2024 Guide to Holiday Email Marketing: Strategy, Examples, Tips

• The initial send: Kate Spade sent an email with a Litmus Personalize Live Poll paired with a progress bar, made up of spades to align with their branding. Every click registered as a vote (aka, invaluable first-party data). Each time a subscriber opened an email, they were guaranteed real-time results, as live poll results were updated with the latest results from subscribers casting their votes.
• The follow-up send: 24 hours later, Kate Spade sent a follow-up email, segmenting based on the subscribers who voted, based on their click category. Each recipient received an email with in-stock products based on their vote. Those who didn’t vote received an email containing best-selling items.

The results? As the marketing team at Kate Spade puts it, “This was a great strategy that really worked!” They saw:

• 84% increase in click-through rates (CTR)
• 12% increase in overall CTR
• 47% increase in revenue
• 140% growth in users year-over-year

Not too shabby, right?

“We increased CTR using the poll in email one and then had a bigger pool of engaged people to send a targeted, click-based follow up to. This was a great strategy that really worked!”

—Performance Marketing Manager, Kate Spade

Another route is to promote a list of limited-time gift ideas and special offers with a gift guide, like Urban Decay did for their Cyber Weekend deal. They featured a personalized image as the hero for a personal touch and included a live poll to gather social proof—just one of several dynamic email content examples you can try for your holiday campaigns.

Another route is to promote a list of limited-time gift ideas and special offers with a gift guide, like Urban Decay did for their Cyber Weekend deal. They featured a personalized image as the hero for a personal touch and included a live poll to gather social proof—just one of several dynamic email content examples you can try for your holiday campaigns.

In another email, Urban Decay uses content automation to display imagery of and three recommended products.

With Litmus Personalize Quick-Start Templates, no coding experience is required to add personalized email elements like live polls, countdown timers, Scratch-Offs, Interest Signals, and Instagram Feeds. All it takes is a few clicks!

Want more holiday email marketing examples and tactics to apply to your campaigns this year? Check out our Holiday Email Marketing Guide. →

Best practices for holiday email marketing

Make the most out of this busy season with best practices to include in your holiday email marketing strategy:

Email personalization

Personalization can go a long way—especially in a crowded inbox. We’re talking 333 billion emails sent daily in 2022. That number is expected to rise to 392.5 billion by 2026.

Let’s break it down:

Personalization works—that goes without saying. However it’s important to recognize that not all email personalization is created equal. Our latest research found that most marketers rely on basic personalization capabilities within their ESPs—like merge tags for text-based personalization (e.g. subscriber name, company, birthday). But with so many emails starting with a first name, is that really enough to make an impact?

Ensure your emails are connecting with your audience on a 1:1 level, and if possible, go beyond the basic text-based personalization that subscribers are accustomed to seeing, like “Hello, %%first_name%%.” 

Today’s personalization is smarter, slicker—and dare we say, more fun.

This could look like:

• Interactive elements. Think digital scratch-offs revealing holiday deals. It’s like an advent calendar, but way cooler (and less waxy chocolate).
• Countdown timers. Nothing says “buy now” like a ticking clock. Use these for sale deadlines or shipping cut-offs. 
• Live polls. Ask subscribers what they want for Christmas. They feel heard, you get data. Win-win.
• Add-to-calendar. Make sure your holiday sale doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. One click, and it’s on their calendar. Easy peasy.
• Rule-based images. Show the chocolate lovers a chocolate cake and the vanilla lowers a vanilla cake. It’s like mind-reading (thanks to zero- and first-party data), but legal.
• Interest Signals. “257 people bought this in the last hour!” Peer pressure works, folks.
• Real-time data feeds. Keep it fresh with auto-updating content. Because nobody wants last year’s leftovers.
• Personalized images. Instead of “Hello, %%first_name%%,” add their first name to an image to stand out from the masses.

