1 in 4 consumers make the bulk of their holiday purchases in November, according to Klaviyo’s 2026 State of the Holiday Buyer Report. That makes the days leading up to Thanksgiving prime time for marketers.
Thanksgiving may be grouped with the Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) rush, but that doesn’t mean your messaging has to be purely promotional. Customers are already reflecting on what they’re thankful for, giving you the perfect opportunity to connect with them on a deeper level before the sales kick off.
Whether you’re offering early deals or simply expressing gratitude, a well-crafted Thanksgiving marketing strategy can strengthen loyalty and keep your brand top of mind when BFCM hits.
1. Send a Thanksgiving early-access discount to loyal customers
Thanksgiving is about expressing thanks, and one of the best ways to get a head start on BFCM revenue is to thank your most loyal customers with an early-access discount.
Depending on your goals, you can segment your highest-value customers in several ways:
- General high spenders: people who spent above a certain threshold throughout the year
- BFCM high spenders: people who spent above a certain threshold during BFCM last year
- Frequent purchasers: people who made more purchases than average throughout the year
- Referrers: people who have recommended your brand to others
- Loyalty program participants: people who have a certain amount of loyalty points
- Omnichannel buyers: people who shop across multiple channels, such as your brick-and-mortar store, mobile app, online storefront, customer hub, etc.
- High-margin shoppers: people who tend to buy in product categories with high margins
- Customers with high predicted lifetime value (LTV): people whose predictive analytics show they’re likely to spend a lot with your brand over their lifetime
To build more complex versions of these segments, describe what you're looking for in plain language to your AI marketing agent, and it can suggest cross-sections based on the customer data in your CRM.
Try something like, “Last year for Thanksgiving, I noticed an increase in omnichannel buyers in Chicago. Can you pull a segment of these customers, but isolate the ones with at least 10,000 loyalty points? I want to build a specific early-access offer across email and text message for my brick-and-mortar store for this segment.”
Thanksgiving marketing example: Filson sends a special BFCM treat to text message subscribers
According to Klaviyo and Recharge’s 2024 Global Texting Takeaways Report, 65% of people who made a text message purchase within the year said it was something they were planning to buy in the near future. Text message marketing can speed up time to purchase, which is especially important for meeting year-end goals.
On Thanksgiving night in 2024, heritage apparel brand Filson sent text message subscribers early access to their holiday sale. Between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday that year, SMS drove 29% of Filson’s total Klaviyo-attributed revenue, which was up 22% YoY—a great example of reaching beyond email for Thanksgiving promotions.
If some of your subscribers prefer text messaging but you’re still emailing them first, you could be missing out on revenue. With AI-powered channel affinity, you can use customers’ past behavior and preferences to automatically route messages where they’re most likely to engage next.
When you combine channel affinity with complex segmentation, you’re increasing the likelihood of a sale because you’re reaching shoppers with relevant offers where they want to receive them.
2. Build your lists with a Thanksgiving charitable partnership
Many brands use Thanksgiving as an opportunity to highlight how they give back to their communities.
We recommend treating charitable partnerships as a data gathering opportunity. Launch a form on your website that collects contact information specifically for a charity-related newsletter, or send existing subscribers to a dedicated landing page to sign up.
Social media opt-ins are worth capturing, too. A cause-related post might pull in more engagement than a typical product post, and you can use your CRM’s social media tools to earn opt-ins from Instagram DMs, comments, and tags. This is one of the best ways to turn social media followers into email and text subscribers.
Thanksgiving marketing example: Sea Change launches Blue Friday to maximize charitable giving
Sea Change is an eco-friendly wine brand that donates a portion of every sale to ocean charity partners like Ocean Generation and the Olive Ridley Project. From November 21–28, 2025, they ran their Blue Friday campaign, doubling their partner donations.
In this Thanksgiving marketing example, Sea Change shares their Blue Friday promotion on Instagram, reaching people searching #OceanConservation and #ShopEthical. With a CRM social tool, they could use DMs and keywords to collect marketing consent for channels like email, text messaging, and WhatsApp, without followers ever leaving Instagram.
Sea Change Instagram
3. Send Thanksgiving product education to high-intent shoppers
High-intent shoppers are people who have taken certain actions that indicate they’re almost ready to buy. Based on the customer data in your CRM, that might mean people who:
- Created a wishlist in their customer hub but haven’t bought yet
- Browsed a product page a certain number of times on your website
- Placed an item in their cart but didn’t complete a purchase
- Downloaded your mobile app but haven’t purchased yet
- Have a predicted next order date that’s coming soon
These are all people who might be in the consideration stage of the customer lifecycle, and sending them product education now could nudge them toward a sale.
Take an omnichannel approach to product education by adding autonomous service to your website. This gives high-intent shoppers the opportunity to ask an AI customer agent direct product questions and get tailored recommendations.
Picture someone browsing your roasting pans 3 days before Thanksgiving, unsure whether the 16-inch will fit an 18-pound turkey. Rather than closing the tab to search elsewhere, they ask your AI customer agent, which checks your product documentation and recommends the right pan with a matching baster.
Thanksgiving marketing example: Spiceology shares inspiration for leftovers
This Thanksgiving marketing email from Spiceology offers step-by-step instructions for turning Thanksgiving leftovers into a hearty soup. The brand’s turkey rub is shown as a featured ingredient, which recipients can get for 20% off during the sitewide holiday sale.
If Spiceology wanted to send this email to high-intent segments, they might include:
- Shoppers who recently browsed seasonal spices
- Shoppers who abandoned carts containing seasonal spices in the past two weeks
- Customers who purchased related spices in the past 60 days
- Customers with predicted next order dates within the next 30 days
Subject line: The best way to use your Thanksgiving leftovers
4. Gather customer reviews for Thanksgiving emails
Thanksgiving is a time to express gratitude, and what better way to do so than by highlighting customer reviews in your Thanksgiving campaign?
