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7 Tips to Send Your Best-Ever Thanksgiving Email

Beefree team
Beefree team
Nov 17, 2015
7 Tips to Send Your Best-Ever Thanksgiving Email
7 Tips to Send Your Best-Ever Thanksgiving Email

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. If Halloween didn't already mark the start of the busiest shopping season of the year, then Thanksgiving certainly will. During last year's holiday season, retailers reported 50% more traffic coming from mobile.And a large driver of that traffic isemail, which we increasingly check on our phones.So it's a total no-brainer thatcrafting emails with care is critical for brands who want to stand out from the crowd this holiday season. What better place to start than with Thanksgiving? Here are 7tips for a fantastic Thanksgiving email.

1. Start with the subject line

Inboxes will be overloadedwith emails in the coming weeks, and you can expect a huge chunk ofsubscribers—about 35%—todecide whether or not to open your email based on thesubject line alone.Stand out by putting some thought into your subject line. Try gettingreaders curious about your email with a line that asks a question, promises a deal or coupon, has a "how to," or includes a number.Looking for email subject line tips? Check out our 7 Tested Rules for Email Subject Lines – And When To Break Them.Here's an interesting take from PureWow, a women's lifestyle site, that caught our eye:

purewow subject

Not only is the subject line quirky, funny, short, and unique, butPureWow also capitalizes on a great second subject line by telling readers exactly what they'll find in the email: 4 easy tricks that will save Thanksgiving. Open the email, and we're greeted with exactly what they promised:

purewow video

2. Plan a special delivery

Match subscribers' holiday spirit with an email that's festive, taking the opportunity to level-up your usual design style. TasteBook, a website for cooking enthusiasts, has a bright, photo-centric visual identity.Here's a snapshot of recent posts on their blog:

Screen Shot 2015-11-16 at 3.28.56 PM

But look at how they mix up their usualphoto-forward approach withthis gorgeous illustrated Thanksgiving email:

Screen Shot 2015-11-16 at 3.18.41 PM

For subscribers who are used to seeing photos from TasteBook, this email immediately stands out as different and special. Click through, and you'll see a full illustrated guide for "Your Ultimate Thanksgiving Dinner." Clearly, TasteBook planned ahead to deliver creative, high-value contentthis Thanksgiving, and it shows.

3. Have a single focus

Can you count how many times Amtrak says "book early" in this email? It's a lot, but that's okay. Having asimple, clear, focused message is agood strategy, and it doesn't mean you have to drop the holiday spirit. This email from Amtrak is to-the-point, but still Thanksgiving-themed and valuable to readers.Remember: attention spans are short, and you can expect readers tobe inundated with more emails than usual from now through the end of the year. The high qualityphoto with text overlay, simplemessage (4 sentences!), and single call-to-action buttoncome together in a short-and-sweet email that works.

Screen Shot 2015-11-16 at 3.37.01 PM

4. Say "thanks"

Thanksgiving is about being thankful, after all, and what better way to show thanks than to give something back to your loyal readers? In a recent email to subscribers, Evite, a digital invitation and event planning service, offers 15 free digital "Thank you" card sends. The cool thing about this offer is that it encourages readers to get in the Thanksgiving spirit and say "thank you" to friends or loved ones (vs. using a coupon solely for personal use).

Screen Shot 2015-11-16 at 4.08.06 PM

The offer is listed at the top of their email, right away, so viewers are sure not to miss it. The entire email itself is fall-themed, and Evite also has a lot of fun customizing their call-to-action buttons so they're on-brand and unique. I'd rather click on "Pass the Gravy" than on a button that says "Learn more," wouldn't you?

5. Design for mobile

It's a hectic time of year, and everyone—including your readers—will be running errands, shopping, traveling, and moving about. Mobile opens now account for up to 70% of all email opens, and especially during the upcoming holiday season, you can count ona high likelihood of your email being read ona phone or mobile device first. That's why it's critical to optimize your email for mobile-viewing with responsive design. Aresponsive email willtotally adapt to the screen size of a tablet or smartphone—layout, font size, images, and padding can all change—so that the message is easy to read and looks great.Here's a good example from Real Simple, a magazine about simplifying your life. This is the beginning of their Thanksgiving email viewed on desktop:

Screen Shot 2015-11-16 at 4.52.11 PM

And here it is on mobile:

real simple mobile

To optimize mobile reading, the email's multiple columns collapse to one, and font sizes increase, making it easier to read and click. Follow Real Simple's lead and make sure your Thanksgiving email looks good and is easy to readon all devices.

