12 New Year Email Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

‘Tis (still) the season to brainstorm your holiday marketing content. Next on the list? New Year’s.

New Year’s marks the end of the holiday season and is a great time to engage customers because people are eager to try something new. Email is one of the best ways to promote seasonal deals because it lets you control when your messages are sent, creating timely and effective marketing campaigns.

In this post, I’ll share a list of New Year email marketing ideas for small businesses. We’ll review different types of promotions and look at examples from real companies that ran successful email campaigns. It’s not too late to wrap up your holiday season marketing on a high note, so let’s get started before the ball drops.

1. Send a year-in-review email.

Year-in-review emails are an engaging way to keep your audience interested in your product or service.

There are several ways to send a year-in-review email. For companies like Spotify and YouTube Music, sending user data has become a popular way to re-engage customers.

Steam takes a similar approach, as shown in the example below. The company shows you the top games that you’ve played this year. And, with an engaging subject line, subscribers are left wanting more.

Your business can do something similar with your CRM data. You could give “top customer” awards to people who shopped the most at your business. Or, you could show pictures highlighting your best projects and events.

2. Inspire your subscribers with a New Year’s resolution.

It might seem cliche, but 37% of people make New Year’s resolutions – and your business might just be the key customers need to succeed.

For example, Duolingo is an app that helps users learn new languages: a resolution or goal many people set for the New Year. That creates a timely marketing opportunity for the brand to attract new customers.

Duolingo’s emails are fun and whimsical, and the company does a great job of personifying its mascot, Duo, mostly through graphic design. The brand constantly shows Duo in different settings and unique poses.

Tip: Duolingo’s marketing is successful because it gamifies a sometimes tedious process (learning a new language). Note how the email relies on gamification tactics like keeping the animated character happy.

Your business can create something similar regardless of whether you sell a product or service. You just have to position your brand as a solution for the customer’s needs and communicate these timely marketing messages to your email subscribers.

3. Encourage social media engagement.

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote your business. In fact, the return on investment (ROI) for email is $36 for every $1 spent.

What does that mean for you? Email is one of the best ways to engage an audience. You can direct them to your website, online store, or social media accounts.

Companies like Veer Gear promote social media engagement campaigns via email. New Year’s is a great time to inspire your subscribers, so a campaign like this one can help to re-engage followers.

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Here’s why: This email marketing strategy is meant to attract new social media followers. So, if you recently launched a new social channel or are promoting a New Year’s marketing campaign, you can leverage your email subscribers for a quick engagement boost.

4. Share discounts.

One way to inspire purchases is to give discounts. As the New Year approaches, send discounts directly to potential and active customers, encouraging them to buy. In the example below, Planet Cyclery puts the discount front and center in both the subject line and the first line of the email.

Subject lines have a huge impact on email open rates. If they’re engaging and clear, you have a much higher chance of customers opening your message.

Here are a few tips for creating effective email subject lines:

• Keep your message short and sweet.
• Use emojis appropriately.
• Personalize your subject lines.
• Avoid spammy words like “100%” and “click here.”
• Create a sense of urgency.

For more tips, check out the video below:

5. Announce new products.

When you make a New Year’s resolution, sometimes you need to buy something to help you accomplish it. For example, if your resolution is to take better care of your lawn, you might need a new lawnmower.

How can you encourage people to buy from your business after the holiday season?

One way is to include product announcements in your New Year marketing email. In the example below, Nuts.com launched an email campaign that announced nine new products and encouraged customers to buy after the holidays.

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Product announcements are great for the New Year because people are especially motivated to try something new if it aligns with their resolutions. Consider sharing a discount to encourage subscribers to check out your website or landing page. That creates a natural conversion path for your email campaign, directing potential customers to specific areas of your website where they can book an appointment or make a purchase.

6. Host a virtual or in-person New Year’s party.

The holiday season is often a time to relax and unwind, which sometimes includes parties and celebrations. You can join in on the fun by hosting your own New Year’s party, whether virtually or in person.

Events help you give back to your community and associate your brand with good customer experiences. For example, Minor Figures, a coffee company in the UK, hosted a virtual New Year’s Eve party and streamed popular music, positioning the brand as a trendy business that customers can interact with in a fun way.

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7. Put on a challenge.

Another way to cash in on New Year’s resolutions is to challenge your customers to get active and engage with your company.

