Save time building Christmas templates

Five rules for festive emails that get opened, plus a block-by-block look at a working Christmas template.

Item two on the Christmas shopping list: the festive email template. With a drag-and-drop builder it's an afternoon's work, and built well it gets reused every December after.

First, five rules that decide whether a festive email lands.

Five rules for templates that work

1. Stick to one colour scheme. Pick two or three festive tones and stay with them; a scattered palette is what makes an email look homemade.

1. Use different elements and columns so the email is easy to scan. Nobody reads a wall of text on a phone in a queue.

1. Balance text and images. Emails that are nearly all image tend to land poorly, and say less when they do.

1. Include more than one CTA button. Repeat the booking ask through the email, in bright colours that stand out from the background.

1. Use high-quality images. They're the sneak peek of the party; a blurry one sells nothing.

How our Christmas template is built

Here's the same template, block by block. The building blocks make it quick: drag one in, drop your content in, move on.

The header

Logo, banner image, one clear button. That's the whole job of the header: who it's from, what it's about, what to do next.

The main body

For readability and conversion, the top of the body uses a z-pattern layout. The eye alternates between image and text down the page and finishes on a call to action.

An image with a text overlay breaks it up and adds movement. The classic image-above-text block finishes it off, showing every offer at a glance.

Build it once in October, send it every December. If you'd rather not start from a blank page, email templates come ready-made, and workflows can put the whole festive sequence on autopilot.