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Labor Day Email Examples and Strategy

Turn this three-day weekend into a shopping extravaganza with emails that appeal to back-to-school bargain-hunters, summer lovers, and cold-weather fans who are ready for a change.

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Without the built-in rituals of Memorial Day and Independence Day to give you an angle for your email content, Labor Day makes you work harder to come up with something creative for your Labor Day email marketing campaigns. So, appeal to what your customers might be doing or thinking about – quick getaways, getting ready for class, or one last long weekend of relaxation before resuming the routines of school and work.

Labor Day isn’t one of the National Retail Federation’s major retail holidays. But it does coincide with one of the NRF’s top spending events (Back-to-School/Back-to-College). Plus, people are likely to have the time to relax and check their email for last-minute Labor Day sale emails.

Below, we’ve gathered some great Labor Day email examples and general Labor Day marketing ideas to use as inspiration for your own campaigns.

Labor Day Email Examples and Subject Lines
Labor Day Email Marketing Strategy

Labor Day Email Examples and Subject Lines

Show them what they need

This Labor Day email by UNTUCKit targets the brand’s male subscribers with five types of products they’ll want for Labor Day. The product images show how to combine the products, and the accompanying texts tell the recipients why they need each item. Every product in the email is also accompanied by a different call-to-action button that leads to a different product category on the site, making it easy for shoppers to find what they want.

Lastly, note how the subject line describes exactly what’s in the email while still making the recipient curious to find out what those five essentials are.

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Help them celebrate

SodaStream’s Labor Day email is simple yet effective. Its subject line wishes the recipient a Happy Labor Day while the email itself shares the recipe for a drink to celebrate Labor Day with. It’s a non-promotional way to lead subscribers to your website, and you can be sure you need a SodaStream to make that recipe.

Other things this email does well, is include a customer review for social proof, as well as list the different reasons subscribers should buy from SodaStream, such as their 30-day risk-free trial.

Lastly, the email design has a subtle Labor Day theme through the use of a red, white, and blue color scheme.

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Use an animation

This email example by True Religion offers a straightforward Labor Day deal of up to 75% off. To make that more interesting, the email has a hero image that oozes summer vibes (palm trees!) and the discount itself is presented as an eye-catching animation. The rest of this Labor Day email design is pretty simple, with CTAs to check out both the men’s and the women’s collections.
As for the subject line, it tells exactly what it wants recipients to do: click click.

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Have some email fun

If you want your subject lines to stand out in your subscribers’ inboxes, you have to put in a little effort. GlassesUSA does a good job here by packing an eye-catching emoji and a sense of urgency (“only today”) into one subject line.

The animated GIF of a scratch card is a fun way to make customers excited about what they might win, and the black-and-white call-to-action button pops out nicely against the grey and black of the background.

It’s a simple Labor Day email template that does the trick.

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Embrace the "No whites after Labor Day" debate

Labor Day marks the end of summer and the fashion rule banning white clothing, footwear, and handbags before Memorial Day and after that might be the last dictum to fall. Still a big topic for debate among fashionistas, your brand can capitalize on this even if you don’t sell apparel. Simply extend the breaking of this rule to other white products such as electronics or home decor.

Note how Moda Operandi’s email copy says you’ll be “chicer” when wearing white after Labor Day – a statement that speaks to its audience. The brand also offers suggestions for how to work white into your fall outfit.

Also, no summer theme or patriotic theme for this Labor Day email. Instead, Moda Operandi opts for a warm green that evokes a sense of fall in combination with the whites and beiges of the products listed.

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Anticipate the change of season

Not everybody is sad to see summer go. Kiel James Patrick celebrates the holiday weekend with a sale that invites subscribers to shop for some autumn adventures. This email is another example that your Labor Day email designs don’t need to be complicated. In this case, a fall-themed hero image that makes you feel as if you’re lying there in that tent is all it takes to make you want to click that “shop now” button. The email copy is minimal, simply mentioning the sale offer and nothing more.

