The holidays are almost here. People are excited to prepare for Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, New Year’s, and the long break from their busy lives.
According to Emarketer, US holiday retail e-commerce sales will break records this year, reaching $271.58 billion.
If you own an e-commerce business, then you should start preparing new stocks, planned offers, and productive marketing activities such as email marketing, paid Ads, sales funnels, etc.
You should plan to craft conversion-optimized newsletters to ensure everyone is aware of your offers, and you get to convince them to purchase more from you.
For example, Beehiiv noted a whopping 700% increase in newsletters on its platform.
Today, I will discuss 10 amazing holiday newsletter ideas that you can use to earn more revenue this holiday season.
So let’s begin.
What is a Holiday Newsletter?
A holiday newsletter is a specially crafted email sent during the holiday season that includes special offers and recommendations that are aligned with the occasion.
Suppose you have a good offer, or a great collection during the holidays. In that case, you can create a holiday newsletter landing page to attract and invite your potential customers to purchase more during the holiday period.
10 Holiday Newsletter Ideas to Boost E-Commerce Sales
You could simply send a basic email stating the holiday discount you are offering. But, if you plan a great newsletter strategy, you have the chance to convert even more.
Now, let us look at a few holiday newsletter ideas that you can embrace to try and increase your sales significantly.
I will try to provide some real-life holiday newsletter examples to help you understand the concept even better.
1. Gift Recommendation Email
Keeping Thanksgiving and Christmas in mind, you can plan a holiday newsletter where you may suggest a few hand-picked gifts available in your store for family and friends.
Use an email template that’s designed for the occasion and recommend the gifts that you know are in high demand during the holiday season. Combine this with an exclusive discount to entice customers further.
Here is a great holiday newsletter example by GoldBelly.
They kept the email theme in accordance with Christmas and made an attractive impression. Then they added a few gift recommendations below for people to order for themselves or to send away to their loved ones.
2. Popular Holiday Products Promotion
You can create an exclusive product recommendation email series highlighting the most popular items that sell well on each occasion.
These products will include the basic necessities and high-demand products that people tend to buy during these holiday occasions.
For example, during Black Friday, you can send over the products that you know will sell more with high discounts.
The series could include 3-5 emails from the initial offer announcement to the last call to accept the offer.
Here’s the last email that Booking.com sent as part of their Black Friday newsletters a couple of years back.
The thing to learn from this is, that you can actually plan a complete email newsletter series to highlight your Black Friday deals.
You can see, in this email that they didn’t have to list down all the available packages. The images were enough to attract people and the discount was mentioned.
3. Special Discount on Specific Products
Another great Holiday newsletter idea is to offer discount pricing on a specific category of products. Targeted discounts always work well on special occasions and if you can reach the right audience, you can expect a high conversion rate.
Let us look at an example:
Suppose you have an all-in-one e-commerce website for clothing products.
Just before Christmas, you can create a separate category on your website for Christmas-related products such as red jumpers, white and red monkey caps, red mufflers with white borders, red mittens, etc.
Then, you can create a Christmas newsletter email highlighting some of these products along with the discount percentage.
On the CTA button, include a link that will take them to the category page where you have the discount applied.
This approach will help you land a great number of sales if sent at the right time of the month.
4. A Holiday Plan for Your Customers
Prepare a comprehensive holiday guide for your customers from decorations to gifts and essential items to buy, including recommendations from your store.
You can even suggest popular restaurants to try, good events to visit, etc., to make it a complete holiday assistant.
Then prepare a holiday newsletter email with this guide and send it over to your prospects. Make sure to design the email with excitement in mind.
End the email by inviting customers to your online shop to purchase the recommended products that they can get from you. Use a strong CTA regarding the discount you are offering.
5. “Thank You” Invitation Email
Sometimes, expressing your gratitude towards your customers can go a long way. During the holiday occasions, you can send a simple Thank You email with a good subject line to your past customers, appreciating them for trusting your store, along with greetings for the holidays.
And then announce your special offer to invite them back to your store to get exclusive discounts during the holidays.
This is one of the rare but effective holiday newsletter ideas that work really well in the travel and tourism industry.
6. Highlight of The Week Email
Rather than sending a newsletter once before every occasion, you can set up a weekly automation workflow for “highlight of the week” newsletters.