6. Delight and entertain

Withso much competing for their attention, it's not always enough to simply email readersa coupon code or deal. Savvy subscribers expect to be impressed and entertained by good design, too. Consider simple, elegant ways in which you can level up your visual style. Take this email from Rent the Runway, an online service that provides designer dress and accessory rentals, for example.

Screen Shot 2015-11-16 at 4.16.12 PM

The key visual in the center of the email is a GIF showing suggested outfits and accessories for Thanksgiving and possible Thanksgiving weekend events, like a high school reunion or spiked cider with friends.

rent runway gif

It'sclever, cute, and creative. And the GIF is an effective way to show multiple productswithout taking up too much real estate in the email itself.

7. Maintain your brand voice

There's a lot of pressure for brands to participate in the holiday hoopla,making sure to check off Thanksgiving froma long list of editorial opportunities. It can be overwhelming to brainstorm how to stand out.The answer is to stick to your brand! Be yourself. Think of your core values,mission, and audience, and create content that's in sync with your totally awesome, already established brand identity.Here's a peek at Thanksgiving content brands are emailing that offer something uniquewhileremaining true to their brand identity:UrbanDaddy, a lifestyle media company with an edge,has fun with an unconventional recipe:

UrbanDaddy

Buzzfeed does its usual round-up thing, this time with recipes for those too cool for pie:

buzz

Etsy points readers in the direction of printable gifts and crafts to say thanks:

etsy

Pet Plan, insurance for your furry friends, helps keep readers' pets safe with these holiday tips:

petplan

Tasting Table,a website and newsletter for culinary enthusiasts, got our attention with their uniquelygoofy copywriting:

taters

Let's recap:

  1. Spend time brainstorming a killer subject line.
  2. Plan ahead to deliver high-quality content that's festive and special.
  3. Keep your message short and focused with a single call-to-action.
  4. Thank subscribers with a giveaway, coupon, or special deal (even better if it's "thank you" themed).
  5. Mobile-optimize your message with responsive design.
  6. Think outside the box to incorporate simple, clever design elements that delight readers (try a GIF).
  7. Be yourself. Keep your content on-brand. And have fun!

Create your very own Thanksgiving email in the BEE editor -- it's free, online, requires no registration, and all emails you create are always 100% responsive.

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Let’s dive into the numbers, trends, and stories that made this year unforgettable for email makers like you. 

Total number of emails created: 1,648,180

That’s right—over 1.6 million emails were crafted using Beefree this year, each one a testament to your creativity and efficiency. Everyone from small startups to large enterprises, and teams across the globe harnessed the power of Beefree.

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Out of the 1.6 million emails created this year, 178,199 started with a little help from our template catalog.

Our most loved categories included:

  • Templates for Gmail & Mailchimp: Whether you were crafting a campaign or a one-off blast, these platform agnostic templates made it easy to integrate design and delivery effortlessly.
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These favorites highlight a vital truth: even the simplest communications can leave a lasting impression. Templates have become your secret weapon, allowing you to hit the ground running, save time, and focus on the creative flair that makes your emails stand out.

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(source)

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Winning emails like Miro’s welcome series and the AllTrails x Calm collab didn’t just meet expectations—they redefined them. Besides being the most loved by the RGE community, the winning emails beautifully balanced creativity, trends, and best practices. They gave us insight into the future of email design and how to break the rules intentionally. 

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uevi.co/4075ZNTX

Step 1: Set your brand guidelines

Your brand, your rules. Lock in colors, fonts, and logos so your emails look like you —even if Greg from accounting gets a little too creative with the copy. 

There are several ways to set your brand guidelines in Beefree, but our favorite is to use our “Get Brand Styles” feature, which can be accessed in your workspace’s style settings.


Once you’re in your settings, click on “Get brand styles” and input your website’s URL. From there, Beefree will retrieve your brand’s colors, fonts, and social links. You can learn more about this feature here

Once you import your brand’s essentials, you can continue to add brand elements. You can get as granular as you’d like. From a predefined width for emails and pages, to the appearance of your CTAs. 

With our Advanced Style Kit, you can even set predefined background colors, set the appearance of lists, and tables. 

