November is fast approaching, and in the blink of an eye, it will be the most awaited time of the year. From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve, the joyful spirit never stops. And with all this holiday craziness, it’s easy to lose sight of your important marketing initiatives. So why not get a head start on your holiday email marketing campaigns with our top most recommended design guidelines to enhance your holiday campaign? We have some of the best yet easy-to-implement design tips for holiday email marketing. Read on to know more.
Design Tips For Holiday Emails
Is First Impression the Last Impression?
It definitely holds true regarding the subject line of an email. A festive and personalized subject line will set your email apart when your potential customer’s inbox is flooded with promotional emails.
Here are some fascinating facts to consider while crafting a subject line –
- Did you know that 47% of people read emails based on the subject line?
- Approximately 69% of email readers rate emails as spam merely based on the subject line.
So, not only personalize your subject line but also add a festive zing to it. But we know it is easier said than done, so we’ve compiled some key points to help you draft your holiday-themed subject line.
- Use catchy terms that convey a sense of urgency.
For example, “Tick Tock”, “24-hour offer”, “Sale ends tonight”
- Include some seasonal jokes and buzzwords.
Deals that will chill your bones (Halloween)
Santa’s gift to you: Free shipping (Christmas)
- Don’t forget to add an emoji.
Halloween 
Turkey 
Snowman 
A bonus tip – A lot of brands skip adding preheaders. However, as Gmail, iOS Mail, and Outlook allow for preview text, why not use this space to spark your potential customer’s attention by adding a short text of what’s in your email?
Engage your audience by using interactivity
This feature will take your holiday emails to the next level. Interactive elements are great features to increase audience involvement. You can choose from elements like sliders, hamburger menus, hover effects, and click-based events to make your emails interactive. Not only do they increase engagement, but they also make emails entertaining. It stays in your audience’s mind and might contribute to word-of-mouth marketing.
This one from Royal Caribbean Internation Cruise company has an interactive map in it.
Is it too much or too little?
The best part about holiday emails is that you can make them look as interesting as possible with all the joyful images. But one thing to keep an eye out for is that you don’t go overboard with the images! While it is true that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” in our experience, striking a balance between graphics and content in an email is a thousand times more effective.
While not going too much into human psychology, the brain skims through the email to connect the dots between the text and the images. And when you create the right sync with your images and words, it makes it easier for your readers to absorb important information and enhances the likelihood of them clicking on your ‘Call to Action’ button.
Along with striking the perfect chord with your images and text, we have some tried-and-tested best practices for you to ace this holiday season:
- Instead of using a horizontal design layout, make your emails mobile-friendly by creating them in a vertical layout.
- When creating your CTAs, position them so they are both easily seen and readable.
- Add appropriate white space or dividing lines to avoid your email looking cluttered.
- Lastly, don’t forget to make your emails mobile responsive.
Pro Tip: Campaigner’s Drag and Drop Editor allows you to create email campaigns that are already mobile-optimized without even becoming a pro at HTML coding!
Is it GIFS or JIFS?
It may be a lifelong debate, but one thing’s for sure: gifs are an effective way to catch your reader’s attention. They were first used in 2007 in emails, and it increased the conversion rate by 49%. With our ever-limited attention span, gifs have the potential to convey your message in less than 10 seconds. But here’s the catch, don’t get too tempted to overuse it. A lot of moving parts in your email can also make it confusing for the readers and distract them from reading.
Pro Tip – Holidays are synonymous with flash sales, limited-time offers, and discounts! So, why not use a countdown timer gif for your offer emails? The gif will not only be visually appealing to your readers but also help to create a “fear of missing out” (FOMO) effect!
Here is an email from Anthropologie, where they have captured the holiday spirit using a GIF.
And finally, don’t forget your roots
Even though ‘tis the season to be jolly and creative, don’t wander too far from your overall brand’s appearance and feel. Your target audience trusts you because of the relationship you’ve built over the course of the year; don’t compromise that in the spirit of being too festive.
TJ Maxx nailed it here by using their brand colors yet giving out a festive vibe in the form of a golden bow.
Final Thoughts
Holiday email marketing is an effective strategy to boost holiday sales and optimize revenue before the new year, regardless of whether your customers purchase on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or rush for that last-minute Christmas gift. To ensure you get the most out of the holiday campaigns, we’ve created a Holiday Email Marketing Guide to help you plan, design, and execute your festive emails. And if you’re looking for inspiration, it includes some great examples of previous holiday-themed email campaigns. So, why not get yourself a nice cup of tea or a pumpkin-spiced latte and check out the guide to dazzle your target audience this holiday season?