The idea here is to set up an automated email to be sent on Monday or Tuesday of every week, where you can recommend 1 particular product as the highlight of the week.
This means you can create a complete email to promote why this is a great product to purchase at that particular time, along with its benefits and savings after the discount. Use a strong CTA button to purchase it.
Then, recommend a few other similar products below using small thumbnails, in case the prospect wants to seek other products.
This approach will mean, you will be able to take a more persuasive approach about the product itself rather than just on the discount, hence increasing your chances of conversion.
However, you need to make sure you highlight the right type of product depending on the date.
For example, in the email that will go out after 25th December, the highlight product should not be a Christmas-related product.
Rather, it should be some sort of celebratory product more suited to the new year’s eve.
OpenTable used a similar approach, except they recommended multiple products as weekly highlights.
You may be creative with this approach depending on what niche your e-commerce store specializes in.
7. Special Last-Minute Offers
Here’s a new tactic you can try this year as one of your Holiday newsletters.
Suppose, tomorrow is Christmas Eve.
All of a sudden increase your discount for 24 hours, let’s say from 30% to 40%, and send a FOMO-scripted email to your prospects.
(FOMO=Fear Of Missing Out)
Indicate in your email that this is a special last-minute Christmas offer and will fall back to 30% in 24 hours. This will trigger many to consider accepting your offer.
8. Special Coupon For Repeat Customers
You can create automated holiday newsletters with special coupon discounts for repeat customers. This can act as a simple appreciation for their loyalty and push them to purchase even more.
For example, suppose someone purchased a chocolate from your store during Black Friday on a 30% discount. Then set up an automation so that 24 hours after his purchase, a special coupon of 40% is generated and sent to the buyer with a personalized email.
Simply send something like
I noticed you purchased our KitKat bundle last night. I can tell you love chocolates. So, just for you, here is a special 40% off for your next order.
Coupon: YourReward40
Validity: Expires in 5 days
So don't hold back and get everything you want. Make this the best Black Friday ever!After that, use a CTA button to claim this discount. Then recommend a few products to click and visit the product page to consider purchasing it.
Make sure to make this newsletter attractive with a soothing email template.
This approach is a great way to make every customer more excited to purchase a second time during the sale holiday season.
9. Encourage Bundle Buying
To boost your e-commerce sales this holiday season, focus on creating personalized holiday newsletters that engage your customers.
Start by offering exclusive holiday bundles. It will show customers how they can save more by purchasing items together. You can also use festive visuals and creative designs to capture attention and keep the message simple.
Recommend products based on your customer’s past purchases, making them feel valued. Offering special discounts for loyal customers can drive more sales and create a sense of appreciation. Add elements like countdowns to upcoming deals or New Year’s offers to build excitement and urgency.
Make your newsletters easy to read and enjoyable with a clean design. Use engaging subject lines to improve open rates and encourage customers to check out your latest offers.
By focusing on fun, festive content, and valuable product suggestions, you’ll keep your audience excited and ready to shop throughout the holiday season.
10. Launch a holiday quiz
Launching a holiday quiz is a brilliant way to include a quiz funnel into your holiday newsletters, driving engagement and conversions.
Fun quizzes like “Which holiday gift suits you best?” or “How well do you know holiday traditions?” can be great topics for newsletters, capturing attention with a compelling subject line like “Test Your Holiday Knowledge!”
This approach is perfect for December newsletter ideas and Christmas work newsletter ideas to engage your subscriber list.
A well-designed quiz can serve as a lead-generation tool within your quiz funnel, guiding email readers toward discounted products and upcoming seasonal offers.
Quizzes are also a great way to build customers’ trust and hype your holiday email marketing campaign while promoting sales – gift guides.
Use quizzes to enhance brand awareness and nurture both loyal and new customers through a fun, interactive experience that’s perfect for boosting email open rates and driving more traffic to your site.
Key Focus of A Successful Holiday Newsletter
As you saw, you can get really creative with your holiday newsletter ideas and aim to maximize your sales.
But make sure to focus on a few key aspects to ensure your emails deliver high results.
i. Target Customer Needs And Expectations
You should center your holiday newsletters around what your customers can surely need or have a high chance of demanding during the holidays.
