Click Frenzy Email Playbook: How Australian Brands Can Prepare and Profit

Click Frenzy is Australia’s own version of a flash sale event — launched in 2012 and running annually in November, usually in the two weeks before Black Friday/Cyber Monday. At its peak, the Click Frenzy Main Event drives hundreds of thousands of Australians to participating retailer websites within the first hour of launch.

But here’s the reality: Click Frenzy drives traffic. Email converts it.

Brands that register as Click Frenzy participants but haven’t built a corresponding email strategy are essentially paying for traffic and then failing to capture it. The brands that consistently win Click Frenzy — in terms of revenue per subscriber, conversion rate, and return on email investment — are the ones that use email before, during, and after the event to amplify the traffic surge into sustained sales.

This is the Click Frenzy email playbook.

Understanding the Click Frenzy Landscape

The Main Event vs. other Click Frenzy events: Click Frenzy now runs multiple events throughout the year — the Travel event, Health & Beauty, and others. The Main Event in November remains the flagship and the one most relevant to general e-commerce brands.

Timing relative to BFCM: The Click Frenzy Main Event typically runs one to two weeks before Black Friday. This creates a strategic tension: brands need to deliver strong Click Frenzy offers without exhausting their audience or depleting their best inventory before BFCM. We’ll address this below.

The 24-hour versus multi-day window: The Click Frenzy Main Event has evolved from a strict 24-hour window to a multi-day event for many retailers. Check the current year’s format when planning your campaign — the email sequencing changes depending on whether you have one day or several.

The site traffic surge: Click Frenzy is famous for causing website crashes in its early years. That era has largely passed, but the site traffic surge on Day 1 remains significant. Email that lands at the right moment — when the consumer is already in a “deals” mindset — converts at above-average rates.

The Click Frenzy Email Strategy: Before, During, and After

Phase 1: Pre-Click Frenzy (7–10 Days Before)

The pre-event phase is about building anticipation and capturing intent before the frenzy begins.

Email 1 — Teaser (7 days out): “Something big is coming next [day].” Don’t reveal the specific offer yet — just signal that you’ll be participating and that your subscribers should keep an eye on their inbox. This email performs two functions: it primes the audience and it tells you who your most engaged subscribers are (those who open and click the teaser).

Subject line examples:

“Big news dropping [date]. Clear your wishlist.”
“We’re doing something special next [day]. Are you in?”

Email 2 — Early access registration (5 days out): Offer your subscriber list the chance to register for early access or a subscriber-exclusive offer that’s slightly better than the public Click Frenzy deal. This creates a two-tier event that rewards your email subscribers and drives list sign-ups in the days before the event.

Email 3 — Reveal (1–2 days out): Reveal the offer. “Here’s exactly what we’re doing for Click Frenzy.” List the discounts, the products on sale, the exact start time (in AEST/AEDT — be explicit about the time zone), and any early access details for subscribers.

This reveal email consistently achieves above-average open rates because subscribers have been primed by the earlier teaser sequence.

Phase 2: Click Frenzy Day(s)

Launch email: Timed to the exact moment your Click Frenzy sale goes live. For a midnight launch, this means a midnight AEST/AEDT email — which works for your most engaged subscribers but needs send-time consideration for AWST (Perth) audiences where midnight eastern time is 9pm or 10pm depending on DST.

For a 9am AEST launch, the launch email should go at 9:00am AEST sharp. Don’t be five minutes late — other brands will be in their inbox at exactly that time.

Subject line: Direct and factual.

“Click Frenzy is LIVE. [X]% off starts now.”
“It’s on. Click Frenzy starts NOW.”

Mid-event emails: For multi-day events, send a campaign each day — “Day 2 of Click Frenzy,” “24 hours left,” etc. For single-day events, send a mid-afternoon email targeting non-openers with a fresh subject line and a “don’t miss it” angle.

Countdown email (final 2–4 hours): A final push in the last few hours of the event. Subject line: “Click Frenzy ends in 3 hours.” Include a countdown timer if your ESP supports it. This email typically achieves the highest click-through rate of the entire sequence because it creates genuine deadline urgency.

Phase 3: Post-Click Frenzy (1–3 Days After)

Thank you / extension (optional): If your inventory allows, a 24-hour post-Click-Frenzy extension for non-purchasers can recover meaningful revenue. Segment carefully — only send this to subscribers who received the launch email but didn’t purchase.

