Tips & Strategies to Boost Your Thanksgiving Email Template
Thanksgiving Day is a great occasion for an email campaign and an opportunity to show your subscribers how much you value their support. Our article will help you craft an impactful Thanksgiving email template, provide 5 essential tips and 7 ideas, and showcase the examples from brands that might prove useful and inspirational for the upcoming campaign.
How Big of a Holiday is Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving is actually even bigger than you might expect. According to surveys, it is the most beloved holiday for Americans across generations, even more than such popular occasions as Easter and Christmas. This makes Thanksgiving a really important family holiday, and the one email marketers should definitely take advantage of.
Widespread celebration, of course, means corresponding shopping sprees both online and offline. An average American citizen spends around $320 during Thanksgiving weekend. A huge number in itself, this makes 40% of all holiday spendings during the shopping season from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
Obviously, missing out on the Thanksgiving marketing campaign would be a huge mistake. Our tips and ideas listed below will help you use the occasion to the fullest.
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Want to create impactful Thanksgiving emails with ease?
Start crafting your perfect emails using Blocks
Try now for free!5 Essential Tips for a Thanksgiving Email Campaign
A huge and important celebration requires a compelling approach to email marketing. That’s why we’ve put a list of 5 essential tips for your Thanksgiving marketing campaign.
Be Genuine and Grateful
As already mentioned, Thanksgiving embodies the themes of gratitude and thankfulness. The same should be true for your Thanksgiving email template as well. Show how grateful you are to your loyal customers. This would be a nice opportunity to connect with your audience on a deeper level.
For instance, Taft have turned their Thanksgiving email template into a heartwarming letter, addressing their subscribers with enormous kindness.
Embrace the Thanksgiving Imagery
In terms of imagery, the holiday is closely associated with food items, namely the roast turkey and the pumpkin pie. It is a good idea to include them in your Thanksgiving email template, even if your brand is not about catering. Also, don’t forget about the seasonal colors as well, with shades of yellow and brown that provide additional aesthetics to the design.
An email from Perfumania provides a great example of this approach, combining both the Thanksgiving imagery (even turning one of the feathers into a perfume bottle) and autumn color palette.
And if your brand produces Thanksgiving-themed souvenirs and items (like, for example, in case with Spearmint Ventures here), then you have even more reasons to showcase them. Invite your customers to celebrate together with you by including a special line of products in your Thanksgiving email template.
Set a Mood with Your Email Banner
Design your email banner to create a special holiday mood. You can go for something cozy, jolly, intriguing, or anything else in between! As an example, this Taylor Stitch email creates a very warm and cozy feeling that perfectly corresponds to their line of products.
At the same time, Moosejaw email banner is filled with jokes and humorous visuals that lighten up the mood and underline the principal message.
Get Creative with CTAs
When designing а call-to-action, you may stick to something tried-and-tested like “Order Here” or “Shop Now”, or take a more unique approach. This small detail adds to the overall individuality of your Thanksgiving email template and may help it stand out even more.
For example, you can make it personal and warm, like in this beautiful example by Eddie V’s Prime Seafood. Here, the CTA reads “Make Memories”, addressing the subscribers directly and inviting them to join an event that promises to be something more than just a simple holiday dinner.
Mind the Timing
As with other holidays, timing plays a significant role for Thanksgiving marketing campaigns. According to research, Thanksgiving emails have 3% higher open rates during a holiday week compared to weeks preceding it. Accordingly, you can start a campaign several days prior to Thanksgiving Day and send your primary email on the holiday or a day before that. This also provides a nice opportunity to warm up your audience for the Black Friday sales.
7 Useful Ideas for an Engaging Thanksgiving Email Template
On top of the essentials, we’ve combined 7 more tips that may liven up your Thanksgiving email templates.
Remind Your Subscribers About the Upcoming Sales
Thanksgiving marks the start of the holiday and shopping season, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday following immediately after. Put the occasion to good use in your marketing campaign by reminding your customers about the upcoming sales right in the Thanksgiving email template. Use this opportunity for seamless transition, promoting even more special offers, and keeping your subscribers engaged.
An example would be this email by Google, with Black Friday deals following immediately after the Thanksgiving message.
Showcase a Charity
Thanksgiving marketing campaign is a great occasion to highlight a charity. Show how your company helps those in need (for example, by donating a percentage of all sales) and underline the importance of such acts. You can also invite your customers to directly participate in a “greater good” by engaging them in a charity through donations or other means.
It doesn’t have to be solely monetary either: for instance, in their Thanksgiving email template, AfterShokz introduce a special program for subscribers to trade in points for a donation.
Organize a Giveaway
Follow the themes of “giving” and “sharing” and express your care for the customers by organizing a giveaway campaign. This might take the form of a simple one-time offer or an interactive game lasting several days in a row. The latter is even more engaging and makes your subscribers come back to your emails on a daily basis.
