Italo Barros
Black Friday in practice: offer before campaign, and five steps up to the day
The seven offers that work in e-commerce, the five warm-up steps that heat the audience up, the anatomy of the lead-capture landing page and the VIP group sequence, message by message.
What you will learn here
- The offer comes before the campaign: if you do not know what you are going to sell, there is nothing to advertise.
- The warm-up climbs five steps — something exists, it has a date, it has a size, it has a shape, it has a door.
- The VIP group opens two hours before the site, and the liveshop is the day's second wave, not the shop window.
Open tickets multiplied by average order value is revenue sitting locked up. Before any asset, any ad and any calendar, there is only one question: what are you going to do?
And the order matters. Offer, then campaign. In that order, never the other way round — a campaign built before the offer is a handsome asset with nothing behind it.
Seven offers that work in e-commerce
| Mechanic | How it works |
|---|---|
| Launch something new | New collection, new line, new flavour |
| Bundles | Seasonal kits that only exist for Black Friday |
| Up to 60% off site-wide | Makes people walk the whole catalogue |
| Free gift + 20% off | Smaller discount, bigger perception |
| BOGO | Buy 1 get 2, buy 2 get 3, 50% off the second |
| Discount + gift above X | Lifts the order value. And the gift has to be good |
| Flat pricing | Everything at R$ X. Drop the discount, keep the price |
Two ways to build November
Either you show up on the 27th alongside the entire market, or you get in early. You are not competing with your competitor. You are competing for the wallet — and a spent wallet has a limit.
Getting in early means walking the audience up a ramp: announcement, anticipation, peak. What changes week by week is the level of awareness of the person on the other side.
The five steps of the warm-up
| Step | What the audience knows | Example of the messaging |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Something exists | That something is coming | "you have no idea what we are putting together" |
| 2 · It has a date | When | "write it down: 6 November" |
| 3 · It has a size | The scale of it | "we have never given this discount" |
| 4 · It has a shape | The type of offer | "it is not a discount. it is something else" |
| 5 · It has a door | How to get in early | "whoever is on the list buys 24h earlier" |
1 · Something exists
Verbal: you have no idea what is coming · three months on this in silence · save your money for November · do not buy anything now, trust me.
Visual: boxes stacked unopened · a covered clothes rail · a close-up on one detail · a blurred spreadsheet · a meeting filmed from a distance.
Reaction: the team seeing the offer for the first time · "she thought I was joking".
2 · It has a date
Verbal: write it down: 6 November · put it in the calendar and do not ask me yet · less than a month to go · on the 6th I will be back here.
Visual: the date and nothing else on screen · a calendar circled by hand · a daily countdown · a countdown sticker · the date written on the mirror.
Format: a poll — "are you ready for the 6th?" · a question box · a post pinned to the top of the profile.
3 · It has a size
Verbal: the biggest thing we have ever done · we have never given this discount · I have been setting stock aside since July · some people will be furious they did not know sooner.
Visual: stock taking up the entire room · last year against this year side by side · the number of units on screen · the warehouse filmed on a walk-through.
Proof: a screenshot of the purchase order to the supplier · "we bought double" · the team building the stock up.
4 · It has a shape
Verbal: it is not a discount across the whole site · a kit that only exists on this one day · a price I should not be doing · we have flipped the logic this year.
Visual: the silhouette of the kit · a label turned over · three numbered boxes · a checkout with the value blurred.
Riddle: "guess how much it will cost" · a poll between two mechanics · "which piece do you want?".
5 · It has a door
Verbal: whoever is on the list buys 24h earlier · link in the bio, I close it on Friday · I will not say it again here · the list already has 4,000 people on it.
Visual: the VIP group filling up · subscribers climbing on screen · the phone screen with the link on it · a close-up of the join button.
Mechanism: a story with a link · a "want in?" box · comment a keyword · an automatic DM · a retargeting ad.
The two assets that hold it all up
The save the date sets the date. The manifesto gives the reason. One without the other climbs no step: a date with no reason creates no anticipation, a reason with no date creates no action.
