Well done! You’ve successfully made it through the busiest quarter of the ecommerce year. But before you’ve even had a chance to relax, you realise it’s time to start planning email newsletter ideas for January.
In just a moment, I’m going to show you how you can carry over the momentum you built in Q4 to keep your subscribers engaged and loyal to you in Q4. As you know, engaged and loyal subscribers means more revenue - so keep reading to discover how to do this in Q1.
January is a difficult month for us as ecommerce marketers since our customers are coming out of an expensive period and are trying to save money at the start of the new year. Also, our subscribers have been bombarded with promotional emails, making them think twice about opening newsletters in January.
With all of this in mind, I will share our secrets for January campaign planning so you can avoid the January blues and stop yourself from being under too much pressure for Q1.
I’ve gone through every other “January newsletter ideas” blog post, and I wasn’t able to find a comprehensive list of holidays (daily, week-long, and month-long) for January that had all of the correct dates for 2024 and had an accurate description of what each holiday is.
So, I’ve spent hours creating this list for you. Then, for any holiday we’ve previously sent emails, I’ve shared with you what’s worked well for us and how you can apply this as part of your January plan.
I know you’re probably looking for some help with subject lines for January, too, so I’ve also included some subject lines that worked really well for us last January.
Without further ado, let’s start with the January newsletter idea planning.
3 Featured January Newsletter Ideas
We’ve picked out three of our favourite January newsletter ideas that we use every year for our clients.
1. Achieve Your New Year’s Resolutions
What’s the first thing you think of when someone brings up the New Year? It’s New Year’s resolutions. It’s the talk of the town in the first week of January.
The most popular New Year’s resolutions include exercising more, sleeping more, and eating healthier. Fitbit is well placed to help people achieve these goals with its Premium subscription. It uses an excellent comparison table to show the benefits of upgrading to its premium offering.
While this is a SaaS email, you can apply the same techniques to your ecommerce email newsletter. As a tip, don’t shy away from taking inspiration from SaaS emails since retention is a massive focus for software companies.
Subject line: Fitbit Premium: Level up your 2022 💪
2. Embrace the Winter Cold
January is one of the coldest months of the year, which makes it an excellent opportunity for you to promote your winter-themed products. If you’re a clothing brand, promoting some cosy accessories such as hats, scarves, and socks will be well received by your subscribers.
Anthropologie does an excellent job of recognising how cold it is outside and offering subscribers a free shipping coupon to help treat themselves to someone warm without having to pick up the tab for shipping.
A word of caution with January coupons: we typically avoid running promotions in January since customers have been subjected to so many promotional emails in November and December. However, we always make exceptions for free shipping coupons.
American Eagle showcases some of its cosiest winter accessories using a GIF in its email hero section. I love how they’ve set up this shot to have a wooden background with various products overlaying it.
3. Last Year in Review
Spotify Wrapped popularised the “Year in Review” concept, which shows your subscribers their activity with your brand over the past year, intending to have them share it on social media or forward the email to their friends.
The more personalised the content can be, the better, so use all available data about your customers to provide them with a fun review of their past year with your brand.
For example, include graphics that show how many orders they placed with you, how much money they saved during promotions, how much they contributed to your charity partners through ordering with you, how many years you’ve been “together” (i.e. how long they’ve been subscribed), to name to a few ideas.
You can also include graphics on your brand accomplishments due to the customer’s ongoing support.
We recommend sending this “Year in Review” email to your engaged segment so new subscribers don’t receive it.
In the example below from Shipt, they’ve provided a fun analysis of each customer’s past year, including honourable mentions for the lowest-priced item in an order and the temperature range of the days they placed an order.
Subject line: Your Shipt Year In Review 2019 🎉
Daily Events for January
Looking for a comprehensive list of daily events for January 2024 so you can plan your favourites in your campaign calendar? Here you go.
January 1st
- New Year’s Day: The first day of the year. It is a time to reflect on last year and set goals for the new year.
- As we explained earlier in this article, there are many ways to utilise New Year's Day in your January newsletter ideas. We recommend focusing on New Year's resolutions and how it's a fresh opportunity for your prospects and customers to set and achieve their goals in this new year.
