6 St. Patrick’s Day Emails We Love from Target, Bouqs and Chubbies

St. Patrick's Day

It’s March. Spring has almost sprung. Retailers can breathe easy knowing they’re in that sweet spot where the holiday season is in hindsight and there’s still plenty of time before next year’s holidays. But that’s only if you think of “the holidays” as the hectic period between mid-November and early January. There are plenty of other holidays scattered throughout the calendar. St. Patrick’s Day, for example.

What began as a tribute to the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day is now a holiday 56% of Americans plan to celebrate next week, spending a collective $6.16 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. Though St. Patrick’s Day isn’t traditionally a gift-giving holiday, there are plenty of creative ways email marketers can promote a mid-March sales spike. Here are six of our favorite examples sourced from MailCharts and our own inboxes:

Target: “St. Paddy’s Day picks for the fam filled with Irish luck ☘️”

For most St. Patrick’s Day celebrants, the plan is simply to wear green. This email makes it clear that Target has something for everyone, driving traffic to its online St. Patrick’s Day shop. “Everyone” includes men, women, kids and babies, as well as people who like to keep it simple (plain green T-shirts) and people who don’t (Care Bears onesies). The shop also includes decorations and trending recommendations for good measure.

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Fenty Beauty: “Get lucky this St. Patrick’s Day — Rihanna Style”

Any beauty brand knows “wearing green” doesn’t end with your wardrobe. Fenty does a good job making this holiday its own by promoting a green lipstick (and the products that best complement it). User-generated content is great for email engagement and in this email, it also gives Fenty the opportunity to highlight how this unorthodox lip shade looks on a variety of skin tones.

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The Bouqs Company: “Last Call for St. Paddy’s Day Bouqs”

According to NRF, making a special dinner and decorating are popular ways to celebrate. Because flowers tie the two together nicely, The Bouqs Company created a special arrangement for St Patrick’s Day. The floral retailer drives urgency by stressing the limited supply, including a 15% discount… and a festive pun.

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Lands’ End: “Celebrate St. Paddy’s Day ☘️ with a bit of Irish luck: 20, 30 or 40% off”

Sales motivate shoppers and in Lands’ End’s case, the mystery discount approach checks multiple boxes. For one, it gamifies the promotion in such a way that customers are likely to click through, just to see how much they can save. At the same time, it fits in with the “Luck of the Irish” theme of St. Patrick’s Day perfectly. We like this one enough that we’ll let the long subject line slide.

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McDonald’s Canada: “Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in ☘️ Shamrock style ☘️”

If you get an email from McDonald’s with the word “shamrock” in the subject line, you know. Every February and March, the fast food giant releases its Shamrock Shake, a menu item so popular it has its own Wikipedia page. Using St. Patrick’s Day as a hook, McDonald’s capitalizes on the minty dessert’s popularity to promote mobile ordering and drive app downloads.

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Chubbies: “buckle up…”

Chubbies creates intrigue with this subject line, which plays to the human brain’s natural tendency to want to finish sentences. Once you open the email, you’ll see a fun GIF and Chubbies’ on-brand approach to wearing green. The Chubberalls aren’t for everyone, but the brand certainly knows its audience: This item sells out every year. Currently, Chubberalls are only available in small and medium sizes.

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