Valentine’s Day Subject Lines to Make Your Audience Fall in Love With Your Emails

Valentine’s Day Subject Lines to Make Your Audience Fall in Love With Your Emails
08 January, 2024 • ... • 681 views
Doris Day
by Doris Day

Valentine’s Day is the first major marketing milestone after New Year’s. Don’t sleep on the opportunity to send a couple of winter emails in February to boost sales and strengthen customer relationships.

Whether it’s a promo code to buy presents or a love confession to your subscribers, your Valentine’s Day email will need a catchy subject line. Keep reading to learn how to come up with effective Valentine’s Day email subject lines that will bring you high open rates, clicks, and, of course, sales.

The importance of Valentine’s Day email subject lines

According to the National Retail Federation, 52% of Americans considered celebrating Valentine’s Day in February 2023 and planned to spend $193 on average, which is 9% higher than in 2022. This is also the second-highest figure recorded.

Valentine’s Day spending plans statistics showing a drop in spending in 2021 and a steady increase after
Source: National Retail Federation

In 2022 and 2023 Americans’ spending on Valentine’s Day increased indicating a longing for connection or maybe simply a willingness to spend more on their loved ones. Will this trend continue in 2024? There’s no way of knowing in advance, but the graph above suggests a firm yes. So we’d say that Valentine’s Day 2024 is going to be promising and worth getting ready for.

But what do people spend money on during this holiday? According to the same survey, the most popular Valentine’s Day gifts are candy, greeting cards, flowers, an evening out, and jewelry. However, Valentine’s Day emails will do good for any business. You don’t even have to aggressively sell potential gifts in your marketing campaign. Sending a warm thank you email with hearts and shades of pink all over the place is another step in nurturing loyal customers who will treat your brand as their friend. 

No matter what your V-day marketing goals are or what other winter emails you plan to send, every holiday campaign needs a good subject line that will skyrocket your open rates. Let’s dig deeper and learn what makes a good subject line for a Valentine’s Day email campaign.

Valentine’s Day email marketing subject lines to use in your campaigns

Now that you know why a Valentine’s Day email campaign is important, check out our list of some of the best Valentine’s Day subject lines. Express love with general options, promote your sale, or choose a motivating opening for your last-minute email campaign.

General Valentine’s Day email subject lines

  • Valentine’s Day edit (Tory Burch)
  • Celebrate Valentine’s Day with CHANEL (CHANEL)
  • An Unforgettable Valentine (MCM)
  • 🍫 🌺 How About Chocolate & Flowers? (Hawaiian Host)
  • ⏰ Tick tock, it’s Love O’Clock 💘 (Woof Blankets)

Valentine’s Day sale email subject lines

  • The Valentine’s Day Shop is Live (Bespoke Post)
  • Gifts they’ll L-O-V-E: Up to 40% Off 🥰 (Society6)
  • Feel the love with 25% off sitewide (Gemvara)
  • Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, this Valentine’s Day Sale is just for you! 💘 (Gage Diamonds)
  • Our Valentine’s sale is on meow 😻 (meowbox)

Last minute subject lines

  • Valentine’s Sale End Today! (Great Jones)
  • Our Fave Last-Minute Valentine’s Gift is…🎁 (The Bouqs Co.)
  • It’s not too late to find the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day. (Apple)
  • Last day to order you Valentine’s Je ne sais qui (Tarla)
  • Forgot it’s Valentine’s Day? ❤️ (McDonalds Australia)

Valentine’s Day subject line tips and best practices

The basic tips for effective Valentine’s Day subject lines are the same as for any other holiday campaign. However, this holiday still has its own quirks — let’s take a closer look and learn about them using real subject lines from real marketing campaigns.

Want to know what other winter holidays deserve a campaign and bring logic and order to your email marketing strategy? Check out our holiday email marketing calendar and plan your email newsletters in advance.

Create anticipation

All holiday email campaigns are launched in advance — and your Valentine’s Day sequence will probably start with one or two announcements or sneak peek emails. At this stage, it’s important to create a holiday spirit and get your subscribers excited for what’s coming next. To do this, get inspired by these intriguing subject line ideas:

  • Reminder: Don’t Forget Valentine’s Day (Abelstedt)
  • First Peek 👀 Betty’s Valentine’s  Gift Guide (Betty’s Toy Box)
  • It’s almost that time of year again.. 🏹❤️ (giftsaustralia)
  • Searching for That Perfect Gift? ❤️ (Noémie)
  • CVS SAYS IT’S NOT TOO EARLY (Coming Soon)

From: Yellow Octopus
Subject: 3 Weeks Left To Valentine’s Day ⏰

Valentine’s Day email from Yellow Octopus reminding readers that it’s 3 weeks left until Valentine’s Day
Source: Milled

One way to create anticipation in Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns is countdowns. By doing this, you’re killing two birds with one stone — setting a deadline to trigger a sense of urgency and keeping your customers excited for the holiday. Here’s how Yellow Octopus did it — use this example for inspiration.