- National Hangover Day: Celebrating the New Year on New Year's Eve can have consequences: a sore head for some the next day. National Hangover Day is aptly "celebrated" on January 1st to know we're not alone in having a headache as we ring in the New Year.
- If you're brainstorming newsletter ideas for a personal care or wellbeing brand (e.g. skincare), this holiday is an excellent opportunity to promote the benefits of your products to rejuvenate your customers after their New Year's celebrations.
- Global Family Day: A global day of peace and sharing, recognising that humanity can only survive if we come together as one family
- Commitment Day: As you start a new year, Commitment Day allows us to demonstrate our commitment to the special persons in our lives. It also includes causes and activities close to our hearts.
January 2nd
- National Science Fiction Day: Celebrated on Isaac Asimov's birthday (a prolific writer of science fiction and science books), this holiday promotes the celebration of science fiction as a genre and its creators, history, and various media.
- World Introvert Day: A time to bring awareness to introversion and to show that being a "quiet" person is a fantastic thing, not something to be ashamed of.
- International Stop Spam Day: A day to create awareness around the problems that spam messages make for individuals and businesses and to do something about spam.
- We always use this day to analyse our spam rates across all accounts for the previous year. As an email marketing agency, we don't want to "spam" inboxes, so we're constantly analysing the content we're sending and trying to understand patterns that cause people to mark our emails as spam.
January 3rd
- Humiliation Day: Contrary to its name, Humalitian Day is not about humiliating people. It's an opportunity to relinquish our pride and become humble before a higher power or other people. Despite its religious origins, its purpose should be observed by all.
- International Mind-Body Wellness Day: Also known as "Mind-Body Wellness Day", this is an opportunity to celebrate how a healthy mind and emotions mean a healthy body.
- We often use this holiday for wellness brands. We recommend sending a newsletter promoting a blog post on your website with tips for improving wellbeing. If your products naturally fit into this blog post (e.g. taking CBD oil before bedtime to relax), include them.
- Festival of Sleep Day: After the busy holiday season, the Festival of Sleep Day offers us a chance to get some "shut eye" and relaxation after the holidays. It reminds us about the importance and healthy benefits of sleep.
- If it applies to your brand, explain how your products help your subscribers sleep better.
- J.R.R. Tolkien Day: A celebration of John Ronald Reuel (J.R.R.) Tolkien on his birthday. Tolkien's world-famous books include The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. This holiday shouldn't be confused with Tolkien Reading Day, celebrated every year on March 25th.
January 4th
- Spaghetti Day: A celebration of spaghetti, a pasta that's been a worldwide favourite for ages and loved by millions.
- World Braille Day: A day to spread awareness about braille and other accessible forms of communication used by millions of blind and partially sighted people. It's celebrated on Louis Braille's birthday, the inventor of braille.
- Like International Stop Spam Day, we use January 4th as an internal reminder to analyse and improve the accessibility of our emails. We ask internally: Are we using alt text in every email? Are buttons easy to click? How does our content look in dark mode?
- National Trivia Day: This day recognises unusual facts that few know but are essential and fascinating.
- We used National Trivia Day to ask a trivia question about our client's brand story and then told subscribers to reply with their answers. The first three people to answer correctly won a gift card for the website. This had the massive benefit of improving our client's deliverability since subscribers were replying to our emails.
January 5th
There aren’t any notable holidays on January 5th, 2024.
January 6th
- National Bean Day: A day commemorating the death of Gregor Mendel (January 6th, 1884), the geneticist whose experiments with breeding pea plants formed the basis of modern genetics.
- Cuddle Up Day: A reminder to snuggle up with someone for the health benefits and to keep warm during those cold winter evenings.
- If you sell winter-themed products (e.g. a clothing brand selling coats), use this holiday to showcase products that'll help keep your prospects/customers warm during the cold winter months.
- National Bird Day: An important event for the awareness and protection of birds, especially those held in captivity for commercial profit.
January 7th
- Old Rock Day: We pay tribute to Earth's history and the fantastic geologists who help us understand it.
- If you're a sustainability-focused brand, you can use this holiday to outline your sustainability practices and how you're working to protect our Earth.
January 8th
- Gluten-Free Day: Raises awareness for the cause of eating gluten-free and acknowledges those facing health concerns due to gluten.
