Thanksgiving Newsletter Ideas: Best Practices with Email Examples

Email Design • Email MarketingNataly Birch and Andrian Valeanu • September 09, 2024 • 9 minutes READ

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, on November 28, 2024. As we approach the holiday season, businesses have a unique opportunity to connect with their audience through Thanksgiving-themed newsletters. Whether you’re looking to thank your customers, launch holiday promotions, or share festive content, a well-crafted newsletter can help drive engagement and boost sales.

Retailers’ greatest mistake is thinking that Thanksgiving email newsletters are not worth their attention, betting everything on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The holiday season is crucially important, and Turkey Day is one of the biggest sales opportunities and significant milestones in every professional marketer’s calendar.

• Show gratitude to loyal clients
• Create anticipation for one of the busiest events in the marketing world – BFCM weekend
• Get more subscribers
• Re-engage inactive customers
• Welcome newcomers in a particular way
• Hook the audience to email
• Boost sales

Even though your customers will be housebound during this day, no one can stop them from shopping online.

This article will explore some creative Thanksgiving newsletter ideas, complete with subject line inspiration, content strategies, and design tips to help you stand out.

Thanksgiving is a chance to fill contacts’ inboxes with holiday vibes, avoid the BFCM rush, and deliver your message to a relaxed and open audience. Missing it would be an unfortunate slip. If you are ready to make the most out of the holiday season and seize every opportunity, then skyrocket your Thanksgiving email marketing campaign with these tips and best practices.

Ideas for Thanksgiving Email Campaigns

Thanksgiving is all about family gatherings and saying “Thank you” to each person who has made a positive contribution to your life. Since subscribers are your family, at least in the digital world, express gratitude and send best wishes to everyone in your address book.

You do not have to reinvent the wheel and spend a lot of time searching for a theme. Use culture and traditions to your advantage and build a strategy that will melt subscribers’ hearts. Several viable ideas exist that will help engage subscribers and increase open rates and click-through rates.

Say Thank You

Just say thank you. Although we are capturing the obvious here, this tactic never fails. Using traditions works like a charm. Thanksgiving is a day to say “Thank you,” and it is exactly what you should do.

Your audience will expect it. Being grateful helps establish healthy relationships with the audience, showing them that you care and serves as a reminder to engage with your marketing.

Email newsletter from Urban Outfitters

Show Generosity

What can get your subscribers into the giving mood? Generosity, of course.

Thanksgiving is not only about eating turkey and watching the Macy’s parade and football; it is all about expressing thankfulness through generosity. Bring “sharing is caring” to life by giving away something special. Of course, everything depends on your budget and capabilities. Even the smallest gift can do the trick.

For instance, share a coupon for something special, give away a small present, share helpful stuff like printable schedules or checkable holiday to-do lists, or offer free shipping.

Email Newsletter by Bodyshop

Staying Non-Promotional

Thanksgiving is one of those rare occasions when you can benefit from non-promotional email newsletters. Everyone expects the upcoming BFCM weekend. Use this holiday to express your gratitude.

In this email campaign, highlight some of your company’s good work during the year. This will strengthen your relationships with the audience, build trust, and improve the overall brand picture.

Thank you

You can also prolong a Thanksgiving campaign. Even though the holiday is over on Friday, people are still in a celebratory mood and longing for some holiday spirit. Use this to your advantage by sending out another festive email to trigger emotions and make a higher impact on the BFCM weekend.

Thanksgiving Shopping Statistics

1. Thanksgiving Day e-commerce sales in 2023 reached $5.6 billion in the U.S., making it one of the biggest online shopping days of the year.
2. 45% of consumers plan their holiday shopping around Thanksgiving sales events, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
3. Holiday email marketing campaigns see a boost in open rates by 10-20% during Thanksgiving week as consumers are actively searching for deals.