>> Focus On Gifts & Decoratives
The holidays include special occasions such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s.
Most people are eager to buy gifts for their friends and family, get decoratives to decorate their yards, and purchase food that is mostly bought during respective occasions such as Turkey or mittens during Christmas.
If you sell such products, then you should focus on these products more in your holiday newsletter emails.
For businesses that offer B2B services such as a web development firm, you can rather focus on how your service will help get more output during the holidays, i.e., benefit-focused emails mixed with the occasion.
If your product and service don’t have any relation with the occasion, you can still go for the “Thank you” approach.
>> Run Special Discount Campaigns
Another inevitable factor is that people expect discounts during the holidays, especially on Black Friday.
So you should also plan special discount campaigns for every occasion during the holidays.
For example, last year, I ran a huge 40% discount during Black Friday for 15 days.
Next, I ran a 7-day discount campaign for Christmas with 30% off. And then, I offered a 20% discount for 3 days as a New Year’s celebration.
Some e-commerce stores go for a single site-wide discount throughout the holiday period.
The bottom line is that discounts are a crucial part of your holiday campaign. You just need to be creative and persuasive with your marketing activities and holiday newsletter emails.
ii. Build Customer Engagement
Promotion during the holiday season is more about engagement than the offer itself.
Your email newsletter should be optimized for engagement so that your prospects can feel valued and take action more often than not.
>> Address The Occasion Personally
You should use personalized content whenever possible in your holiday newsletter emails.
Simply addressing the customers by their names and relating the content to their location will help to connect with them on a personal level.
On top of that, referring to their purchase history or offering rewards due to loyalty can enhance the overall customer experience on a personal level.
Also, try to make your copy convey that you really care about how the customers can spend their holidays.
Wish them, greet them, thank them – make them feel appreciated. This in turn will make them trust you more and consider your offers over others.
>> Give a Local Reference If Possible
If you have more customers in a certain locality, you can send them separate localized email newsletters. It will help you to enhance your local lead generation strategy.
In these emails, you can refer to local jargon, history, or cultural references to that area so that customers can relate to your email more passionately.
This will be especially beneficial if you also have a local physical store. Your local references will make them more responsive to your invitations to visit your store.
How to Optimize Your Holiday Newsletter
Now, let us learn how you can optimize your holiday newsletter ideas so that it doesn’t become “just another promotional email” with discount offers.
1. Holiday-Themed Subject Lines
Use subject lines that align with the holiday theme. This is a special indication that you have something good in store and people will be curious about what you have to offer.
Here are a few good holiday newsletter subject lines:
- “Unwrap Joy: Exclusive Holiday Deals Inside!”
- “Festive Delights Await: Your Personalized Gift Guide”
- “Cheers to Savings: Year-End Discounts Just for You”
- “Merry Moments Await: Unlock Your VIP Holiday Access”
- “Jingle All the Way: Limited-Edition Gifts Revealed!”
2. Visuals Matching The Occasion
Try to go creative with the email design to match the occasion. You can customize the text, images, gifs, and the overall email template so that people can tell what it’s about at first glance.
Here is a good example from Oprah’s Favorite Things.
You can see how they created a beautiful Christmas feel with a simple, but meaningful design.
3. Personalized Email Copies
Use a personalized email copy with the direct name of the customer, his purchase history, and the direct use of the second person point of view, i.e., “you,” so that people can feel this email is specially made for them.
By addressing individuals personally, you create a connection that resonates on an individual level, making your communication more relevant and appealing.
4. Creative CTAs For The Holidays
Take a creative approach with your Call to Actions (CTAs) in your holiday emails to significantly enhance Click-Through Rates (CTR).
Craft CTAs that evoke a sense of urgency or highlight exclusive holiday benefits, making recipients curious to click and view the offer.
Here are a few examples of creative CTAs:
- “Shop Now for Sparkling Holiday Savings!”
- “Unlock Festive Fun: Explore Exclusive Deals!”
- “Gift Happiness: Discover Your Perfect Christmas Presents!”
- “Jingle All the Way to Exclusive Discounts!”
- “Claim Your Holiday Joy: Click to Reveal Savings!”
5. Optimal Time to Send Emails
Sending emails at optimal times, when recipients are more likely to open them, is crucial for maximizing engagement.
