If you’re looking for fresh ideas to avoid recycling last year’s holiday marketing campaigns, we’ve rounded up some standout emails we loved.
Now’s the time to start working on your seasonal campaigns. The earlier your ideas come together, the more time you have to test, refine, and make improvements before the busiest sales period arrives.
We’ll show you what each email gets right, where it could go further, and how you can use these ideas in your own seasonal campaigns.
Halloween
🗓️ October 31
Halloween is a huge retail opportunity for marketers. Even if your products have nothing to do with pumpkins or candy, there’s plenty of room to join the conversation in a way that still feels true to your brand.
Why we love it
You don’t have to sell costumes, candy, or greeting cards to join the Halloween conversation, and this email proves it. We love the way the brand balances the holiday with its own quirky style rather than opting for an overly gimmicky black-and-orange template.
The copy pairs Halloween candy with its drinks, written like tasting notes you’d find in a craft beer magazine. It’s clever, on brand, and totally tempting, even if you don’t drink beer.
Room to improve
This email relies heavily on images to tell the story. If those images don’t load, or if someone’s using a screen reader, the campaign’s message disappears with them.
Keeping copy separate from images, adding descriptive alt text, and making your CTA easy to spot and click, ensures accessibility for everyone.
Steal this for your campaign
Use this checklist when you’re designing email campaigns to keep them accessible:
- Use both text and images to make your email easy to read
- Use clear fonts that are easy to read
- Add alt text to every image
- Use large buttons that are easy to tap for mobile devices
- Make link and button text clear, so readers know what to expect
- Write in Plain English
- Keep important copy outside images so screen readers can read it
We’ve got a blog that covers everything you need to know about accessible email design and copy with practical tips you can use in every campaign.
11:11 Singles’ Day
🗓️ November 11
What began as a day for single people to treat themselves has grown into one of the world’s biggest shopping events. While it started in China, Singles’ Day now inspires campaigns across the globe.
Why we love it
Singles’ Day falls on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, so 22% off (11 + 11) is a nice nod to the occasion.
The email also does a great job of removing friction. Free shipping thresholds sit front and center, while the footer highlights the return policy and customer service links. Those details help remove blockers that could keep shoppers from reaching the checkout.
Room to improve
The imagery mixes menswear and womenswear, suggesting this campaign was intended for a broad audience, which is a missed opportunity.
Segmentation and personalization can increase campaign clicks by 30% and deliver an almost 6x higher ROI. During busy sales periods, speaking directly to your audience is one of the easiest ways to make your campaigns relevant.
Steal this for your campaign
Start by identifying the audiences you want to speak to. That might include:
- Gender preferences
- Location
- Product or catalog preferences
- Marketing channel preferences
Once you’ve mapped out your segments, tailoring the creative parts becomes much simpler.
Dynamic content is an easy place to start. It lets you change parts of an email based on who’s opening it, so different customers see different content without you having to build multiple campaigns. For example, you could swap the hero image so shoppers see products that match their preferences, rather than sending everyone the same generic version.
You can take the same approach with product recommendations. AI can recommend products based on someone’s purchase history, browsing behavior, or what similar customers are buying, helping you showcase the products people are more likely to buy. Those kinds of smarter recommendations can deliver up to 20x ROI.
Thanksgiving
🗓️ November 26
Thanksgiving campaigns can easily get lost among the Black Friday promotions filling customers’ inboxes. But that also makes it a great moment to pause and celebrate the holiday before the shopping rush begins.
Why we love it
This email doesn’t mention discounts or promotions. Instead, it celebrates Thanksgiving by shining a light on the people behind the brand and thanking customers for being part of the journey. It’s warm, genuine, and a welcome change of pace in a busy inbox.
Room to improve
There’s very little we’d change here. A small touch of personalization could make it more relevant. Addressing customers by name is an easy way to make a ‘thank you’ message feel like it was written just for them.
Steal this for your campaign
If you’re sending a Thanksgiving email, keep it simple. A personalized header like: “Thank You, Jenna, From The Cuts Team” is often enough to make the message more personal. This kind of campaign doesn’t need lots of dynamic content or complex automation; a sincere message and a touch of personalization can go a long way.
Black Friday
🗓️ November 27
Last Black Friday, 87.3 million people shopped online, and global spending reached $79 billion in just 24 hours. The appetite for Black Friday deals is still huge, but standing out in the inbox takes more than another “ENDS TONIGHT” subject line.
Why we love it
Countdown clocks are both simple and effective. During Black Friday, shoppers are bombarded with “last chance” messaging, and many brands end one sale only to launch another a few hours later. A live countdown adds credibility to the deadline, giving shoppers a clear visual cue that time is running out, driving them to act.
Room to improve
The email includes star ratings as social proof, but there’s no indication that the reviews are from a third-party source.
Reviews have a huge influence on purchase decisions. If you’re going to use them, make sure they’re clearly connected to real customer feedback, otherwise the stars risk looking decorative rather than persuasive.
Steal this for your campaign
Try using countdown clocks throughout Black Friday and the holiday season at important points in the customer journey:
- Sale launch: Count down to the moment your sale begins
- Sale ending: Build urgency as the offer comes to a close
- Shipping deadlines: Show shoppers exactly how long they have left to order for holiday delivery
For social proof, pull reviews directly from a verified provider such as Trustpilot, Feefo, Bazaarvoice, or Reviews.io. Our latest Customer trend index found that brand recommendations from friends and family are now 45% more influential than they were a year ago, highlighting just how much people trust other people’s experiences.