Email Marketing Effectiveness Statistics

1. Email marketing has an ROI of $36 for every $1 spent, making it one of the most cost-effective digital marketing strategies.
2. Holiday-themed emails, including Thanksgiving newsletters, have a 6x higher transaction rate than non-holiday-themed emails.
3. Personalized email subject lines increase open rates by 50%, making personalization key for Thanksgiving and holiday emails.
4. Thanksgiving Day email open rates in the U.S. were 26.6% on average, as consumers start preparing for Black Friday and holiday shopping.

Mobile Optimization

1. 68% of email opens happen on mobile devices, so ensuring your Thanksgiving newsletters are mobile-friendly is essential.
2. Mobile-friendly email campaigns have a 15% higher click-through rate than non-optimized campaigns.

Sneak Peeks of BFCM Weekend

Ramping up for the biggest retail weekend of the year is another obvious thing to do. Use a Thanksgiving email newsletter to offer sneak peeks into BFCM weekend. A skillfully crafted preview email will create the proper anticipation, ignite interest, and keep users hooked and excited.

Happy Thanksgiving. Shhh…something big is coming

All those ideas are good on their own; however, no one stops you from combining them. For example, create a Thank You digital card with a sneak peek of upcoming Black Friday deals.

Thanksgiving email newsletter from Tradesy

Design

There is no place for bland and washy designs when it comes to vibrant and radiant holidays like Thanksgiving. If you are still swaying between the plain text and rich-media versions, do it no more. It is time for picturesque e-blasts.

Postcards – Email Newsletter Builder

For those who value their time and need a solution, we recommend using a free HTML email template builder with a drag-and-drop interface, such as Postcards.

Postcards will help create a newsletter with a beautiful mobile-friendly design and festive mood in seconds. All you need to do is to choose the right blocks from more than 100 available components and mix and match them to bring your vision of a holiday template to life. The resulting newsletter will be compatible with popular email providers, readers, and browsers.

If you still need some advice on design and filling, then keep reading. We have some essential tips that will help to create a Thanksgiving email newsletter. 

Colors

Everything begins with a color scheme; therefore, make sure it meets the mood of the feast. Although Thanksgiving closes the harvest season, it is still considered an autumn holiday.

That is why you should go for warm earthy tones: brown, orange, yellow, and soft red. You can also use white, green, and even black to create neutral backgrounds and highlight the beauty of fall-inspired palettes.

Whole Foods Market Email

Happy Thanksgiving by Kate Spade

Images

Using images of roasted turkeys, fully served dinner tables, or even pumpkins is the easiest way to evoke a positive mood, lighten the atmosphere, and bring everyone into the festive spirit.

As a rule, pictures are used as backgrounds; however, you can cut the desired elements and leverage them as décor in various sections or use them as accompanying visual material to support the statement.

Thanksgiving email by Ibotta

Happy Thanksgiving from Brooks Brothers

Happy Turkey Day

Illustrations

If images are not your thing, you can always go for illustrations that give the design an artistic touch. Let your imagination run wild and benefit from one of many styles and themes. It is a great way to encapsulate the content inside artwork and impress contacts with a true masterpiece. Use such things that scream Thanksgiving in your design such as:

• Autumn leaves
• Pilgrims
• Turkey
• Pumpkin
• Pie
• Acorns
• Pinecones

Email newsletter from Anthropologie

Animated Gifs

Everyone loves animated gifs. They are a kind of language that is perceived by everyone without exception. They can speak volumes.

Use looped dynamic images to create the proper atmosphere, command attention, create a playful mood, and leave a lasting impression. In addition, you can highlight the value of the offer and stress urgency in an unobtrusive way.

Email Newsletter from Nordstrom

Tone

Thanksgiving is a family holiday; therefore, treat your audience like one. It means that an email newsletter should have a friendly, cordial, and amiable tone. Of course, you should not ditch your corporate voice; show subscribers your attitude toward them using festive language, funny phrases, and puns.

Email Newsletter from Urban Outfitters

Email Newsletter from DSW

Basic Thanksgiving Newsletter Preparation and Examples

When your design is ready and the strategy is agreed upon and approved, it is time for necessary preparations and polishing.

