Labor Day email campaign examples that'll inspire you!
In the United States and Canada, Labor Day is celebrated in on the first Monday in September. Labor Day in the US honors the American Labor Movement and the contributions that workers have made, and still make, for the prosperity of the country.
The three-day weekend has also become the unofficial end of summer for many Americans. And for retailers and businesses, Labor Day is another opportunity to boost sales and establish their brands.
Despite not being one of the major sales holidays recognized by the NRF, Labor Day has become an essential weekend for sales and discounts.
In this blog post, we will help plan your Labor Day campaign. We will provide you with actionable steps that are easy to follow and implement.
We’ll give you some cool Labor Day email template ideas and examples that can inspire you. And finally, we will finish off this labor day email guide with a couple of email subject lines that will boost your open rates.
Labor Day email campaign planning
Labor day is a three day weekend that many consider being the unofficial end of summer and beginning of the new school year.
When coming up with your labor day campaign for this year, start by answering these few questions that will cover the major elements of your campaign planning.
Who is your target audience?
Like with any email marketing campaign, the first thing you need to do is determine your target audience, segment your email list based on particular segmentation criteria and craft an email message that resonates with each specific target:
- Back to school shoppers who are taking advantage of the sales season.
- Summer lovers who are not ready to say goodbye to the hot weather, late-night parties, and beach fun.
- Winter lovers who want to get in the cozy fall mood.
By defining your target audience and their interests, you can easily adapt your Labor Day message and create relevant and meaningful email content.
What is your Labor Day email message?
After choosing your target audience, all you need to do is come up with a message that might pique their interest.
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and try to figure out what they might be doing or thinking about:
- Back to school and back to college shoppers are getting ready to start the new academic year. They are finishing their back to school shopping while keeping an eye on discounts and good deals.
- Summer lovers want to have one last getaway or a quick three-day holiday before getting returning to their stressful jobs and everyday routines.
- Winter lovers want to start getting ready for the colder weather and the cozy atmosphere.
When to send your Labor Day email campaign?
Here are some statistics that might help you decide when to send out your Labor Day emails. These statistics are part of a study conducted by mailcharts.com.
After analyzing more than 6000 emails mentioning the words Labor Day in the email subject line, here’s what they found:
- 60% of companies send Labor Day emails before the actual Labor Day Holiday.
- 21% send emails on Labor Day.
- Only 13% send emails after Labor Day.
Most companies choose to send their Labor Day email campaigns earlier.
However, studies show that, during holidays, people check their emails just as regularly as they do during normal working days.
And since most companies will only send emails before Labor Day weekend, you wouldn’t have to compete with other brands in your customer’s inboxes.
Depending on your email content and campaign goals, you can select the time and day to send labor day emails, that work for you.
You can also choose to send multiple emails for your Labor Day email campaign.
Here’s an example of a Labor Day email campaign planning calendar from AllModern. As you can see, they chose to send 5 Labor Day emails overall: 3 emails before and 2 on Labor Day.
What type of Labor Day Email to send?
The most common type of emails you can send in celebration of Labor Day is promotional emails:
- 67% of companies use “percentage off” for their Labor Day discounts.
- 19% use the “dollars off’ sale.
- 5% offer “free shipping”.
- 3% offer “Buy one, Get one Free” Deals.
However, you can also send emails simply to wish your customers a happy and safe weekend, or to let them know that your store is closed or open during the Labor Day weekend.
For the ones who want to slide in customer inboxes, but can’t afford to start a sale, you can send valuable information and guides to your audience (downloadable content, fun guides, Labor Day advice, etc.).
Labor Day sale email template
Here’s why we chose this email template from Smith & Noble:
- Countdown to Labor Day weekend: This creates a sense of urgency and drives the customers to go through with the purchases before the Labor Day sales end.
- Great email structure and layout: the email starts with the most important information (Labor Day Sales Extended), the countdown embedded in the email increases the value of the offer, the percentage off is big, bold and in a different color which helps catch the attention of the reader. And finally, an easily distinguishable call to action button is added at the end of this section.
- View with images option: at the very top of the email, you can find a view with images button which allows subscribers to see the email in their browser in case their email client blocks images in emails.
EXTENDED ONE LAST DAY 📣 40% Off Labor Day Savings!
