Case study: Why knowing the audience drove a breakthrough Black Friday for a yacht charter company

If you’ve ever planned a Black Friday campaign for a luxury brand, you know the struggle: crowded inboxes filled with discounts and countdowns, while your audience expects something more refined. So how do you cut through the noise without cheapening the brand?

In this case study, international email marketing specialist Emily Mance, founder of Email Saint, shares how she helped a yacht charter company turn its most disengaged Black Friday into its most successful one yet, generating 3.2x more revenue than the year before. By shifting the focus from volume to psychology and identifying the real decision-makers behind the bookings, Emily shows how truly understanding your audience can transform the outcome of a campaign.

Meet the expert: Emily Mance

Emily Mance is an international email marketing specialist and the founder of Email Saint. Throughout her career, she’s partnered with eCommerce and DTC brands across nearly every continent (Antarctica is still on the list), helping them sharpen their voice, connect with audiences, and drive growth through email.

Her passion for email lies in its balance: part psychology, part creativity, and part data science. Emily believes the most effective campaigns don’t rely on volume but on resonance, clear branding, and a message that genuinely inspires action.

This philosophy has guided her work with clients across industries ranging from luxury and wellness to fashion and hospitality, each demanding its own tailored approach. At Email Saint, she stands by a simple principle: no two brands are alike. Impactful campaigns come from digging deep into audience insights and designing experiences that feel intentional, human, and distinctly on-brand.

Beyond email, Emily keeps her perspective fresh by writing, photographing, and exploring the cultural textures of Brazil, where she lives as an Australian immigrant.

The challenge: Rethinking Black Friday for a high-end brand with limited time and low engagement from the usual playbook

Luxury brands face a distinct challenge when it comes to Black Friday. Inboxes overflow with urgency, countdowns, and aggressive discounts, but that kind of noise rarely resonates with high-end customers. They’re drawn to something quieter, more subtle.

So when a yacht charter company approached me to create their Black Friday campaign, the brief sounded straightforward: boost engagement and get stronger results from a list that had shown little interest in the past.

At first, I thought I could rely on the Black Friday playbooks I’d used successfully with eCommerce and DTC brands. But it quickly became clear that wasn’t going to work. If I wanted to deliver results, I had to strip everything back to the basics: Who exactly is this audience – and what really motivates them to act?

That disconnect was the real obstacle: the audience enjoying the content wasn’t the one making the purchase. If we kept sending a broad, one-size-fits-all campaign, we’d risk wasting the most important sales moment of the year chasing vanity metrics instead of driving meaningful conversions.

Of course, there was also the challenge of time. Like many Black Friday projects, the window to research, plan, and execute was short. There was no room for elaborate testing or complex automations. That constraint forced me to focus on clarity, precision, and what would actually move the needle.

The solution: Micro-segmentation and clear, intentional design

The turning point came when I stopped viewing the entire list as one big audience and started focusing on the people who were actually making bookings. We created a micro-segment of decision-makers: subscribers who had historically clicked on booking-related CTAs and whose demographic data aligned with known converters. These were the people most likely to turn interest into action.

Once we had this group, the messaging became much more focused. Instead of sending another crowded holiday promotion, we crafted emails that spoke directly to their role and intent:

• direct and exclusive: the copy positioned them as decision-makers, not just casual browsers;
• aspirational but uncluttered: we used minimal design with strong imagery that evoked the lifestyle of a yacht charter – no noisy holiday graphics;
• action-oriented: every element pointed toward booking, with zero distractions, side offers, or gimmicks.

It wasn’t about shouting louder in a crowded inbox. It was about speaking clearly to the right people.

For the workflow, I used a simple mix of tools: Klaviyo for data analysis and segmentation, Figma for brand-aligned mockups, and Stripo for building responsive emails. The tools weren’t the magic – they simply supported a strategy grounded in human insight.

The results: Record-breaking engagement and a shift in perspective

The final email was as straightforward as it gets: one sleek hero image showcasing the yacht experience, short aspirational copy that leaned into exclusivity, and a bold call-to-action to book. That was it. No clutter. No gimmicks. Just a clear intentional invitation.

And it worked.

This became the company’s most successful Black Friday campaign to date. Open rates increased, click-throughs jumped, and, most importantly, conversions rose significantly.

The previous year’s campaign, sent to a 180-day engaged segment, averaged a 28% open rate. This year, by targeting a micro-segment of male decision-makers, open rates jumped to 44%. Click-through rates more than doubled: from 1.8% to 4.2%. And conversions increased by 72%, resulting in nearly twice as many bookings compared to the previous year.

For a high-ticket luxury service like yacht charters, even a modest increase in volume can translate into a significant revenue lift. Overall, the campaign generated 3.2x more revenue than the previous year, making it the company’s most successful Black Friday to date. 

But for me, the numbers weren’t the only win. The real breakthrough was the reminder that success doesn’t always come from doing more. It comes from focusing on the smallest, but most important, detail: knowing who the true decision-maker is and speaking directly to them.

Recommendations for email marketers

Looking back on this campaign, here are a few takeaways I’d share with any marketer preparing for Black Friday or any high-stakes email campaign:

1. Start with psychology, not templates. Before designing a layout or writing a subject line, ask: Who is this person? What motivates them? What role do they play in the purchase? The answers will guide every decision that follows.
2. Less is more. Don’t underestimate the power of a small, focused send. A well-defined segment with the right message often outperforms a mass blast that tries to speak to everyone at once.
3. Treat each brand as unique. Frameworks and best practices are useful starting points, but the biggest wins come from spotting the nuances: the subtle truths about your audience that others might overlook.

And one thing I definitely won’t repeat after this campaign? Relying solely on engagement metrics to identify buyers. Opens and clicks can be misleading if you don’t connect them to actual conversions. At the end of the day, it’s not about who enjoys your content; it’s about who takes action.

Wrapping up

A big thank you to Emily for sharing the strategy behind this Black Friday campaign. Her story is a powerful reminder that effective email marketing isn’t about louder subject lines or bigger sends; it’s about understanding your audience, respecting their role in the purchase journey, and crafting messages that are clear, intentional, and human. For email marketers looking to stand out, the real opportunity lies in psychology, segmentation, and the subtle details others often overlook.