Labor Day is a popular sales holiday here in the states, and therefore a time to ramp up your marketing efforts. You need to create a solid email marketing strategy to maximize your revenue over the long weekend.
To help you do this, I’ve put together this comprehensive guide which gives you:
- A brief explanation of Labor Day
- 10 engaging Labor Day examples
- 20 Labor Day email subject lines to inspire your campaigns
- Labor Day marketing strategies
- Tips for creating Labor Day messages to employees and your customers
What Is Labor Day?
Labor Day is a US public holiday celebrated each year on the first Monday of September. It honors the contributions of the country’s workers and the American labor movement to US society. It has been a federal holiday since 1894, and in 2024, it falls on September 2nd.
For US citizens, the three-day weekend traditionally provides one last chance to enjoy the summer before fall. For businesses, it’s the perfect opportunity to clear their summer stock with big sales and get ready for the fall retail season.
However, this doesn’t mean businesses without seasonal stock can’t get in on the action. It’s traditional for most to offer larger discounts and offers during Labor Day weekend, and customers expect to be on the hunt for bargains during this holiday. So, no matter what industry or niche you’re in, you should be making the most of it by creating an effective Labor Day email marketing campaign.
10 Labor Day Email Examples
Let’s show you some of our favorite examples of Labor Day emails from various brands. They should give you inspiration for your own designs and help you to make your emails highly effective.
Some of these examples are taken from our own clients and some are examples from elsewhere. To abide by our NDA agreements with our clients, we’ve removed the footers and headers from the images.
1. Upcoming Labor Day Sale Example
You need to promote your Labor Day Sale well in advance of the big weekend. Ideally, the sale itself will start a couple of weeks beforehand, but even if it doesn’t, you can start teasing the sale in advance.
As it’s one of the most popular and traditional holidays in the country, it’s a good idea to use patriotic or end-of-summer imagery within your email content, like in this example:
This email also clearly tells the reader how much of a discount they’re being offered, offers an additional incentive with free shipping, and includes a clear “Shop Now” CTA button.
This email is successful at enticing users with exclusive offers which should increase conversions during the sale.
2. Labor Day newsletter example
Another good Labor Day email marketing tactic is to send out a newsletter discussing topics related to labor, employees, and the holiday itself, separate from a promotion. The example below is a B2B newsletter that gives the reader tips on how to avoid employee burnout during the busy Labor Day period:
The newsletter goes on to provide several tips. It lays them out in an easily scannable bulleted list:
This is a great way to break up walls of text and improve the newsletter’s readability. It’s something you should definitely bear in mind for your own newsletter designs as it helps to improve user engagement. Remember to include a CTA within the newsletter for your Labor Day Sale (if applicable).
3. Ongoing Labor Day Sale reminder
One email does not make a sales campaign. You’ll need to send several emails around a big sales event like Labor Day. Send multiple emails with different product features (if applicable) and play up urgency where necessary to encourage users to act quickly. This is a good example of how to do it:
It emphasizes that there’s only one more day for users to take advantage of the offer and includes a CTA button so they can immediately take the desired action. Emails like this keep users engaged with the sale and help to boost your conversions.
4. Labor Day Employee Message Example
Of course, most of the emails you send for Labor Day will be aimed at your leads and customers. Yet, it’s also a good idea to send a message to the people who work for you.
Usually, the main aim of these messages is simply to mark the event, tell your employees how long the business will be closed, and wish them a happy weekend. Take a look at the example below:
5. Upcoming Sales For Service-Based Companies Example
Long holiday weekends are also a goldmine for service-based businesses like rental companies. Similar rules apply.
You should start promoting your offers well in advance. If you have them, it’s also an effective technique to target customers looking for last-minute deals just before the weekend begins.
For instance, this yacht rental company sent this email to let its audience know there was still availability for the long weekend:
It gives concise yet highly valuable information about each service and lists the prices clearly. This type of email is an effective way to keep your brand top-of-mind for your customers and increase conversions for specific services.
It gives concise yet highly valuable information about each service and lists the prices clearly. This type of email is an effective way to keep your brand top-of-mind for your customers and increase conversions for specific services.
