The Ultimate Christmas Email Marketing Guide [2023]

Get your Christmas email marketing strategy ready! The most wonderful time of the year is upon us!

Xmas can be a super busy period both for small and big businesses. You change your website, create holiday landing pages, and so on. But, more importantly, you start crafting holiday email marketing campaigns to help your email subscribers make their Christmas online shopping easier!

Don’t know where to start? Today it’s all about building your Christmas email strategy from scratch!

1. Design Your First Christmas Email

The first step to a successful strategy is to create a dedicated Christmas campaign.  From your email design to your offer, everything should be perfectly in place to convert your potential customers.

However, if you are not a design expert and you lack those resources, to make sure that you’ll design the best campaign, choose one of the best email marketing platforms like Moosend or Mailchimp.

So, the first thing you need to do is sign up for a Moosend account and click on the create a New Campaign option. Then, you can select your mailing list, choose your format and, lastly, go to “Design.” Here, you can either start building your email from scratch or select one of the Christmas email templates found in the library.

So, what can I do now? Well, everything! But let’s start with the basics:

• choose a structure for your email
• insert text into the content block
• add images or use the image picker
• include a landing or product page to the button

To add a new element, open the “Structure” tab, and pick another container. There’s no right or wrong here. Just experiment until you get the desired outcome. We’ll share some great newsletter ideas later on!

Adding Your Unsubscribe & Social Media Links

To complete your Christmas email marketing campaigns, add a final section to promote your physical store or insert social buttons to boost engagement with your social media accounts.

Of course, don’t forget to tell them why they’re getting your emails and add a clear unsubscribe button! You can also add more links to your “Contact Us,” “Privacy Policy,” and more to build transparency with your subscribers.

Now, let’s see a preview of what we created through the “Preview” option! Also, don’t forget to check how they look on mobile devices because responsiveness is a must for modern consumers!

In 15 minutes, you’ll create a simple Christmas email campaign to target your audience without coding knowledge. (Of course, for you HTML lovers, you can easily use the HTML view and code away!)

Using Advanced Items

If you want to create more advanced Christmas email marketing campaigns, Moosend lets you add advanced items like GIFs and countdown timers to give them a sense of urgency!

You can find those under the “Items” tab. Just don’t forget to add a specific time and day and then click “Generate Timer” to get them moving!

As one of the best email template builders, Moosend will let you create as many templates as you like, organize them and even import templates from other builders!

Finally, it’s time to update your campaign and move to the next step. We highly recommend sending yourself a test campaign through the “Spam and Delivery Test” to ensure that your Christmas email design is in place. When you do, you can deliver your Christmas campaign immediately or schedule it for later.

Now your first Christmas email is ready to go!

2. Add Your Christmas Subject Lines

Now that you know how to build your Christmas campaigns let’s focus more on the elements you’re going to add. First and foremost, the subject lines!

Your subject lines are the most important part of your emails since they will:

• make a great first impression through personalization elements
• show the value of your entire email at first glance
• maintain your email deliverability and sender score
• give you better open rates, click-throughs, and conversion rates

To create the perfect subject line, you need three powerful subject line allies: personalization, emojis, puns, and actionable language!

If you check your inbox, I’m sure you’ll see numerous Christmas email subject lines with emojis. Just see how they stand out in my inbox!

Creating High-Converting Christmas Subject Lines

If you’re a total subject line newbie or want an extra helping hand, you can leverage a subject line tester to predict the performance of your subject lines.

Of course, if you want to go fast, you can use external tools. But if you want to go far, beyond the North Pole, you need tools that will offer you the solution the moment you need it.

For this, Moosend’s platform has an integrated subject line tool and emoji picker (Codename: E-mojo Jojo) to make your life easier.

Overall, remember that elements such as emojis and personalization will increase your subject line performance. So, let’s put two alternatives side by side:

Merry Christmas vs Marilia, Merry Christmas from Moose Sweaters! 🤶🏼

Don’t forget to give your subject lines the love they deserve, as they are your best weapon for better open rates and conversions!

3. Add A Relevant Pre-header Text

Speaking of Christmas subject lines and better open rates, did you know that your pre-header text is equally important to converting your subscribers?

The pre-header or preview text is the extra line of copy that will give your email subscribers additional information and reasons to interact with your emails.

Now, the more relevant they are to your subject lines, the better they will perform, especially if you have an eCommerce business with countless competitors. For the following email examples, it’s all about offering extra value to customers:

First, MAC Cosmetics and Bellami Hair stress out their free shipping on all orders. Which is one of the biggest incentives for holiday shopping, even if it’s last minute!

More specifically, Bellami Hair’s pre-header has an extra incentive in the form of a free gift that makes the offer more irresistible! Dell, on the other hand, lets its target audience know that if they order by a specific time, they’ll get their gifts in time for the holiday season.