Verified ratings and recent customer reviews bring that same sense of authenticity to your emails, giving shoppers something far more convincing than a generic five-star graphic.
Special Black Friday campaign shoutouts
Black Friday is too big a moment to stop at one example, so here are two campaigns that stood out for very different reasons.
The anti-Black Friday email
This campaign from Patagonia is a great reminder that participating in Black Friday doesn’t always mean running a discount.
The brand stays true to its mission by encouraging customers to repair what they own, reuse what they can, and think twice before buying something new. Whether or not you take the same approach, the campaign is a strong example of how a clear brand mission can cut through the noise.
Black Friday abandoned carts
For most brands, Black Friday is all about conversions, making abandoned cart automations especially important. This example doesn’t rely solely on urgency. It reinforces the value of completing the purchase by highlighting benefits like flexibility and community, giving hesitant shoppers more reasons to check out.
Cyber Monday
🗓️ November 30
Capping off the Black Friday weekend, Cyber Monday continues to grow. Online sales were up 6% last year, and global spending hit $52.7 billion. But by the time Monday rolls around, shoppers have already seen hundreds of offers, so your campaign needs a fresh angle to make an impact.
Why we love it
After a weekend packed with percentage discounts, this offer feels different. A buy one get one free (BOGOF) deal, paired with free shipping, offers shoppers something more tangible than another “20% off” promotion.
Our Customer trend index found that 53% of shoppers want free shipping and 45% want free gifts in exchange for their loyalty. So, framing the offer this way helps the campaign stand out while giving shoppers the rewards they value most.
Room to improve
The offer is strong, but redeeming it could be simpler. Quite a few Black Friday-Cyber Monday (BFCM) campaigns still ask shoppers to copy and paste discount codes at checkout. It’s a small extra step, but it’s also another opportunity for shoppers to abandon their purchases or frustrate shoppers who forget to enter the code. The easier you make it for customers to redeem an offer, the more likely they are to complete it.
Steal this for your campaign
If your ecommerce platform supports it, create links that automatically apply discounts when customers click through from your campaign. That way, shoppers can go straight to checkout without having to type or copy and paste a promo code.
You can use these links across email, SMS, and WhatsApp to create a smoother experience wherever customers engage with your brand.
Christmas
🗓️ December 1 – 25
It’s hard to pick one email that encapsulates a month’s worth of campaigns, so we didn’t. There’s no relief after the crazy BFCM period, as you’re launched straight into festive campaigns. Having a variety of marketing campaigns is a guaranteed way to stand out during the holiday season.
Why we love it
Customers trust other customers, so putting your community front and center is a smart move. This email leans into customer reviews and user-generated content, while the CTA “Shop Customer Faves” feels much warmer than a standard “Shop now.”
Room to improve
This campaign celebrates customer content, but it misses the chance to invite more customers to get involved. A CTA encouraging shoppers to share their own holiday photos or reviews would keep the conversation going long after the email lands.
Steal this for your campaign
If you’re asking customers to share content, you’ve got to give them a reason to do it. Referral rewards, loyalty points, or a social competition can encourage shoppers to share photos, reviews, or holiday traditions featuring your brand. By the time next year’s holiday season comes around, you’ll have a library of authentic customer content ready to use.
Why we love it
Advent campaigns are great at keeping customers coming back, and this one takes a clever approach by making all offers available throughout the 12-day campaign. Customers have time to browse, compare, and decide what interests them, rather than feeling pressured to buy on the day. It’s a smart approach when 31% of shoppers are taking longer to make purchase decisions.
Room to improve
The 12-day format already encourages repeat visits, but each email could build more anticipation for what’s next. The core offer doesn’t need to change. Instead, layer in something new each day: a teaser for tomorrow’s featured experience, an exclusive giveaway, or a fun interactive element.
Steal this for your campaign
Add some gamification to keep customers coming back. Daily quizzes, scratch cards, spin-to-win games, bonus rewards, or sneak peeks at tomorrow’s featured offer all give shoppers another reason to open your emails. The goal is to make your Advent campaign an experience, not just a series of sales emails.
Why we love it
By the time Christmas is over, shoppers have spent weeks surrounded by discounts and urgency. Instead of leading with the sale, this campaign focuses on how the product fits into customers’ everyday lives. It feels calmer, more helpful, and stands out because it isn’t trying to shout the loudest.
Room to improve
The campaign’s softer approach could go further by leaning into editorial content that helps shoppers make a decision. Give customers something worth reading, whether they’re ready to buy or not, and you’ll create a more valuable experience than another promotion alone.
Steal this for your campaign
Create editorial content that helps customers make a decision, like buying guides, product comparisons, and expert advice. These give you richer content to share across your campaigns while naturally leading readers to your product pages when they’re ready to buy.
This kind of content is exactly the kind of helpful, informative content that performs well in search and is more likely to be surfaced by AI when recommending products or answering shoppers’ questions.
Your holiday marketing, all wrapped up
As you start building your own campaigns, take a moment to ask the question: What would make this email even better?
It might be a countdown clock, some dynamic content, a smoother checkout experience, or a more editorial approach to your emails. Small improvements can make a big difference during the busiest shopping period of the year.