Adapt your content to the context
However, this email is a bit too long. Smith & Noble included a second section in their email listing all their new arrivals. After that, they added more detailed information about each specific discount code. This makes the email a bit too long and, with all this extra information, Smith & Noble risks losing the attention of their subscribers.
Promotional emails can be a bit intrusive especially during the holidays when every brand is rolling out its best sales. Customers can grow bored of sales emails and lose interest. To avoid this, you need to always adapt your content and send relevant context-friendly emails.
Save on Masks During Our Labor Day Sale
Covid is still a thing. And for Labor Day 2021, some brands capitalize on that and adapt their campaigns accordingly.
Reminder: Labor Day is here
Improve on your email design
Beautiful email design can go a long way in attracting subscriber’s attention. Bright colors, a coherent palette, an artsy illustration… Any of these elements can make your Labor day campaign stand out in a cluttered inbox and elevate your promotional email.
Labor Day Sale Is Here 30 off
Labor Day animated emails
This buy one get one for free Labor Day sales email is simply beautiful. The animation is engaging without being overbearing.
Last Chance for B1G1 50% Off Bites
The email content is kept short and direct, ending with a big CTA. Simple and effective.
Animation in email doesn’t have to be complicate. This Labor day campaign sent by philosophy proves that you only need a simple design to add a little spice to your campiagns.
Labor Day Sale Is Here! 30% Off
Labor Day and Back to School sales emails
Combining back to school, back to college, and labor day promotions is a great way to boost your sales during the three-day weekend.
The National Retail Federation ranks back to school shopping season as one of the major shopping seasons for Americans, with a total combined of $80.7B planned spending for back to school and back to college shoppers in 2019.
Labor Day Coolness & Back To Schoolness | Plus 25% OFF Sitewide
Target your Labor Day and back to school sales emails to those late shoppers who are behind on their back to school shopping, and waiting for the best deals.
And they are more than you would have thought. In fact, a study by the NRF shows that by the start of September, families in the US have only completed 45% or less of their intended back to school shopping.
Read more | How to prepare for your Back to school email campaigns?
Labor day fashion emails
All fashionistas know that you “never wear white after Labor Day”. You can play with this fashion rule and come up with an on-theme labor day email that stands out of the crowd.
In the Labor Day sale email template below, you can see that the fashion website CrossRoads really got into the “no white after labor day” rule, and included it in their Labor Day fashion email subject line and even in their email headline.
Can You Wear White After Labor Day?
They also made sure to choose a white and off-white color palette for the email to keep with the theme.
End of summer emails
Labor day weekend means saying goodbye to the hot summer months and hello to the cozy fall weather and pumpkin spice lattes. The New Yorker created this simple and elegant Labor Day email.
Save 50% with our Labor Day Sale. Subscribe now!
Their email subject line includes the words Labor Day Sale, which keeps it relevant to the holiday. However, the email content and fun illustration speak of the upcoming fall season.
This type of email definitely stands out from the red, white and blue color palette that most advertisers will use for their Labor Day communications.
Closed for Labor Day email
Most businesses and retail shops are closed during Labor Day weekend. If you are one of those establishments, you can let your loyal customers know with a well-designed campaign.
Instead of sending a boring plain text email, why not create a cool email wishing your customers happy holidays and informing them that you are closed for labor day weekend.
Take this “closed on labor day” email template sent by Von Maur, for example. The email content is short and straight to the point. They include all information about store schedules and online shopping during the three-day labor day weekend.
Happy Labor Day from Von Maur…
The hero image makes the email memorable and transforms what could’ve been a standard information email into a modest piece of art.
Open on Labor Day reminder email
The same goes for “We’re Open on Labor Day” emails. Instead of sending a plain text email, think of spicing up your campaign and create a fun and colorful email.
This email example starts with a big headline, announcing that the store is open on Labor Day, and continues to give more details and promote the big Labor Day sale.
GF is OPEN! Labor Day Super Sale!
Labor Day Email Subject Lines
- Can You Wear White After Labor Day?
- 5 REASONS TO ROCK A WHITE BATHING SUIT (EVEN AFTER LABOR DAY)
- 5 all-white outfits to rock now through Labor Day
- Hurry… Our Labor Day Sale is on now!