The anatomy of a lead-capture landing page
- Offer banner — top of the page, in motion
- An image that proves the product
- An early-access badge
- The offer set in huge type
- A subheadline with the reason
- Two fields. Never more than that
- A button that says what happens next
- Three reasons to join
Item 6 is the one broken most often. Every extra field costs conversion on cold traffic, and to hand over the group link all you need is a name and a WhatsApp number.
Three channels fill the list
Paid traffic gives you scale and speed, a predictable cost per lead, and it runs while you sleep.
Influencers lend you audience and trust. Micro and nano convert better than big ones — and everything is agreed in advance: their own link, the date and the format.
Organic Instagram brings the warmest lead in, at zero cost: stories with a link, comment a keyword, a pinned post. It depends on frequency, not on budget.
One landing page, three ways in.
The thank-you page
The path is form → thank you → VIP group. The thank-you page fires the lead event to the pixel and to the CRM, and shows one button only, leading to the group. No menu, no links, no way out.
Group full? Swap the link on the page and carry on. The page itself does not change.
The launch
The avalanche effect
An incentive by order of arrival: the first 50 purchases get a gift. It is not a bigger discount — it is getting there first. The mechanic buys urgency without costing margin.
The group sequence
| When | What goes into the group |
|---|---|
| D-10 | Welcome · "you are the first to know everything" |
| D-9 | The date confirmed · "11 November, keep it free" |
| D-7 | Behind the scenes as the stock arrives |
| D-6 | Poll · "which piece do you want in?" |
| D-5 | First hint at the offer · "it is not a discount on the site" |
| D-4 | Proof of size · "we have never done this before" |
| D-3 | The offer revealed · "buy 1 get 3" |
| D-2 | The rule on the gift for the first 50 |
| D-1 | "tomorrow. keep your card to hand" |
And on the day:
| When | What goes into the group |
|---|---|
| Morning of the day | A photo of the stock set aside · "today at 6pm" |
| 2h before | "the link lands here. only here" |
| 30 min before | Countdown |
| On the hour | The link. No long text, no waffle |
| +20 min | "31 gifts left" |
| +1h | A screenshot of a sold-out piece · "that one is gone" |
| General opening | "the site is open. whoever bought in here already has theirs" |
Two hours earlier
The VIP group opens two hours before the site, with a direct link, without going through the home page. Whoever joined the list buys with the stock complete — and that is the promise you made back at step 5. It has to be true.
The site made ready
- Discount code: created, tested and with the stacking rule decided
- Banners: home, category and mobile, all swapped out
- Categories: the campaign collection built and in the menu
- Checkout: the code applying itself, without anyone typing it
The liveshop comes afterwards
The live starts after the two hours of exclusivity, once the first wave has landed. A prize draw every 15 or 20 minutes among the people who bought in the last few minutes; each window between draws becomes a live shop window; show what is running out, because live scarcity is a different thing from scarcity on a banner; and the link stays pinned throughout the broadcast — the path cannot have any friction in it.
The live is not a shop window. It is the day's second wave.
The calendar, settled
From 1 to 7 November, "something exists". From 8 to 14, "it has a date". From 15 to 21, "it has a size". From 22 to 27, "it has a shape". From 28 to 30, "it has a door". In parallel, the landing page live, the traffic running and the group filling up. On the day: VIP at 6pm, site at 8pm, live at 9pm.
None of this is decided on the calendar: the size of the target, how many leads to capture and how much to invest all come out of the sums in Planning Black Friday means answering eleven questions. The lead-capture landing page with the pixel, the conversions API and the lead landing in the pipeline is what WIG builds in website development; the VIP group sequence, message by message, is CRM management. And what happens after the day itself is in Your Black Friday closes in March.
This is the execution block from Black Experience 2026, held on 26 September in Campinas, with 80 e-commerce operations in the room.
“You are not competing with your competitor. You are competing for the wallet.”
