Fall isn’t just the season of pumpkins and scarves and nostalgic leaf piles. It’s also a fantastic time to engage with your audience via email and to turn that engagement into revenue. For one, fall is packed with holidays and special occasions, and those holidays are stellar marketing opportunities because they make it easier for you to predict where your customers’ minds are and meet them there. Second, many of the fall holidays involve shopping or are leading up to the shopping season for winter holidays, so engaging with customers during this time will land your business on their shopping lists. When it’s done well, a fall newsletter can set you up for great profits.How do you make the best use of your fall email campaigns? We’ve got you. Check out these fall newsletter ideas and best practices to make your seasonal emails count this year.
Holiday and Event-Specific Fall Newsletter Ideas
As we noted, holidays are excellent marketing opportunities. One of the largest challenges in marketing is relating to your customers by sending them communications that resonate with their mindset at the time. When there’s a holiday or event coming up, you know that it’s on top of many of your customers’ minds, so it’s much easier to connect with them. Let’s take a look at some fall newsletter ideas for the top autumn events and holidays.
Back to School
The back-to-school season is a huge event for families with school-aged kids. Not only does it represent a major change to families’ daily routines but it also involves shopping for school supplies, new clothes, and so on. A back-to-school fall newsletter can connect with parents and also offer ways your business can help, like school supplies you offer or a back-to-school sale. Check out this fall email from Good Housekeeping, for example:
The publication knows its readers have back-to-school on the brain so the top article in its e-blast touts the top back-to-school deals on Amazon - an excellent way to reach customers and get clicks.
Labor Day
September kicks off with Labor Day on the first Monday of the month. This U.S. holiday is widely viewed as the end of summer, so save the warm orange tones for later in the month and stick with summer shades for your Labor Day newsletters. We love this example from Taco Bell, encouraging customers to kick back and take advantage of their discount.Subject line: Labor Day to-do list
Sports seasons
Fall sports are a major part of the season for many of your customers. Fans of football, soccer, volleyball, and other fall sports look forward to the start of the season every year, and for parents of kids who play fall sports, the season is packed with games matches and practices. A fall email that capitalizes on this, like this one from YouTube TV, can bring you fantastic engagement:
Halloween
Halloween has a way of bringing out everyone’s spooky side (in a fun way). Get in the spirit and play with the holiday to engage customers and show your fun side. This could take the form of a themed fall newsletter, exclusive seasonal merchandise, or even just some fun Halloween puns. Take a look at this fall email from Bumble and Bumble:
Subject line: A treat so good it’s scary.
Incorporating Halloween-specific imagery and playful festive language make it easy to relate to customers’ love of the spooky season. Our main takeaways? When it comes to Halloween emails, keep things simple. And for fall email subject lines promising good deals, a play on the word “scary” might help get more conversions.
Veteran’s Day
Sandwiched between Halloween and Thanksgiving,Veteran’s Day(on November 11) is an important opportunity to connect with your audience. This Keurig fall email is a great example of how to give back: The company partnered with a nonprofit that helps support disabled vets, giving that nonprofit more visibility in addition to the monetary support.Subject line: REVV Coffee is honoring veterans all month long
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a family-centered and heartwarming holiday for many, and it’s often associated with warmth and togetherness. A Thanksgiving-themed fall newsletter can connect with customers by appealing to that sentimentality while also appealing to the tasks and traditions people associate with Thanksgiving, like traveling to be with family or cooking a Thanksgiving feast.
This Sur la Table fall email does this well by advertising a cookware sale that features a juicy Thanksgiving turkey in its main product photo.
Subject line: Take charge of Thanksgiving with All-Clad
Black Friday
Before the turkey is gone (or even prepared), many consumers are already dreaming about what they’ll buy on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Many brands start advertising their Black Friday deals as early as the end of October — so don’t be afraid to put yours out too soon!
The Black Friday emails in our inbox have one thing in common: urgency. Ideally, your customers will want to buy now before the products and the good deals are gone. Infuse your fall newsletter subject lines with a sense of urgency to rush readers into a purchase. Here’s an example of a fall newsletter from Outerknown, telling customers to hurry before the good deals are gone.
Subject line: BLACK FRIDAY ENDS TONIGHT!
The “last call” and “coming to a close” language encourages customers to take advantage of these fantastic sales while they still can, prompting them to click through and buy.
Fall-Themed Newsletter Ideas
While fall holidays offer excellent opportunities for email marketing, they aren’t the only way you can capitalize on this cozy season. There are other ways to focus your fall newsletters on the season at hand to engage with your customers. Check out these innovative fall newsletter ideas to inspire your campaign development.
Promote autumn-appropriate products
Think about what your customers will most use and enjoy during the fall and market those products or services in your fall newsletter. This could include items and services like:
- Cozy mugs
- Hot drinks
- Sweaters
- Blankets
- Boots
- Warming foods like soup, bread, or curry
Not only do they use fall imagery but they market warm, cozy apparel that’s perfect for a brisk fall day.
Introduce a fall collection
Who doesn’t love fun fall colors and imagery? In your fall newsletter, you can showcase merchandise or services that are catered to the season, allowing your customers to be festive in their fashion, decor, or activities. You could showcase items and services like:
- Fall movies
- Fall fashions or accessories
- Home decor items with fall colors or aesthetic themes
- Seasonal music
- Cozy massages that feature fall scents
As an example, check out this email from ColorStreet:
ColorStreet advertises their fall collection which features nail decals with fall-appropriate colors and details - perfect for customers who want seasonally festive nails.
Fall sales
Fall is an excellent season for special sales. Customers can get a jump on the shopping season for winter holiday gifts while also stocking up on fall essentials and simply enjoying a relaxing way to spend a cozy fall evening on the couch: online shopping. No matter what products or services you offer, you can create a fall sale and advertise it in your fall newsletter. Take a look at this example from Adore Me:
Not only does Adore Me offer a fall sale but they give it a creative twist with a fall freebie game: giving customers a surprise freebie with every purchase. It’s an excellent way to encourage customers to stock up for the fall season.
Best Practices for Fall Email Newsletters
The fall newsletter ideas above can inspire your campaign design and help you get started, but how do you make sure each email is as strong and effective as it can be? Following some simple best practices can help you boost your engagement. Put these tips to work in your fall email campaigns:
- Personalize your emails: Making emails more relatable and personalized will make them more eye-catching and, in the case of personalized product recommendations, will likely lead to more sales.
- Go multimedia: Incorporating not only images but video or GIFs will make your content more engaging, reeling in customers who would otherwise just scroll through.
- Use social confirmation: Encourage readers to subscribe to your newsletter, make a purchase, or otherwise engage with your brand by showing them how many others are doing the same. You could highlight your number of social media followers or the number of people who have bought a particular product.
- Make the next step easy: Whatever it is that you want customers to do after reading your email, make it easy to find and easy to do. That usually comes in the form of an eye-catching CTA button to shop or subscribe.
These best practices can draw in your customers so they both enjoy your emails more and are more likely to make a purchase or engage with your brand.
Get Started with Fall Newsletter Templates
Ready to create engaging fall emails? Our template catalog here at BeeFree includes templates for every fall theme, includingThanksgiving email templatesandBlack Friday email templates. Create aHalloween email newsletterwith this free template by designerMatteo della Chiesa:
Or give thanks using this beautiful fall email background created by Andrea Dall’Ara:
All of our email templates are compatible with 12 email service provider connectors, so you can design your message in the Beefree editor and then push it over to your email sender of choice. Use our email templates to get more conversions this fall!
Editor’s Note: This post was updated on September 2023 to ensure accuracy and comprehensiveness.
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