Email Design Ideas for Thanksgiving Day Newsletters

How to craft your Thanksgiving emails and how to convince recipients to open them — you’ll find the answers below.

Thanksgiving email design ideas

We assume that an email with a simple design, but a super message or the super generous offer inside can be effective. But the week or weeks before Thanksgiving, your audience’s inboxes will be filled with competitors’ emails, whose offers and messages may be as good as yours. A good email design will be of great help. What makes a winning design?

Appeal to emotions

95% of all purchases are made emotionally. When it comes to super holidays, this number may even increase! 

Make sure the Thanksgiving email design reminds customers about the beauty of this day, about the emotions they experience when gathering with their close people.

(Thanksgiving email by American Signature Furniture)

Not only did American Signature Furniture add a photo of a happy family, but it also added a fabulous poem.

You are free to implement any other ideas that could be associated with the holiday spirit

Make emails festive

It can be anything. You can decorate entire thanksgiving newsletter templates, or just headers and footers. It normally depends on the email style. But it’s really important to set and keep the holiday spirit.

(Thanksgiving email by Quorum)

Quorum just changed its logo, the rest of their email was pretty usual, with no other decorations.

Add some interactive elements to your emails

Whatever we say, a child that lives in each of us craves new experiences and loves games, especially on holidays. So why not give subscribers this opportunity? Statics is in the past, movement rules everything today: add Gif-animations, videos, interactive elements in emails. But remember that emails should not be overloaded.

Important to note:

In order to prevent photosensitive epilepsy seizures among your recipients, please avoid GIFs with 3 and more flashes per second. 

And it is also important to place only 1 GIF per screen. Two moving elements can cause these seizures. Please refer to this blog page for more recommendations on GIFs.

(Thanksgiving email by Uber)

Mix and match

Since there is only one day of difference between Thanksgiving and Black Friday, it will be a good idea to combine these two events in one email. Congratulate your valued recipients on the holiday and announce crazy sales. This will only improve your subscribers’ festive mood!

(Thanksgiving email by IDJnow)

Send text-based emails

This is a somewhat unusual email format. 

But a good old handwritten letter (text-based email that looks like a handwritten letter) will make each of your subscribers feel special.

(Thanksgiving email by Anthropologie)

The best thanksgiving email examples 

Want some more Thanksgiving email inspiration? Check the emails below — those are the emails we loved the most in our Inboxes. 

Friendly congratulations from the head of the company

I think this does not require further explanation. This may be one email of a series. You can include a photo of the leader or of the whole team and add a simple congratulation (but not in a verse to keep it personal!). As a result, you have a perfect holiday email.

(Thanksgiving email by Sakara Life)

Segmented Thanksgiving email

It is necessary to take into account the interests, age, and marital status of the audience. It is also worth paying attention to the consumers’ behavior, like their previous purchases, the items they left in the cart. By doing this, you are more likely to please the target audience with your offer.

(Thanksgiving email by Wolferman's)

Promotions and sales

This is a classic holiday newsletter. You indicate the opportunity to save and then talk about your discounts, promotions, free delivery, and other goodies. If you are an owner of either a big supermarket or a small grocery store, take your chance to grab attention by sending a reminder with the goods that everybody needs for a festive table.

(Thanksgiving email by Whole Foods Market)

Be a problem solver

There’s always someone who plans on traveling on this holiday. But in a busy world, we typically have no time to get acknowledged with the conditions of the city we are flying to. Be your customers’ guide! Give them a hand!

(Thanksgiving email by Hipmunk)

The chances are you will do them a favor not only by providing them with this useful information, but also by reminding them that Thanksgiving is around the corner.

Skillfully combine your product with the upcoming event

Quite an extensive category in which you can show your creativity in full. Help a recipient feel the holiday spirit. Offer him or her interesting articles from your blog, interesting ideas for a party, options for costumes, home decorations, recipes. 

(Thanksgiving email by Kitchn)

It is important to skillfully link your advice with the product that you are presenting.

Thanksgiving subject lines

You can come up with a catchy phrase that resonates with your brand. 

You can specify in the subject line that you are about to highlight some ideas on how to celebrate this holiday, that you are starting a contest, etc.
The word “Thanksgiving” should be included in your subject line!