- For brands selling gluten-free products, this is the perfect opportunity to showcase your favourite gluten-free products.
- National Clean Your Desk Day: Now that people are back to work after the holidays, it's time to clean your desk and neatly organise everything so you can get your year off to a great start at work.
- If you're selling products that someone would have on their desk, you can include a guide with images on how to clean/organise your desk. Then, be sure to feature your products in each image.
- National JoyGerm Day: This day encourages us to share positivity and happiness and make special efforts to spread joy wherever possible. The idea behind calling it “joy germ” was that germs and other pathogens spread from person to person so readily
- World Typing Day: Honours typing: our written form of communication that ensures speed, accuracy, and efficiency.
- Bubble Bath Day: Celebrates the physical and psychological benefits of bubble baths.
- Are you selling a product that people could use before, during, or after a bubble bath? Use this holiday to promote that product and explain how it fits into taking a bubble bath.
January 9th
- National Static Electricity Day: Recognises static electricity and the science behind it.
- National Word Nerd Day: A celebration of vocabulary and the importance of words in our history and civilisation.
- National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day: A day to express gratitude to your local law enforcement professionals.
January 10th
- National Bittersweet Chocolate Day: A celebration of bittersweet chocolate, a sweetened form of dark chocolate that does not contain milk.
- Houseplant Appreciation Day: Your houseplants may have been neglected over the holidays, so this day is a reminder to give them a little extra attention to keep them thriving.
- Peculiar People Day: An opportunity to recognise the leaders of the strange and unusual and those who refuse to conform to the world's idea of normal and sane.
- Cut Your Energy Costs Day: A day which encourages us to explore changes we can make in our daily lives to reduce our energy consumption.
January 11th
- Learn Your Name in Morse Code Day: To help preserve the history of Morse Code and its importance to society, this day encourages us to learn how to spell our name in Morse Code (a sequence of dots and dashes).
- National Human Trafficking Awareness Day: Raises awareness of the persistent issue of human trafficking and modern-day slavery.
January 12th
- National Hot Tea Day: Inspire special and heartwarming moments with tea, the second-most widely consumed beverage in the world (after water). Tea represents a lot to people: a sip of warm comfort, a moment of calmness, a way to connect with friends, to name a few.
- Feast of Fabulous Wild Men Day: A day for admiring "feasting one's eyes" on good-looking men.
- National Pharmacist Day: Recognises and honours all pharmacists across the U.S. and their vital role in our society.
January 13th
- Sticker Day: Celebrates everything related to stickers, from the custom-made to the everyday label.
- Korean American Day: On this day, we honour the first Korean immigrants to land in the United States of America (in Hawaii) on January 13th, 1903.
- National Rubber Ducky Day: A tribute to the classic rubber duck toy we are all familiar with.
- If you plan on targeting the Bubble Bath Day campaign, we'd recommend skipping this holiday as you don't want to saturate your audience with repetitive content.
- Make Your Dream Come True Day: This day is celebrated to encourage every person to make their dreams come true by taking a small step towards achieving them.
- Stephen Foster Memorial Day: Commemorates Stephen Foster, who composed hundreds of America's first most popular songs, even before songwriting was a career.
January 14th
- National Dress Up Your Pet Day: A fun, light-hearted celebration of the beautiful, precious pets that enhance our lives and brighten our homes daily by getting them dressed in a costume. Think of it like Halloween for pets (without the spooky connotations)
- This holiday is always a goldmine for brands in the pet niche. We recommend running an Instagram campaign to gather UGC from your followers (dress up your pet and post a selfie with them using a specified hashtag; bonus points if the costume is linked to your business). Then, offer a prize for the best costume/selfie. Showcase the best selfies in the email you send out. It's a fun, relevant way to build brand loyalty.
- World Logic Day: A day for supporting the development of logic through teaching and research.
- Ratification Day: Recognises the Treaty of Paris, ratified on January 14th, 1784 and officially ended the American Revolution. It symbolises the United States of America's independence and freedom.
- Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day: A celebration of a mouthwatering, edible treat that is the much-loved hot pastrami sandwich.
January 15th
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Also known as MLK Day, this day honours the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., the influential American civil rights leader who dedicated his life to achieving equality for people of all skin colours.
