Our Best Fall Newsletter Ideas to Inspire Your New Season Emails

You know email newsletters help start, grow, and maintain relationships with your customers. And it’s those relationships that keep them coming back for your products or services.  

But after the fun of summer emails, generating fall newsletter ideas can feel challenging.

The good news is, fall is the perfect time to build connections with your audience. As the weather turns, people stay in and spend more time on their devices. This gives you a unique opportunity to catch their attention. 

In the fall, find ways to start the conversation and build strong relationships with your customers that will last all year round. Read on to find out which holidays and special events, marketing tips, and creative content could boost your open rates, clicks, and sales this fall.

Fall Holiday Newsletter Ideas

Engage your readers this fall by marking their favorite holidays of the time of year. From Labor Day to Thanksgiving, find out how to stand out from your competitors and attract that holiday spend.

Labor Day

Labor Day marks the end of summer and the start of fall. It’s the final chance for cook-outs, parades, and beach days before the weather turns.

Send a Labor Day email with an exclusive promotional code or discount to tap into the holiday spirit and help your customers make the most of the last warm days. Postable marks the occasion with 20 percent off their designer greetings cards.

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Back to school

The back-to-school, college, or university season can be a period of stress and change for parents and students alike. Make that first day back a little easier and you’ll earn their loyalty for life.

Solve their problems and earn their trust with a discount or freebie on a service suited to students. Or design a two-for-one deal to fill a school backpack. Use cheerful graphics and warm copy to create an effective back-to-school email they will want to click. 

As it’s aimed at kids and parents, have fun with one or two eye-catching emojis in your back-to-school subject line.

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Sports season

Fall marks the start of sports season, including soccer, football, ice hockey, field hockey, and basketball. If your brand is sports-related, this is a golden opportunity to connect with your subscribers. Patricia Lopez is the founder of Dirt Pitch Apparel. She says, “As a soccer-inspired brand, we optimize our fall newsletter by matching important events from Major League Soccer with promos and discounts.

“Another key element in our strategy is segmenting our audience according to the soccer team they support.” Patricia then sends out targeted emails to each segment. “This has proven effective for us, bumping our conversion rates by almost 20 percent.”

Halloween

No list of October newsletter ideas is complete without Halloween. This spooky holiday is America’s favorite after Thanksgiving and Christmas. Luckily, it lends itself to fun and humorous content with a big visual impact.

Stephen Light, CMO and co-owner of Nolah Mattress, says, “Photos and other visuals trigger emotions and memories. Add high-quality media of your Halloween-inspired items to increase chances of making a sale.” 

In this LendingTree email, fun graphics and playful wording give even a serious topic like money-lending a lift.

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For more creative Halloween ideas, check out our post on Halloween email marketing and our list of 100 Halloween email subject lines.

Thanksgiving

The holiday season is here and customers are reaching for their wallets. In 2019, the average American spent $186.05 on Thanksgiving. Feature your products in Thanksgiving-themed photos and videos to appeal to your customers and earn a place at their Thanksgiving table.

Framebridge put their product at the heart of this Thanksgiving scene which plays on the desire to impress guests over the holidays.

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An alternative approach to your Thanksgiving newsletter campaign is to give thanks yourself. Consumer insight bodies note the growth of gratitude amongst consumers since the pandemic. So it feels timely and authentic for brands to say “thank you” at this special time of year.

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Black Friday and Cyber Monday

In 2019, U.S. consumers spent $7.4 billion on Black Friday and $9.4 billion on Cyber Monday. That’s a lot to play for. It also means stiff competition in your customer’s inbox from other brands looking for a slice of the pie.

Build up to the big day with reminders, promo previews, and exclusive offers for subscribers. Timed sales and codes add a sense of urgency as consumers rush to avoid missing out. Onsen does this well with their line, “Hurry – it’s our best deal of the year!”

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📚 Further reading: 

• 8 of the Best Black Friday Emails to Inspire Your Holiday Campaigns
• 40 Black Friday Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Open Rate

Veterans Day

The military veteran population in the U.S. stands at over 18 million. Pay your respects on Veterans Day to show your values, impress existing customers, and earn new ones. 

Chipotle showed their support with a buy-one-get-one-free entrée and a warm yet respectful newsletter.

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Fall Sales

Your big sale for this season will likely be Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get creative with mini sales and promotional events throughout the period.

The fall season is often the time for stock changeover as old summer items make way for new season products. Amplify this scarcity in your marketing campaigns to clear out the last bits of stock. Use phrases like, “Get your favorites before they’re gone.”

Combine with fall colors and fall-themed visuals and photos that evoke the change in seasons.

This email template design from Austin Eastciders ticks off autumn leaves, fall hues, and cozy autumn-themed woolly hats and plaid. There’s even a recipe for a whiskey cocktail perfect for the fall.