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Appeal to your VIPs

If you’re short on campaign ideas, treating your subscribers as VIPs is always a good idea. You can offer early access to an upcoming sale just for your email list, or make it even more exclusive and send the invitation only to reward members (if you have a rewards program).

This example by Tradesy is all about intrigue, exclusivity, and unexpected big bargains – three concepts that never fail to appeal to your most engaged customers.

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Focus on your employees

Labor Day is all about employees, so impact-focused retailer Novica used one of its Labor Day emails to focus on the artisans who produce the products they sell. The colorful email design is on-brand and does a good job of communicating what Novica stands for while being promotional at the same time.

If your brand is committed to diversity and inclusion, a Labor Day message like this gives you another chance to communicate your brand values.

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Provide value

This is another one of those Labor Day email campaigns that are effective without being promotional. Water brand Waiakea shows its subscribers how to celebrate Labor Day: at the beach, with a bottle of Waiakea to stay hydrated. The rest of the email guides the recipient to the “read now” button that links to an article with advice on how to enjoy a stress-free Labor Day weekend.

The blue-and-white email design is entirely on-brand, and

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Labor Day Email Marketing Strategy

The Labor Day email subject lines and emails above are a great source of inspiration for when you’re putting together your own Labor Day campaigns. You can find even more examples in our database, where we collect and curate email campaigns by hundreds of ecommerce businesses.

Create Labor Day email templates for testing

It’s crucial to continuously test your Labor Day emails and the easiest way to do that is by using email templates. Save your best-performing Labor Day campaign as a template so you always have a default or base campaign to go back to as you run your A/B tests. Experiment with different offers, product images, copy, and more.

Target Back-to-School shoppers

Even though it’s Labor Day weekend, many families have half or more of their Back-to-School shopping to finish. If you sell anything school or college-related, consider highlighting those products in your Labor Day sale email as well.

Send emails throughout the holiday weekend

Shoppers might be relaxing on Labor Day itself, but when they aren’t flipping burgers on the grill or watching baseball on TV, they’ll probably be scrolling through their inboxes.

And what will be in those inboxes? Dozens – maybe hundreds – of emails competing with yours for their attention.

This isn’t the time to send a one-off Labor Day sale email. Try a three-email Labor Day campaign that lets you change up the message throughout the holiday weekend. Your first email can highlight what’s coming with your Labor Day sale. Experiment a little with the second message. Then, wrap up with a third message that urges customers to act before the sale ends.

Kick off the fall season with an editorial guide

Although Autumn doesn’t occur until the third week of September, many of your customers are looking forward to cooler days and fall/winter activities and holidays. Use your Labor Day emails to highlight notable pieces in your fall line, and package them into an editorial guide that tells your customers how to buy, use or wear the products instead of simply selling to them.

Send a Labor Day status update

Labor Day is all about getting out-of-office, but your customers may not realize that you’re taking a long weekend break too. Let them know how available you’ll be during Labor Day Weekend, both to avoid unhappy surprises and to offer a little serendipity if you’re keeping the lights on.

Things to consider: Can they still reach customer service or support even though your office is closed? Send an email with all of the details (plus, where appropriate, a little nudge to persuade them to shop). If you’re staying open, post your hours and link to your “find a store” page to help out-of-towners find your nearest outlet.

Celebrate your employees

Labor Day was created to recognize the achievements of America’s working class and labor unions, but today it’s more about the long weekend than the people who gave us the 40-hour workweek and child-labor laws.

Why not use this occasion to recognize your employees? Customers love to see the faces behind your brand. Instead of sending another promotional email, use Labor Day to humanize your brand with photos of the people who help deliver a good customer experience time after time.

Start early and send more messages

As with all email marketing, it’s a good idea to start sending out emails early. Depending on your industry, this timeframe can vary significantly.

For example, companies focusing on tourism, accommodation, or holiday packages should begin sending Labor Day emails between July and August in order to ensure their services are top of subscribers’ minds when they plan a weekend getaway.

Starting your Labor Day email campaign early also allows you to expand a basic one-off solo send into a multiple-email series that gives your emails more chances to be seen by recipients and to generate better results.