- National Hat Day: A day to celebrate hats, one of the oldest human accessories. You're invited to participate by wearing a hat of your choice and style.
- If you sell hats, this is your moment. Send a campaign featuring your favourite hat products. If customers have purchased other accessories from your store, segment this group and email them that there is no better time to buy a hat.
- Bagel Day: A holiday which pays homage to bagels, the dense and chewy bread products that date back to the 16th century.
January 16th
- National Appreciate A Dragon Day: A day dedicated to learning about dragons and sharing your love for these creatures. It is marked by the reading of books that feature dragons and the celebration of dragons through art.
- National Nothing Day: It is an anti-holiday where you can sit without celebrating, observing, or honouring anything. You're not meant to do anything on this day.
- National Religious Freedom Day: A day to reflect on our right to practice, pray, and preach our faiths peacefully, openly, and without persecution.
January 17th
- Benjamin Franklin Day: Observed to honour Benjamin Franklin - on his birthday - one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America and a noted scientist, inventor, and statesperson.
- Museum Selfie Day: Celebrate selfies taken at museums using #MuseumSelfie. Promotes awareness of remarkable collections of work stored in museums.
- Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day: Also known as "Quitters Day", the second Friday in January is the most likely day people give up their New Year's resolutions. The day embraces the freedom of spontaneity and letting those well-intentioned plans take a back seat to life's delightful surprises.
- International We Are Not Broken Day: A day to remember all victims of trauma or mental illness.
- International Mentoring Day: Celebrates and raises awareness of the importance of having mentors and role models to look up to.
January 18th
- National Winnie The Pooh Day: Commemorates the birthday of Alan Alexander Milne (January 18th, 1882), who wrote Winnie The Pooh.
- Get to Know Your Customers Day: It is an opportunity for businesses to build relationships with their customers and show appreciation for those who support them.
- Run an email survey to know your audience better and identify any common FAQs.
- National Thesaurus Day: Honours the birthday of Peter Mark Roget (January 18th, 1779), who created the first thesaurus.
January 19th
- Popcorn Day: A celebration of popcorn (salted, buttered, or caramel), a tine-honoured snack that goes perfectly with watching a movie.
- National Tin Can Day: A day dedicated to the humble tin can that preserves some of our favourite food items.
- Good Memory Day: A holiday to remind us of the importance of memory and how it plays a critical role in our lives.
January 20th
- National Use Your Gift Card Day: A reminder to use your unused gift cards before they are forgotten or expired. In the U.S., almost $1 billion in gift cards are unused yearly.
- If you sell gift cards on your website, send an email reminder to anyone who hasn't used their gift card already - they'll appreciate the reminder, and it'll build brand loyalty. If they don't use it in the month of January, they likely never will.
- Penguin Awareness Day: A day of awareness for penguins, the flightless birds whose numbers are dwindling by the day, including educating ourselves on the factors contributing to their extinction
- National Cheese Lover's Day: A celebration of the world's many different types of cheeses.
- Take a Walk Outdoors Day: Encourages people to step outside for a walk alone or with someone to avail of its health benefits
- International Day of Acceptance: A day to achieve social acceptance of disability. It encourages everyone to embrace those of all abilities.
January 21st
- National Hugging Day: A holiday to encourage hugging, a therapeutic way to convey affection and emotions.
- Squirrel Appreciation Day: An opportunity to learn about and celebrate squirrels, the world's cutest rodents.
January 22nd
- Celebration of Life Day: This day is primarily about spending time with your children and grandchildren to recognise the joy they bring to our lives.
- National Blonde Brownie Day: A celebration of blonde brownies, often called blondies.
- National Answer Your Cat's Questions Day: This day encourages cat owners to understand their cats better and help them have a better life.
January 23rd
- National Pie Day: A day to celebrate pies.
- National Handwriting Day: It encourages us to pen to paper and write our thoughts.
- If we send a campaign on January 23rd, we'll always handwrite the copy and have the email directly from the brand's founder. Then, we add a P.S. explaining why we've handwritten the email.
January 24th
- Library Shelfie Day: A day for book lovers to share their favourite books and library shelves with the world in a fun way, using the #LibraryShelfie.
