Top Winter Emails To Send Out This Year

Winter email examples

Winter can be an incredibly profitable season, no matter what kind of company you are running. Before the new year comes around, you get to make thousands of dollars during the holiday season. But keeping the momentum going in January and February can be a hassle. The best way to do something about it is to launch an email marketing campaign. 

If you do not know what such an email should look like, keep reading! You’ll find a few reasons why you should send out winter emails, as well as a list of winter email types and winter email campaigns.

Why send out winter emails

If you are not convinced that you should use winter emails, here are a few benefits of doing so. First, it will help you increase sales. Winter is the biggest shopping season of all. According to statistics, consumers planned to spend an average of $1,430 on gifts, travel, and entertainment in 2022 alone. It would be insane to miss such an opportunity!

Second, the holiday season is all about giving. Why not use this sentiment to build relationships with your customers? Sending out winter emails can be a great way to show them that you care about them and that they can trust you.

Winter email types to include in your campaign

November emails

BFCM weekend

The Black Friday and Cyber Monday are among the most important shopping events of the year. You can benefit from both by sending out emails that offer special discounts and coupon codes.

December emails

St. Nick’s Day

St. Nick’s Day is a day dedicated to giving, so why not use it to kick off a holiday email marketing campaign? You could create a festive email template filled with discounts and gifts. Just make sure to include images of snow and winter-themed decorations!

Christmas countdown

Christmas is just around the corner, so why not get people in the holiday spirit. For instance, you might want to put together a countdown email that highlights the products you are offering, together with any interesting discounts or the latest promotion.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day is the perfect time to send warm and heartfelt Christmas emails to your customers. Let them know that you appreciate each and every one of them and wish them holidays filled with fun and laughter.

New Year’s Eve

The end of the year is usually a time of reflection. You can use this to your advantage by sending out a New Year’s Eve email that recaps the year. For instance, you could share how many loyal customers you gained and how many orders you have processed.

January emails

New Year’s resolutions

January is the perfect time to help your customers stick to their New Year’s resolutions. With that in mind, put together an email that highlights products and services that can help your newsletter subscribers reach their goals.

Blue Monday

Blue Monday is said to be the most depressing day of the year. It falls on the third Monday of January and is usually a time when people feel like they have not achieved as much as they intended to. So, make your customers feel better by sending an email filled with discounts!

February emails

St. Valentine’s Day

St. Valentine’s Day is the perfect time for a Valentine’s Day email that focuses on romance and love. With that in mind, you might want to send out an email with discounts on gifts for couples, as well as products that your subscribers can give to their significant others.

Winter email design best practices

If you want your winter email campaign to work, you need to make sure that they look good and that their content is eye-catching and well-written. Here are a few design tips that should help you achieve that goal.

Subject line

Make sure that the subject line of your winter email is short, to the point, and attention-grabbing. This will help you get more people to open your emails and, in turn, increase your sales. If you want it to contain an emoji, stick to just one. More than that will make the subject line look too cluttered. Here are a few examples of good winter email subject lines:

  • Stock up for the cold with 25% off knits.
  • Happy Valentine’s Day! 💕 Get 15% off our gift selection.
  • Make 2023 the best year yet! 🔥

Color palette

Since winter is a cold season, use a color palette that reflects that. Stick to cool tones like blues and purples, as well as whites and grays. It will help each email you send out look more winter-themed. Alternatively, you could also use a combination of reds and greens for a more festive look.

Tone of voice

Make your winter emails sound friendly and welcoming. Make sure to use words that convey warmth, such as welcome and appreciate. Doing so will make it easier to build a better relationship with your customers and improve your brand image.

Visuals

Remember to add a few visuals to every message. If you are not an experienced graphic designer, be sure to check out a few custom Christmas email templates and New Year ideas. With a great template, you are guaranteed to save plenty of time and energy.

Responsive design

If your email is not responsive, it is unlikely to help you achieve the results you need. Make sure to design responsive emails that look great on both desktop and mobile devices. That way, you will reach a larger audience and increase your sales.

Personalization

Personalization is key when it comes to email marketing. So, make sure to use the data you have collected about your customers to create personalized emails that are tailored to their needs and interests. 