New arrivals / full-price positioning: Within 2–3 days of Click Frenzy closing, send a non-promotional email that showcases new arrivals or highlights full-price products. This re-establishes your brand as more than a discount shop and begins the transition into the BFCM period.

Click Frenzy vs. BFCM: Managing the November Calendar

The November email calendar is the most crowded of the Australian retail year. Click Frenzy, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and for some brands, Click Frenzy Mayhem (the Black Friday week event) can create an overwhelming promotional sequence if not managed carefully.

Our recommended approach:

Use Click Frenzy for selected categories, not your full catalogue: Don’t use Click Frenzy to apply sitewide discounts at your maximum depth. Save your deepest discounts for BFCM if that’s your bigger event. Use Click Frenzy to spotlight specific product lines or clear older inventory.

Segment by event history: Subscribers who purchase at Click Frenzy and then again at BFCM are your highest-value promotional buyers. Track this in your ESP and build a “dual event purchaser” segment for future years.

Allow breathing room: If Click Frenzy ends on Wednesday, don’t send the next promotional email until Friday. Give your audience a 48-hour gap before beginning BFCM buildup. Subscribers who receive promotional emails every day in November will unsubscribe or disengage.

Differentiate the messaging: Click Frenzy is an Australian-specific event with a distinct identity. BFCM is global. Your Click Frenzy email creative should reflect that Australian identity — reference the event by name, use language that speaks to the national event moment.

Spam Act Compliance During Click Frenzy

The Australian Spam Act 2003 applies fully during Click Frenzy, as it does for every commercial email your brand sends.

Key compliance reminders for the high-volume November period:

Unsubscribe processing during peak periods: The five-business-day unsubscribe processing requirement doesn’t have an exception for Click Frenzy. Ensure your ESP is processing unsubscribes in real time or daily, not in a batch at the end of the campaign.

Sender identification on all emails: Every Click Frenzy email must clearly identify your brand as the sender — in the from name, the from address, and the footer. Using misleading or obscured sender information during a high-traffic event is both illegal and damaging to sender reputation.

Frequency and consent fatigue: Sending more than three to four emails during a single 24-hour Click Frenzy event is unlikely to be compliant in spirit even if technically within the Act. Consider your audience’s reasonable expectations when planning frequency.

Time Zone Management for Click Frenzy

Click Frenzy publishes its event start times in AEST. Most Australian brands should schedule their launch emails in AEST — but the time zone complexity still matters for national audiences.

Eastern capitals (NSW, VIC, ACT, TAS): AEDT during November (UTC+11). Click Frenzy publishes in AEST (UTC+10) — check whether their published time is AEST or AEDT for the specific year. Schedule precisely.

Queensland (QLD): AEST year-round. One hour behind the southern capitals in November.

Western Australia: AWST (UTC+8). Three hours behind Sydney/Melbourne on AEDT. A midnight AEDT launch is 9pm in Perth.

South Australia: ACDT in November (UTC+10:30). 30 minutes behind the eastern capitals.

Use send-time optimisation where available, or build state-segmented lists for high-stakes campaigns.

What Separates Click Frenzy Winners From the Rest

The brands that consistently generate the most revenue from Click Frenzy share these characteristics:

They start building the sequence three weeks out — not the week before
They segment by engagement and purchase history — not blanket broadcast
They time their emails to the second — not approximately
They use the event to acquire new subscribers — early access campaigns tied to list sign-up
They have a clear pre- and post-event email strategy — Click Frenzy is a chapter, not a standalone
They’re compliant — no false urgency, accurate subject lines, working unsubscribes

Let Excelohunt Build Your Click Frenzy Campaign

Click Frenzy is a high-stakes, time-sensitive event. Getting the sequence right — the timing, the segmentation, the subject lines, the AEST scheduling, the compliance — requires more than an afternoon of email drafting.

Excelohunt builds and manages Click Frenzy email campaigns for Australian e-commerce brands on Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign, Campaign Monitor, HubSpot, Mailchimp, and Omnisend. We plan the full pre-, during-, and post-event sequence, handle all the time zone scheduling, and report back in AUD on event performance.

Get your free email audit and plan your Click Frenzy strategy →