Happy New Year Email Message Ideas and Examples

Why send out New Year email messages?

Every year, marketing teams prepare for the winter holidays and send emails to their customers. Depending on your business marketing strategy and your audience, a Happy New Year email can:

• Drive last sales. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas may have passed, but it’s still possible to entice customers with holiday discounts. You can even encourage them to buy their favorite products in advance.
• Re-engage subscribers. Year-round-ups, resolutions, and other New Year-related emails may attract the attention of dormant customers. In this case, consider adding a personalized discount code.
• Nurture loyalty. A personalized New Year message steers up subscribers’ positive feelings about the brand.
• Boost brand recognition. Follow in the footsteps of Spotify which almost created its own holiday — a so-called “Wrapped Day”. Make the content in the holiday email worth sharing on social media, and it will act as a free promotion.

Other brands have caught on to the trend and used Spotify Wrapped style for their end-of-the-year emails with customer data. Here is an email from Cernucci that uses the style of 2024’s Wrapped:

Did we convince you to send a New Year email marketing campaign to your customers? Then let’s focus on the specifics of New Year emails, so you can create your own message.

Types of New Year email campaigns

Time matters, especially when it comes to holiday email marketing. Unsurprisingly, the types of New Year campaigns are all based on when you send them. You can either opt for one of the campaigns or use a combination of them, no matter the subject or products’ type. That said,  don’t irritate your customers. If you send too many emails, even if all of them have personalized discount codes, you risk decreasing engagement and losing your customers’ attention.

New Year’s Eve campaign

The year’s final opportunity to reach out to your subscribers is December 31st. We recommend sending the email no later than 10 pm. Afterward, customers probably won’t catch your message until next year. And don’t forget to use festive templates to keep up the spirit!

This type of New Year campaign is great for:

• Countdowns 
• Last-minute holiday shopping ideas or deals
• Round-ups and other statistics
• Holiday wishes

New Year’s resolution campaign

This type of holiday email can be sent either before the New Year or throughout January. The whole idea is to target readers who are actively planning their future or can benefit from a little holiday motivation. Writing on the subject of resolutions seamlessly ties your brand into it.

This type of New Year campaign is great for:

• Yearly subscriptions promos
• Package deals (so customers can stock up on their favorite products)
• Checklists, articles, and other content marketing goods
• Surveys (let your audience know you promise to do even better this year)

Post-celebration campaign

When the last candy cane is eaten, you can send a post-celebration campaign. Or schedule it sometime between January 2nd and 5th, or later. Keep in mind that the first working day in the U.S. is January 2nd, though. So don’t push your audience to start grinding too soon.

This type of New Year campaign is great for:

• Company plans
• Reflection-style content
• Motivational or inspirational content

How to prepare for your New Year’s email campaign

The end of the year is a busy time for business (pun intended) and even more so for marketing. But if you begin preparing in advance, everything will go smoothly. So before we move on to ideas and examples, here’s a three-step plan for a flawless New Year email marketing campaign. 

Step one. Clean and segment your email list

Not only your wardrobe needs a New Year declutter but the email list as well. In preparation for the holiday campaign, delete subscribers with full inboxes or those who no longer use the account. In Selzy you can use a dedicated “List cleanup” tool exactly for that. 

Next, segment your dormant subscribers into a separate list and conduct a re-engagement campaign. You can use segmentation for different purposes, though. The other option is to segment users based on subscription date or segment those who open emails most often. Thanks to that you can filter out your most loyal audience to send special deals, personalized discounts, and promos. 

The aim of this step is to improve deliverability and therefore the sender’s reputation and make the campaign less costly. Want to make further changes and improvements to your list? Check out our thorough guide on list-cleaning. 

Step two. Design your perfect email campaign

Writing the message and designing the email in advance is essential. Remember that your target audience has already seen your Christmas campaigns, so don’t repeat yourself. One thing you can do is use a different template this time or write a catchy subject line. Try out GIFs or illustrations, imitate a holiday card layout. Your efforts won’t be in vain as personalized emails are more engaging to read and sharable.

When your Happy New Year message is wrapped like a great holiday gift, it’s time for the last step. 

Step three. Automate and launch the campaign

With marketing automation tools like Selzy, there’s no need to manually send out New Year emails. After you finish the preparations, automate the campaign sequence if needed or simply schedule one email.

And that’s all! If you follow this checklist, the high e-commerce season won’t bring any unpleasant surprises. Still deciding on the email content? Next up we’ll give you 6 possible options.

Ideas to use in your Happy New Year email

Holiday email campaigns for each brand and marketing strategy differ. What works for one company may not be as effective and on-brand for another. We gathered several universal ideas for New Year wishes for your customers. Choose one that’s right for you!

Share a recap of the user activity

People in general are curious about statistics and fun facts, especially about themselves. A personalized email with subscribers’ yearly figures and milestones is very engaging. Here’s one of the statistics New Year email examples:

This yearly report email from Kroger is a great example of this category. It shares savings statistics to make the customers feel the positive impact of shopping with the brand. The design features bright colors and cute characters to capture attention.

Another idea is a year-in-review email about your business’ achievements. This approach is great for charities, news and sports outlets, and other companies that don’t collect user statistics. 