Consider some of the more common New Year’s resolutions and how they relate to what your business does. From there, you can develop a challenge and email campaign encouraging customers to participate. For example, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife sent this New Year’s marketing email promoting its NatureQuest outdoor challenge.

Here are a few ideas for community challenges that different types of industries can create:

• Home Services: You could host a glow-up challenge for different areas of the home. For example, landscapers could challenge customers to improve their lawns and offer tips that help them grow a better lawn in the spring.

• Professional Services: Professional services can help with marketing, sales, and financial planning. For instance, finance consultants can challenge clients to create a budget and save for a big purchase next year. That keeps people engaged because they’re working toward something they really want, and you get to help them along the way.

• Ecommerce: Ecommerce brands can evaluate their products and determine how their best-selling items solve customer problems. For example, if I sell pet products online, I could invite my customers to participate in a dog-walking challenge.

• Food Services: Food services can create challenges encouraging charitable giving, like food drives. These events are good for your community and can also improve your brand reputation.

• Healthcare & Fitness: Healthcare and fitness professionals can always host a healthy habits challenge, but it should relate to your specific offerings. For example, a nutritionist could host a challenge to cook more and order out less, while a chiropractor might share a stretching routine to do every day.

8. Link to some of your best content.

It’s okay if you don’t have a big promotion or product to push. You can always use email to share your marketing content, which drives more traffic to your website and increases brand awareness.

One idea is to send product demo videos like Zoox did, as shown in the example below.

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I like this example because it shows that you can use different types of content in your email. The image provides a preview of the video, which is accessible via the button below the image. You have to visit Zoox’s website if you want to see its vehicles in action: an effective way of leveraging curiosity to increase traffic to your product pages and creating the opportunity for a purchase.

9. Show off your popular products.

New Year’s is a great time to remind customers about your products, specifically those who shop the most at your business. These customers are more likely to make repeat purchases because they’re loyal to your brand and prefer your products over your competitors. Advertising to these customers is much easier than attracting new buyers to your business.

In the example below, OffCourt tells subscribers how its products can help support an active lifestyle. The email even tells potential customers who the products will help most. A timely product email, paired with an exclusive discount, reminds customers that they’re running out of your product and gives them a reason to make a purchase.

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You can use marketing automation to email customers automatically after a purchase. If a customer hasn’t bought something after a certain period, your CRM will automatically send them an email with a promotion and link to your website. Bonus points if you personalize the email with catchy subject lines like “We miss you” or “It’s been a while.”

10. Remind frequent customers of your value.

The best way to run a successful email campaign is to segment your audience and personalize the content. Segmentation means you send emails to a specific group of people, whether previous customers, potential customers, rewards program members, or loyal customers.

Here’s where you can use your customer loyalty program to personalize your marketing campaign. You can email your rewards program members and show them exactly how much money they’ve saved by signing up for your loyalty program.

For example, grocery store chain Kroger has an app that tells customers how much they’ve saved by shopping with that brand, reinforcing the value and convincing them to keep shopping with Kroger. Plus, the content of the

to the user, showing them exactly how much money they’ve saved.

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11. Send a message from the owner.

Engagement is a two-way street. How can we expect customers to stay engaged with our company if we aren’t conversing with them, too?

One way to do this is to keep the lines of communication open between you and your customers. A special message from the owner helps customers feel connected to your company. In the example below, MUD/WTR sends a message from the CEO recapping how the brand was founded.

Emails like these nurture customer relationships. They show people that your brand is powered by humans who genuinely care about their needs and well-being. That helps you shape your brand reputation and build meaningful connections with customers.

12. Display motivational content.

The New Year often brings up feelings of inspiration, meaning your subscribers might be more open to motivational content than usual. Take advantage of this and write inspiring subject lines and emails to motivate potential customers. When people feel motivated, they’re more likely to spend money on products that can help them.

In the example below, Ride with GPS tries to inspire customers with this heartwarming story from the CEO. He wishes customers a year of great riding and then follows up with his story with a limited-time offer that ends on January 1st. This email does a great job of capturing your attention and then capitalizes on that by promoting an exclusive discount.

Starting the New Year With Email Marketing

Like the rest of the holiday season, New Year’s provides plenty of seasonal marketing opportunities for small businesses. Email is great because you can control when messages are sent, and most people check their inboxes, even during the holidays. Use these tips to craft an effective marketing campaign and start the year with a sales boost that cap off the holiday season.