The Black Friday competitor email report: a one page template for clients

A Black Friday email report for a client is one page: for each of 3 competitors, the first Black Friday email you received and when, the emails and texts a day, the deepest offer and how it works, and the page the email sent people to, then what the client did differently and 3 decisions for January. Collect it by signing up to each competitor with its own new address and logging every message as it arrives. Obsession’s AI customers do this as a real customer of each competitor and keep every email and offer each competitor sends as proof.

A Black Friday email report shows a client what 3 competitor brands sent a new subscriber over Black Friday and Cyber Monday, set beside what the client sent. It is written for retention, email and CRO agency strategists preparing the December client review, and for a brand’s retention lead briefing leadership. The report fits on one side of A4 and goes to the client on Tuesday 1 December, the day after Cyber Monday.

Your client already has its own Black Friday numbers from Shopify and its email platform. What it lacks is the outside view: which competitor started first, which sent the most, which made the deepest offer and where each email’s main button led. That view comes from subscribing to each competitor.

No published count that we could find, as of 23 October 2026, shows when brands sent their first Black Friday email in 2025. Klaviyo’s guide puts teasers 2 to 4 weeks before the day, and TargetBay’s analysis of 5,025 emails from 1,404 brands counts the discount wording brands used. Neither source gives first send dates for your client’s 3 competitors.

Klaviyo’s recap reports all its senders together, so it can’t show what 3 named competitors sent.

What the report contains

Each competitor gets 1 row: the first Black Friday email you received and when, the emails and texts a day, the deepest offer with its mechanics (the code, whether it stacks with sale prices, the free shipping line) and the page the main button led to. Your client gets a row too, taken from its own send log. Below the table go 2 short sections: what the client did differently, and what to decide in January.

• What Hartley Roast did differently (example). Its first Black Friday email went out on Mon 16 Nov, 2 weeks after Brindle & Co’s. It was the only brand with no code to type. Its button led to the homepage, while all 3 competitors sent people to a page built for the offer.
• Decision 1. Test a first teaser in the first week of November. Evidence: Brindle & Co, Mon 2 Nov, 07:14.
• Decision 2. Decide, before the creative is written, whether the code works on sale prices. Evidence: Brindle & Co’s code was not valid on sale prices, and Tern Roasters let its code stack with subscriptions.
• Decision 3. Build 1 page for the offer and send every button there. Evidence: the offer pages of Brindle & Co, Marrow Coffee and Tern Roasters.

The report records what arrived in a new subscriber’s inbox and holds no sales data, so it can’t show whether a competitor’s choice worked. Each decision is a test to run, listed with the evidence that raised it.

Collecting the data by hand

An address receives only what a brand sends after it joins, so set up the sign ups and the sheet as early as you can.

Sign up to each competitor with its own address

Use the public form any customer sees: the pop up, the footer or the checkout box. Create 1 new address for each competitor so that every message in that inbox comes from 1 brand, and set up 1 Gmail label per competitor. Add a spare phone number for the text lists. Each brand’s texts arrive separately, so 1 number can join several lists. Sign up as yourself, buy nothing and write to nobody at the brand. Terms and consent rules differ by country, so read each brand’s terms first. This is not legal advice.

Sign up at least 4 weeks before Black Friday, which this year means by Friday 30 October, because Klaviyo’s guide puts teasers 2 to 4 weeks before the day. A later sign up still catches the busiest hour: the guide cites Klaviyo’s 2024 data for the most active marketing hour of BFCM, 9 to 10 a.m. ET on Black Friday. If you join late, write the day you joined at the top of the report and head the column “first email received”.

Log every message when it arrives

Keep a sheet with 6 columns: competitor, time received (in your time zone, stated at the top of the sheet), email or text, subject or first line, the offer with its code and fine print, and where the button led. Save the original email as well as a screenshot, because the original carries its arrival time and is the stronger proof.

To count a day’s messages, search 1 competitor’s label with Gmail’s from, after and before operators and check the first and last message of each day by eye. Show the peak day in the report as well as the average.