Once you add your style settings, every email your team creates with Beefree will have the same brand colors, icons, links, fonts, and whatever else you decide to assign. Now, let’s say you want to take things one step further. 

Step 2: Create re-usable content blocks 

Beverage brand and winner of our Endless Cheer Award, “Athletic Brewing,” is a great example that following a template doesn’t have to be restrictive. 

All of their holiday templates follow a similar layout: A hero section with a standout image, a large title, body text, and a CTA followed by a similar content block below. 

Resource from our Award Ceremony


Beefree’s Saved and Synced Rows are an easy way to build out templated layouts for your emails. Most users turn frequently used content blocks, such as headers or footers, into Saved Rows so they can easily use them in other designs. You can also save rows as “Synced” when you want to apply any changes made to a row to all of your other email templates. 

You can find all of your Saved and Synced Rows in the builder's Rows tab by selecting “My Saved Rows.”

Templates and re-usable content blocks aren’t just made to help you speed up creation time; they’re about allowing you and your team more time to be creative. The less time you spend worrying about what layout to create, the more time you can spend coming up with clever messaging or taking high-quality product shots. 

uevi.co/1491YKUH

Let’s get to the fun stuff.

Step 3: Bring your visions to life 

In our downloadable resource, we shared the characteristics of each email that made it stand out. We highlighted key elements such as persuasive copy, value-driven content, actionable CTA’s, interesting layouts, and so much more. 

We could spend hours sharing tips and tricks to emulate the award-winning characteristics of an email, but for now, we’ll share some of Beefree’s features that can help take your emails from “meh” to “Why didn’t I think of that?” 

Display conditions

Why settle for one-size-fits-all when you can design emails that feel like a direct DM to each recipient? Beefree’s Display Conditions feature allows you to pick a condition (or write one from scratch if you are technically savvy), apply it to a row, and thus show different content based on the recipient. 

We can see a great example of how Display Conditions could be used in Rael’s award-winning email below: 

Really Good Email Awards Deck

The “Hook, Line, and Sinker” Awards goes to Rael for its charming abandoned cart email that feels like a warm reminder rather than a hard sell.  Instead of just pushing one product, the thoughtfully curated product suggestions make it easy to explore complementary items. 

uevi.co/7663GXCO

Interactivity

Throughout all winning emails, we saw brands bring their message to life with movement. Whether they used videos, gifs, icons, or crafted visually interesting layouts – making their emails interactive was crucial in getting our attention. 

Resource from our Award Ceremony

With Beefree, you can turn your designs into playgrounds. Easily add videos, GIFs, countdown timers, surveys, hover effects, and more. To see what’s possible, we recommend browsing through our template catalog! 

Mobile design mode 

Part of crafting a truly on-brand experience is ensuring that your brand looks good anywhere. Beefree takes responsiveness and dynamic design to the next level by allowing you to create custom mobile experiences. With Mode Design Mode you can re-arrange, re-size, and remove elements for smaller screens. 

uevi.co/2498UJQM 

Step 4: Let AI take care of the little things 

Creating award-winning emails takes vision, creativity, and time. But let’s be honest—sometimes, the little tasks, like tweaking ALT text or sourcing the perfect image, can slow you down.

With Beefree’s AI-powered solutions, you can let your eager intern handle the busy work while you focus on making your emails unforgettable.

AI Image Generator

Struggling to find the perfect image? Beefree’s AI Image Generator lets you create custom visuals that enhance your email’s message. Just add an image block to your email and in the Content Properties panel on the right, click “Create with AI,” then fill out the details. For additional prompt suggestions visit this support page

Alt Text Generator

For us, alt text isn’t just a best practice—it’s essential for creating accessible emails. But crafting the perfect descriptions for every image can feel like a chore.

 Beefree’s AI ALT Text Generator takes care of it for you, automatically generating accurate and descriptive ALT text for your images, gifs, icons, and stickers. 

AI Copy Assistant 

When Greg from accounting gets a bit of writer’s block or when you need a little help writing a catchy CTA, AI is here to help generate bold and fresh ideas. 

Ready to start designing? 

A really good email involves a balance of best practices and bold moves. The winning emails didn’t just make an impact; they set the standard for what’s possible in email marketing. Now, it’s your turn to take the lessons, insights, and inspiration from these campaigns and channel them into your next great idea. Start designing with Beefree for free!

If you’re looking for even more inspiration or tactical takeaways, don’t forget to download the deck or watch the Award ceremony replay! 

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