Offer help

Even for those in happy relationships, Valentine’s Day can be a hassle. Choosing gifts and options for going out, budgeting, thinking of creative ways to celebrate love — all of these are pleasant but still anxiety-inducing activities. You can help your subscribers out by offering them gift guides and features, celebration ideas, or a piece of relationship advice. If you run an email marketing campaign like this, your email subject line should be specific enough so customers will find your newsletter useful for their pre-holiday hassle. Here are some great ideas for a stunning open rate:

  • Our Valentine’s Day Gift Guide Is Here 💕 (Nuts.com)
  • Shop our gift guide for the perfect Valentine (Thoughtfully)
  • Perfect Presents for Special Someones (Brookstone)
  • Valentine’s Day Gifts You’ll Want To Make Yours (Elizabeth Cole Jewelry)
  • A Crafty & Romantic Valentine’s Gift Guide🍷❤️ 🎁 (The Crafty Cask)

From: Yelp
Subject: Who goes out on V-Day without a reservation?

Valentine’s Day email from Yelp with the banner text “No plans tonight? We’ve got you covered.”
Source: Really Good Emails

Your Valentine’s Day email doesn’t have to be about gifts. Look at this email from Yelp — it suggests solving the problem of finding a place for a night out on a busy day of the week. Yelp aced the subject line for it — hitting customers’ pain points right away is a great tactic for marketing campaigns like this.

Don’t forget about singles

For those dissatisfied with their love lives, Valentine’s Day can feel lonely, devastating, and reminding them of their past social failures. But even happily single people can feel weird and excluded when their inboxes are flooded with gift guides for couples — give them a chance to have fun too! Besides, segmentation is always a good idea, no matter the occasion.

If you want to consider this group of customers in your marketing campaign, choose subject lines that focus on self-love or friendship instead — love is not exclusive to romantic relationships and family alone. Or you can even suggest your own company (pun intended) for the holiday. Here are some ideas on how you can use one of these tactics:

  • Treat Yourself Or Someone You Love ❤️ (Ghirardelli)
  • Be Your Own Damn Valentine (SinglesSwag)
  • To me, from me: Valentine’s Day Gift Guide (welry)
  • Spoil yourself this Valentine’s Day ❤️ (Radley)
  • We’ll Be Your Valentine 💘 (Origins)
  • Be ours? ❤️ (Ritual Co)

From: Uncommon Goods
Subject: Relationship status: it’s complicated

Valentine’s Day email from Uncommon Goods with the banner text “It doesn’t have to have a heart on it”
Source: Milled

This Valentine’s Day email marketing campaign from Uncommon Goods is mostly aimed at single people. But their email also appeals to people in relationships searching for unique gifts. In this case, the email subject can be interpreted as describing complex relationships with the holiday as well.

Play on cliches

Roses are red, violets are blue… You can use this poem for email subjects too! Feel free to throw puns and jokes based on popular love poems, songs, and cliche expressions. Just refrain from the “Love is in the air” bit — it’s been done way too often. Ran out of ideas? Get inspired by these examples:

  • Roses are Red. Violets are Blue. 20% OFF. Just for You! (Cookies By Design)
  • Berry into you (Material)
  • sweet SCENTiments 💝 romantic v-day gifts (Anthropologie)
  • A V-Day Match Made in Heaven: Lingerie and Silk (intimissimi)
  • This Valentine’s Day, Think Inside The Bento Box (Sugarfina)
  • It’s Love Season (Fortune & Frame)

From: Lounge Underwear
Subject: We’ve got you covered for Valentine’s 🔥
Preheader: But not too covered…

Valentine’s Day email from Lounge Underwear with the banner text “Gifts they’ll love (and you will too)”
Source: Milled

This email from Lounge Underwear shows that puns are not just for subject lines — you can use preheaders too. They played on the dual meaning of the word “covered” and added a punchline in the preheader. Don’t be afraid to use tricks like this one to get more clicks!