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Fall Newsletter Themes

Beyond the holiday season, craft relevant and engaging fall email campaigns by taking inspiration from fall experiences your readers will relate to. Offer well-timed information or promotions to improve your customers’ lives as they leave summer behind.

Colder weather

As the temperature drops, thoughts turn to retreating indoors, cozy clothing, and getting the house winter-ready. This is a rich seam for newsletter content, says Jori Patton, marketing manager at Fast Food Menu Prices. 

“An apparel store could release a fall fashion report. A plumber could offer weatherproofing tips. A landscaper could offer autumn gardening advice.”

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New beginnings

With students going back to class and the fun of summer fading from memory, fall is a time when many people turn over a new leaf. They might start a new fitness regime or begin learning a language. It could be as simple as wanting to makeover their looks or home.

If your product connects, send out a promotional email to help get your subscribers’ new habits off to a flying start.

Fall Newsletter Content Ideas

You’ve scheduled your back-to-school email campaign and planned your cold-weather newsletter. Great work. Here are more content ideas to fill those fall newsletter templates and maximize your sales this season.

Make it useful

Keep readers coming back to your newsletters by making them useful. You can offer activities, advice, recipes, tips, to-do lists, or gift guides. Think about the problems you can solve for your customers and how you can tie them back to your products.

This email from Panna plays on the pressure to cook a fantastic Thanksgiving meal. It offers new and exciting recipe ideas, both traditional and non, to help make the reader’s Thanksgiving a success.

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Add video

No doubt you’ve seen how effective video can be on social media. The same is true of newsletters. Adding video to your email can increase click rates by 300 percent. 

The best way to insert video in your email is to include a static image or still with a link. This ensures your email gets delivered and that all readers can view your video regardless of the email client they are using. With Sendinblue’s email builder it’s as easy as adding an image using the Drag & Drop function.  

If you’re a fashion brand, showcase your fall collection in an on-brand promo video. For other businesses, try these ideas to inspire and engage your customers: 

• A video of your latest products
• A customer testimonial interview
• A sneak peek of your HQ, workshop, or team

Contests and giveaways

Contests and giveaways generate two rounds of content.

1. An initial round promoting the competition
2. User-generated content as readers enter and win

Create community spirit with a spooky giveaway, a Halloween costume competition, or a Thanksgiving greetings card design contest. Generate a natural buzz around your brand by offering your products as prizes.

Customer reviews

Build interest in your products and boost your credibility by sharing customer reviews in your fall email newsletters. 

Prepare a couple of editable email templates and have them ready in your drafts folder. Then, next time there’s a lull in your content creation, drop in your latest customer reviews and hit send. 

Still waiting for your first reviews? Start the conversation. Send a segmented email to customers who have purchased your products recently. Ask them for feedback. You could offer an incentive such as a percentage discount or money off their next purchase. The reviews will feed future emails, web content, and social media posts.

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Personalization

With the power of segmented email lists, you know where your customers live, whether they have kids, and whether they celebrate Thanksgiving. Use this to your advantage by sending personalized emails to segments of your subscriber list. Unlike mass-market, generalized emails, these feel more personal, more relevant, and have a higher success rate.

💡 Tip: Every fall in the USA, over 7 million Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah and more than 1 million Hindus mark Diwali. Involve people of all faiths by recognizing their holy days using your segmented customer list.

At this time of year, there are lots of local parades and celebrations. Business owner, Alan Harder adds, “If you’re targeting a regional market, incorporate local parades into your campaign.”

Of course, effective email segmentation relies on having the data you need. Update your subscriber questions and make sure sales are being correctly attributed to users.

Show you care

Stand out from the crowd by showing a little heart in your newsletter. If you don’t already support a cause, choose one that feels relevant to your brand and offer support in the form of donations, product gifting, or labor.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This is an excellent opportunity to show support and raise awareness of an important issue.

Fall Email Subject Lines

Chelsea Cohen, co-founder of SoStocked, has a tip to help you captivate your customers: add an element of urgency and help solve their problems. 

“Use hooks like ‘X products you have to see before fall’ or ‘The X things that helped me get through the fall,’ taking inspiration from blog post headings.”

Make the subject line more eye-catching by using one or two emojis that match the theme of your newsletter.

Final Tips for Fall Newsletters

Your content planner is full of autumn newsletter ideas. You’re ready to add value to your customers’ lives with useful content from Veterans Day right through to Cyber Monday.

Before you hit send, remember,

• Start the conversation with your customers; think about how you can involve them
• Always include a call-to-action (CTA) to let your subscribers know what to do next
• Plan ahead and schedule your newsletters to save time

For help with scheduling and automation, sign up for a free plan with Sendinblue and start sending memorable emails today.

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