Which email would you open first? The one with an eye-catching, descriptive, and easier-to-read subject line or the other one with a longer subject line that is illegible and does not convey the message effectively?
You will undoubtedly choose the first one, and so will everyone else!
A compelling subject line determines whether a recipient opens your email. Once you include a clear statement in your subject line conveying the purpose or topic of the email, you minimize the possibility that your message won’t be opened or read.
Simultaneously, New Year email subject lines are equally critical for encouraging recipients to open your mail and sparking their curiosity.
However, always ensure that while crafting New Year email subject lines, you cherry-pick the best content for your target audience, matching their needs and interests.
In this blog post, we have highlighted the best practices, advanced strategies, and examples to help you create the best New Year email subject lines.
Let’s go!
Table of Contents
Key Takeaways
- Identify your target audience’s needs and craft a New Year email subject line that resonates with them
- Keep the subject line short and precise; do not use more than nine words or 60-65 characters
- Make your subject line eye-catchy and let it convey emotions by using emojis
- Personal touches win- use names and behavioral targeting in your New Year email subject lines to make your emails engaging and increase open rates
- Make your subscribers feel they have a limited time or opportunity to access something valuable
- Create a sense of urgency among your audience by grabbing their immediate attention with an impactful email subject line
- Write a subject line for your next campaign depending on the purpose of emailing your prospects. It could vary depending on whether you are sending educational, promotional, or review emails
- Finalize your New Year email subject line after performing A/B testing. Start measuring open rates and engagement for different versions of the same email subject line with a sample of your recipients
Understanding the Basics of New Year Email Subject Lines
An email subject line is the headline of the entire content of your email. It is the first thing recipients see in their inbox. If your recipients find it appealing and cover the area of their interest, they open it, or else your emails get ignored or even deleted.
Thus, you must ensure your New Year email subject line is clear, concise, and relevant to your target audience. Doing this will create a sense of urgency that motivates people to take action.
A personalized subject line works wonders. It not only increases impressions but conversions as well. As per Gartner’s 2021 Digital IQ Email Benchmarks report, readers are more likely to open emails with personalized subject lines than non-personalized ones.
However, while personalizing the subject line, ensure you use at most nine words or 60-65 characters. The shorter and more specific it is, the more it will hook your target audience.
Read more: How to Write Welcome Email Subject Lines (Tips + Templates)
Best Practices for Creating New Year Email Subject Lines
New Year emails can be a great marketing tool for sharing a celebratory note with prospects or promoting your products or services. Either way, these emails are best to help you stay at the top of your customers’ minds.
But always ensure that your subject line looks compelling and immediately grabs your audience’s attention. Still trying to figure it out, how? Let’s discover some best practices to create New Year email subject lines.
1. Use of emojis
Emojis can increase open rates by adding a visual element and conveying emotions. However, you should refrain from including too many emojis, as using too many can decrease the click-through rate. Including too many emojis in your email will make your email come across as spammy.
The emoji that you choose should be relevant to your subject body. Using an irrelevant emoji or one that doesn’t resonate with your audience will hinder your engagement rates.
Whether emojis benefit or harm your email marketing will largely depend on who your target audience is. For example, younger audiences respond better to emojis than older audiences.
Different emojis can change the tone in distinctive ways; every emoji will make your subject line less formal and more playful. This can be great for B2C emails, especially if your brand embraces informality.
The major benefit of emojis in your New Year email subject lines is that your recipients will still notice your name even if the email is left unopened.
Some examples of New Year email subject lines with emojis:
- 🎉 “Happy New Year from [Your Company]!” 🌟
- New Year Sale ⭐ This Weekend ⭐ 25% Off!
- ❗New year deals end tomorrow❗
2. Incorporating personalization
Incorporating personalization is essential in your New Year subject lines and emails, as it resonates better with readers and increases open rates by 26%.
To personalize the emails, add your recipient’s name, location, occupation, or any other personal detail you think is valuable.
Using your recipient’s personal details creates a sense of relevance and connection that captures their attention and makes them feel valued. Personalized New Year email subject lines can significantly improve open rates and engagement if done correctly.
Another benefit of personalization is that it increases the conversion rate. Creating personalized emails means your customers will begin to connect with your brand and notice that every message you send is personalized to their liking.
Along with personalization, remember to optimize emails for mobile. You might not know that around 81% of users use their mobile phones to check emails; it’s important that your emails, including subject lines, are optimized for mobile users.
Some examples of personalized New Year email subject lines:
- Happy New Year, [Name]! Here’s a Special Offer Just for You
- Steep Discounts for January, Jamie! Don’t Miss Out
- [Name], Can’t Wait to Celebrate the New Year With You!
3. Creating Urgency
The New Year email subject lines create an initial impression that triggers the recipient to open and read the email content.
Limited-time offers, or countdowns create a sense of urgency that persuades subscribers to take quick action. Personalization and action-oriented words can lead to immediate email openings. These subject lines, especially during the festive season, get recipients to read your email.
