15 Christmas email marketing ideas with examples to boost your holiday campaigns
The holiday season brings more than just a festive atmosphere—it’s a golden opportunity for ecommerce brands to connect with prospects and customers in meaningful ways.
But competition is fierce this time of year—which means you have to stand out if you want to win.
Your holiday email marketing is a good place to start.
To help you generate buzz about your products, enhance customer engagement, and drive end-of-year sales, here are a few of our favorite Christmas email marketing ideas.
1. Start your Christmas email marketing efforts early
The pre-Black Friday period is the prime time for all holiday promotions. Planning your Christmas emails around major shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday lets you cover a bigger share of the holiday shopping market, helping your brand stay top-of-mind throughout the season.
Take POPFLEX as an example. In 2023, the workout brand wanted to take their BFCM sale to new heights by creating an intimate VIP experience for every customer. To do that, they had to start early.
First, POPFLEX ran a shopping spree giveaway in October, requiring entrants to create holiday wishlists on their site. Nearly 100,000 customers entered. Then, throughout the rest of Q4, the brand used the information they gathered from those wishlists to target their holiday messaging to each subscriber’s unique interests and position within the customer lifecycle.
All of the above contributed to a record-setting 2023 holiday season for POPFLEX. “The first day of our Black Friday sale last year was our best day in the history of the company,” says Jen-Ai Notman, POPFLEX vice president of marketing. “And the first hour that we opened was the best hour we ever had.”
People love early-bird sales, product drops, and special offers like giveaways because it means they can get in on the action before everyone else, which creates a sense of exclusivity. It’s a marketing strategy that benefits you as well by helping you:
- Generate buzz and build suspense early on.
- Avoid shipping delays during peak holiday shopping season.
- Build customer loyalty by offering special deals only to your subscribers.
Don’t have the resources to take a leaf out of POPFLEX’s book? Keep it simple. Here, for example, The Imagination Spot advertises their early-bird Christmas sale on their blog in late October. The stationary brand rewards early customers with a promo discount on greeting cards and creative supplies, which make a great Christmas gift for both kids and adults.
Christmas email marketing tip: In your Christmas emails, consider adding a countdown timer to create excitement and urgency. These work particularly well for flash sales, special promotions, and holiday messaging.
2. Use segmentation to personalize your Christmas emails
Segmenting your audience helps you create a more meaningful connection with your subscribers by sending them messaging they’re more likely to find relevant.
For a seasonal business like European candle brand JewelCandle, using Klaviyo to identify loyal shoppers based on previous buying behavior is essential in driving sales during Q4. The brand manages high seasonal demand by sharing exclusive offers to encourage their VIPs to start their Christmas shopping in early November.
With loyal shoppers securing their Christmas gifts early, JewelCandle can focus on converting new subscribers over BFCM and in the run-up to Christmas. The results? 30% of JewelCandle’s revenue is attributable to Klaviyo.
If you’re not sure where to start, your Christmas email marketing segmentation might mirror your BFCM email marketing segmentation. Consider sending different types of Christmas email marketing to the following segments:
- Engaged segment: If you’re emailing a few times per week, your engaged list is people who have opened or clicked on an email within the last 30–60 days. If you’re only emailing a few times a month, you may want to expand this list to 90–120 days.
- VIP segment: You may define your VIPs based on dollar value, number of purchases, or subscription length, depending on your business model. Every brand defines their VIP list differently, but these are basically your most loyal customers.
- Previous Q4 purchasers segment: These are people who converted on holiday emails or texts in previous years.
Christmas email marketing tip: Christmas email marketing is just one piece of a strong omnichannel holiday marketing strategy. Note that VIP programs are especially well suited for SMS.
3. Promote an offer that makes sense for your brand and audience
Promotional offers are a no-brainer during a peak sales season like Christmas. When your audience feels like they’re getting something special, they’re more likely to respond positively, making the holiday season a win for both you and your customers.
But not all Christmas promotions are created equal—and not all offers make sense for every brand, or every audience. Here are a few types of offers to consider:
- Limited-time discounts: Create urgency with time-sensitive offers that encourage quick decisions. Limited-time deals can prompt subscribers to act fast, increasing your chances of converting interest into sales. If you’re using discount codes, consider tailoring them to the holiday season.
- Exclusive offers for VIPs: Reward your most loyal customers with exclusive discounts or early access to sales. This not only strengthens their loyalty but also reinforces the idea that they’re a valued part of your brand’s community.
- Bundle deals: Encourage larger purchases by offering discounts on bundled products. This strategy not only boosts your average order value (AOV) but also helps customers discover new products they might not have tried otherwise.
- Free gift: Move some stock by giving it away for free, either as a free gift with purchase or a BOGO deal. People love a freebie, sometimes even more than a discount.
- Free shipping: Offer free shipping for orders over a certain dollar threshold to increase AOV and boost sales.
This Christmas email from fashion brand Straightforward not only highlights a two-day Christmas Sale with a clear timeframe, but also offers free shipping on orders over a certain amount and throws in a free gift for higher spenders. It’s a smart, simple way to add extra value without cluttering the message. Throw in the classic “Buy more, save more” strategy, and you’ve got yourself one convincing Christmas promotion.
