It is the most wonderful time of the year, including the email marketing universe.
The great thing about Christmas is that subscribers are already primed to make purchases. Everyone is seeking presents for loved ones in December. Therefore, all you have to do is to push your audience a little bit and channel their initiative in the right direction.
Christmas Email Marketing Campaigns
Today’s strategies for Christmas email campaigns include two stages.
Everything begins with sneak peeks and preview emails that stir up interest, nurture subscribers, increase excitement, and hook the audience. Christmas shopping season kicks off on BFCM weekend. Therefore you can start sending out email newsletters filled with festive vibes at the beginning of December.
Get a head start by sending an email on the first of the month. Send subsequent reminders about your store or products once or twice a week, choosing the best time for your clients. Remember, pushing too hard can turn off potential buyers, so make it unobtrusive. Use personalization to open the dialogue with the right tone to meet the mood of the crowd and keep the holiday season going.
Email Newsletter from Party Pieces
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The Next Stage
The second stage begins on the eve or right during celebrations. Christmas and the days that surround it – usually one day before and one day after – are the perfect time for stellar offers. Send out the best deals, engage people with extra perks, and make this day magical.
Contacts will be bombarded with email newsletters from retailers as well as friends and relatives. However, if you did everything right with the sneak peeks, then you will easily get through.
The Post-Christmas Stage
For some email marketers, not everything ends on Christmas day. Keep going with the campaign. The third stage includes the post-Christmas email newsletters. It is used to get the most out of the festive mood. After all, New Year’s celebrations are coming, and people will be in a good spirit. Plan post-Christmas email newsletters to coincide with the New Year’s rush, creating a consistent experience.
Subject Lines
If you fail with the subject line, then you will fail with everything else. Creating an attention-grabbing headline that compels users to open the email newsletter is crucial.
What can you do to create the high-converting subject line? Here are useful tips:
- Start with congratulation, It’s obvious yet effective, especially in such a magical day as Christmas.
- Invoke curiosity, hinting about a mystery gift inside.
- Highlight the value of your offer from the first seconds.
- Point out urgency. It comes without saying that Christmas offers are time-sensitive; however, it does not hurt to remind contacts with properly-chosen words like Sale Ends Tonight, Only Today, Final Hours, etc.
- Play the FOMO (fear of missing out) card.
- Use puns. Christmas is a family holiday; therefore, it is quite reasonable to use puns to meet the cordial and friendly mood as well as show everyone that you are also in a high spirit.
- Use emojis. There is a whole bunch of seasonal glyphs that instantly bring a festive spirit to contacts’ inboxes.
Christmassy subject lines to try:
- The Very Merry Sale!
- Happy Holidays!
- Christmas Deals starts now!
- The Most Wanted Gifts This Christmas!
- Christmas is ALMOST Here!
- Add some sparkle to Christmas dinner!
- What Makes The Perfect Gift? 50% OFF Everything!
- Fun & Festive Holiday Picks!
- Christmas MIRACLE! 40% OFF Everything!
- It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!
- Jingle bells! Jingle bells rock! 60% OFF!
- The Joy of Giving! Christmas Sale is on!
- Last-minute Gifts, Santa-Approved!
- Heigh-Ho! Heigh-Ho! It’s Off to Gifts We Go!
- Share Joy!
- Under the tree, shipped for free!
- Ho-Ho-WHOA! 50% OFF!
- Ho Ho Ho…Christmas starts today!
- Santa’s worked his magic! Get 30% Off!
- The Stocking Stuffers to please anyone!
- Deals as red-hot as Rudolph’s nose!
- Enjoy Rudolph-tastic Christmas gift offers!
- Day 2 of the 12 Days of Christmas!
What’s more, spice things up with festive emojis. Use glyphs that show:
- Christmas tree
- Elf
- Deer
- Cookie
- Family
- Snowflake
- Snowman
- Wrapped gift, and more
Ideas for Christmas Email Marketing Campaigns
During the Christmas holiday season, you can try various shopping incentives. The most popular and beneficial ideas are the following.
Gift buying guides
The first rule of every high-converting email newsletter is to share content that delivers value to subscribers. Vigilantly created gift guides are one of the best ways to realize it in practice. Remember your audience will make purchases not only for themselves but also for relatives, friends and even colleagues. Therefore, inspire those who are in doubt.
Gift Well From SchoolHouse
Wishlists
Unlike the previous email newsletter, this one should include stuff that customers were interested in during the year. It is here where you need to analyze buyer preferences to hit right to the point.
Wishlist from Free People
1973 Ltd
12 Days of Christmas
Run the Gift marathon is a true way to bring Christmas season into digital expanses. It will help to boost anticipation, hook contacts to emails, and keep them intrigued. Make every offer count and, most importantly, valid during the day.
12 Days of Christmas from J.Crew Factory
Rewards
Offering something special during the holiday season is a normal thing. Everyone does that. And you know what? It works because people like presents. If you can’t give something material away, you can always create digital stuff like printable stickers for Christmas or even ebook with tips on how to survive the holiday.
Email Newsletter from Fundbox
Thanks and Congratulations
The Christmas holiday season is one of the most awaited events; it is one of those beloved holidays when the magic happens. Therefore, sometimes, it can be truly beneficial to show your gratitude to the audience and congratulate them with a beautiful digital card.
Saying thanks helps to build stronger relationships, contribute to the overall email marketing strategy, and enhance the brand identity.
Happy Holidays from J Jill
Curate Labs
It goes without saying that the design of an email newsletter should stay in line with the festive season. Top off your email with some Christmassy stuff, sprinkle it with golden glitter, and add a touch of magic.