With the right pre-header text, you can boost your holiday sales and increase your open rates. Your list is going to appreciate every bit of it. Just be careful not to make them too long!

4. Write Christmas Email Copy

Your Christmas copy can’t be absent from your Christmas newsletter! But wait, how do you create a Christmassy copy in the first place?

To give your email copy the Christmas holiday makeover it deserves, you need to plan your email campaign first.

If it is a wishing-your-list-Merry-Christmas email, your copy should embody the Christmas spirit, be joyful, and festive.

Here’s an amazing Christmas email newsletter from Tone It Up.

Notice how the promotional element is absent from this Christmas email marketing campaign? That’s because the brand uses it to share the holiday spirit and express gratitude for the subscriber’s contribution to its success. And let’s not forget about the personalized copy!

However, what happens when your email newsletter campaign is all about those sweet holiday sales? Well, in that case, you don’t need lots of lines of copy to get your message across.

This email newsletter by Swarovski perfectly shows how short and to-the-point copy can charm your holiday shoppers and get them to act, NOW!

Here’s how the brand’s copy gets subscribers to act:

• it’s short and clever, playing on Christmas themes (naughty or nice)
• it uses the second person to be more personal and friendly
• the second part of the email starts with a warm wish

While the above points show why Swarovski’s content is appealing, the actual table turner comes after the second visual: “OOPS! FORGOT SOMEONE ON YOUR LIST?”

This line of copy addresses the most common Christmas shopping pain point. To which the brand answers with, “All is calm with a Swarovski gift card.” That’s an amazing way to approach last-minute gifts and offer an instant solution to your subscribers’ problems.

5. Create An Irresistible Value Proposition

One of the things that you should consider when you get started with email marketing is your value proposition. A value proposition is nothing more than a promise that you and your product make to your potential customers.

The more appealing your offer, the better chances you have to convert your subscribers into loyal advocates of your brand. For Christmas marketing, a super promotional message won’t cut it. To succeed, answer your subscriber’s pain points while promoting the holiday spirit.

For Kirrin Finch, this is a great value proposition example to make your subscribers feel special and, of course, promote your products!

The brand uses a Christmas gift guide email to inspire customers. However, that’s not the only thing going on here! In a single line, subscribers come across the problem: “coming up with new ideas over the years can be exhausting.”

The brand offers the ideal solution to save subscribers the trouble of spending days browsing for the perfect gift for their loved ones.

This value proposition perfectly resonates with holiday shoppers. And to make it more unique and converting, it also adds that they have “scoured the Internet” and “consulted experts,” which automatically makes the solution more effective due to the social proof effect.

6. Leverage Personalization

Up to now, you’ve seen me talking about good old personalization in the form of your subscriber’s name.

However, personalization is much more than that. The ultimate form of personalization is the ability to show specific content based on the person who opens your email.

Using a little something called dynamic content along with custom fields will let you customize your content like never before.

Your custom fields represent extra info about your email list. So, a custom field can be their name, birthday, gender, age, and so on. If you need help creating custom fields (or personalization tags), here’s a super easy-to-follow help article.

Now, that you have your custom field ready, you can return to your amazing Christmas email marketing campaign and leverage the mistletoe out of dynamic content!

Creating a Dynamic Content Block with Moosend

The first step to hyper-personalized content is to create a specific block that you will display to specific recipients. For this example, let’s say you want to target customers who opted for Hanukkah products.

To target them, we need a unique content block with the right product, copy, and CTA:

To show it to a specific segment of your subscribers, click on the Settings icon located next to your block and then expand the “Conditional visibility” option from the left side menu.

All you need now is to choose the appropriate custom field, select the comparer, which in our case is the “is/isn’t” and add the right value.

Be careful; only subscribers who have the value “Hanukkah” in their “December Holiday” custom field will get to see your Hanukkah special offer. For the rest, this block will remain hidden.

Using personalization is one of the most important marketing tips you need in your holiday jar! Make sure to use it correctly and you’ll see your subscribers interacting with your emails more than ever!

7. Build Festive Subscription Forms & Landing Pages

Christmas is not only perfect for boosting your seasonal sales but also expanding your email list!

To do that, create a beautiful subscription form with a rocking value proposition to capture their emails. And since it’s the Christmas season, you can also tweak your subscription forms to match your festive website visuals.

Moreover, to convert your festive season traffic, you need to lead them to your product or landing pages. While I know you already have some cool creations, crafting holiday landing pages will provide your subscribers with a continuous customer experience.

For example, let’s see this Christmas campaign by Cox & Cox:

This pre-Christmas email will excite your audience and offer them some help with their Christmas shopping.

So, what happens when you click on the “Shop Gifts” CTA? Let’s see below:

Christmas shoppers come across a beautiful landing page with Xmas gifts for everyone. From the colors to the visuals and use of white space, this landing page offers continuity between the email and lead gen medium.