Christmas email marketing tip: If you’re not sure which offer makes the most sense for your brand, run an A/B test like Brava Fabrics. The sustainable and ethical fashion brand used A/B testing to learn whether offering a universal discount was more effective than offering the chance to win a sign-up contest with a single, one-time prize.
“We used to offer a 10% discount if people subscribed. But when we tested a contest where people could win €300 in free products for signing up, we discovered the two offers performed identically,” says Ivan Monells, co-founder of Brava Fabrics.
4. Put together a Christmas gift guide
Attract gift-givers this Christmas season by making their lives a little easier during a stressful time of year. One way to do this: put together a Christmas-themed gift guide to help your customers choose the right present for their family members and friends.
Gift guides are a smart Christmas marketing idea for a few reasons. They can:
- Give your subscribers new shopping ideas.
- Advertise specific products and control your inventory.
- Enhance conversions from people who might not otherwise realize they can purchase some of your products as gifts.
To put together your Christmas gift guide, you can create a list of your best-selling items or promote overstock products to clear out inventory. Or, divide products by price range, occasion, or customer persona.
Here, see how culinary brand Momofuku focuses their Christmas email on advertising a gift guide that includes a selection of food products with foodie appeal. The email’s bold headline, “Make holidays more appetizing,” is paired with a prominent CTA button as well as images of nicely packed food items decorated with Christmas-themed motifs, waiting to be picked as gifts.
Christmas email marketing tip: When communicating about your gift guide, be clear about your shipping and delivery policies. There’s nothing worse than ordering a gift for Christmas, only to have it arrive after the New Year. Your customers deserve transparency. If their order isn’t going to be there in time for the holiday, communicate that clearly.
5. Make gifting exciting with a Christmas mystery box
If you’re looking to add a bit of excitement to the shopping experience and turn it into a unique adventure, try a mystery box in addition to or instead of a gift guide.
Your options are endless for what to include in your Christms mystery box, but here are a few ideas:
- Include your best-selling items.
- Add overstocked products to the box to clear out inventory.
- Include at least one product of significant value.
- Mix different product types to make the box versatile.
- Include limited-edition or Christmas-themed products.
When promoting your Christmas mystery box, you want to reveal just enough information to pique your audience’s curiosity—the number of products inside, for example, or the box’s approximate value. If all products combined are worth $50, lower the price of the box to $45 or $40 to make your subscribers feel like they’re getting a good deal.
Christmas email marketing tip: Create an unforgettable unboxing experience by adding personalized thank-you notes and using quirky packaging materials for your mystery boxes.
That’s something customers of The Bali Market appreciate about their buyer experience—the brand’s cozy towel and blanket shipments include a special personal touch in the form of a small handwritten note that shows care.
6. Count down to Christmas with an online advent calendar
Get into the Christmas spirit by surprising your subscribers with a digital advent calendar. It’s a fun way to spark curiosity, keep your brand top of mind, and drive daily traffic to your online store.
With a digital advent calendar, your audience can count down the days until Christmas and unwrap special surprises, such as:
- Free gifts
- Discounts on specific products
- Expert tips and fun facts
- Mini versions of your most popular products
- Free shipping
- New product reveals
Christmas email marketing tip: Not sure where to start building your brand’s advent calendar? Klaviyo integrates with Odicci, a gamification platform that lets you customize every element of your advent calendar to create a fun and exciting experience.
7. Make Christmas emails fun with games
Speaking of gamification: ecommerce brands tend to go all out with their Christmas marketing strategies, so it’s easy for consumers to feel overwhelmed with choices. To stand out in inboxes flooded with generic holiday messages, make Christmas marketing more fun by incorporating gamification into your emails.
Imagine the excitement your subscribers feel when they open an email and, instead of the typical messaging urging them to “buy now,” they get to play a quick game or take a fun quiz. Gamification not only keeps subscribers engaged, but also makes them feel more connected to your brand.
Bonus: as people play, you learn more about their preferences—and that’s valuable data you can incorporate into your marketing efforts in the future. It’s a win-win that turns a simple email into an enjoyable, memorable experience.
Christmas email marketing tip: Not sure where to start with gamification? Use Klaviyo’s Playable integration to:
- Create a Christmas-themed memory game and offer your subscribers prizes like special discounts, free shipping, or gifts.
- Create a Christmas quiz and encourage your subscribers to participate with unique rewards.
- Add a luck-based game like a spinning wheel or scratchcard to your emails.
8. Make gifting less stressful for procrastinators
According to Klaviyo’s 2024 consumer spending report, 30% of consumers wait until December to do their holiday shopping. Don’t forget about these last-minute shoppers!
To increase conversion rates during the final shopping days of the season, launch a series of targeted emails in the final week before Christmas with urgent delivery options and last-chance deals.
Here, see how Bellroy, a brand that sells tech coverings and travel products, offers subscribers an easy way to get their loved ones a gift card toward the end of the gifting season—practical and to the point.