To get a head start, use Postcards. It is a powerful free HTML email template builder that comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface based on a modular system and more than 100 pre-built handcrafted blocks. Not only will you create a template that will work consistently across all mobile devices, browsers and email readers, but also get an ESP-ready code for integration with all the popular email services such as MailChimp, Moonmail, SalesForce, etc. Use it to assemble the layout quickly, edit the content, and populate it with festive images, illustrations, and gifs.
To get some inspiration for what blocks to include, what décor to use, and what triggers to push, we have created a collection of high converting Christmas email newsletters done by professionals.
Email Newsletter by Carol’s Daughter
Email Newsletter by Carol’s Daughter is a classic example of Christmas email blasts. Every inch of this template inspires holiday cheer and gives off the magical vibes. Background, call-to-action button, typography, and even graphics meet the holiday mood.
The hero area is the star of the show. It brings value to subscribers from the get-go. Since it is a flash sale, it comes as no surprise that the team has stressed urgency. They added two round clocks with moving hands before the CTA to make this message stronger.
The email newsletter from Carol’s Daughter is a pleasant symbiosis of gorgeous festive design and smart marketing tricks.
Email Newsletter from Terrain
The email newsletter from Terrain is a perfect example of how to weave brand identity with a holiday makeover. The team used the most popular products in their shop as tools for creating a magical, cozy, and homey atmosphere.
On top of that, it is a small gift guide. Note there are no signs of sale whatsoever; only the best products featured in an alluring manner and CTA that is seamlessly integrated into the content.
This approach is excellent because your subscribers do not feel the pressure. They see the email newsletter as a suggestion enjoying its beautiful aesthetics.
Merry Christmas from Pacific Place
Much like in the previous example, the team behind Pacific Place has not departed from its brand identity. Their email newsletter strikes the tone of Christmas but still stays true to its businesslike roots.
Featuring a picture of a plastic assembly kit for Christmas day in gorgeous golden finishing, it screams holiday on all fronts as well as gives you hints about what you can get in the mall during the winter season.
Note the team has used just two colors — gold and red — to bring festive vibes to subscribers’ inboxes.
Email Newsletter from Nasty Gal
The team behind the Nasty Gal Christmas email campaign knows how to bring valuable content to the audience. While everyone was showing the discounts, the team was informing users about shipping. It is one of those things that matters during the holiday rush. Everyone wants to get their presents on time.
The email newsletter provides subscribers with a helpful guide on how to get your order before the big day, avoiding the risk of staying disappointed during Christmas. On top of that, the team has also included several best buys to remind potential clients what is waiting for them in the store.
Email Newsletter from Godiva
When it comes to pre-Christmas campaigns, Godiva shows us how to nail it. Their first email newsletter with Christmas vibe was sent right on Black Friday. Since it is generally believed that the winter holiday season begins at the last weekend of November, this email newsletter could not be more relevant.
The first thing that strikes an eye is a magical atmosphere achieved with the help of traditional Christmas decorations, light bulbs, and chocolates that give the design a delicious appearance. The best deal is elegantly laid on the table, and CTA is perfectly delineated. Here the atmosphere is magical, and the offer is almost literally appetizing.
Email Newsletter from Home Goods
On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me… Well, of course not a partridge in a pear tree, but still something valuable and totally on point.
Home Goods treated subscribers with not just “12 Days of Christmas” but an overwhelming “30 Days of Christmas.” Their email newsletter has included the traditional calendar, where each day is marked with its own special offer. This approach builds interest from early December and keeps the audience engaged and intrigued, making them checking their inboxes each day to find out what is next.
The next two email newsletters came from different companies. However, they both have demonstrated that “less is more” approach is beneficial for any event, and Christmas is no exception.
Email Newsletter from J.Crew Factory is a one-screen email newsletter that has nothing more than just the best deal announcement and several decorative elements. Nevertheless, it is enough to establish the festive mood, draw the attention toward the offer, and make people click on the link.
And it is all done with just a clever illustration, animated detail, and a catchy phrase based on the beloved childish story written by Robert L. May, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Simply brilliant.
Email Newsletter from VS does not have any red nose, but it is also a high converting Christmas email newsletter based on minimalism principles.
The email newsletter hits the point. First of all, the team included a compelling discount that occupies the lion share of the available space. Second, they strengthen the impact with an additional offer that covers shipping costs. Finally, they emphasized the active time window as well as stressed urgency.
On top of that, note the design. It is also minimal, yet it fits the bill. The team has used a two-tone color scheme that is spruced with some glitter giving the email newsletter a beautiful festive makeover.
Last But Not Least
Christmas stands aside from other holidays such as Halloween or Thanksgiving with its magic atmosphere; however, when it comes to email marketing, it does not differ from the others. It obeys the same rules and benefits from the best practices. Therefore there are several things you should do to refine your campaign and achieve the best result; for instance, analyze the previous campaigns.
Analyze Previous Campaigns
Analyzing previous Christmas email campaigns is crucial. It gives you insights on what worked or what did not to steer your current campaign in the right direction. Use purchase history, customer’s behavior, and preferences along with stats to figure out:
- What type of products were a success
- What kind of audience was eager to buy
- What time was the best to send eblasts
- What subject lines saw the best open rates
- Did images work as effective as illustrations or gifs
- What marketing tricks worked
- What Christmas ideas brought the best click-through rates
On top of that, always segment. Segmented emails bring relevant content to the audience resulting in higher conversion rates.
To detect the content, subject line, and design that drive the more conversions you should do split tests as well. It’s important to make sure you overcome all limitations and your email newsletter is browser compatible, works consistently across all popular email readers, and looks great on each and every mobile device.
