Ask an email marketer: What are some tactics that all great holiday emails use?

This week, we're talking about strategies all great holiday emails use to drive engagement. Here are some of our favorite examples.

Hermes and a Goddess carry a tree on a decorated table

PUBLISHED ON November 19, 2015

From now through the end of 2015, we’ll be collecting your most burning email questions on strategy, deliverability, design and more through our Holiday Email Toolkit. Each week, we’ll draw one question to feature here on the blog. Want your question answered in our next Ask An Email Marketer? Head on over to submit it on our Holiday Email Toolkit.

We’ve come across some great emails over the past holiday seasons and always have so much fun sharing what each of these companies did to stand out in the inbox. We’ve found that the campaigns that tend to drive most engagement typically use: urgency, scarcity, exclusivity or transparency.

Here are some of our favorite examples.

Table of content

Everlane puts their profits toward a good cause

Starbucks spreads the holiday cheer

Ann Taylor drives urgency

Table of content

01Everlane puts their profits toward a good cause

02Starbucks spreads the holiday cheer

03Ann Taylor drives urgency

Everlane puts their profits toward a good cause

Keeping in line with their culture of “radical transparency”, they go a different route from the deeply marked down sales of Black Friday and use the day to raise money to improve their factory conditions in Hangzhou, China.

Starbucks spreads the holiday cheer

They tap into the gift giving spirit by holding a buy-one-get-one-free “Share Event”. Starbucks turns their consumers into brand ambassadors by getting them to either share via the social share buttons on the email or by bringing a friend along to a brick-and-mortar location with them.

Ann Taylor drives urgency

Using the tagline “because style never sleeps” and call-to-action “tick tock”, Ann Taylor drives up sales during a short few hour time ramp. From 2009 to 2011 visits to flash sales grew by a whopping 368%. Science explains this phenomenon, showing that this competition to find the best deal triggers the “autonomic nervous system arousal which clouds thinking.”

Want to define your email strategy to win customers over this holiday season? Check out these 14 responsive email templates for your holiday campaigns. Then, read Mailjet's Ultimate guide to holiday emailing and discover great tips, from creating jaw-dropping designs, to crafting original content, and working with our unique checklist. 