To make sure your Christmas landing pages convert:

• add an irresistible value proposition
• take advantage of white space
• create straightforward CTAs
• offer continuous experiences

A landing page is a big deal for any eCommerce business that wants to take advantage of seasonal sales!

While out there, you’ll find numerous free landing page builders to do the job; if you are serious about it, you’ll need expert tools to create high-converting landing pages and sign-up forms for your brand.

Moosend’s platform will give you access to a landing page builder to complete your Christmas marketing efforts. To use it, though, you’ll need to sign up for an account first.

Pricing starts at $9/month, giving you access to the form builder, email editor, automation, and more, on top of the landing page feature.

8. Design Christmas Visuals

Like Halloween, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, Christmas newsletters need their own unique visuals. While it may take time and a skilled professional to create the best Santa-themed images, it is worth the time and effort.

First of all, get yourself an image editing tool and start creating. Subscribers expect beautiful, high-quality images of Christmas trees, Santa, snowflakes, and more. So, anything less than perfect is a no-no for them.

However, just because it’s the Christmas season, that doesn’t mean you need to overdo it. As we saw in our Christmas marketing ideas post, try to be elegant with the holiday visuals. Plus, if you want to leverage the power of GIFs, make sure to get an email marketing platform that supports them!

Moosend, for instance, will let you add your own or choose one through the image picker. Also, you can add images from your social media accounts or pick some from popular stock photo websites like Unsplash or GIFs from platforms like GIPHY!

If you have a more serious audience, use your Christmas visuals in moderation. A discreet Santa hat, some snowflakes, and a touch of gold might be better than a Christmas pandemonium!

9. Craft Christmas Email CTAs

So far, we saw all about Christmas copy and images. Now, it’s time to show love to your Christmas email marketing CTAs.

Adding the right CTA to the right place will make a difference and skyrocket your click-through rate. To nail those Christmas CTAs, consider their positioning, color, and copy. More specifically, the position of your CTA plays a major role in whether your email subscriber will click on it or not.

For the perfect CTA, use the inverted pyramid model, a structure that will help you nail your email design and attract attention to your buttons.

Always use your copy to guide users toward action. Use a bold headline to attract attention, offer a great value proposition, and then convert them with your CTA.

Just don’t forget to pick the right color! For CTAs placed on white backgrounds, the best option is to use bright colors like red, green, and yellow.

For colorful backgrounds, use white and black to make your button stand out. Here’s another simple example by Function of Beauty.

You can mimic this example to keep your CTAs elegant and visible without adding any extra colors into the email design mix. Remember, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication!

Lastly, for your CTA copy, I recommend that you make your buttons as actionable as possible. Combining action verbs like “Grab, Shop, Get” with words like “Now, Today, etc.” will make them urgent and converting!

10. Find The Best Time To Send Your Xmas Campaigns

Your Christmas email delivery time is crucial to achieve better open, click-through, and conversion rates. So, before sending your campaign, know when to send it.

According to the top email marketing practices, the best time to send an email is on Thursdays between 8 and 9am. Keep this in mind, as it will help you plan the next few campaigns more efficiently.

For Christmas campaigns, you need to consider three things: the Pre-Christmas period, Christmas Day, and the Post-Christmas time. Each of them will allow you to deliver Christmas emails with different incentives and conversion points.

Let’s see some top email marketing tips for each category:

Pre-Christmas Email Campaigns

You can send these emails a month or days before Christmas day. The ideal Pre-Christmas campaign can be:

• A holiday gift guide to help your Xmas shoppers find the perfect gift ideas (eCommerce)
• tips for Christmas activities, decor ideas, and more (bloggers)
• early Christmas sale for those early birds (eCommerce)

A gift guide is perfect to engage with your subscribers. Also, remember that your goal is to offer help rather than be too promotional!

To give you an idea, here’s a beautiful personalized Pre-Christmas email by Julie Blanner:

Christmas Day Campaigns

The 25th of December requires very different content from your Pre-Christmas emails.

First of all, your shoppers won’t spend all their time checking their inboxes and, secondly, most of them have already purchased their Xmas presents. But what about last-minute shoppers?

Well, this is the perfect opportunity to give them the best solution. And trust me, they will want a quick gift to surprise their special ones!

To rock your Christmas Day emails, you can create:

• last-minute sale emails with super-fast shipping (eCommerce)
• sale campaign to promote your Xmas products (eCommerce, retailers)
• Christmas card emails to send your holiday cheers (eCommerce, B2B, bloggers)

Here’s a clever Christmas email campaign by H&M that combines all of the above:

Post-Christmas Email Marketing Campaigns

Christmas might be over, but you can still target your audience with amazing Christmas deals. Post-Christmas is the perfect time to get your shoppers excited about your end-of-year sale and inspire them for the New Year!