- Peanut Butter Day: A day to celebrate peanut butter and all its glory.
- Global Belly Laugh Day: A celebration of the beautiful gift of laughter. It is a day to highlight good deeds in the community, focusing on the positive power and the common thread of kindness which binds us.
- This is an excellent opportunity to tell a personal story about your brand that your subscribers will laugh at and also grow closer to your brand.
- National Compliment Day: It celebrates the gift of praise and its power to change people.
- Rather than telling your subscribers they're amazing (which they are), use this holiday to showcase your best customer reviews (compliments) from the past year.
January 25th
- National Opposite Day: A fun day where you can say the opposite of what you mean.
- Share successful before and after photos of customers using your products. For example, if you're creating January newsletter ideas for a skincare brand, show a picture of how a customer looked using another product versus how they now look using your product.
January 26th
- National Fun at Work Day: A day dedicated to boosting employee happiness and promoting a better work/life balance.
- Republic Day (India): A commemoration of the enactment of the constitution of India, which came into effect on January 26th, 1950.
- Segment your Indian audience and send them an email wishing them a Happy Republic Day.
- Australia Day: The official national day of Australia marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet of 11 convict ships from Great Britain and the raising of the Union Jack in New South Wales.
- Segment your Australian audience and send them an email wishing them a Happy Australia Day.
- National Spouses Day: Celebrates the bond between two people and sets aside time for couples to show each other gratitude. While similar to Valentine's Day, it's primarily for married couples and lifelong partners, so keep this in mind when sending newsletters themed for this holiday.
- Use this as a pre-Valentine's Day campaign where you offer your prospects and customers a gift guide to shop early for their loved ones.
January 27th
- Punch the Clock Day: A day to recognise the 'punch the clock' system of clocking in and out of work.
- Local Quilt Shop Day: An event to raise awareness of the importance of independent quilt shops to the local economy.
- National Chocolate Cake Day: This holiday celebrates the history and deliciousness of all kinds of chocolate cakes.
January 28th
- World Leprosy Day: A celebration of the leprosy community and an opportunity to raise public awareness of leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease.
- National Kazoo Day: A day to remember how playing and listening to the kazoo brings happiness to people of all ages.
- Data Privacy Day: An opportunity to raise awareness of privacy and data protection issues in your organisation and worldwide.
January 29th
- National Corn Chip Day: Celebrate the invention of the corn chip.
- If you're a crisp or tortilla chip brand, this is your moment. This holiday was created for you.
- National Puzzle Day: Recognises the value of puzzles and how they can benefit mental development.
- Similar to our approach on National Trivia Day, we recommend including a puzzle related to your brand in an email you send on January 29th.
January 30th
- National Plan for Vacation Day: Now that we're settled into a new year of work, this day reminds us to plan our vacations to take time off work.
- January blues are real, so use this holiday to remind your subscribers to plan their vacations for the rest of the year. If your products are travel-related, it's a perfect segue to showcase them. Last year, for National Plan for Vacation Day, we sent a campaign with an infographic we designed explaining how our subscribers could use public holidays to maximise their time off from work. We received a ton of positive feedback about the campaign.
- National Backward Day: A fun day to do everything backwards: wear your clothes backwards, write backwards, read backwards, and get ready backwards
- National Croissant Day: Celebrates the buttery, flaky, and crescent-shaped pastry known as the croissant. Every day is a croissant day for me, and I secretly have my own Instagram profile dedicated to London's best croissants
- National Draw A Dinosaur Day: Celebrates the mysticism and magic surrounding these magnificent animals (dinosaurs) that once roamed the world aeons ago.
January 31st
- National Hot Chocolate Day: A celebration of hot chocolate, the timeless cold-weather beverage.
- National Inspire Your Heart With Art Day: Recognises the importance of art in our lives and encourages us to visit an art museum.
Week-Long Events for January
Some events are celebrated for a whole week, and we’ve included all of January 2024’s week-long events for you below so that you can incorporate these into your campaign calendar.
Celebration of Life Week (January 1-7)
A reminder to approach the New Year with a heart full of gratitude. During this week, we're encouraged to embrace life and all its wonderful blessings.
Diet Resolution Week (January 1-7)
This week was designed to support people dedicated to losing weight over the coming months. It's focused on empowering healthier lifestyles by promoting mindful eating choices.