6. Code Promotion Email Example
It’s always a good idea to remind users of the discounts and offers that are part of your sale. You should nudge users to take advantage of your discount codes by sending concise and compelling emails with a prominent CTA, like this one:
I really like the vibrant color scheme designed to grab attention and create a sense of excitement. Plus, I’m a big fan of the way the email encourages urgent action with the text in the header and footer.
7. Last-Minute Car Rental Example
Millions of Americans travel around the country during the long weekend, and it’s guaranteed that many of them will be making arrangements right up until the last minute. So, if you run a rental business, you should be using your email channel to market to these customers, like this:
The CTA here creates a sense of scarcity by reminding users that cars are “booking up fast”. This makes users more likely to convert quickly by booking a rental car.
8. Seasonal Health Products Example
If you sell health and beauty products, you can create email marketing campaigns based around the changing of the seasons. As mentioned, Labor Day signifies the end of summer and the start of fall so you can play on this to market your products, like this:
The color scheme in this email is perfect as it uses colors associated with fall, like dark greens. It also uses a unique, high-quality photo of the products and contains straightforward messaging that gets the point across nicely.
9. Vacation Rental Example
As Labor Day is a public holiday, lots of people use it as a chance for a weekend getaway. However, as with car rentals, many of them don’t book accommodation until shortly before the weekend. To encourage them to book accommodation with your business you should offer last-minute deals via email, like this:
I’d recommend using a clear, high-resolution photo of your properties like they’ve done here. It’s an excellent way to entice users and give them an idea of what to expect.
10. Online Learning Example
You probably don’t associate the Labor Day weekend with online learning. Yet, customers aren’t just looking for discounts on car rentals and accommodation—they’re receptive to offers on all types of products and services. This is a nice example of how to promote a product that isn’t strictly relevant to the public holiday by tying it into self-improvement:
Labor Day Email Subject Lines To Inspire Your Campaigns
Your emails’ designs and their content are both incredibly important – but nobody is going to see them if they remain unopened. That’s why subject lines are such a vital part of email marketing.
Here are 20 Labor Day email subject line examples you can use as inspiration for your own campaign.
- “Grill, Chill, and Save this Labor Day Weekend!”
- “The Long Weekend Means Big, Big Savings!”
- “Tick Tock! Labor Day Sale Ends at Midnight”
- “Enjoy the Long Weekend With Us: 50% Off”
- “Exclusive Labor Day Offers Just for You”
- “Open for Secret Labor Day Savings”
- “Personalized Picks for a Stylish Labor Day”
- “Your Labor Day Shopping List Starts Here”
- “Labor Day Treats Tailored to You”
- “Learn About the History of the Labor Movement Over the Long Weekend”
- “Weekend Warrior Savings for Labor Day”
- “It’s the Final Countdown for Our Labor Day Sale”
- “Steal These Labor Day Deals!”
- “A Labor Day Gift From Us to You”
- “A Special Labor Day Offer for [name]”
- “End Summer on a High With Our Labor Day Sale”
- “Get Ready for the Labor Day Sale Everyone Is Talking About”
- “Blowout Labor Day Prices!”
- “Sneak Peak: Labor Day Surprises”
- “Unwind with Our Labor Day Deals”
Labor Day Marketing Strategies
Every business needs an email marketing campaign in place to make the most of Labor Day. Let’s run through some strategies for creating your own highly effective campaign.
Segment Your Audience
Audience segmentation is a crucial strategy for any email marketing campaign, including Labor Day campaigns. This allows you to make your campaigns highly targeted and ensures your subscribers receive content that’s relevant to them.
When subscribers receive emails about products that can help them resolve their pain points, they’re much more likely to convert. It also helps to build trust in your brand.
For example, let’s say you’ve created two segments. One segment contains young, single men and the other contains parents with school-aged children. You could create a campaign that targets the first segment with emails promoting your Labor Day sales on BBQ equipment. For the second segment, you could create emails advertising your back-to-school sales. Like this:
Target Labor Day-Related Topics
This is particularly important if you’re sending out a Labor Day newsletter. You can try to identify more niche topics that other brands won’t be covering. To do this, you can use keyword research tools like:
- Google Trends
- Google Keyword Planner
- Ahrefs
- Semrush
- Moz
Here, I typed “Labor Day car rental” into Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool, and it showed me related, long-tail keywords that users are searching for. Clearly, users are concerned about whether car rental companies are open during the holiday.