Urgency has always worked in marketing as it thrives on the fear of missing out among readers. Potential customers act quickly instead of delaying actions or ignoring the offer. It sets the stage for a timely response, which expedites the conversion process.
Some examples of New Year email subject lines creating urgency:
- 3, 2, 1 … Happy New Year! Sale Ends Soon!
- New year deals end tomorrow
- There’s still time to end this year on a high ⏰
Read more: 100+ Thank You Email Subject Lines to Master Gratitude
Crafting New Year Email Subject Lines for Different Campaign Types
Depending on the type of email marketing campaign you are executing, you can create a top-performing email subject line. Here’s how you can do that.
1. Year in Review emails
Year-in-review emails are basically recaps sent to customers, summarizing their engagement with your product or service over the last year. Customers like it when you highlight their contributions and share what makes you proud of them.
There can be different kinds of year-in-review emails, such as:
- Sharing your growth and achievements over the year can influence customers to choose you over your competitors.
- Sharing information or data on what you are proud of them which helps strengthen the bond that keeps them coming back to you
- Including a token of thanks to let them know you appreciate and acknowledge their loyalty and what their business means to you
Examples:
- 2023 Year in Review: Thank You for a Great Year!
- 💌 From Us to You: Your 2024 [Brand] Story
- 📅 Unwrap Your 2024 Highlights with [Brand]
2. New Year resolutions and goals
Writing new year resolutions and goals emails can make your customers more aware and active. You can write various things to get the attention of your subscribers, such as:
- When you show your involvement, it boosts your subscribers’ embracing a fresh start and benefits them by letting them feel more connected to your brand. You can write something like — ‘Spend less and save more’ or ‘New Year is a time of excitement and change.’
- Ensure that the resolutions and goals you quote encourage readers. They should be positive and encouraging, keeping your readers on the path they want to follow. For example – you can start your ‘Unlock new opportunities today’ or ‘Boost sales by 20% in the next quarter.’
- Research the products your prospects were looking at around the holidays and offer a New Year’s sale by writing- ‘last chance before the end of the year’ or something similar that will remind your subscribers that the offer has a limited time!
Examples:
- New Year, New Goals: Get Started with [Product/Service]
- The New Year Re-Sale-ution!
- Here’s to another year of mutual growth and achievements
- Discover new opportunities and newer frontiers [First name]. We stand solidly behind you [Company name].
- Cheers! Here’s to your best-dressed year yet
3. Sales and promotions
Sending sales and promotional emails and using catchy email subject lines can tremendously increase brand awareness and web traffic.
New Year is when everyone is looking for new clothes, accessories, home decor, gifts, etc., and receiving emails with deals and discounts can get the recipients’ quick attention.
You need to ensure that you incorporate personalization in your email, and it should not sound like it was sent out to hundreds of people. Such emails can:
- Increase customer loyalty and spike sales
- Boost website traffic
- Help establish your authority in the industry
Examples:
- New Year, New Deals: Save Up to 50%!
- New Year Sale ⭐ This Weekend ⭐ 25% Off!
- Last Day Sale – 70% OFF Pennies for Mac
- Today only: Get 4 bottles for $20.22
- 3 more days to save on a stress-free resolution
Read more: A Complete Guide to Mastering Sale Email Subject Lines for 2024
Examples of Successful New Year Email Subject Lines
Let us know about some of the best examples of successful New Year email subject lines that can help you grab more of your readers’ attention.
1. Retail and eCommerce
- Last Chance for New Year Essentials!
- Countdown to Savings: New Year Deals Inside
- Looks like you might like these, [First Name]! Complete your collection and save big this new year!”- Creates excitement to open the email
- (First name), this offer is good only in January
- Click to learn how we can help you this year
2. Health and wellness
- Start Your New Year with a Healthier You!
- “New Year, New You: Join Our Wellness Program
- New Year = New You! Only at (brand name)
- Jump into the new year with our fitness classes
- Healthy Habits Begin Now: Book Your Annual Wellness Check
3. Service-based businesses
- Plan Your 2024 Goals with Us
- Kickstart Your Year: Exclusive January Services
- Reflecting on the Past, Planning for the Future: 20XX Outlook
- Welcoming the New Year: A Year of Progress Ahead
- Unveiling Your 20XX Playbook: Get Ready for a Winning Year
Read more: Master Fall Email Subject Lines and Build Engaging Campaigns
Advanced Strategies for New Year Email Subject Subject Lines Optimization
Wondering how to stand out your emails in a crowded inbox? Optimizing your email subject lines is the key to communicating the value or benefit of your product/service to your audience and encouraging them to read further.
Listed below, I have mentioned some of the most effective New Year email subject line optimization advanced strategies.
A/B testing
One of the best ways to design your email subject lines is to run tests and experiment with them. This helps you find the one that resonates with your audience and performs better.