Open each new offer’s button once and record where it lands

Use a private window, write down the page the button reaches after its tracking redirect, and take a screenshot with the date visible. Senders see clicks, and a click can start a browse or basket email to that address, so open each new offer once and note in the sheet that you did. Record the code, whether the page says it stacks, and the free shipping line.

Take your client’s row from its own send log

The client’s row needs no sign up. Take the first Black Friday email, the sends per day and the offer from the email platform’s campaign list, and the landing page from the email itself. Record the times in the same time zone as the competitors’ rows.

Keeping the report accurate

The report records only what each address received. Apply these 5 rules when you write it up.

• State that the report shows a new subscriber’s view. Brands send different messages to people who have bought, clicked or lapsed, and your address has done none of these.
• Count messages, offers and pages only. The report can’t see a competitor’s opens, clicks or revenue and should not estimate them.
• Head the column “first email received”. A teaser sent before you joined never reaches your address, so write the day you joined at the top of the report.
• Write “none received by Mon 30 Nov” only if the address was on the list the whole time. If a text form refused your number, write “not tested”.
• Put 3 competitors in the report. Pick the 3 the client names when it asks about competitors, and keep the rest in the sheet, linked from the report.

For 1 client and 3 competitors joined in time, this method produces the complete report.

Sending the report to the client

The report shows the client what you watched, what you found and what you propose, on one side of A4 that the client can check. It answers a problem an agency owner on r/agency described: losing clients who couldn’t see what they were paying for.

• Send it on Tuesday 1 December, the day after Cyber Monday, with the client’s own Black Friday numbers alongside it.
• Open with the table and close with the decisions, so that the client reads the evidence first and the request last.
• Give each decision an owner and a date, and add them to the January calendar. In February the client can see what came from the report.
• Link the sheet from the report. The sheet holds every message and screenshot, and the report stays at a 2 minute read.
• End with the report’s limits: it shows a new subscriber’s view from the day you joined, and it counts messages without seeing sales.
• Leave out scores and verdicts. Write statements the client can check, such as “Brindle & Co’s code is not valid on sale prices”, and leave out judgements such as “Brindle & Co won Black Friday”.

A brand’s retention lead can send the same report to leadership before they ask about a competitor, with a date and an email behind each line.

Time needed to keep the log by hand

Multiply the minutes a day you spend on 1 competitor’s log by 3 competitors, by the days from sign up to Cyber Monday and by your number of clients. 10 minutes a day is a low estimate that covers opening the email, logging it and taking 1 screenshot. At 10 minutes a day over 38 days (signing up on Friday 23 October), that comes to 19 hours for 1 client and 190 hours for 10. Use your own timesheet figure and price the hours at your strategist’s day rate.

Email libraries for the weeks before you signed up

An email library can show what a competitor sent before your address existed. We make Obsession, so every line about another tool is taken from that tool’s own pages, checked on 23 October 2026. Obsession makes AI customers that sign up to any company and keep every email, offer and price it sends, so you can find your revenue leaks, watch your competitors and prospect with proof. Panoramata’s pricing page lists emails, flows, SMS and ads, says it covers more than 20,000 brands, and gives its $99 plan 20 competitors and 6 months of history, with unlimited on the $179 and $399 plans. MailCharts says it helps agencies collect competitor emails and share them with clients.

If your client’s competitors are in a library, use it for the weeks before you signed up, and check the date range and the texts it holds for each competitor.

Limits of collecting by hand

Each address covers 1 competitor and receives only what that competitor sends after the address joins, and the record is a sheet and screenshots. For 10 clients the log takes 190 hours in the weeks before the report is due.

Obsession’s email and SMS tracking recipe runs the same method with AI agents: each agent has its own inbox and texting number and logs every message, offer and code on 1 timeline with the original email from the minute it first subscribes. Those agents are AI customers. To report on competitors for every client without the hours of logging, use Obsession. For 1 client and 3 competitors, the sheet is enough.

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