The importance of Valentine’s Day email subject lines
According to the National Retail Federation, 53% of Americans considered celebrating Valentine’s day in February 2022 and planned to spend $175 on average, which is 6% higher than in 2021.
According to the National Retail Federation, 53% of Americans considered celebrating Valentine’s day in February 2022 and planned to spend $175 on average, which is 6% higher than in 2021.
The more modest spending plans in 2021 were likely caused by the COVID-19 measures still being in force and people being more cautious in general. As you can see, the graph above shows an increase in 2022 — we saw the social ending of the pandemic in Western countries, so we can hope for further Valentine’s Day spending growth in 2023.
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 that will treat your brand as their friend.
No matter what your V-day marketing goals are, 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.
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.
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:
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 the sense of urgency and keeping your customers excited for the holiday. Here’s how Yellow Octopus did it — use this example for inspiration.
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:
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.
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!
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:
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.
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:
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!
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:
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:
This email from a jewelry company features a rose preserved in metal as a Valentine’s day gift — that’s why they included a rose emoji in their subject line. In this case, an emoji almost acts like a spoiler for the email content.
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:
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:
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 the sense of urgency — and amplifies it with urgency markers in the email copy itself.
Sending a couple 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:
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