Now, here’s where the magic happens: mix and match these features like you’re crafting the perfect holiday cocktail. Start with a base of solid segmentation, add a splash of behavioral triggers, and garnish with dynamic content. Always be testing and tweaking—what delights one group might fall flat with another.

The good news for email marketers is those who embrace real-time personalization are much more likely to create experiences that truly cut through the noise.

What does that look like in practice? Here are holiday email marketing examples for email inspiration this season.

First up: a Cyber Monday email from Hunter, featuring a countdown timer in the header to drive urgency.

Source: Email Gallery

Kate Spade kicks off a Black Friday email campaign with an announcement email, featuring an Interest Signal for social proof, “9,263 people are shopping Black Friday RN!”

Mobiles.co.uk uses a personalized image with a live poll to tease an upcoming Black Friday email campaign, asking subscribers to “Vote for the type of deals you would like to see.” Each vote counts as valuable first-party data, providing subscriber insights and feedback about their products.

Studio kicked off the holiday season with a personalized image (“JORDAN” in the hero image) paired with the numbers of days left until Christmas in the form of a a countdown timer (an effective tactic that can yield results like a 32.5% engagement rate!).

Each time a subscriber opens, the timer updates with the appropriate number of days left.

Mamas & Papas puts their Black Friday sale front and center as the primary message, followed by nearest store locations, which displays relevant store locations based on the subscriber’s location at the time of open.

🔥 LitTip: visit our Holiday Email Marketing Guide for more ideas and inspiration!

This holiday season, don’t just send emails—create experiences. Make your subscribers feel like VIPs at the world’s best holiday party. Because when you nail personalization, you’re building relationships that last.

A/B testing

A/B testing should be done prior to holiday email marketing campaign planning, to set a reliable baseline for your holiday email marketing strategy. “This will ensure you’ve got the best versions of your emails going out during the holiday season—and ensures you’re not potentially missing 50% of your revenue with an A/B test where one version performs much worse than the other!” says Jaina Mistry. 

There is one caveat to keep in mind: consumer behavior during peak holiday season will vary wildly compared to any other time of the year. “Consumers are looking for deals—not just for themselves, but for others for gifting. So while you may A/B test your way to awesome emails during the holiday season, the way consumers behave may not match how they usually behave.”

Beyond the usual tests like subject line and sender name, you might consider:

“We conducted a series of A/B tests featuring Live Polls, and the outcomes were remarkably consistent—the live poll always outperformed! Because of the consistent performance of Live Polls, we have been able to roll out the Diamond Cut Showdown across the entire email list and gain valuable information about our subscribers’ preferences.”

—Lauren Jean, Email Specialist and Owner of ByLaurenJean

Email marketing automation

Triggered holiday emails might just be your secret weapon this season! It’s the perfect time to leverage email marketing automation for more effective campaigns. Take inventory of your current “on” campaigns and identify the opportunities that make the most sense for your email program. This might look like:

Abandoned cart emails

With faster purchase decisions during the holidays, time your abandoned cart emails just after the typical return period for cart abandoners.

How long does it take for the majority of cart abandoners to return to their cart on their own (without prompting)? However long that is for you, send your cart abandonment email a little after that time, so you’re nudging buyers along but not interrupting their normal buying behavior.

Browse abandonment emails

If you have access to data about website visitors, make it an integrated experience by setting up a triggered browse abandonment email. This could look like someone who spent time on a product page but failed to add anything to their cart.

Inventory alerts

Inventory might move quickly, use back-in-stock trigger emails to notify subscribers who abandoned a page with an out-of-stock product, or signed up to receive an alert once they were back, like the example from Williams Sonoma:

Welcome emails

These are some of the first emails a subscriber receives from your brand, so swapping seasonal imagery and copy can add the perfect holiday. You might also consider updating your welcome email offer to reflect the promotions you’re already running—e.g. offering a bigger discount for new subscribers than you would regularly, which is perfect for shouting about on your social channels!

Essential email tactics

Regardless of the season, remember to leverage tried-and-true tactics and strategies that are effective year-round.