The easiest ways to do this are to use the customer’s name in the subject line and to send them suggestions based on their past purchases. This will make them more likely to open and click on your emails, as well as actually purchase something from your store. 

Keeping it brief

As with most email marketing campaigns, winter emails should be brief and to the point. Your customers are busy people and they do not have time to read long emails. Get your point across in as few words as possible.

Happy holidays

Last but not least, make sure to wish your subscribers happy holidays instead of Merry Christmas. Why? Well, not everyone celebrates Christmas. Wishing them happy holidays is a great way to be inclusive and respectful.

Best winter email examples from your favorite brands

Anthropologie: A cozy mood

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Source: Anthropologie

Antropologie is a clothing retailer that offers an assortment of not only clothing, but also jewelry, beauty products, home furniture, decoration, and gifts. One of their winter email marketing campaigns involved sending out a relatable email. 

The email included a list of things that you should do when it is too cold outside. The two most obvious ones included finding your favorite sweater and making a mug of hot tea. The last one encouraged you to accept their gift of free shipping and do some shopping at their online store.

Notably, the email is very simple and minimalistic. The cold winter color palette is easy on the eyes, and so is the background image. It is not overly complicated or flashy. In addition, the font is pretty and easy to read. It stands out against the dark background.

Citizens of Humanity: Minimalistic and stylish

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Source: Citizens of Humanity

Citizens of Humanity is a premium clothing company that sells high-quality jeans. Other things it sells include sweaters, knits, and shorts. Their winter email is elegant and tasteful, with a toned down and cold color palette. 

It starts off with a link to a winter outfit guide. The link is preceded by a short and engaging paragraph about escaping winter’s chill. Next, the recipient is shown a selection of products they might be interested in. 

The most notable thing about the email is the section filled with user-generated content. The said content took the form of pictures taken by customers. Such a section is an excellent way to make the customer feel more included and appreciated.

The email ends with a link to the Citizens of Humanity spring collection. It is accompanied by a simple call to action in the form of the words shop now. It creates a sense of urgency and tells the reader exactly what to do.

Sephora: Short and simple

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Source: Sephora

Sephora is an international retailer of beauty products. A few years ago, the company launched a post-holiday email marketing campaign. The banner at the top of the email featured links to various sections of the Sephora online store. Below, you got to see that a sale is going on. Again, the email featured an effective call to action in the form of the words shop now.

The big caption in the middle of the email reads post-holiday blues. Underneath it is a paragraph that identifies the reader’s pain point, which is the need to feel better after the holidays’ excitement. After that, the reader is presented with a solution to that problem, which is shopping for Sephora products.

While the entire email might not be that visually pleasing, it does get the job done. It is simple and easy to read. It also showcases the Sephora brand with clearly visible red lipstick stains on the banner and bits of face powder in the left bottom corner.

Elf Cosmetics: Attention-grabbing GIF

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Source: Elf Cosmetics

Elf Cosmetics is a brand that specializes in skincare and makeup products. The example here comes from a campaign that they launched in winter. Its main features are a cozy color palette with light shades of brown. Aside from that, the email includes a simple GIF, which serves two purposes. 

First, it grabs the viewer’s attention. Second, it puts an emphasis on both a product that the company is trying to sell and the model. The model is wearing a comfortable and soft sweater, which adds to the cozy vibe of the message.

Old Navy: Big numbers, lively colors

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Source: Old Navy

Old Navy specializes in selling clothing, ranging from jackets to pajamas. Their winter email is about a huge sale on outerwear, jeans, and sweaters. The heading is really big and stands out against the yellow background. As a result, it effectively catches the recipient’s attention. 

Below, you see a picture of two models running through snow. The caption reads beat the chill, which is short and to the point. 

JCrew: Winter background and color palette

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Source: JCrew

JCrew is yet another clothing brand. Their email example is fairly simple. It has a minimalistic winter-related background, as well as a cool color palette with whites and blues. It also features links to the relevant sections of their online store, both at the top and at the bottom of the message.

The caption about a sale and a winter slump is the main focal point of the message and encourages the recipient to make a purchase, while the small ends tomorrow in the lower part of the email creates a sense of urgency.

