Email Best Practices
Thanksgiving Email: Five tips to make your customers feel appreciated
With the Black Friday sales just after Thanksgiving, there’s a chance for email marketers to press pause and give thanks to loyal customers. And with that comes the creative freedom to make an email campaign that’s heartfelt and sincere.
![Hermes is running behind a turkey](http://images.ctfassets.net/y6oq7udscnj8/1cFezpTV8ysmCo0tIzmMKs/c22f2548692f960139da917be144210e/Thanksgiving_-_Version_1.jpg)
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If you’re like us, you probably started fantasizing about that delicious Thanksgiving spread as soon as you started working on your holiday email marketing campaigns. Knowing how soon Thanksgiving will be here makes it easy to forget about email when you lose yourself in a daydream about the feast in your future. But before you get to the food, you need to plan out the perfect Thanksgiving email campaign.
The truth is, your subscribers are probably bombarded with ecommerce emails, all convincing them to buy what’s on offer. Instead of only capitalizing on the holiday season to boost your sales, why not use this time of year to show your customers how much you appreciate them? Give our tips a try, and you and your customers will be feeling that warm and fuzzy feeling only a Thanksgiving dinner (and email) can bring.
Table of content
Know your audience
Make it genuine, heartfelt, and authentic
Let your brand voice shine through
Choose a good Thanksgiving email subject line
1. Keep your Thanksgiving email template simple
2. Reward your most loyal customers
3. Remember to give back
4. Send Thanksgiving emails that capitalize on the holiday spirit
5. Add a Black Friday mention to your Thanksgiving email
Google - Feel thankful for the little moments
The Home Depot - Thank you
Uber - Flying to the feast?
Casper - Happy Thanksgiving from Casper
How to write a good Thanksgiving message
We get it – Thanksgiving deviates from the status quo. Instead of selling to your audience, you’re appreciating them. Sounds easier said than done, but really it’s easy if it comes from the heart. Let’s look at the classic tropes of a warm Thanksgiving message.
Here are four things to keep in mind.
Know your audience
You wouldn’t send the same Thanksgiving card to a corporate colleague that you would a gym buddy, so make sure you adapt your message to your audience.
Use all the information at hand – well-researched personas, CRM personality profiles, demographic, and data from your email service provider to understand and visualize your subscriber before picking up the pen. Leverage advanced tactics like personalization and segmentation to make your messages ever more personal.
Make it genuine, heartfelt, and authentic
Thanksgiving is generally a time when we stop our lives to focus on the important things in life: friends, family, and food!
And while you won’t be replacing turkey on the family table, you can instead bring something fresh to your reader’s inbox – authenticity. Rather than showing off your company and products, send a Thanksgiving message to connect to the customer on a deeper level and celebrate them as the hero of your story.
Let your brand voice shine through
Your brand voice is the personality that comes across in your messaging. Usually, we have to tone it down for product and news updates to get the message across, but with a Thanksgiving message, we really get to express our brand fully.
So, embrace the creative opportunity and craft an email message that will really makes your contacts smile!
Imagine you’re sitting around the Thanksgiving table with your customers supping wine and you raise a toast. What would you say? How would you say it?
Choose a good Thanksgiving email subject line
You already know it – email subject lines are a key part of the email marketing strategy that have a huge impact on open rates and conversions. That’s why we always recommend coming up with a few strong subject line ideas to A/B test.
Obviously, Thanksgiving is a period where brands choose to be grateful and appreciative, but that doesn’t mean you can’t incorporate a bit of cheekiness to your subject lines and maybe add a couple well-chosen festive emojis.
To inspire you, we asked ChatGPT to help us come up with the best Thanksgiving email subject lines for your heartfelt messages to customers. Here’s what it came up with:
"Thanksgiving Gratitude: We're Thankful for You!"
"Giving Thanks for Your Loyalty and Support 🙏"
"Our Thanksgiving Gift to You: Heartfelt Thanks"
"A Special Thanksgiving Message Just for You"
"Thankful Hearts, Happy Customers: It's All Thanks to You!"
"This Thanksgiving, We're Thankful for Customers Like You"
"You're Our Reason to Give Thanks: Happy Thanksgiving!"
"Appreciating You on Thanksgiving and Every Day"
"Thanksgiving Wishes from Our Family to Yours"
"Giving Thanks: A Special Gift Just for You!"
And with Thanksgiving happening in the middle of the holiday shopping season, we know many brands will choose to promote some Thanksgiving deals, incorporating a special offer or a coupon. Alternatively, you can create a sense of urgency by reminding customers Black Friday will be the last chance to benefit from some of the special Black Week deals.
Here are some subject line examples from ChatGPT if you’re looking to pair up Black Friday sales and Thanksgiving email marketing campaigns:
"Feast Your Eyes on Our Thanksgiving Specials 🦃🍂"
"Unlock Thanksgiving Savings: Exclusive Offers Inside!"
"Get Stuffed on Savings this Thanksgiving 🍽️"
"Counting Our Blessings: Thanksgiving Discounts Await!"
"Thanksgiving Delights: The Ultimate Shopping Experience 🍁"
"Gobble Up Savings Before They're Gone!"
"Thanksgiving Cheers! 🥂 Your Exclusive Deals Inside"
Special deals for a great Thanksgiving
"Thanksgiving Feast, Black Friday Feast: Get Ready for Incredible Savings!"
"Give Thanks Today, Shop Black Friday Tomorrow - Exclusive Deals Await!"
5 tips to win your customers over with a Thanksgiving email campaign
Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so it’s time to think about email marketing. Not sure where to begin? Here are our top tips to win the heart of your customers during this time of the year.
1. Keep your Thanksgiving email template simple
Be the calm in your subscriber’s Thanksgiving holiday inbox storm. While everyone is promoting Thanksgiving sales, try sending an email just to say “Thank You” and “Happy Thanksgiving”, and hold off on the salesy talk for just a little while. Your friendly Thanksgiving email will remind customers why they subscribed to you in the first place. As a result, you might actually score some brand loyalty and influence them to make a purchase further down the road.
Don’t go overboard on the email design, either. Simple emails with a powerful Thanksgiving email subject line and good personalization can go a long way to make your subscribers feel appreciated. Of course, the opportunity for fun imagery and GIFs comes with the holidays, so we won’t judge if you want to crank up the cheese factor a bit.