Newsletter idea: Start a 7-day newsletter series where you give a tip every day to your subscribers on how they can lead a healthier lifestyle.
New Year’s Resolutions Week (January 1-7)
This is an opportunity for us to make resolutions for the New Year.
Newsletter idea: On the first day of New Year's Resolutions Week (January 1st), ask subscribers to reply to your email with their resolutions. Then, throughout the week, in your other emails, you can feature some resolutions from subscribers to give a community feel to your newsletter and to let others know they're not alone in setting and achieving goals.
National Mocktail Week (January 14-20)
A week to recognise the growing number of people choosing non-alcoholic drinks over traditional options. Raise a mocktail and say a toast to those who've decided to lead an alcohol-free lifestyle.
Pizza Week (January 14-20)
A seven-day celebration of pizza, one of the world's most loved and iconic foods.
Universal Letter Writing Week (January 14-20)
A week in which we're encouraged to take out a pen and paper and write to someone. Nothing beats the thrill of receiving a handwritten letter in the mail.
Big Energy Saving Week (January 17-23)
A campaign to help people cut their energy costs. This includes raising awareness of switching energy suppliers or tariffs to get the best deal and making your home more energy efficient.
Sugar Awareness Week (January 18-24)
A week to raise awareness of the damaging effects of too much sugar in our diet.
National Healthy Weight Week (January 21-27)
A week to understand the importance of maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle.
Hunt for Happiness Week (January 21-27)
A week to celebrate the little joys in life, especially those happy moments we usually overlook. It's a way to recognise that some of us get post-holiday blues and to help us "hunt" for happiness during winter.
National Storytelling Week (January 30-February 6)
A celebration of the power of sharing stories.
Monthly Events for January
January 2024 has some events running throughout the month, so I’ve also included these for you.
National Stalking Awareness Month
A call-to-action for the month of January to recognise and respond to the serious crime of stalking.
Veganuary
A month-long event to promote and educate people about veganism by encouraging people to follow a vegan lifestyle for January.
Dry January
A month-long challenge where people abstain from alcohol and stay sober, leading to weight loss, better sleep and other health benefits.
National Hobby Month
A celebration of our favourite hobbies and a reminder to try new hobbies during January.
Get Organized Month
A month-long event to help individuals, businesses, and schools implement time management, organisation, storage solutions, and productivity into their daily lives.
Thyroid Awareness Month
A month-long campaign to raise awareness about thyroid-related diseases and thyroid cancer.
International Creativity Month
This month-long celebration encourages people to step out of their comfort zones and create something exciting and new.
National Soup Month
A celebration of soup: the perfect, warming winter meal choice.
National Blood Donor Month
A time to recognise the importance of giving blood and platelets while honouring dedicated donors.
National Braille Literacy Month
A month-long event to raise awareness of Braille literacy.
National Glaucoma Awareness Month
An opportunity to spread the word about glaucoma, a sight-stealing disease which is the leading cause of vision loss and blindness in the United States of America.
January Email Subject Lines
I’ve gone through last January’s most opened emails across brands we work with to give you subject line ideas for your January newsletters.
- “Resolutions, anyone?” - New Year’s Day (January 1st, 2024)
- “Shhh… great minds at work” - World Introvert Day (January 2nd, 2024)
- “Snuggle up with savings” - Cuddle Up Day (January 6th, 2024)
- “What’s another word for…?” - Thesaurus Day (January 18th, 2024)
- “Do you remember the time?” - Good Memory Day (January 19th, 2024)
- “Discover winter wellness tips - beat the blues!” - Hunt for Happiness Week (January 21st to January 27th, 2024)
- “Definitely don’t open this email!” - National Opposite Day (January 25th, 2024)
- “Have we got a story to tell you!” - National Storytelling Week (January 30th to February 6th, 2024)
- “Cozy up and save big this winter ❄️” - Embrace the Winter Cold
- “This is snowww joke” - Embrace the Winter Cold
New Year, Continued Email Marketing Success
Now that your January campaign calendar is filled with newsletter ideas, you can kickstart your email marketing for the new year.
We've got you covered if you’re already looking to start brainstorming February newsletter ideas.