Forever 21: Shades of beige

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Source: Forever 21

Just like many companies listed above, Forever 21 is a well-known clothing brand. Their winter email marketing campaign is simple. It features a photo of a woman wearing a cozy sweater with a caption that reads winter’s most wanted. Below it are links to the Forever 21 online store and a tool that could help you locate a physical store. 

The color palette here is also worth paying attention to. With several shades of beige, brown, and white, it made the email invoke feelings of coziness and warmth. 

Banana Republic: GIF and an interesting background

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Source: Banana Republic

Similar to Citizens of Humanity, Banana Republic is a luxurious clothing brand. The entire banner in their email is a GIF. As mentioned above, GIFs are really effective at grabbing people’s attention. Aside from that, the information about how big the sale is really stands out against the dark background. 

Sure, that kind of background might not be directly winter-related. Still, it features a closed-up shot of one of the company’s sweaters. Such an unique take on winter-related email marketing is likely to make the message stand out from the competition.

The Novelty Shop: Pink dinosaurs

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Source: The Novelty Shop

January can be a tough month for retailers and newsletter subscribers alike. Luckily, you can always cheer up both sides with an engaging email. The team behind Novelty Shop did just that using an animated gif and one of its most popular products. 

Take note of the colors, too. In the middle of January, you might be feeling a bit sick of whites and dark blues. A brighter shade of pink here really saves the day.

Rifle Paper: Santa is here!

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Source: Really Good Emails

Rifle Paper Co. is a lifestyle brand that sells a wide range of items, from stationery to home decor and gifts. In their Christmas email, the brand decided to use an adorable illustration of Santa. 

The illustration is paired with a big discount off everything the store has to offer. Below it, you can see a CTA with the go, go, go calling, which instantly grabs the reader’s attention.

Harvard Sweet Boutique: Appetizing photographs

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Source: Really Good Emails

Harvard Sweet Boutique is a quaint bakeshop located in Hudson, Massachusetts. Their email highlights their last online discount of the season. The caption, which is big and bright red, is clearly visible immediately after you open the email. 

Next, you get to feast your eyes on two photographs of the shop’s gluten-free holiday gifts. Both of these things are bound to boost their end of the year sales.

Chess.com: Recap of user activity

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Source: Really Good Emails

Chess.com is a popular internet chess server that you can use to play chess with people from around the world. In its email, the platform gives you a clear summary of how you used the platform. It includes the number of games played and the best game. 

As we have already mentioned, summing up the previous year in numbers is a great topic for a winter email. People really enjoy reading up detailed reports with numbers and such. As a result, emails with such reports have the potential to end up being pretty popular with your mailing list.

Dose of Colors: Predicting the future

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Source: Email Tuna

Dose of Colors is a company selling cruelty-free makeup products. In their New Year’s email, you get to discover a few predictions for 2022 beauty trends. 

It makes not only for an interesting read, but also for a great way for a brand to position itself as an authority. After all, in order to make accurate predictions, the people behind it have to know the industry they work in inside and out.

Bloom and Blossom: New Year’s resolutions

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Source: Milled

Bloom and Blossom is a skincare and wellness brand. Its email puts a new spin on the popular new year, new me phrase. Instead of building a new you, you are encouraged to focus on taking better care of yourself. What’s more, the company’s products are just what you need to make it happen.

What stands out in this email is the color palette. The hot blue stands out against the beige background, but it doesn’t seem out of place. Instead, the two colors blend well, which makes the entire email pretty aesthetically pleasing.

Pflatzgraff: Shades of red

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Source: MailCharts

Last but not least, there is Pflatzgraff, which is a popular American kitchenware brand. Its email grabs the recipient’s attention in two ways. 

First, there are these splotches of red spread out throughout the photographs it contains. Second, there are four calls to action underneath each set of kitchenware that’s put on display.

Conclusion

To sum up, winter emails can be incredibly effective when it comes to increasing sales and building relationships with customers. However, in order for such emails to be successful, you will need to keep a few things in mind.

First, remember to send out messages related to popular holidays. That way, you can cater to customers’ demands much more effectively. 

Second, stick to the winter email design best practices listed above, including catchy subject lines, festive color palettes, and responsive design.

Last but not least, use the examples we provided here as a source of inspiration. With so many different winter emails to look at, you should be able to design an interesting email marketing campaign in no time!