During BFCM, every brand is competing for the same thing: attention. Your customers are seeing discount emails, sale banners, countdowns, and “last chance” messages everywhere they look. If your loyalty program gets a single mention at the bottom of a Black Friday email, there’s a good chance they’ll miss it.

That’s why I wouldn’t try to promote your loyalty program with one big announcement. Give customers several reasons to notice it throughout November instead. You might start with bonus points for new members, give existing members an early look at your BFCM offers, run a flash bonus-points day, and then gradually open early access to VIPs, subscribers, and finally everyone else.

Each of those moments gives you another opportunity to put the program in front of customers without repeating the same “join our loyalty program” message over and over.

In this guide, we’ll go through seven ways to promote your loyalty program during BFCM, when to use each one, and how they can work together across your BFCM calendar.

TL;DR

• Stage access instead of announcing everything at once: bonus points for signups sitewide, then a members-only gift guide, then a flash bonus day, then VIP early access, subscriber early access, public access, and a Cyber Monday finale
• A sign-up incentive gets attention, but overall program value and ongoing benefits are what actually keep people enrolled, according to Deloitte’s 2025 survey as reported. Pair the incentive with a clear line about what membership is worth long-term
• 64% of consumers prefer engaging with loyalty programs through an app over email, and 56% will download an app specifically when the rewards feel valuable (eMarketer, via EY and Razorfish/GWI research). Don’t promote this sequence over email alone
• This is the campaign layer: it assumes your permanent widget, product-page, and checkout placements are already live

Why BFCM promotion needs its own playbook

Your loyalty program should already be easy to find before BFCM starts. That means having your loyalty widget live, showing points on product pages, adding reminders around cart and checkout, and giving members a place to check their rewards from their account. But those always-on placements can only do so much during BFCM.

BFCM is different from the rest of the year. For a few weeks, your customers are being flooded with promotions from almost every brand they follow. At the same time, your store is likely seeing more first-time visitors than usual, many of whom don’t know your loyalty program exists yet. Simply leaving your usual loyalty placements in place and hoping shoppers notice them isn’t enough.

BFCM gives you a chance to actively promote the program instead. Rather than announcing everything at once, you can create several moments throughout November: an incentive for new members, an exclusive preview for existing members, a flash bonus-points day, and early access that opens to different groups over time.

This is exactly the sequence Phase 3 of the BON BFCM Loyalty Calendar lays out, one piece released at a time: sign-up bonus first, then a members preview, then one flash day, then access opening in tiers, then a finale. Each section below maps to a specific date on that calendar, with a note on why the order matters as much as the date.

1. Attract new members with a BFCM sign-up bonus

Start your BFCM promotion with a simple incentive for new members. In the BON BFCM Loyalty Calendar, we recommend turning on bonus points for new signups sitewide from November 2, when shoppers are starting to pay attention to holiday offers but the Black Friday rush hasn’t fully kicked in yet.

This works particularly well for first-time visitors. Someone who arrives through a BFCM ad may know very little about your brand, let alone your loyalty program. Offering extra points gives them an immediate reason to join while they’re already considering a purchase.

Here’s the honest limit. An immediate sign-up incentive is a real driver of enrollment, but Deloitte’s 2025 Consumer Loyalty Program Survey, as reported, ranks it third behind overall program value and attractive ongoing benefits in what actually motivates people to join.

Practically, the incentive’s job is to open the door. The case for staying enrolled has to come from what you say next. Don’t lead every touchpoint with “sign up and get points.” Pair it with one line about what membership is actually worth: tier perks, birthday rewards, early access to the next sale. The welcome email that follows a new signup is the natural place to make that case, before the points balance becomes the only thing a new member associates with the program.

2. Give loyalty members an exclusive BFCM preview

Before the public sale opens, you should send existing members an early-access bundle and a gift guide. This is a dedicated members-first preview built around early access, distinct from a general newsletter with a loyalty mention tacked on.

It matters for promotion as much as retention. When existing members see, and talk about, an early preview the public doesn’t have yet, that’s a promotional signal on its own. It tells non-members that joining gets you something ahead of everyone else, before Black Friday even starts.

Channel matters here too, as a 2025 loyalty study found that 64% of consumers prefer engaging with loyalty programs through an app over email, and 60% of participants are likely to download an app specifically to track rewards. If there’s an app or a widget-based experience available, use it alongside email for this preview rather than defaulting to email only. If you have an app or loyalty widget, use it alongside email so members can easily find and access the preview.

3. Create urgency with a flash bonus-points day

Choose one day during your BFCM campaign to offer bonus points for a limited time. In the BON BFCM Loyalty Calendar, we recommend November 11 (Singles Day). It’s early enough to build excitement before Black Friday without competing directly with your main BFCM offers.

