Guide to Holiday Email Marketing

Email is one of the best ways to reach your most invested customers because they’ve signed up to hear from you. Inboxes are always full, but the holiday shopping season is a period when your customers are likely to be looking to their inboxes for deals and gift ideas.  

Here’s how to plan your holiday email strategy, ideas and examples for your messages, and tips for getting the most out of each email.

Why you should have a holiday email strategy

Whether you have an existing mailing list or are just starting to build one, email is an important marketing tool during the busy holiday season. If you can, encourage mailing list sign-ups early: The sooner you start, the bigger the audience you’ll have when sending holiday marketing. 

Encourage site visitors to sign up by adding a marketing opt-in option to your existing contact forms and your checkout page. Or consider asking people to sign up in a pop-up or your website footer. Offering a discount code to new subscribers can help too.

You have an advantage on standing out in inboxes as a small brand and business. As you plan different tactics to drive sales—events, promotions, and updates—email is a way to ensure customers see your news and give them a direct link back to your website to make a purchase.

Get the guide to creating a holiday marketing plan

How to plan your holiday email marketing 

Putting together an email marketing campaign might feel overwhelming. But with some pre-planning, it can fit neatly into your other marketing plans. Use your overall holiday season goals and research as a starting point.

1. Set email-specific goals. Are you targeting email opens, traffic to your website, sales from email subscribers, or some combination of the above? Are there specific sales or products you want to promote? Can you improve anything from past email performance?

2. Narrow in on your audience. Who will your emails be focused on? This might include multiple groups, like shoppers who abandoned their carts, existing customers, and new customers. Each group might be the focus for different types of emails.

3. Create a calendar. Once you know what you want to promote and to whom, you can decide which emails to send and when. Plan all of your dates out, so you can schedule emails ahead of time.

4. Keep timing in mind. When and how often you send emails can impact whether people engage with them. This might take some trial and error, but try to choose times of day and timing near holiday moments that feel intuitive.

5. Hook your subscribers. When writing your emails, focus on compelling subject lines that encourage opens, then keep your email copy concise. Focus on the key product or message, the benefit to customers, and a clear call to action driving to your store. 

6. Tailor it to your brand. Consistent brand visuals and messaging send subtle signals that make your brand recognizable to customers and tap into the connection and trust they’ve already built with you. Make sure to customize your email to your brand style and voice, so it sounds authentic and natural.

If you’re struggling with the types of emails to send or how to fill out your email copy, try Email Campaigns. Email Campaigns includes customizable design templates—including for major holiday moments—and Squarespace’s AI writer to help you create draft copy. 

Holiday email campaign ideas

There are a few major holiday moments that most businesses should plan for in their email marketing: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the weekend between, when many customers try to shop at small businesses. 

But people could be browsing for gifts as early as October. And in a busy season, it helps to reach out when inboxes are quieter. Here are a few ideas for holiday emails that you can send any time.

• Gift guides and recommendations: These are helpful to send throughout the holiday season. Highlight popular products or gift-ready items like subscriptions and bundles to keep your store top-of-mind.

• Sales and promotions: Customers expect discounts during Black Friday weekend and major holidays, but if you promote discounts during other times, you might stand out among competitors.

• Exclusive offers: Make your customers feel special by offering exclusive items, promotions, or discounts just for email subscribers or repeat customers.

• Last-minute offers: Create a sense of urgency by sending limited-time offers, like a one-day-only 20% off code when someone abandons their cart or free shipping on all orders just for a weekend.

• Post-holiday outreach: Reach out after the holidays with deals like “Buy one, get one” discounts or “treat yourself” suggestions to capitalize on customers who still want to shop for themselves or others.

• Tell a story: You have an advantage as a small business—you can connect personally with your customers. Share a year-end recap, tell your brand story, or focus on your favorite products in an email to encourage sales and relationship-building.

The best time to send emails will depend on your audience and what messages you’re sending. Consider when messages have been successful for you in the past. And when in doubt, follow your gut—you know your customers.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday email examples 

Before your biggest sales push or major holiday moments, it can help to build anticipation by sending multiple emails. This can make a difference at the peak of holiday shopping season, when inboxes are particularly full. 

Here’s an example of an email plan for Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend.

• 3 to 5 days before: Build anticipation with an email teasing your sale. Use the opportunity to highlight popular products and guide customers to browse your store.

• Black Friday: Send an email on Black Friday promoting your sale and popular items, with a link driving people to your store.

• Cyber Monday: Send an email on Monday, reminding customers of their discount and featuring popular or fast-selling items.

• 1-3 days later: Send an email extending your promotion or announcing its final hours. Create urgency by highlighting low-stock items or emphasizing that it’s the last chance for this sale.

You don’t need a lot of content to make your emails work—it’s all about highlighting the products you already have and convincing subscribers to go to your shop.

How to measure your holiday email performance

It’s important to review performance after sending any email to your mailing list. Plan to review within 3 to 7 days after sending an email, to ensure your subscribers have had a chance to open and act on what you’ve sent.

Reviewing the performance doesn’t have to take long, but make sure to look at these data points.

• Open rate: What percentage of your subscribers opened your email? This helps you understand if people are interested in what you’re sending and if your subject lines are effective. Depending on your niche, a good open rate is around 17-28%. 

• Clickthrough: Whether subscribers are clicking into the call to action or products in your email is the clearest indicator of if they’re excited about what you’re sending. A good click rate is between 2-5%, depending on your niche.

• Conversion: Whether people convert on your ideal action—like buying an item—can tell you whether your pitch for the value is landing. 

• Unsubscribes: This is a clear indicator of whether your messages are relevant to your subscribers. A few unsubscribes is normal, but look out for spikes.

Over time, you’ll develop a sense of what’s typical for your specific mailing list audience, which you can use to set goals for future emails. For your holiday marketing, opens and clicks can help you identify which subject lines and products are most compelling for your subscribers and apply that to future messages.

If you have the time to manage responses, you can also encourage replies to your emails. It’s another way to welcome feedback from your customers, and can help you surface common requests or issues.

Looking for more holiday season advice? Visit this year’s guide to holiday ecommerce.