Understanding your audience’s behavior and considering factors like time zones can help pinpoint the ideal sending times.
Usually, sending emails at the beginning of the day, lunchtime, and late afternoon are good times of the day to send emails. However, it will vary from country to country.
The option here is to test sending emails and noting their engagement rates within the 1st hour in the last 2-3 months.
That will help you understand your peak email sending time. It will be even more accurate if you segment your leads based on their locations.
Reliable Email Marketing Tools to Create & Send Holiday Newsletters
To ensure the success of your holiday email marketing strategy, you need to have the right tool.
Your email marketing tool should provide crucial features such as complete email customization, holiday holiday-themed email templates, easy email automation creation, and lead segmentation.
Following are a few email marketing tools that you can consider using to implement your next holiday newsletter ideas.
1. Mail Mint
Mail Mint is one of the easiest email marketing tools for businesses that have a website created with WordPress.
This plugin comes with a user-friendly interface, that has a great lead management system with advanced lead segmentation, easy email campaign builder, and visual email marketing automation workflows.
Moreover, the plugin has tons of beautifully designed email templates for special occasions that you can use to plan your holiday email newsletters.
Mail Mint has pre-built automation recipes for WordPress and WooCommerce to help you optimize email marketing for your online business easily.
The best features of Mail Mint are:
- Unlimited Contact List
- Easy Lead Management With Advanced Segmentation
- Simple Email Campaign Builder
- Powerful Drag And Drop Email Builder
- Email Automation Workflows
- Lead Form to Collect Leads
- Email Sequences
- Pre-made Automation Recipes
- Beautifully Designed Email Templates
- Email Automation for WooCommerce & WordPress
- EmailAutomation for Major Form Builders
- Abandoned Cart Recovery for WooCommerce
- Special Integration With WPFunnels Funnel Builder
2. Mailchimp
Mailchimp’s email marketing tools provide businesses with a versatile platform to create, send, and track email campaigns.
With features like customizable templates, automation, and robust analytics, Mailchimp ensures a streamlined and effective email marketing experience for you to engage and grow your audience.
The vest features of Mailchimp include:
- Customizable Email Templates
- Automation Workflows
- Robust Analytics
- Audience Segmentation
- Integration Capabilities
3. HubSpot
HubSpot’s email marketing tools help businesses with a user-friendly platform to create, personalize, and track email campaigns effectively. Offering features such as automation and seamless CRM integration.
It ensures a comprehensive solution for you to enhance your email marketing strategies and you can know how to make email marketing more effective in different ways.
The best features of HubSpot include:
- Full CRM Service
- Email Campaign Creation
- Email Automation
- Analytics and Reporting
- Personalization
Conclusion
The holiday season is the perfect time to boost your e-commerce sales with a smart email marketing campaign.
By using the right holiday newsletter ideas, you can grab attention, build customer trust, and encourage more purchases.
Don’t forget to include limited-time offers and highlight different products with a compelling subject line to boost email open rates.
Use proven ideas to engage your audience and increase sales. For a simple, easy-to-use tool, try Mail Mint to send out your creative holiday newsletters effortlessly.
** FAQs **
How can I make my newsletter more fun?
- Make your holiday newsletters more fun by adding festive visuals, holiday trivia, interactive elements like quizzes, or exclusive offers. Personal stories and surprise discounts also help keep it engaging.
How do I choose a newsletter topic?
- Pick a newsletter topic based on your audience’s interests and current trends. For December newsletter ideas, focus on gift guides, holiday tips, or exclusive offers. Christmas newsletter ideas like festive shopping tips are always a hit.
How do you announce a holiday?
- Announce a holiday with a festive email, fun visuals, and a catchy subject line. Share any special offers or holiday hours. Look at holiday newsletter examples for inspiration, like cheerful greetings paired with exclusive discounts.
What is a newsletter strategy?
- A newsletter strategy includes setting goals, such as increasing engagement or sales and crafting relevant content. For a holiday email marketing campaign, use holiday newsletter ideas that highlight products, discounts, and engaging content.
What are the types of newsletters?
- Types of newsletters include promotional, informational, and company updates. Holiday newsletters often feature product suggestions, gift guides, and company holiday newsletter ideas to keep your audience engaged.
