7 Inspiring Seasonal Email Ideas for Your Next Seasonal Campaign

Email marketing is a marketing channel that has become increasingly important in the digital world. Especially since COVID hit, more and more brands have turned to digital channels and realized the power email marketing holds:

Email marketing is a direct marketing channel that doesn't depend on an algorithm. Unlike social media marketing, which heavily relies on algorithm changes to score better posts and engagement, email marketing can help promote your product or services by opening a dialogue with users.

Creating targeted and relevant email marketing campaigns can help you promote the right thing at the right time, generate more leads, and build meaningful customer relationships.

Of course, promoting the right thing at the right time takes effort and an understanding of customer data. This understanding can help your bottom line grow, especially with seasonal email marketing campaigns.

In 2020 alone, holiday shopping generated $789.4 billion in revenue. This makes seasonal email marketing a fantastic way to promote your products, especially when they're relevant and needed.

Why Seasonal Email Marketing

Seasonal email marketing is a versatile tactic. With the right email marketing and marketing automation platform, understanding what your audience wants at any given time is just a few clicks away.

Holiday emails and seasonal email marketing can allow businesses to reach their audience with fun content. Add in an email marketing platform with robust email template builders that enable dynamic content and hyper-personalization, like Mailchimp or Moosend, one of the most popular Mailchimp alternatives. You will create an email marketing campaign to boost engagement, capture attention, and yield successful results.

You can adjust holiday email marketing according to your marketing plan, and the main part about it is that it's affordable:

$40 for each dollar spent is not something every marketing channel can produce. Now, note the following number:

A 138% increase in average spending is nothing short of impressive. This is why email marketing is one of the most beneficial channels for every business. But the revenue is one of many factors to take into account.

Seasonal email marketing can drive increased revenue. When you're sending a Christmas email marketing campaign, you're targeting customers when they most need it. During that time, they spend the most.

This can lead to increased engagement. Seasonal email marketing is a great way to remain top-of-mind and relevant. Seasonal email marketing is timely and builds stronger bonds, as it can promote the right thing at the right time.

Timely and relevant promotions, on the other hand, can increase brand awareness and boost engagement. And more engagement means more data. Of course, you can collect customer data through a dedicated form or even when prospects are just browsing. Still, it's best to ask for data when users are ready to give them up. Understanding the buyers' behaviors through data they willingly give you at the right time is a perfect way to create tailor-made experiences down the line.

Seasonal email marketing is a cost-effective way to increase revenue, engagement, and value. But what are the core strategies behind it?

Seasonal Email Marketing: The Core Strategies

Your seasonal campaign needs to be built from the ground up, including some core strategies you'll have to master. Let's see what those are.

The Seasonal Offer

During holidays, prospects expect brands to create a unique, limited-time offer that will last a few days. More than a few consumers shop based on that logic. So, do it like Mous:

As you can see, the brand uses creative wordplay, promoting its product as a necessary decoration for your smartphone and offering 20% off for Christmas.

"As essential to Christmas as the wreath on your door" gives a very festive touch, while the CTA button is clear as day.

This email worked because it shows creativity and provides a lucrative discount to boot. It also presents the brand's product as highly necessary for the season, sparking curiosity.

Create an email campaign that will allow prospects to purchase more for less. And remember to send follow-ups to non-openers. That way, you'll ensure they will eventually hear about your discounts even if your seasonal email falls through the cracks.

The To-Do List

Holidays sure are a busy period for consumers. The same goes for email marketers, of course. The former group hunts for the perfect product to purchase, whereas the latter needs to create emails that will shine, even in a full inbox.

This Thanksgiving email from Bonobos is the perfect example that showcases how a marketer can think like a consumer and vice-versa. Here, we have a very clever to-do list that links back to the products the brand wants users to notice.

"Get something nice to wear for dinner", "Find pants with some elastic", Get a sweater" are all CTAs in disguise. Straightforward, with links that lead users right where the brand needs them to be.

This email example works because it stands out. There are no visuals, it's easy on the eyes, and it's a to-do list that makes sense for the consumer and the brand. Not to mention how humorous it is. This email leads users down the sales funnel as gently as possible by making them say "Yes, I need that" through every pointer, thus boosting customer engagement.

