How to Write an Effective Veterans Day Email: A Guide With Examples

4 reasons to send a Veterans Day email message

Veterans Day is celebrated annually on November 11, after Halloween and before Thanksgiving in the fall email newsletter calendar. It’s a good opportunity to get emotive and build branding. Here’s why you should send a Veterans Day email:

1. Most Americans celebrate veterans

According to the US Census Bureau, there are close to 16.5 million US Veterans, and 1.4 million active Military personnel. That’s roughly 5% of the American population! Most Americans feel warm towards veterans: 82% recognize them as brave, honored, and loyal. The odds are very high that you have active service members, veterans, their partners, families, and friends in your audience: 69% of people have personal connections to veterans. 

2. It’s an opportunity for storytelling

Veterans Day email marketing can show another side of your business that doesn’t appear much. It’s the perfect time to tell a personal story, to show the relationships between the company founder and the veterans (maybe the founder is a veteran, too), and to foster connection. It can be happy, emotional, or evoke a sense of honor. 

3. You can express gratitude

If you’re going for a simple “thank you” message, you may spread your campaign across all social media channels and brick-and-mortar stores! But sending gratitude via email feels a little more personal. 

It’s also a chance to support a local charity or cause. Most businesses can’t really do much to help veterans, but there are many nonprofits that have this core mission. If you create your campaign in support of an organization that aligns with your brand, the positive impact is greater.

4. Your email can educate and inspire

It’s a great opportunity to showcase a service member in your ranks and appreciate the veterans who work in your company. For small brands, this can extend to customers and friends of the business.

Veterans Day messages can also highlight some less-known US military fields of work (like medical assistance and humanitarian relief), motivate to volunteer in the nonprofits that offer assistance to veterans, or inspire simple actions (like thanking a veteran in the family or writing a thank you note to a member of the military they know).

What to include in your Veterans Day emails?

If you just slap a coupon code on top of an American flag, your message will come across as opportunistic. Here are the best tips to write a professional Veterans Day email message.

Gratitude

“Thank you” is the main message in a Veterans Day email. Sometimes a simple “Thank you for your service” campaign with a clear message honoring our American heroes is perfect to show appreciation. 

Patriotism and freedom

Veterans Day is a date that is all about American values. It is a patriotic day to remember all of our current and past service members who fight and work for our freedom and to keep our country safe.

Don’t shy away from symbols that reflect this date, like flags and photos of military personnel and equipment. The classic color combination of red, white, and blue is welcome, or you can use your brand colors, adding some stripes on the main image, for example. 

Story or personal experience

The best tool for connection is storytelling. Veterans Day is a great chance to tell a personal story if the founder (or their close family) is a veteran or to create a narrative around one worker or member of the community.

Remember that the tone should be thankful, not too joyful or somber. Avoid overly dramatic reports but don’t shy away from some emotional stories either.

Quotes to inspire in a Veterans Day message

Adding quotes can be a simple trick to show pride without getting too personal. A well-chosen statement from a veteran or a military commander is a nice touch to show your brand’s values.

You can search for great quotes online to find the messages that align with your beliefs, like these examples: 

A quick tip: Research the name and profile of the person quoted to check if the phrase is misattributed or placed out of context. 

Support and respect

Finally, Veterans Day is the perfect opportunity for your brand to display how it supports veterans and active duty military. It may be a permanent discount, a temporary one, or donations from your business made to organizations that help veterans.

Sending a coupon exclusive to veterans may be the right call, or something simpler, like an invitation to go to parades and events of the date, or to make a veteran happy with a simple visit and a good chat. 

Best Veterans Day email examples from different companies

To help you write your own email, we selected six good examples that hit the right balance between gratitude and reverence and celebrating the day with exclusive offers. If you need more help, you can always check our best email marketing resources page. 

Mugsy

The clothing brand Mugsy celebrated Veterans Day by honoring one veteran within their community, with a picture of him and a very brief story of his service.

This strategy is very effective as it shows that Mugsy cares. The email has a very clear gratitude theme, doesn’t include any call-to-action or coupon, and doesn’t try to sell anything. Just an honorable “thank you” note.

This strategy works best when it gets personal. You don’t want to include a “generic soldier,” but feature a real human being who dreams and breathes and is someone related to your community.

Death Wish Coffee

Death Wish Coffee delivers a very clear “Salute our troops” message in big, bold letters, followed by the message “We will be donating 10% of all sales made today to Gary Sinise Foundation.” This charity creates and supports programs to entertain, inspire, and educate veterans, first responders, and their families.

This email works well because of the combination of a message and an action. It has a “thank you” tone and a commitment to make a donation. 

Combining a strong image of five troops showcasing the brand logo apparel with a clear message, Death Wish Coffee created a striking example of a Veterans Day email done right.

Briggs & Riley

With beautiful imagery of a military mother with her son (the American flag patch is nicely placed on the picture), Briggs & Riley nailed the required style.

The campaign features a clear “Don’t miss your chance to help” message, and the announcement that 11% of sales from every purchase in a line will go to Tunnel to Towers Foundation which provides free homes to Gold Star and Fallen First Responder with young children. This email works well because the imagery is very well selected and emotive and the campaign has a precise purpose.

Chipotle

Chipotle found a way to match the tone of respect for Veterans Day with the typical humor of the brand proving that even a Veterans Day email can be a little funny.

It features a burrito with a small American flag, showcasing the promotion “Today let us serve you,” a buy-one-get-one-free exclusive for military and veterans.

This email starts with “Thank you for your service” right off the bat, getting the gratitude vibes before jumping to the funny burrito image. This works because it keeps a low profile. Not trying to make anyone laugh aloud, it goes for a smirk and a well-placed discount coupon. 

Lively root

The Lively Root email campaign features a simple message that first shows gratitude and then highlights the benefits of gardening for mental health. The imagery of houseplants with flags is delicate and on-brand.

Besides the nice message about plants and connection, the campaign also showcases a 15% military discount on all orders, year-round, to show the company really cares.

Live Bearded

Live Bearded is a clothing brand that created an exclusive limited edition flannel and shirt called R.E.D. (Remember Everyone Deployed). The text is authentic and heartfelt. The brand also invites every buyer to wear these shirts on Friday to display pride in the American military.

This email campaign works because it shows the brand cares (enough to make a special edition shirt) and also matches the message with some attitude, asking readers to wear it proudly and support military personnel close to their lives. 

Conclusion

Veterans Day is not a big e-commerce marketing date, but it can be an opportunity to demonstrate the values of the brand and connect with a huge American audience. The key takeaways are:

• Veterans and military personnel make up roughly 5% of American citizens.  
• The main objective of the email campaign should be to demonstrate gratitude.  
• Connect with the audience and the community: support nonprofits, ask for stories, and find the military veterans in your company or audience.  
• Find the right tone. You don’t need to go off-brand and send a robotically proud message. It can be thankful or happy. You can use a little humor. Just think about how your brand would write “thank you for your service.”  
• Be careful not to sound opportunistic. Don’t just slap a coupon on top of an American Flag. A Veterans Day campaign should reflect appreciation and the values of the date, like service and freedom.  

You can make this November 11 a special day for the veterans and their families, creating a message that reflects gratitude, pride, and honor.