35 best holiday email subject lines & most popular emojis

In order to really grab your customer’s attention this holiday season, you’ll need to use the absolute best email subject lines that are effective and actionable.

Of course, this is easier said than done – especially during the holidays when every business is sending emails and our inboxes are overwhelmed with hundreds of messages.

From this article, you’ll learn how to craft that “effective and actionable” subject line, as well as which subject lines performed best during the holidays in the past.

We have analyzed the most common words, discounts, and emojis that contributed to the best open rates. Carry on reading to learn from those that are the best and most effective – and feel free to take ideas for your own campaigns.

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Insights into holiday email subject lines

We analyzed over 10,000+ campaigns sent to Omnisend client bases with more than 5000 subscribers between Dec 3rd and Dec 31st. This time period was chosen on purpose to cover the entire holiday season, starting just after the BFCM weekend.

The most popular words in the subject lines remained the same as in previous years: “Off,” “Sale,” “new,” “Christmas,” “free,” etc.

The subject lines that generated the best open rates last year had the same qualities as the year before:

• They contained power words “get,” “don’t miss,” “the last call,” etc.
• They had emojis.
• They had a clear offer.
• They were concise and straight to the point.
• A lot of subject lines mentioned delivery by Christmas.

Top 15 holiday email subject lines

Top 5 emojis in holiday email subject lines

Emojis are getting more and more popular in email subject lines. Last year, 18% of holiday email subject lines had one or more emojis added. Emojis add that little punch of color and fun to draw your customer’s eye and make your email stand out from the crowd.

If emojis fit your brand identity, consider using them in your subject lines as well. Here’s why:

• Emojis help you to stand out in a crowded inbox
• Emojis increase your open rate
• These little icons save space in the subject line
• They help convey an emotion
• A/B testing with and without emojis won’t cost you a thing.

During the holiday season last year, some particular emojis stood out from the rest. Obviously, these were the ones most related to the holiday season:

Top 20 holiday email subject line examples

At Omnisend, we analyze subject lines a lot. See the top 20 holiday email subject lines below. If you want to find more catchy, interesting and funny email subject line examples, check out our collection of the best subject lines.

The 5 main principles to crafting your holiday email subject line

You can only learn which subject lines work best for your business by testing different variations.

However, some best practices can facilitate your initial ideas for subject lines. By following them, you’ll increase your chances of being noticed and getting your emails opened. Also, you’ll reduce the chance of ending up in the spam folder, which is critical to any email campaign.

So, let’s check out some good subject line practices for your business:

#1 Concise subject lines

As you can see from the email subject lines listed above, you don’t need fancy words in your subject lines. Try to be short and straight to the point.
Subject lines should be visible for both mobile and desktop users, so the sweet spot is 4-6 words or 21-50 characters.

Subject lines of this length are optimal for all of the gadgets that people use for reading emails.

#2 Key information goes first

Long email subject lines are always at risk of being cut off on mobile devices. To avoid this, focus on your key proposal and put it in front.

If you have a sale, start your email subject line with “Sale”. If it’s for Black Friday or new arrivals, put that in the front.

#3 Urgency and FOMO matter

If people leave something “for later”, it often means “never”. That’s just how we are.

That’s why you should create urgency and push your customers to act now and don’t postpone it for later.

You can create that by using limited-time offers: “24-hours offer”, “Only today”, “Sale ends tonight”, etc.

Another good practice is including FOMO (fear of missing out) elements, like “Don’t miss”, “Have you already seen…”, etc.

#4 Use actionable verbs

All marketers know: a strong and measured call-to-action is king in online business. Use this rule in your email subject lines. Short and punchy words like “get”, “buy”, “discover”, “learn,” etc. encourage people to click on and take action.

However, don’t overdose on them because they might trigger spam filters.
I wouldn’t suggest using them together with spammy words like “free”, “100%”, or in spammy combinations with letter capitalization, exclamation marks, etc.

#5 Include numbers

50% of the top holiday subject lines listed above include numbers. As you can see, merchants use them a lot.

There are a few reasons why numbers are useful in the email subject lines:

• They stand out from the text
• They provide specific information about a sale or discount and set up
• customer expectations
• Numbers are definitely something worth trying for upcoming holiday email campaigns.

Key takeaways

• Although the holiday period happens just after the Black Friday sales and covers Christmas and other seasonal holidays, the most frequent words for subject lines remain “OFF” and “Sale”.
• In 2019, merchants offered smaller discounts (5%, 20%) than in 2018 (25% and 30% discounts were the most popular).
• Retailers use emojis to get momentum and stand out in customer inboxes. Every fifth email subject lines sent during the holiday season had at least one emoji in 2018. In 2019, this trend was even bigger.
• Email subject lines that generated the best open rates were short, contained power words, emojis, and numbers.

Want to get even more inspiration for Holiday subject lines? Check our guides for Christmas email subject lines and New Year email subject lines.