To get the most out of the Post-Christmas (pre-New Year!) time, make sure to create:

• big end-of-year special sales (eCommerce)
• New Year inspiration campaigns (eCommerce, bloggers)
• tips for New Year resolutions and better living (eCommerce, bloggers)

Here’s an amazing Post-Christmas email campaign example from Prismatic Plants’ end-of-year sale:

12. Automate Your Holiday Email Campaigns

Need to target your subscribers when they take action? Marketing automation is your best friend!

Automating your marketing efforts will save you valuable time and let you focus on more pressing matters!

But wait! Can you use marketing automation for your Christmas email marketing strategy? Of course! Automation lets you do anything, from setting up holiday email campaigns based on your subscribers’ actions to delivering a campaign based on their timezone!

Now, if you want to take that to the next level, keep reading because I have the perfect marketing automation x Christmas idea for you, so hear me out.

Everyone’s dreaming of a white Christmas, right? It’s like the best thing that can happen on Christmas day (after roast chicken… and pudding… and presents!). So, how about surprising your customers with a unique White Christmas campaign?

Now, there are a few things we need to set Mission: White Christmas in motion:

• a targeted email campaign promoting your products (the more relevant to cold weather the better)
• a workflow builder to set up your email based on your subscriber’s weather conditions
• the subscriber’s location from which you’ll get the weather data

Luckily for us, you can easily create a weather-based campaign through Moosend’s automation features! Select the right triggers and prepare your automated workflows in no time!

5 Brilliant Christmas Email Marketing Campaigns

Need some quick inspiration? Here are some cool Christmas email marketing examples from my secret email vaults!

1. Kate Spade’s Pre-Christmas Email Example

Subject line: As a thank you 🤗 an extra 40% off the best holiday gifts (code included!)

A beautiful pre-Christmas email to thank your subscribers for their loyalty. Kate Spade uses beautiful visuals and colors to create an eye-catching result with an irresistible value proposition. Moreover, what makes this email effective is the way the brand targets all the holidays before Christmas, from Hanukkah to Kwanzaa!

That’s a perfect way to engage your shoppers and prepare them for the biggest holiday of the year while being inclusive and helpful!

2. Under Armour’s Christmas Eve Campaign

Subject line: Forget Someone? It’s e-Gift Card Time!

With this email, Under Armour offered a quick solution to last-minute buyers one day before Christmas. The email is simple and actionable, with a clear CTA and a mini-guide to show them how to utilize the brand’s SmartGift option.

It’s also worth mentioning that the subject line is a real attention grabber! The question “Forget someone?” draws attention to the customer’s pain point and the “It’s e-Gift Card Time” provides the solution!

3. The Citizenry’s Christmas Day Email

Subject line: Our wish for you

This Christmas email marketing campaign from The Citizenry is the perfect example to engage with your email subscribers on Christmas Day. Apart from the warm wishes, the brand adds a mysterious note at the end, which hints at something amazing happening the next day.

This is a clever way to intrigue your subscribers. Of course, to work, you need to send them something amazing that will be worth the wait!

4. Topshop’s Boxing Day Email Example

Subject line: The Boxing Day sale has started!

Boxing Day is a holiday common in the UK, but that shouldn’t stop you from giving your non-British subscribers a share of the holiday pie! Here, Topshop has created an amazing Boxing day campaign to promote its sales.

That’s a brilliant idea to make your post-Christmas sale more meaningful instead of sending your subscribers a generic promotion!

5. BareMinerals’ Post-Christmas Email Example

Subject line: Stock up for the new year

For BareMinerals, this is a clever way to promote its post-Christmas/pre-New Year sale. The message is clear: stock up for the New Year! And the special discount code is enough to excite shoppers and get them to click on it!

Of course, this campaign comes to life through the beautiful gif visual that shows the brand’s products. Elegant colors, gold details, and amazing products to make the new year fabulous! There’s nothing more BareMinerals’ subscribers could ask for!

Jingle-Bell-Rock Your Holiday Email Marketing!

Did you unlock all the Christmas email marketing achievements? After following all these amazing steps, you’ll have a solid strategy to target Christmas more efficiently than Santa Claus himself!

Before you go, remember: your Christmas campaigns should have the right amount of elegance, converting images, and compelling text!

Of course, don’t forget to show your subscribers your gratitude! The holidays are a time of spreading the holiday spirit, not only promoting your sales!

Also, if you liked everything we made for you in this guide, sign up for a free Moosend account! With the right tools, there’s nothing you can’t do!

So, create your emails, signup forms, and landing pages, and let this be a holly, jolly, healthy, and prosperous year!

From all of the elves, reindeer, and Santas here at Moosend, Happy Holidays!