Black Friday ideas for creators: 15 offers for coaches and course creators, plus the emails to send

The best Black Friday offers for coaches and course creators have a clear reason, a real end and one simple action. Pick one offer, such as 30% off your course, a bundle at a lower price than its parts or a founding price on your membership, run it from the Friday in late November to Cyber Monday, and send one email a day while it is open. On WithMe you set it up with a promo code that has an expiry date, a link that applies the code at checkout, an order bump or a bundle, and broadcasts to your list.

WithMe is $25 per month billed annually (UK £25), with a 14-day trial and 0% WithMe commission. Stripe and PayPal fees still apply. More than 8,000 creators use it.

Should coaches and course creators run a Black Friday sale?

Your buyers are already in a buying mood that weekend, and many of them have been waiting for a reason to start. A short sale gives people on your list who have meant to buy for months a deadline. It also brings back past buyers, who are the people most likely to buy again.

It is not a must. If you discount every month, a Black Friday sale teaches people to wait for it. If your calendar is full, a bonus is often better than a price cut. Choose an offer you are happy to see a lot of people take, at a price you are happy to deliver.

Which discount offers work?

• A straight percentage off your main course or programme, such as 25% or 30%, for the weekend only.
• A bigger discount on an older product you no longer promote, so it earns again without lowering the price of your newest offer.
• A code sent only to past buyers by email, restricted to your next product.
• A Cyber Monday flash code: a deeper discount for 24 hours on the Monday, for people who missed the weekend.

Which offers add value instead of cutting the price?

• A bundle: your course, workbook and recorded workshop together, priced below what they cost separately.
• A bonus at checkout: an order bump that offers a template pack or a coaching call at a discount, only during the sale.
• A free extra: everyone who buys during the sale gets a bonus Q&A session or a recorded masterclass.
• A gift for the buyer to pass on: a second seat for a friend, delivered with a 100% code that you send them after they buy.
• A starter offer: a low-priced digital product, such as a 7-day plan, that leads to your main programme in the new year.

How can you sell memberships and coaching on Black Friday?

• An annual membership deal: a discount on the yearly price, so members pay once for the whole year. Our post on monthly vs annual membership pricing covers how to price it.
• A founding price on a new membership or community: a code with a Lifetime duration and a limit on how many people can use it, so early members keep their price for as long as they stay.
• A discount on the first months: a 50% code that lasts 3 months on a monthly membership, then members pay the full price.
• A payment plan on a higher-priced programme: buyers who cannot pay in full can start now in instalments. Payment plans work on courses, coaching calls and communities.
• A coaching starter: a single coaching call at a lower price, for people who want to try working with you before a longer programme.
• A new-year intake: sell places now for a programme or challenge that starts in January, at a price that rises when the sale ends.

When should a Black Friday sale start and end?

Black Friday falls on the Friday after the fourth Thursday of November, and Cyber Monday is the Monday after. Most creator sales run from the Friday to the end of Monday. Some open a few days early for people on their email list.

Four or five days is enough. Longer sales lose their urgency, and your audience is seeing offers from everyone that week. Decide the end date and time before you announce it, put the time zone in every message, and do not extend it. If you want a second chance for people who missed it, make Cyber Monday a different offer, not the same one with a new name.

What emails should you send?

One email a day is enough for most lists. A simple plan for a Friday to Monday sale:

1. A few days before: a heads-up to your list that a sale is coming, with the date and what will be on offer.
2. Friday morning: the sale is open. What it is, what it costs, when it ends, and one button with the discount link.
3. Saturday: who it is for. A story from a client or student, and the questions people ask before they buy.
4. Sunday: the bonus or the bundle, with what is inside it.
5. Monday: last day. The deadline and the link, short and plain.
6. After the sale: a thank-you to buyers with how to get started, and nothing more to everyone else.

On WithMe, each person receives at most one broadcast or timed sequence email from you a day. If they already had one, the rest waits until the next day. So do not plan two emails on the same day, or the second may arrive after the code has expired. Schedule each broadcast with Schedule for later, and set the code to expire a few hours after the time you advertise.

How do you set up a Black Friday sale on WithMe?

1. Open More, then Promo Codes, and click Create New Promo Code. Name it, for example BLACKFRIDAY30 plus your name, because codes are unique across WithMe.
2. Choose the Discount, from 5% to 100% in steps of 5%, and for a subscription the Duration: Lifetime, or 1, 2, 3, 6, 9 or 12 months.
3. Set the Expiry Date and time, and add a Redeem Limit if you want a set number of places. After you create the code, check its end date and time on the Promo codes list. If it is not the deadline you announced, delete the code and create it again with the time adjusted, because a code's expiry cannot be edited.
4. Use Restrict to products to limit the code to the products on sale, then click Copy link to get a link that applies the code at checkout.
5. Optional: on the main product, turn on Enable Order Bump, pick the bonus product and set a Discount % from 0 to 99.
6. Optional: for a bundle, create a new product, add your other products under Included Products and price it below their total. Keep the bundle as a lasting product and restrict the expiring code to it, so the sale price ends on its own while the bundle stays on sale at its normal price.
7. Write your broadcasts, put the discount link in each one, and schedule them. Share the link in your Instagram bio, stories and an Auto DMs keyword too. If you want to see which place sold, give each one its own code.

What should you do when the sale ends?

The promo code stops working at its expiry date on its own. Anything else you changed for the sale does not: switch off the order bump discount and turn off Discount Price yourself. The list of codes shows how many times each code was redeemed, so you can see which offer worked and plan next year's.

What is not included?

Promo codes are percent off only, not a fixed amount, and there is no limit per customer and no minimum order value. You cannot change a code's discount, duration, limit or expiry after creating it, only which products it covers. Discount Price and order bumps have no end date, so you switch them off yourself. There is no one-click upsell page after checkout, and each person gets at most one broadcast or timed sequence email from you a day.

How much does WithMe cost?

WithMe is $25 per month billed annually (UK £25), with a 14-day trial and 0% WithMe commission. Stripe and PayPal fees still apply. One plan covers courses, memberships, community, coaching, webinars and digital products, with promo codes, order bumps, bundles, email broadcasts and Instagram Auto DMs built in.

Black Friday questions

Start your 14-day trial at https://www.withme.so/become-a-creator.

Related reading

• Start your 14-day trial
• How to create a discount code for your course
• Order bumps, promo codes and bundles
• Order bump examples
• How to bundle digital products
• Early-bird pricing for online courses
• Discount links for Instagram
• Monthly vs annual membership pricing
• Creator platform with email marketing built in
• How to offer payment plans for coaching