While Labor Day is not a grand holiday, people wait for it and are ready to spend some of their savings. In 2023, 70% of US consumers plan to celebrate the holiday, which is less than Thanksgiving but still more than half.
Speaking of spending plans, 38% of US consumers consider spending $50–100 on Labor day, and 40% want to spend less than $50 on celebrating Labor Day.
Despite modest spending plans, a right email sent at the right time can stimulate people to buy more during Labor Day weekend sales. But what does “the right” mean? Let’s see what e-commerce brands usually do with their messages when they want to take advantage of this celebration.
Let’s take a look at the most common tactics e-commerce businesses use in their Labor Day emails.
These are standard discount promo code deals that look like this:
This is one of the most common Labor Day email marketing strategies. After all, people are used to this kind of promotion and a design like this drives the point home nicely and succinctly.
Another common motif in Labor Day emails is decorating it in white, blue, and red and adding other US symbols. Some brands even make a selection of items in American flag colors — for example, CandyWarehouse offers red, white, and blue candy:
There’s a point to it too. Labor Day is a holiday that is celebrated only in the US. It pays tribute to the achievements of Americans throughout the country’s history. So why not highlight this fact and decorate a campaign accordingly?
And if you don’t want to use the flag specifically, you can stick to its color theme in your email design — like Life Extension did:
A national holiday is always a double-edged sword. On one hand, you can’t fully benefit from such an occasion if you’re selling to different counties. But it’s a chance to tap into the patriotic spirit of the nation and explore this advantage.
If patriotism is not your brand’s thing, try another common Labor Day email theme — the nostalgia for the Summer that’s about to say goodbye. It’s those last sunshine-filled days created for picnics and outings before the Fall. This summer newsletter format is popular with companies that sell clothes or products associated with camping and trips. Such sales emails are often designed in bright warm colors:
Here’s another great example. This email reminds us that summer is not over yet and suggests buying summer shoes to enjoy these last warm days at the beach.
Another tactic is the exact opposite of the previous one. Instead of clinging on to summer, you can jump straight to fall and start promoting autumn collections and items that could come in handy during a colder season. Here’s a great example — during the Labor Day sale, this camping gear brand suggests buying tents to sleep outside.
What if you want to combine the two in your Labor Day campaign? Here’s how you can do it. Romwe, an alternative fashion brand, promotes both fall and summer clothes in their Labor Day email.
In some states, kids are already back to school by this time, in others they aren’t. Still, Labor Day weekend is a part of big seasonal sales that occur before the start of school, especially in e-commerce. Time to promote products to boys and girls even if your brand doesn’t specialize in them:
There’s an old rule that “you can’t wear white after Labor Day” that goes back to the late 19th century. Many people still abide by it out of habit, though its origins are now unclear. Several versions are attributed to this rule, but one thing is clear: this old-age adage is going out of style. You can wear whatever color you want at any time of the year and some brands are glad to remind you about it:
Here’s another email that plays on this rule. The tagline is “twice as nice” — the brand frames wearing white after Labor Day as a rebellion, doing something forbidden. And, as we all know, the forbidden fruit is the sweetest.
Here’s one more example of this tactic. La Blanca, a swimsuit brand, played both on the white theme and the summer theme, promoting a discount on white swimsuits and beachwear.
So, we now know what’s traditional for Labor Day promotions. Let’s take a look at other kinds of examples that you can use for inspiration if usual designs don’t cut the mustard.
If you’re low on creative resources or want to play it safe this time, you can take a common theme from the list above and spin it a bit. For example, here’s how BH cosmetics played on Labor Day design templates. This vegan and sustainable cosmetics brand designs its marketing assets in a bold brutalist style. Rather than featuring traditional stars and stripes, they decided to craft their Labor Day campaign using sort of traditional colors but not quite:
And here’s an email by the abc Carpet & Home company that sells rugs and furniture. They created a very elegant email that plays on the “not wearing white after Labor Day” thing. While people are used to seeing clothing brands do it, when it’s a home decor company, it looks unexpected and refreshing:
Giveaways are an easy way to promote a business by exposing products to a wider audience. People love getting something for nothing. It’s also a chance to make them try out some of the products and get good reviews.