A perfect example here would be this Thanksgiving email by Fracture, announcing 12 days of giveaways.
Share Something Useful
Give your subscribers something of value in your Thanksgiving email templates. This could include, for example, special holiday meals recipes, ideas for thematic clothing and decorations, or anything else that might be useful or interesting. Aside from providing your readers with something practical, this can also help you build a deeper connection with them.
Thanksgiving email by Vitamix provides a great illustration for this tip, containing a list of ingredients for a pumpkin risotto along with the CTA to receive a full recipe.
Organize a Recipe Contest
Go beyond by launching a contest for your subscribers. For example, let them share their favorite recipes with a chance of winning a prize or, in case with this Thanksgiving email by South Dakota, being featured in a cookbook. You can also include some of the best recipes in subsequent emails, enhancing the community involvement even further.
Include User-generated Content
Bond with your subscribers by inviting them to participate in your Thanksgiving marketing campaign. For example, offer them to share their photos on Instagram with your branded hashtag. After that, compile the photos in your Thanksgiving email template with words of appreciation and best wishes, like James Allen Rings did in their email. This may increase user engagement and make your email feel more personal and sincere.
Invite to a Local Event
This tip might work for a local business or a designated retail outlet. Use your Thanksgiving email template to promote community events, or even host one yourself, and invite your subscribers. This gives your readers a chance to interact with your brand in person, fostering loyalty and the feeling of unity.
An example here would be this Thanksgiving email template by Coach inviting the subscribers to a local Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Tips for a Catchy Thanksgiving Email Subject Line
Email subject line is an essential tool for making a first impression as 64% of recipients make a decision to open an email based on its subject line alone. And since holiday campaigns are characterized by intense competition, having a stand-out subject line for your Thanksgiving email template becomes critical and may significantly influence open rates.
Above everything, though, the subject line is about conveying the essence, the heart, and sometimes, the humor of your message in just a few words. With this in mind, we’ve gathered several tips on creating a Thanksgiving email subject line with examples from the real-world brands.
Indicate an Urgency
Create a sense of urgency by highlighting your Thanksgiving deal right in the subject line. Aside from being eye-catching, this also conveys a message to your customers underlining the reason to open the email and get familiar with it. You can also go for a feeling of intrigue and provide a small sneak peek into the email contents without revealing much. Here are a few examples of Thanksgiving email subject lines from well-known brands that totally smashed it:
- Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃 Enjoy $5 off $45 online TODAY ONLY (See’s Candies)
- LAST DAY to order your Thanksgiving 🐔 (L*Space)
- Because those leftovers won’t last long (Blue Apron)
Show Your Appreciation
Use the Thanksgiving email subject line to express genuine and heartwarming words of gratitude to your customers for their support. Such subject lines may provide a very personal touch to your email and help strengthen the loyalty of your customers. Check out these wholehearted subject lines for inspiration:
- Sending Grateful Vibez Your Way (AfterShokz)
- We’re Thankful for YOU (Citizens of Humanity)
- Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. (Outerknown LLC)
Go for a Bit of Playfulness
It goes without saying that holidays are the embodiment of fun and joy. So how about putting the readers in a festive mood with puns and wordplays? A clever joke can make your Thanksgiving email subject line truly outstanding and memorable. Let your creativity flow, but remember to keep the subject line reasonable, short, and meaningful. Here are a few Thanksgiving email subject lines we’ve found funny and witty:
- We’re stuffed with Thanksgiving outfits. 🍗 (ModCloth)
- Let’s give them something to Gobble about (Ibotta)
- Our quick guide to surviving Thanksgiving (Terez)
Ask Your Readers a Question
A simple and polite question in the subject line might spark sincere curiosity while also serving as a call for feedback from your readers. This can create a genuine feeling of interaction. Keep the questions simple and use the jokes appropriately:
- Thanksgiving at yours? (Moda Operandi)
- Flying to the feast? ✈️ (Uber)
- Have you been keeping up with our 12 Days of Giveaways? 👀 (Fracture)
Conclusion
Thanksgiving provides excellent opportunities for a refreshing change from the usual sales-driven messages. The recipe for a compelling Thanksgiving email template includes:
- catchy subject line;
- holiday imagery;
- creative CTAs;
- mood-setting email banner;
- and above all, heartfelt and grateful message.
A well-crafted Thanksgiving email template might make your brand stand out in the vastness of holiday newsletters. Embrace the occasion and let your creativity shine.
Whatever your creative ideas are, Blocks will help you bring them to life. Our code-free drag-and-drop solution will assist you at every step of designing your best email. Try it for free to create impressive email templates with just a couple of clicks.
We wish you a happy Thanksgiving Day!