Subject line testing is an ongoing process. Start testing with a few A/B testing ideas that align with your audience and campaign goals. You can create a strategy as you gather data and witness the results derived from these tests.
To ensure your A/B tests deliver clear and precise results, you must follow these practices.
1. Test with purpose
Always ensure you have a well-defined purpose behind each test variation. A focused approach will help you learn more about your audiences and understand what resonates with them.
2. Isolate the test variable
Refrain from running A/B testing mindlessly. Test only one element at a time. For example, you can test first name vs. no name and analyze the impact of which change drives better results. Based on this, you can refine future tests.
3. Sample size
Send emails to sufficient subscribers in every test variant. This will ensure that you have truly identified the winner by having enough data for a given test, not by having a random fluctuation.
4. Consistency and frequency
How can you ensure a fair comparison when running A/B tests to choose which email subject line works for you? Simply send test emails to similar groups on the same day, keep the same variables, and do not introduce new ones.
5. Find the optimal test duration
Ensure your test duration runs for only a few weeks or months to reach the sample size. You must determine your test duration, remembering that the content does not become outdated. Therefore, aim for a duration that reflects your typical email frequency, which could be a week if you run a daily email campaign.
💡 Note: You can also perform test variations by creating urgency, personalizing subject lines with merge tags or including pronouns, and using emojis strategically. Then, evaluate how your email campaign performed before implementing these practices and how it has improved.
Analyzing Performance
So, how do you analyze the performance of new year email subject lines? Pick the subject lines from past 10-15 campaigns and note down their respective open rates.
Select the campaigns with more than a 2% open rate. However, it is essential to consider all the exceptions that may have caused a spike in open rates. For example, emails with compelling subject lines sent on weekdays would have more engagement than at weekends. You need to remove such spiked campaigns from your analysis.
Pick the top 5 subject lines from the remaining list with the most open rates. Categorize them under headers such as outcomes, emotions, urgency, or humor. Now, you can list the best-performing email subject lines relevant to your audience’s needs and business objectives.
Consider this analysis while creating your next New Year email campaign and design the subject line accordingly.
To unleash the power of analyzing and tracking open rates and CTR for your regular or New Year email campaigns, you can leverage EngageBay. This affordable all-in-one marketing tool offers email analytics to enhance your marketing efforts.
Read more: Should You Use Emojis in Email Subject Lines?
Conclusion
Crafting irresistible New Year email subject lines for my next email campaign is a no-brainer! Especially at a time when the world is celebrating the beginning of the next year’s calendar, these email campaigns can powerfully impact your audience’s minds.
However, your subject line should support the intention and goal of your email so that when the recipient opens your email, they find it optimized as per their preferences and expectations.
EngageBay is an all-in-one marketing, sales, and customer support software for small businesses, startups, and solopreneurs. You get email marketing, marketing automation, landing page and email templates, segmentation and personalization, sales pipelines, live chat, and more.
Sign up and book a demo! You can also follow EngageBay on LinkedIn to stay updated on the latest marketing industry trends.
FAQ
What makes a New Year email subject line effective?
Start your subject line with a question, as this sparks curiosity in subscribers, which could lead to higher open rates. For example, ‘What Our Customers Are Saying About Our Product.’
How can I personalize my New Year email subject lines?
The best way to personalize New Year email subject lines is to segment your audience by age, gender, location, and interests. You can also use merge tags to personalize your subject lines with every recipient’s name or location.
What are some common mistakes to avoid in email subject lines?
A few things to avoid while writing an email subject line are that it shouldn’t be generic, wordy, misleading, or boring.
How do emojis affect email open rates?
Emojis can positively influence email open rates by improving visual appeal, conveying emotions, and creating a more engaging and relatable communication style.
What types of promotions work best for New Year emails?
Some promotions that can get the best outcomes for New Year emails are special New Year promotions, free shipping, clearance sales, and acknowledging and rewarding customers for their loyalty in the previous year.
How should I A/B test my email subject lines?
A/B testing involves sending one subject line to half of the list and another to the other half of the contacts on the same day and keeping the same variables. Review the results after a certain period; the subject line with the most open rate wins.
What metrics should I track to measure the success of my email campaigns?
Various metrics to measure the success of your email campaigns include open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, conversion rate, bounce rate, and campaign ROI.
How often should I update my email subject lines for the New Year?
You can update your email subject lines for the New Year as often as possible. However, it would be best to change them when modifying promotional offers, planning clearance sales, or implementing loyalty programs.
Can I use the same subject line for different audience segments?
Using unique subject lines for different segments of your target audience is better. You can use A/B testing to see what your subscribers like and what catches their attention. Personalizing emails is best; it helps improve open, reply, and click-through rates.
What are some examples of successful New Year email subject lines?
Some of the best New Year email subject lines are:
- Start Off 2024 With Something Special
- It’s a New Year—Treat Yourself!
- New Year, New Ways to Save
- Your Business Matters: Thanks for a Wonderful Year!