What is really important to mention here is that the Thanksgiving subject lines are simple and sweet unlike weird and unusual Halloween ones

Thanksgiving subject lines examples:

1. Hipmunk: Your Thanksgiving Airport Savings Guide.

2. Hipmunk: Still Haven't Booked Your Thanksgiving Travel?

3. D'Artagnan: Thanksgiving Pre-Order Starts Today.

4. D'Artagnan: 3 Weeks to Thanksgiving: Pre-Order Today.

5. D'Artagnan: 2 Weeks Until Thanksgiving. Are You Ready?

6. D'Artagnan: FREE Shipping for Thanksgiving (Ends Sunday).

7. D'Artagnan: Happy Thanksgiving from D'Artagnan!

8. Gap Factory: Happy Thanksgiving (happy 60% off EVERYTHING + extra 15% off).

9. Gap: Thanksgiving treat! NO EXCLUSIONS + last call for $10 sweatshirts & extras.

10. Ikea USA: Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy this holiday coupon.

11. Quorum: 7 Thanksgiving Instagram Photos from Members of Congress.

12. Forbes Travel Guide: Celebrate Thanksgiving in paradise.

13. Danielle LaPorte: A few tips for family holiday gatherings.

14. Food52: Test Kitchen-approved Thanksgiving tools.

15. Nygard: Pre-Thanksgiving Sale - Save 20% Off Red Ticket Styles.

16. The Bargain! Shop: We got your Thanksgiving Fixings!

17. Gourmet Food Store: Get in the Mood For Fall With These 8 Recipes!

18. Jenny Craig Official Site: Turkey overload? Get back on track with $50 in food savings!

19. Shop It To Me: What goes best with Thanksgiving leftovers? Sales!

20. BroadwayBox: Post Thanksgiving Food Coma? Recover On The Couch With All The Bway Scoop!

21. The New Yorker: Picks from our Editors for Thanksgiving.

22. Camping World: We are thankful for you!

23. Afloral: Happy Thanksgiving + Black Friday Starts Now!

24. America's Test Kitchen: Giving thanks for family and friends, like you.

25. GlassesUSA: It's On! Thanksgiving Designer Exclusive Waiting Inside ➤➤ 

Thanksgiving newsletter templates

We hope that our selection of thanksgiving newsletter ideas will help you build powerful emails. 

For your convenience, we’ve prepared a number of free Thanksgiving newsletter templates.

Keep a watchful eye on the features they offer, as well as on the professional content organization and styling they utilize.

Pick the one you like the most.

Thanksgiving Newsletter Template

Happy T-Day is a free HTML newsletter template with a heart-warming design. This lightweight newsletter template is created for the hospitality industry but can be used for Thanksgiving emails of any kind.

Use this template

Holiday Responsive Newsletter Template

Holiday is a newsletter template for everyone providing tourism and traveling-related services. To customize it, you don’t have to know HTML code. You can adjust every element of this newsletter template in a few clicks and mouse movements.

Use this template

Thanksgiving Emails Template 

This amiable Thanksgiving email inspiration takes the form of an artful digital greeting card. Concise and to-the-point, the design catches attention with handwritten ‘Thanksgiving Day’ caption.

Then, it streamlines users to copying your promo-code out and navigating right to your website. Moreover, this design has a separate Black Friday banner which informs prospects about the upcoming sale.

Use this template

Thanksgiving Email Template to Thank Your Customers

Marseille is a top-of-the-line Thanksgiving newsletter sample for restaurant and catering businesses. It grasps user attention with an image of the festive table and gets them to a conversion point featuring a discount voucher.

Use this template

So, now you’ve got an eye for good Thanksgiving newsletter designs. It’s time to learn when to send out the holiday emails.

When is the best time to send your email

One of the most common questions email marketers ask when starting a new holiday campaign is the day when their email will definitely not go unseen. When preparing this article, we came across an interesting study conducted by an American company DMD. 

It says that you reach the maximum audience's attention by sending an email two or three days before the holiday. It can be a series of emails. Then you should start weeks before the holiday. 

Final thoughts

Preparing thanksgiving emails requires a lot of effort and knowledge. 

Follow these simple rules:

• appeal to emotions — festive and emotional design;

• please — take into account the interests of your target audience;

• help — be a problem solver;

• only then sell.

We wish you successful campaigns and delighted recipients.

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