In their Labor Day campaign, Brew Dr. Kombucha gives their customers a coupon for a free bottle and tells about the giveaway they had together with the MyJane company:
Milk Makeup tries to lighten up your mood at the end of the long weekend by giving some samples with every $35+ order:
If an email has a sense of urgency, customers are more likely to make a decision faster. Labor Day sale is something that lasts only a limited amount of time. If it’s a few days or hours left before your deal ends, show it.
A countdown timer is a simple and very illustrative way to demonstrate this urgency:
Timers are not the only way to create a sense of urgency. For example, this email from Brooklinen uses a GIF and a CTA for the same purpose. This “Going… Going… Going…” animation is almost anxiety-inducing!
When it comes to products and services that you have to book in advance, it’s nice to let your customers know about sales early. Far earlier than other companies do. Take Hipmunk — an online travel company. They send their Labor Day campaigns weeks before the actual event, which makes sense:
It’s kind of weird to write about traveling after 2020, but shopping and traveling are still the major themes of Labor Day.
Think about whether you can turn this long weekend to your advantage. For example, Carvana is a website for buying and selling used cars. Their USP is providing a better way to buy a car by doing everything online. No pressure, no haggling, no middlemen. They used their Labor Day email campaign as a way to remind customers about this benefit:
Here’s another great example of the same tactic. This home appliances retailer built their Labor Day campaign around the premise of saving time on household chores for something more meaningful.
When there’s such a wealth of email marketing techniques, it becomes hard to stand out. One way to set your e-commerce campaign apart is to use GIFs. The use of animations is so versatile that it’s hard to pick one example for this point, so we decided to show several.
You can use an animated image to tell a story:
Or showcase more of the products in one message than you’d be able to do with a static image:
Or have fun and transform a usual discount deal into something a subscriber will remember:
Or enhance the message of your email — here, an animation that imitates a scratch-off promotes a scratch-off lottery and creates an intrigue by not fully revealing the discount percentage:
Speaking about originality, it always helps to flex your creative muscles and come up with something funny or unexpected even if your products are 100% associated with Labor Day.
For example, Casper sells sleep products, mattresses included. Can you imagine something more Labor Day-related? Yet, one year, they decided to ditch usual templates and sent this:
IPPOLITA is a jewelry store. They came up with an imaginative way to weave in a traveling/holiday theme into their Labor Day campaign. It relates to their customers and paints a picture of the world where their product fit right in:
You can approach the celebration from a different angle by building on your brand’s specifics and how they connect with Labor Day. It can be anything, even the basic characteristics of the target audience.
Another jewelry brand, VRAI, makes diamond jewelry for women so, along with giving a promo code, they celebrated women in workplaces:
And, finally, you can take a break from outright promotion and tell about your business in a more subtle way. Here’s a beautiful example of a Labor Day campaign by Brighton Collectibles — a company that sells accessories:
The first thing that customers use to judge emails is their subject lines. The main idea is that subject lines should make a great first impression of your email. They should be in line with email bodies: evoke feelings, draw attention, be useful and relevant. Subject lines are an important part of implementing personalized email marketing. To learn more about that, check out our blog — now, let’s explore Labor Day subject lines in their full diversity.
General:
Urgent:
Specific:
With emojis:
Arousing curiosity:
Labor Day is part of the biggest US sale season. It’s a great advantage to boost sales and build a brand’s image.
The most common themes in Labor Day branded messages are:
When the daily deal is not enough, here are some strategies to try:
When creating a subject line, make it a continuation of the main message of an email itself. Your email subject line makes or breaks the first impression. Some subject line ideas for Labor Day include:
This article was originally published in August 2021 and was updated in July 2023 to make it more relevant and comprehensive.