- Labor of ❤ + Free Express Shipping
- 🚩Final Hours! 80% off Labor Day Sale expires at midnight
- Happy Labor Day Weekend – 20% OFF everything
- Countdown to Labor Day Weekend ⏱
- Shop EARLY ⏰ and save BIG this Labor Day Weekend
- Goodbye Summer, Hello Labor Day Sale! 🙌
- End of summer sale! 😎 #% off your favorites
- Last Call for Summer! | Labor Day Event
- Wishing you a safe & happy Labor Day >Name<! 🎇
- Join us >Name<! We’re open Labor Day!
- Happy Labor Day >Name<! | Enjoy #% off!
It’s a shame if your customers miss out on your labor day sales because they received an email with a boring subject line.
Your Labor Day subject line should entice your audience and capture their attention.
Different companies and eCommerce business will also be sending their campaigns to your audience.
Inboxes will overflow with Labor Day weekend promos and end of summer campaigns. And if you want to get your piece of the cake, make sure that you write a good Labor Day email subject line.
Writing an effective subject line
Follow these steps to craft an effective Labor Day subject line:
- Keep your subject short and straight to the point.
- Use emojis in your subject line if possible.
- Use name personalization tag in your Labor Day email subject line.
- Include an interesting preheader.
Read more | How to write a compelling subject line?
International Worker’s Day email marketing during Covid-19
International Worker’s Day, or more commonly known as Labor Day, is celebrated all over the world on the first day of May (except in the US and Canada).
For International Worker’s Day this week, we picked out our favorite emails sent by brands during the past few weeks to honor essential workers.
This year’s Labor Day will be completely different from previous Labor day celebrations. This means that your email message should also shift.
For example, it’s less likely that promoting in-store sales or gym membership discounts will pay off. Instead, try to focus on online shopping experiences, free shipping, online classes and webinars, and most importantly, how your brand can give back to the community.
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Promotional emails
In this email, Edible found a great way to combine promoting their products and showing appreciation to the essential workers: nurses and teachers. Customers can order an edible arrangement of sweets and send it as Thank You to their local nurses and teachers.
Appreciation for essential workers.
Donation campaign
You can also create a donation program where you collect funds to help essential workers on the front lines.
As you can see from this email example, the focus was on the email copy: empathetic, realistic but hopeful, and highlights the importance of sticking together and being helpful.
Help us support the frontline workers fighting to keep us safe!
There are a hundred and one ways in which your brand can support workers in the time of Covid-19. We have already featured examples of asking for donations, selling merchandise for charity, and utilizing production chains to produce Personal Protective Equipment.
This email from Sunsky explores a different approach. By asking their customer base to help direct them towards workers in need of support, they are not only increasing engagement and communication with their customers but also showcasing their efforts as a brand to fight this pandemic.
Reminder: We need your help
Thank you emails
This email example from LaRochePosay starts with a heart-warming thank you note, expressing sincere gratitude towards all healthcare professionals. But it doesn’t stop there. The email serves as a “report” to showcase the company’s efforts in fighting Covid-19 by shifting their production towards producing hand-sanitizers. This is a good example of a Labor Day emails, and hits two birds with one stone:
- Showing appreciation towards front line workers
- Portraying a positive image for the brand*
Thank you to all our frontline workers 💙
Event invitation emails
You can still organize events and performances to celebrate Workers in your community. It will obviously be held on-line, as a webinar or virtual conference. In this email, you can see that the organization promotes its event in the email copy, while also promoting merchandise that will go to help to frontline workers.
One World: Together At Home | Exclusive Merch | Don’t Miss Out!
Contest via emails
This brand created a contest that delights subscribers, honors workers, and increases engagement with the brand at the same time. They are using social media to host the contest and email marketing to promote and explain the context rules to their email list.
You can come up with a similar idea where you ask your subscribers for engagement on different digital channels. And in return, you select a winner that will choose a workers’ rights organization or similar structures they would like you to donate to.
Superhero Day $50 Gift Card Giveaway! 💪
Wrap up
Labor Day Emails are no different from any other promotional email campaign you sent out before. Simply answer these easy questions:
- Who is your target audience?
- When are you sending your campaign?
- What do you want to send?
Once you know the answers to these elements, design an on-theme email that will impress your customers.
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