The key is to keep it limited to one day. If customers see bonus-points events happening throughout November, there’s less reason to act when one appears. They may simply wait for the next one, which is the same behavior brands often create by running discounts too frequently.

You also don’t need an extreme points multiplier to make the promotion feel special. The limited window creates much of the urgency, while the extra points give loyalty members a reason to shop now. If you’re deciding how generous the offer should be, our guide to balancing loyalty points and BFCM discounts breaks down the math behind choosing a multiplier.

You should ive the promotion enough visibility to feel like an event of its own. Promote it through email and SMS, add an on-site banner, and use a countdown to make the deadline clear instead of burying the offer inside your regular BFCM messaging.

4. Build excitement with staged early access

Instead of opening your BFCM sale to everyone at the same time, give your most valuable customers a head start. In the BON BFCM Loyalty Calendar, Tier 1 VIPs get access first on November 20, followed by email subscribers on Thanksgiving and everyone else on Black Friday.

Giving VIP members first access makes their status feel useful at a time when it really matters. They get first pick before popular products sell out, while other customers can see that being a VIP comes with benefits beyond earning more points. If early access is something they want next time, they now have another reason to move up a tier.

Opening access to subscribers next gives you another chance to promote the sale before Black Friday itself. By the time the public sale begins, you’ve already created two separate moments around the same BFCM offer instead of relying on one announcement to do all the work.

Make that exclusivity clear in your messaging. Tell VIPs that their early access is live, let subscribers know when their window opens, and remind other shoppers that loyalty members get benefits like this throughout the year. If you’re still deciding which customers should qualify for early access, our guide to VIP loyalty programs covers how to structure your tiers and benefits.

5. Finish BFCM with an extended Cyber Monday double-points offer

By Cyber Monday, everyone has access to your BFCM sale, so early access is no longer the reason to pay attention. This is a good time to give loyalty members one final incentive to shop by offering double points until the end of the day.

Keep the message simple and specific. “Double points ends tonight” gives members a clear reason to make their purchase now and keeps your loyalty program visible alongside the usual Cyber Monday countdowns. It also gives you something different to talk about instead of sending another version of “sale ends tonight.”

Promote the offer anywhere members are likely to see it, including email, SMS, and an on-site banner. Make the deadline clear so customers know the extra points disappear when Cyber Monday ends.

Once BFCM is over, the focus changes from getting customers to shop the sale to getting those new customers to come back. Our guide to post-BFCM retention covers how to identify the shoppers with the most loyalty potential and move them toward their next purchase.

FAQ

Should I lead my BFCM marketing with the loyalty sign-up bonus?

Use the sign-up bonus to open the window, but don’t lead every touchpoint with it. An immediate incentive is a real driver of enrollment, though Deloitte’s 2025 survey, as reported, ranks it behind overall program value and ongoing benefits in what actually motivates people to join. Pair the incentive with a line about what membership is worth beyond the first purchase.

How many flash bonus-points days should I run during BFCM?

One works better than several. A flash day works because it’s rare, and running it repeatedly through November removes the scarcity that makes it effective in the first place. It also trains the same wait-for-the-next-one behavior that repeated discounting does, which undercuts the reason to run a flash day at all. Pick one date on the calendar and protect it.

Why stage VIP access instead of opening everything at once?

Staged access turns each tier into a promotional moment for the next one. VIPs get first access, subscribers see that and want it for themselves, and the public sees the program had value before the sale even started. Opening everything at once gives away that structural advantage for nothing, since there’s no next tier left to aspire to once everyone already has access.

What channel should I use to promote the program during BFCM?

Don’t rely on email alone. A large share of loyalty members prefer interacting with programs through an app, according to eMarketer’s reporting on EY’s 2025 study, and many will download one specifically if the rewards feel worth it. Use whatever app or widget experience is available alongside email and SMS, especially for the members-only preview and the flash bonus day.

Does this replace the general loyalty-program promotion advice?

No. This is the BFCM-specific campaign layer that builds on top of the always-on advice already in place. It assumes the permanent placements, the widget, product pages, checkout, and account page, are already live before BFCM starts. Without those in place first, the staged sequence here has nowhere to land.

Make your loyalty program part of the BFCM campaign

Your loyalty program is competing for attention with every discount, countdown, and Black Friday message your customers see. Instead of mentioning it once and hoping shoppers notice, give it several moments to stand out throughout BFCM, from a sign-up bonus and members-only preview to early access and limited-time bonus points.

Spread those promotions across your BFCM calendar rather than running everything at once. By Cyber Monday, you’ll have done more than give customers another reason to shop the sale. You’ll have shown them why being part of your loyalty program is worth sticking around for, which gives you something to build on once BFCM is over.