Last-Minute Gift Giving

Procrastinators are a vast, diverse group in your general audience. And it would be best if you targeted them, too. Of course, there's only so much you can do if this segment is used to finding gifts at the very last minute. No matter how many follow-ups you send, they will ignore them until the holiday's eve.

Or perhaps not.

Don't stress your last-minute gift givers. Instead, try to find a way to give them a way out of this stress. Like Apple did.

This email worked because, instead of rushing users, it offered them a helping hand in their time of need. "Free two-hour delivery" on "eligible products" means you can skip the line and have your gift ready for you right before the holiday dinner. Not too shabby for a seasonal email campaign.

Another successful pointer of this email is the "Shop the gift guide" CTA button. The brand offers users a clear path, not making them look for every single Apple product - an action that could take hours.

Target your last-minute shoppers by managing your data in such a way that you'll understand when their last resort is. Study their shopping habits and offer the solution right when they need it most.

The Perfect Subject Line

As mentioned before, holidays are the busiest season for both consumers and marketers. This makes standing out in a full inbox imperative. And what better way to stand out than creating a clever and fancy email subject line?

This subject line poses a question, which makes it so successful. It's urgent, but not in a way that makes the prospect anxious. It's just enough for the reader to think that it's high time they started looking for the perfect Father's Day gift.

And, much like Apple's example above, Dollar Shave Club manages to recommend something that's hassle-free and relevant. An e-gift card should be an option and a part of your marketing plan. It caters to those who don't have the time or the energy to find an actual gift but want to offer something to their loved ones.

This holiday season, stand out by following Dollar Shave Club's example; Create an email subject line that will make users think "Hey, you're right, I should get to that!"

The Personal Holiday Email

Sometimes seasonal emails shouldn't aim to sell but celebrate. Sometimes, a lovely message, a push in the right direction, or even a way to remind users of the importance of family and giving are more than enough.

Tuft & Needle's email goes beyond the standard celebratory message. It turns personal, helping the brand remain top-of-mind, even when there's no need to sell anything.

There is no CTA, no branded offer, just a simple message of appreciation for Mother's Day and a gentle reminder that no matter how busy the reader might be, they must take a step back and celebrate the mother(s) in their lives.

The reason this email works is that it creates a bond with users. It's a brand that cares for its audience, and this thoughtful gesture goes way beyond a simple sale. And caring for users is more than a simple marketing trend in 2023. It is the norm.

The One That Celebrates Lesser-Known Holidays

Seasonal email marketing is not just Christmas email marketing campaigns, Valentine's offers, or Black Friday discounts. Email marketing campaigns sometimes need to consider lesser-known holidays, especially if the brand's audience is global.

This email from Miles showcases just that - the lunar New Year and how the brand celebrates it with its customers. This email works because it's simple, straight, and concise. "Prosperity and Miles" come with zero extra action other than what the CTA commands.

"Claim Now", a simple verb that showcases the action the user needs to take. The typography is bold and elegant, and this email has no surprises. It has, however, a lot of appreciation for the consumer. This email is a subtle way for the brand to promote its website and grab the attention of even the smallest segments of its audience.

The Interactive One

As mentioned, holidays pose a fantastic opportunity for email marketers to become creative and expressive.

And there is no better way to be creative and expressive than to opt for a seasonal email campaign with interactive elements.

This email shows users three ways to go to the Taco Bell store, utilizing the holiday spirit in a seemingly irrelevant email campaign.

This email works because it uses a game to capture attention and have users go down the sales funnel to get their orders delivered. It also encourages the recipient to spend more time on the email, creating a memorable experience.

Interactive elements help you stand out from competitors who send the standard holiday email with the holiday offer and give a more user-friendly and fun option.

The Takeaway

Seasonal email marketing is something that more than most brands should utilize for their email marketing campaigns this year - and every year.

Creating a seasonal email can be a fun and effective way to engage subscribers, showcase your product or service, and gather valuable data.

And the best part is that it showcases a fun and lighthearted brand that cares for the consumer and thinks like a consumer rather than one that's in just for a quick sale.

Invest in an email marketing platform that can help you create personalized messages, interactive content, and subject lines that stand out. You'll surely increase your bottom line in no time.

Author Bio:

Téa Liarokapi is a Senior Content Writer for Moosend, an email marketing and marketing automation platform, and an obsessive writer in general. In her free time, she tries to find new ways to stuff more books in her bookcase and content ideas - and cats - to play with.