The example above is from an acoustic sound-dampening panels company Felt Right. As the business prides itself on recycling plastic bottles, it makes sense to state how many were transformed into products. If your company has a mission or donates to a charity, you can adopt a similar approach for your New Year message.

Write about resolutions

Resolutions are promises to self that people make for the New Year. These can take the form of goals like “Read 100 books” or just reminders like “Spend more time with family.” Either way, brands can contribute to their customers’ personal growth plans with clever email campaigns.

This type of holiday email is especially great for health, fitness, well-being, and cosmetic brands. But other companies adopt the subject of resolutions in their own form, too. A clothing brand, for example, can write an email about “Style resolutions” and a cybersecurity service — about “Personal data safety resolutions.”

This email from Clevr Blends is short and filled with good intentions. It doesn’t tie the resolutions to any particular products or offer a discount. Instead, it is an inspirational message promoting the blog post and aiming to benefit customers.

Thank your customers

A simple “thank you” goes a long way. It’s true that thanking each of your customers personally is impossible. But email personalization techniques can do the trick. Add the subscriber’s name and other data to the message, and it will feel more special to them. Let the CEO or other high-level employees write something to double the effect.

Malaya Organics sent a short New Year thank-you email with a heartfelt message. It contributes to a warm, loyal company-client relationship. Several great details about this campaign: founder photo, first name and signature, and the overall hand-written letter feel.

Among other great ideas for thank-you emails is including user-generated content. Here is a minimalist example from Onia:

Send next year’s predictions

Predictions play into natural human curiosity. This email theme can suit almost any brand or company. Keep in mind that there’s probably no need to be overly confident or negative, though. And if it suits your brand identity, you can include horoscope signs. 

Clare sent a visually pleasing and informative email marketing campaign with trending colors for the upcoming year. The predictions sound plausible as the information is based on the brand’s sales data.

Fuel optimism for the New Year

Genuine joy or appreciation — your subscribers can feel those opening an optimistic holiday email. The message can include company plans or future events, inspiring quotes and affirmations, or some personal advice like in our example.

A file-sending service WeTransfer created a reassuring, encouraging message for the New Year. The premise is familiar: it’s hard to keep resolutions, and many people already feel guilty for it in January. But with this email readers are allowed to do whatever they enjoy. Try finding a relatable message and tone to connect with your subscribers.

Just wish a Happy New Year

Last but not least, an option that may seem simple. Yet in the sheer simplicity of this approach lies its power. A minimalistic holiday email may become truly striking in contrast to promos and other marketing campaigns.

This short and sweet Happy New Year email from Bobo Choses has a cute minimalistic design. The playful illustration accentuates the company’s New Year wishes for subscribers.

New Year email subject line ideas for your campaign

Now that we discussed the email content, it’s time to make your subscribers want to read it. No better way to achieve that than with an enticing subject line. Here are our top picks from other companies to fuel your imagination.

Year-in-review subject lines:

• Our Last Email of 2024… Let’s look back at what we did together this year! 🎉
• Closing out 2024…
• Anything but bland
• Let’s get numerical (year in review)
• Our biggest moments from 2024

New Year resolutions subject lines:

• New year, same you (and proud)
• Can’t go wrong with this New Year’s resolution
• A resolution you’ll actually keep…
• Our New Year’s resolution to you
• Kicking off the new year right

Holiday promos subject lines:

• Get one thing you can count on in 2025
• ✨A gift from us to you
• Start New Years with a BANG!
• [Name], enter our post-holiday sale

Holiday wishes subject lines:

• Is it too late to say Happy New Year?
• ***whispers*** happy new year 🙂
• 2025: [insert inspirational quote here]
• Holiday Thanks 💝
• [Name], happiest New Year!

Happy New Year email samples to get inspired by

You’ve almost read this article till the end. Now it’s time to give your eyes some rest. In this part, we’ll show you some inspiring holiday campaigns on various subjects. Enjoy!

Beautiful layout and email design

This email with a year review features a nice pink and green color scheme and some interesting statistics:

This holiday email is minimalistic and aesthetically pleasing plus promotes the company’s products:

This email on the subject of New Year celebrations is cartoonish and full of nice feelings:

Top-notch branding and message

This email is purpose-driven and helps the audience connect with the brand based on shared values:

Holiday message in this email is made unique by the black-and-white style:

Well-written copy

Writing an authentic New Year message may be challenging, but if you manage to do it, your customers will respond positively. Here is a unique example from The Beard Struggle:

You can also make purpose and education the focus of your message. For example, write about setting the new year goals the right way like Eat Cake Today:

Final thoughts

Along with Christmas, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday email, a New Year campaign is a must. It contributes not only to last year’s sales but also to loyal customer relationships, engagement, and brand popularity.

There are three types of campaigns to send: New Year’s Eve, resolution, or post-celebration campaign. In your message, you can write about:

• User activity during the year.
• New Year resolutions.
• Gratitude towards customers.
• Next year’s predictions.
• Reasons to be optimistic about the New Year.
• Holiday wishes.

It’s especially important to prepare for the upcoming campaign. We recommend cleaning and segmenting the list and designing and automating your email in advance.

This holiday campaign season, we wish you happy sending!

This article was originally published in December 2022 and was updated in December 2024 to make it more relevant and comprehensive.