The Case for Holiday-Themed Emails

From back-to-school to New Year's, there's a reason for retailers to get into the holiday spirit.

A new study from Yesmail found that holiday-themed email open rates jumped from 14.2 percent in 2013 to 15.1 percent in 2014, and open rates across the board exceeded non-themed campaigns.

More specifically, back-to-school, Black Friday, Thanksgiving and general holidays saw higher open rates when deployed closer to the holiday.

What's more, Halloween, Cyber Monday and Christmas emails benefited from earlier deployment with open rates decreasing as the holiday approached.

Holiday-themed emails weren't a rarity in 2014, however, as 83 percent of retailers sent general holiday or winter-themed campaigns making this the most popular theme last year.

Retailers can take Yesmail's analysis to understand industry trends, gather competitive intelligence and look at historical performance to get a competitive advantage this holiday season, according to Mike Iaccarino, CEO and Chairman of Infogroup. 

A look at other retailers' email campaigns can also provide insights into what works and what desn't. Yesmail reports that the email below from Walgreens, which featured a checklist to help parents prepare their children for back-to-school, had an open rate of 24.6 percent. Yesmail also applauded its use of editorial-style content to engage Walgreens customers.

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