Use emojis

Emojis are a great way to create a holiday spirit and visually stand out in the inbox, which will improve your open rates. So take a chance and throw hearts here and there in your email subject line! Emojis can also be a part of the message itself if you replace certain words with them. Another creative way to incorporate emojis in subject lines is highlighting parts of your message with them — here’s an example:

From: Terez
Subject: Cobalt Blue Valentine 💙

Valentine’s Day email from Terez with the banner text “Be Your Own Valentine”
Source: MailCharts

In this subject line, Terez used a blue heart emoji to emphasize the word “Blue” in the email subject and entice subscribers to check out their cobalt blue sportswear drop. 

Here’s another example of a similar trick:

From: Fitbit
Subject: We’re all heart eyes for this sale 😍

Valentine’s Day email from Fitbit with the banner text “Spread love this Valentine’s Day”
Source: Really Good Emails

This email from Fitbit has a heart eyes emoji in the subject line to reinforce the same phrase. It’s one of the more clever email examples about a Valentine’s Day sale.

But even if your campaign has less room for creative use of emojis, you can still spice up your email subject with some hearts and more — take a look at these examples:

  • A Bear With A ❤️ Full of Love (Vermont Teddy Bear Company)
  • 💖 Valentine’s Sale Ends Today! (Italian Pottery Outlet)
  • Love 💓 laugh 🤭 shop 🛒 Valentines favorites (Highlights)
  • 💘😎Step up your gifting game this Valentine’s Day!🎁 (Purdys Chocolatier)
  • Cupid calling… 💘 💘 💘 (Adidas)
  • XOXO 💕 Cute V-Day Tees $4.99 & up! 💕 (Children’s Place)

Use a sense of urgency

If you offer limited holiday editions or 24-hour deals, you can’t do it without appealing to the scarcity mindset. A Valentine’s Day subject line that sets a deadline for buying gifts and other decisions will attract lots of clicks — and, of course, boost your sales. For good open rates, take inspiration from these examples to promote your juiciest deals:

  • Free Shipping AND a $10 eGift Card?? Order Before It’s Too Late! (Oriental Trading)
  • Hurry! Buy 2, Get 2 Free! 💗 (Colonal Candle)
  • 40% off sale ends today! Spread the 💖 (Lime Lush Boutique)
  • Last Call: 20% off sitewide, Ends Tonight 🚨 (The Million Roses)
  • ❤️Final Day for FREE Shipping on our Valentine’s Day Collection is Today!❤️ (Hale Grooves)
  • 💘 It’s the talk of the town: $10 off Valentine’s sweets ends tonight! (Mrs. Prindables)

From: Fancy Sprinkles
Subject: Valentine’s Flash Sale!
Preheader: It Won’t Last Long

Valentine’s Day email from Fancy Sprinkles with the banner text “25% off flash sale”
Source: Milled

Take a look at this email from Fancy Sprinkles that features their Valentine’s Day collection. Notice how the brand uses both the subject and the preheader to create a sense of urgency — and amplifies it with urgency markers in the email copy itself.

Another idea is to spin the urgency around and show that your customer still can get their Valentine’s Day gift in time. This tackles one of the common pain points and at the same time offers a compelling solution. Take a look at this example:

From: Bloomingdales UK
Subject: Still need a gift? We got you.
Preheader: Order online, pick up in store–problem solved

Valentine’s Day email from Bloomingdales with the banner text “Need a last-minute gift?”
Source: Milled

Wrapping up

Sending a couple of marketing emails on Valentine’s Day is a great way to boost your sales during the holiday. To make sure you get good open rates, use these Valentine’s Day subject line tricks:

  • Create anticipation — write intriguing and almost flirtatious subject lines for announcement emails.
  • Offer help — hit your customers’ holiday pain points and offer solutions in the subject line, for example, help them choose gifts for their loved ones
  • Don’t exclude singles — use list segmentation to target single people in your campaign, empathize with those who are not as excited about the holiday.
  • Play on cliches — use jokes, puns, and make parodies of love poems and songs to draw attention.
  • Use emojis — create a festive mood and stand out visually.
  • Use the sense of urgency — add a deadline and urgency markers to boost sales.

This article was originally published in January 2023 and was updated in January 2024 to make it more relevant and comprehensive.

Article by
Doris Day
An experienced writer and editor with a degree in theoretical linguistics and a specialization in B2B/IT/SaaS marketing copy. I see my mission as an educator who explains complex phenomena using simple terms. My favorite show is "What We Do in the Shadows" and I usually spend my weekends somewhere in nature.
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