Collecting customer reviews should be an easy process through automated flows. With review request flows, your review request goes out automatically after the customer has had a chance to get the most out of your product.
If you sell in product categories that are particularly relevant for Thanksgiving, you may even want to collect reviews that specifically mention the holiday. You can encourage reviews like this by creating custom review questions that allude to Thanksgiving to capture seasonal sentiment.
Thanksgiving campaign example: Glam Fleur shares 5-star reviews to promote holiday bouquets
A beautiful floral arrangement has year-round appeal, but in this Thanksgiving marketing example, flower brand Glam Fleur positions their bouquets as the perfect Thanksgiving host gift. Aside from sharing an extra discount code for email subscribers, Glam Fleur highlights a few of their highest-rated arrangements and 5-star reviews from real customers.
Leading with social proof can have a direct impact on sales: consumers rank customer reviews as the top influence when deciding to make a first purchase, according to Klaviyo’s 2025 Future of Consumer Marketing Report.
Subject line: Up to 75% OFF Thanksgiving Collection
5. Use Thanksgiving conversations to collect first-party data
B2C marketers’ top priority this year is to increase customer retention, loyalty, and lifetime value, according to Klaviyo’s 2026 B2C marketing research.
Two-way conversations are drivers of retention and loyalty because they’re intimate interactions with your brand. For example, with RCS and WhatsApp, you can send interactive messages and use customer responses to build new segments and send more relevant follow-up messages. If a customer has more questions, an AI customer agent can take over to drive revenue and gather more data.
For Thanksgiving, start conversations that double as data collection, such as:
- A Friendsgiving hosting quiz: Ask whether shoppers are hosting, co-hosting, or showing up as a guest this year. Route hosts toward tableware or other hosting essentials, and route guests toward your gift guide. Answers get saved automatically to customer profiles so you can personalize next year's sends.
- A leftovers poll: Ask how shoppers like to use their Thanksgiving leftovers and recommend products based on the answer.
- A gift recipient quiz: Since Thanksgiving kicks off the holiday season, ask who shoppers are buying for and in what size or style. Use those answers to power BFCM recommendations.
- An early bird vs. last-minute poll: Ask shoppers whether they'd rather shop early or wait for the big sale, then use that answer to decide who gets your early-access BFCM offer.
Thanksgiving marketing example: Naked Wardrobe's AI customer agent guides shoppers to the right fit
Shapewear and streetwear brand Naked Wardrobe built styling guidance directly into their AI customer agent. When a shopper has a sizing or fit question at 2 a.m. when their team may not be available, the AI agent draws on the brand's full catalog to recommend the right product. Over 90 days, Naked Wardrobe’s AI agent autonomously resolved 86% of all customer queries and 94% of product recommendation requests, without a human ever stepping in.
In this Thanksgiving marketing example, a shopper asks for a recommendation for a Thanksgiving outfit that’s sophisticated, long, and flowy, but still easy to move in while chasing 4 kids around the table. The AI agent recommends a specific dress with reasoning tied to each requirement, available colors by size, and the option to see something more casual.
Naked Wardrobe
6. Tell shoppers their favorited items are in your Thanksgiving sale
According to Klaviyo’s 2026 future of consumer marketing research, shoppers’ main motivation for opting into marketing updates is to get exclusive discounts or promotional offers.
Thanksgiving campaigns and automations are opportunities to convert shoppers on items they’ve been saving throughout the year or leading up to holiday sales.
For example, more brands are creating self-serve experience hubs that can double as a customer service touchpoint and an extension of their online store. Hubs are where customers can manage orders and save their favorite items to lists they can come back to when they’re ready to buy.
For Thanksgiving, send a message to high-intent shoppers letting them know which products they’ve favorited are on sale. To sweeten the deal, include a bundle offer that gives people a discount for buying a certain number of wishlisted items. This is a great way to boost average order value (AOV) around BFCM.
Post-Thanksgiving marketing example: Ministry of Supply embeds browsing history into their holiday outreach
Clothing brand Ministry of Supply implemented a self-service customer hub to deliver a more sophisticated customer experience. Now, their customers can see their recently viewed items, repurchase products they bought before, and review personalized product recommendations from one place.
It took Ministry of Supply less than 5 minutes to launch, and ultimately drove 12,000+ self-serve support interactions in a year.
In this post-Thanksgiving marketing example, see how Ministry of Supply personalizes the message with links to recently viewed products that are eligible for the holiday sale. Pairing that with wishlist data from their customer hub would sharpen the targeting even further.
Subject line: SALE ON! And a Gift with Purchase
Create experiences your customers will be thankful for with Klaviyo B2C CRM
Thanksgiving is about showing gratitude for your customers, whether they’re first-time buyers or long-time fans. This year, go beyond broad discount messaging to give them even more of a reason to shop with you.
Klaviyo B2C CRM makes it easy for brands to collect the customer data they need to deliver 1:1 experiences for their customers, with:
- Composer: Use conversational prompts with Klaviyo’s built-in AI marketing agent to turn rough ideas into polished emails and text messages, and create new audience segments based on your own data.
- K:AI Customer Agent: Resolve issues faster, drive more revenue, and deepen relationships with Klaviyo’s AI customer agent that checks loyalty points, processes returns, edits orders, applies promotions, and provides recommendations.
- Customer Hub: Give shoppers one place to manage their interactions with your brand, and apply that activity data in omnichannel marketing messaging that drives more sales.
Power better customer relationships all year long with Klaviyo.