Segment the Audience

Segmentation is the basis of everything. Along with cleaning up the subscription list, it lays a concrete foundation for your strategy. Make sure you send out email newsletters to people who are waiting for you. It will help decrease bounce rates and increase open rates.

Subject Line

Your audience will judge email newsletters by the subject line. It is the first challenge that you should sort out in your path to getting to subscribers. It should catch an eye, speak volumes, and compel users to open your email newsletter. To do this you can:

• Use seasonal and festive emojis such as turkey glyph, fallen leaf glyph, glyph of clinking glasses, family glyph, etc.
• Use festive words such as gobble-gobble, Happy Thanksgiving, etc.
• Stress urgency using such short phrases as “Time is Ticking,” “Today Only,” “Ends Soon.”
• Use sale words such as Sweet Deals, SALE or % sign.

Email subject lines to try:

• Happy Thanksgiving!
• Happy Turkey Day!
• Thank You!
• Happy Thanksgiving! 25% Off!
• Save room for some sweet deals!
• We’re Thankful for You! Enjoy 50% Off!
• Thanksgiving Specials: Save $50 Off $125
• Give Thanks! 25% Off
• Gift for You!
• Early Bird Shopping!
• The sale starts now!
• Special Discount!
• Special Savings Inside!
• Sneak Peek Deals!
• Your Early Access Starts Now!
• Happy Thanksgiving + Black Friday Preview!
• Enjoy 40% Off: A Happy Thanksgiving!
• Pre-Black Friday Deals!
• 40% off ALL!
• FREE Thanksgiving Delivery!
• Dish up 50% off!
• Your Thanksgiving begins here!
• Oh, my gourd! Don’t miss this SALE!

Timing

Perfect timing is crucial, especially when it comes to busy holidays. Choose the time that works best for your clients. As a rule, the best time to send email newsletters is between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. This is based on regular weekdays.

When it comes to holidays, everything may change; therefore, it is your task to figure that out. Analyze previous campaigns to choose the best time to knock on your subscribers’ doors.

Also, consider resending your email newsletter if the first one fails. Even though retailers will bombard subscribers with deals, some popular strategies start early. Therefore, chances are Thanksgiving may see an upsurge in email blasts. Take this into account; and if something goes wrong, then use an alternative email newsletter or resend the previous one.

Meet Expectations by Overcoming Limitations

Although the use of interactive details or gamification in email newsletters is a win-win solution, do not fall for this trick. The bitter truth is that everything is not as rosy as it seems at first. Email newsletters are subject to various limitations. Even the use of innocent animated gifs can cause problems since not all email readers support them.

On top of that, some subscribers turn off images by default, leaving you with nothing more than just Alts. Therefore before using something incredible in your email newsletter, check its survivability, viability, resistance, and of course, compatibility.

Test your Thanksgiving Newsletter

To avoid poor tactical decisions, do A/B tests. If you think this is not your story, then think again. Tests are everything when it comes to creating successful marketing campaigns. Also, it’s very important to test for spam your Thanksgiving email newsletter.

Ideally, you should analyze previous Thanksgiving campaigns to refine the current one. You can always polish it with the on-spot A/B tests. Moreover, use data from other passed-by holidays that provide insights about changes in subscriber behavior and shopping habits.

Conclusion

Thanksgiving is not only a chance to show your care and appreciation to loyal subscribers but also an excellent opportunity to cultivate and cement relationships with your audience and maximize incentive. Use it smartly.

Thanksgiving is a national family holiday, and your marketing tricks may bounce. Be honest, friendly, and benevolent. Show subscribers that you are grateful for them being in your life. And this will bring benefits in the future.

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to connect with your audience on a more personal level. By implementing these creative newsletter ideas, you can engage your readers, boost conversions, and express gratitude for their support throughout the year.

Remember, Thanksgiving falls on November 28, 2024, so start planning your email campaigns early to make the most of the holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving!