30 Creative Ideas for Your Holiday Email Marketing

Updated September 2023

Holiday Email Marketing

The holiday season is approaching, and shoppers are super excited to spend a fortune on wish lists they have drooled over the year. Hence, now is the ideal time to step up your holiday email marketing strategies to entice customers into the sales funnels.

We know you are not ready to start your holiday email marketing. You are still tasting your Labor Day BBQ and are trying to decide on your Halloween costume. We love fall and the spooky holidays. As creatives, we welcome any chance to dress up and turn into our favorite anime characters.

In 2023, there are nearly 4.37 billion email users worldwide.

Oberlo

But days are getting shorter, and fall has arrived. These signs are an indication that the 2023 holiday season is approaching fast. Now is an excellent time to start planning your holiday marketing strategy, including holiday email marketing.

Is Email Marketing Still Effective in 2023?

Absolutely! It is more relevant now than ever before. Research shows us that email is still the best channel to reach people on, ahead of other channels, even with the increase in popularity of social media and other messaging platforms. Email users are anticipated to continue growing.

81% of small businesses rely on email as their primary customer acquisition channel, and 80% for retention.

Oberlo

Why Email Makes the Best Holiday Marketing Tool

Holidays—no matter what time of the year—provide an excellent opportunity to reach out to not only current subscribers but to help generate even more leads by promoting the need to “share” the value you offer to your subscriber’s family and friends.

59% of marketers believe email is over twice as effective at generating leads than channels such as PPC and paid social media.

Snov.io

Emails Work for Mobile-First Consumers

Your subscribers rely on their smartphones and tablets for all kinds of information. Research shows that a growing number of consumers are doing their holiday shopping on mobile devices. According to a report by Castor, purchases made on mobile devices jumped from 3.4% to 36.7% in the past four years. According to Movable Ink, 76% of Black Friday emails and 63% of Cyber Monday emails reached consumers on a mobile device.

Emails Offer Instant Purchasing Options

Research shows that 41% of retailers will use “Buy Now” buttons in their email marketing, making it extremely simple for subscribers to make a purchase. Use a CTA button to highlight a gift, a special offer, or even an event that a subscriber can buy in a few clicks. Remember that your customers are just as busy as you are now. Anything that can speed up their holiday shopping will benefit them and your business.

Global marketing communications surged over Cyber Week with 40 billion messages sent, increasing 34% YoY.

Salesforce

Email Marketing Supports All of Your Campaigns

Businesses can use email to promote sales, invite subscribers to holiday events, showcase unique gift ideas, or even gift guides—the list is endless. It allows business owners to reach out to customers regularly and stimulate sales throughout the season. Email can support other marketing initiatives like social media sales, contests, and reward programs.

Getting Your Campaign Noticed

Holiday email marketing effectively stays in touch with existing customers and engages with consumers looking for your product or service. But during the busy holiday season, it is easy for people to miss email messages.

Emails with personalized subject lines can increase open rates by 26%. 

Campaign Monitor

However, holidays also provide great opportunities for creating holiday email marketing messages that will get noticed. Here are some creative email ideas for your holiday email marketing. Maybe not all of them will apply to your specific business, but there should be more than enough to get you through the holiday season.

30 Creative Email Ideas for Your Holiday Email Marketing

You are not the only one sending promotional and marketing emails during the upcoming holidays. For your holiday email marketing to be effective, it must stand out. Instead of announcing your big sale, extended holiday hours, or butchering The 12 Days of Christmas for your marketing message, why not try something different?

Holiday Email Marketing Strategies

Of course, you can and should send messages announcing sales, special offers, free shipping, and shipping deadlines! But many other topics engage consumers and promote your brand simultaneously. Here are some strategies you should try:

• Treat your rewards members
• Have a relevant post-Christmas sale
• Feature a collection of products in an email gift guide
• Send “white space” email campaigns
• Create a gift card campaign for pre- and post-Christmas
• Help customers succeed
• Say “Thank you”
• Start early with sending your Christmas email campaigns

Some Extra Holiday Email Marketing Tips

Be Early

Timing is everything when it comes to Christmas emails. Don’t be afraid to start early; consumers expect to see Christmas marketing messages as early as the first weeks of November to promote those early December sales. As we get closer to the holiday, you’ll want to tweak the content of your messages, ditching the early-bird sales in favor of promoting things like fast shipping.

Be Mobile

Mobile phones accounted for more than 61% of all web traffic to retail websites.

This means that most shoppers prefer to browse products and place orders while on the go. You simply cannot ignore the power of mobile phones and should instead focus on a razor-sharp holiday mobile marketing plan.

During the holiday season, mobile sales are always off the roof. Optimizing your mobile apps for the holidays can increase sales conversions and set a good example for customer support.

Be Personal

Getting recipients to open the message is only half the battle for retailers. The other half is convincing your recipients to take action. One of the most effective methods of engaging recipients is through personalization. 

Customize the content of your message to reference a customer’s location, what they previously purchased, or their current plan type. To craft personalized emails, you must segment your list according to your available data. This requires legwork before your holiday sending, so start to discover any quirks in your segmented lists early.

Be Helpful

The holidays are a joyous time of year, and they can also be hectic, especially when it comes to gift shopping. However, your company can relieve consumer anxiety by providing useful tips and tricks to make their experience more enjoyable.

And if you are shipping items for your customers, inform them of shipping deadlines well in advance! Here are the 2023 holiday shipping deadlines for USPS, UPS, and FedEx.

Let your customers know about affordable or local gift ideas, or perhaps offer a joint promotion with another business in your area. Think about combining several of your items into gift packages and promoting those. Include holiday gift guides or special holiday coupons. Tell consumers about any particular Black Friday or Cyber Monday offers.

Be Nice

It is the holidays, after all, a great time to thank your customers for their support all year. You can invite them to a special holiday event. Or encourage them to contribute to a fundraising campaign by matching their donation or donating a percentage of your holiday sales to the same cause.

Be Social

The holidays are a great way to connect with new customers on social media. Be sure to update and optimize your social media profiles first, however! Then tie your social media strategy into your holiday email marketing by running a photo contest. The worst holiday sweaters and dressed-up pets are perennial favorites!

Other ideas for social media contests include the best holiday food or cocktail recipe, indoor and outdoor Christmas decorations, and the goofiest holiday video. Be sure to use a social media marketing tool to streamline your efforts during the busy time of year.

Be Creative

Regarding holiday sales, you might consider slapping a 20% off sticker on your entire store and call it a day. But getting a little more creative with your promotions can make you more memorable and increase your sales. Push your customers toward products they may not have considered purchasing independently.

Be Different

If you are a small business, chances are you are unique in one way or another. So why not make that part of your holiday email marketing? Share a story, celebrate your success, and look ahead to the New Year. Offer discounts to people who come dressed for the holidays. Dress yourself up, maybe in a vintage or ethnic holiday costume.

Be Thankful

Customers can spend a considerable amount of time during the festive season debating what and where they want to spend their money when it comes to buying gifts. As a result, even faithful and long-term customers may shop elsewhere this holiday season.

If your company wants to entice new and returning customers, it must stay at the forefront of their minds. A great holiday marketing strategy for retaining clients devoted solely and loyal to your brand is to emphasize gratitude.

Show customers how important they are to your company. While there are various ways to thank customers, sending a thank you email or a physical card are both simple acts that can encourage consumers to do their vacation shopping with your company.

Starting Your Holiday Email Marketing

Now that you have some ideas for your holiday email marketing campaign, it is time to start. The first step will be to decide on your email frequency and then plan your topics ahead of time. That way, you can create your email message’s content and still be flexible enough to take advantage of sudden opportunities.

Once you have your email strategy figured out and started on your actual message content, it is time to think about your message’s timing and delivery. Yes, you can send individual or bulk email messages yourself, but we don’t recommend that. For the best holiday email marketing results, we recommend MailChimp or Constant Contact. Both offer plenty of free or cost-effective resources to small businesses.

Is Your Website or Online Store Ready for Holiday Shoppers?

Your holiday email marketing success depends on how well you prepare your store or business for the holidays. And in 2023, more than ever, that includes your online presence. Demanding consumers expect an exceptional user experience, or they will shop elsewhere. We are here to help!

Do you need to update your website or online store? Our team of professional designers will be happy to help you with this. But first, look at our portfolio and read our case studies.

Then, if you believe we are a good fit for your web design or website update needs, let’s talk! We offer a full range of consulting and design solutions for businesses and product brands.

If you are unsure how to prepare your online store or website, let’s talk! Our team will listen to your concerns, audit your online presence for shortcomings, and provide cost-effective options to prepare your online presence for the holiday season.

Did You Start Your Holiday Email Marketing?

Have you tried our holiday marketing ideas for your business or product brand? How has that worked out for you? Do you have anything to add to our holiday email marketing ideas?

Please leave your comments below so our audience can benefit and grab our feed so you don’t miss our next post! And help your audience with their holiday marketing by sharing our post with them!

For more content relevant to your business or product brand holiday marketing – check out the range of articles on our web design blog. (This one, explaining when and how often you should redesign your website, is an excellent place to start!)

Thank you! We appreciate your help ending bad business websites, one pixel at a time!

By PixoLabo
Not Your Average Web Design Agency
@PixoLabo