Flexible Widgets for On-Brand, Personalized Product Blocks
Instead of cookie-cutter blocks from Klaviyo, we used dynamic widgets that felt like the brand—and pulled in personalized product content.
These weren’t just relevant—they looked like a mini personal storefront.
Why it works:
You need relevance and good design. You can’t convert if your emails look like everyone else’s.
A Campaign That Performed Better Than Your “Biggest Sale of the Year”
What blew us away was when this happened.
This wasn’t Q4. There was no urgency or time pressure. It wasn’t even a promotional month.
But the numbers spoke loud and clear:
✅ No discounts
✅ No new product drops
✅ No gimmicks
✅ Just personalization that actually made sense
💥 120% increase in email revenue over their best BFCM campaign
💥 535% lift in AOV
💥 Zero discounting. Zero seasonal push. Just strategy.
Wondering If You’re Sitting on Untapped Revenue?
Let me ask you something:
Are you still sending everyone the same email?
If your answer’s even kind of yes, you’re probably leaving a chunk of revenue on the table—especially from your best asset: your existing customers.
We’re offering a free Email Personalization Audit for DTC brands ready to get serious about relevance and revenue.
🎯 What’s included:
Breakdown of what your current emails are missing
Personalized segmentation & personalization opportunities
Real examples of how you could upgrade emails starting this month
A custom list of high-impact experiments based on your list and vertical
⚠️ We open just a few slots every month, and they fill up fast.
If you’re curious what you could be making (without running a sale), book below.
👉 Book Your Free Email Audit Now
Let’s find your next best campaign. It’s probably not in November. 😉