So, I could create an email campaign reminding customers that my car rental business will be open. Or, if it’s going to be closed, I can encourage users to book their rentals in advance.
You should also explore the online communities where your audience gathers to discuss topics, such as Reddit and Facebook. This should allow you to find topics for your newsletter that align with your audience’s interests and make it easier to create unique, valuable content.
Create A Shopping Guide
If you run an online fashion store, creating a shopping guide for your Labor Day email marketing campaign is a great idea. During the holiday weekend, your customers will start to plan for the fall. So, you can target them with emails containing your shopping guide that promotes your fall clothing line. I love the sleek, simple design of this shopping guide email:
Below, there’s a quote from the CEO who has chosen the items in the guide:
I like shopping guides because they package your products in a way that shows customers how to use and wear them. This provides much more value than simply asking users to buy them. As a result, you should see improved user engagement with your emails and increased sales.
Celebrate Your Employees
Another good strategy is to create email content that celebrates the contributions your employees make to your brand. After all, Labor Day is supposed to be all about the workers.
You could send a newsletter containing photos of your employees and excerpts from interviews with them talking about their roles within your business like this:
This gives readers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of your brand which is a good way to establish trust and credibility. It also demonstrates that you’re a brand that appreciates the hard work of its employees.
Labor Day Messages To Employees And Customers
If you run a brick-and-mortar business, you may be closed during the long weekend.
In case, you need to let your customers know about it. If you will be open, you’ll need to inform customers that they can still come and visit you.
Here are two tips for both scenarios:
Closing Business
Send your customers a message wishing them a happy holiday and explaining how long you’ll be closed for. You should also say whether or not they’ll be able to contact customer service while you’re closed.
Business Staying Open
Again, wish your customers a happy holiday and explain you’ll be open for business. You should also include your opening hours and information about any in-store sales.
You’ll also need to send a message to your workers in the lead-up to Labor Day. Here are some tips for doing that:
- Express gratitude for all of their hard work throughout the year.
- Highlight specific individual or team achievements.
- Use a warm tone and include holiday wishes.
- Tie the message to your brand’s overall mission and values.
- Provide specific details about how long they’ll be off.
- Think about the timing of the email. It should be sent to workers a few days before the start of the long weekend.
Here’s an example of a nice and simple internal email to employees that uses a Labor Day themed color scheme:
If you’d rather have an expert eCommerce email agency do all of this for you, InboxArmy is here to help. Our experienced team will take care of everything you need for a successful Labor Day email campaign. From email design to automated workflows, and campaign management we’ve got you covered.
Wrapping Up
There are plenty of strategies you can use to make your Labor Day email marketing campaigns as effective as possible. Segmenting your audience is key, and you can also use tactics like targeting relevant topics and creating editorial guides.
The labor day email examples included in this guide should give you loads of ideas for your own campaign. And, by the way, feel free to use the subject line examples! Now, you should be able to build a Labor Day email marketing strategy that improves engagement and increases conversions during the long weekend.
FAQs
Do email marketing platforms come with Labor Day email templates?
Yes, many email marketing platforms come with pre-built holiday templates, including ones for Labor Day. This makes it relatively easy to create engaging email designs, especially if you’ve never built a template before.
Some examples of email marketing platforms with extensive template libraries include:
- Campaign Monitor
- Constant Contact
- GetResponse
- Mailchimp
- HubSpot
- ActiveCampaign
- Moosend
- Brevo
Which performance metrics should I track for my Labor Day campaign?
To track the performance of your Labor Day campaign, you should analyze the same metrics as you would for your other email marketing efforts. These include:
- Conversions and conversion rates
- Attributable revenue and revenue per email
- Click-through rates (CTR)
- Open rates
- Unsubscribe rates
- Bounce rates
- Spam complaint rates
- Deliverability rates
What’s the optimal frequency for Labor Day emails?
The optimal frequency for Labor Day emails depends on your industry and audience. However, for eCommerce businesses, I’d generally recommend sending two to three emails in the build-up to the weekend and one email on each day of the weekend. Possibly even a “Final hours” email on Labor Day evening itself. This should be enough to promote your upcoming sale and remind subscribers of the ongoing sale.
