Should email marketers decrease email volume on major holidays?
Matthew Whittaker
Co-founder & CTO, Suped
Published 22 Jul 2025
Updated 16 Aug 2025
6 min read
The holiday season presents a unique challenge for email marketers. On one hand, it's a period of heightened consumer spending, offering significant revenue opportunities. On the other, inboxes become incredibly crowded, making it harder to stand out and risking subscriber fatigue. This often leads to a critical question: should email volume be decreased on major holidays to preserve engagement and deliverability?
The answer isn't a simple yes or no. It largely depends on your specific industry, audience, and the type of emails you send. A blanket approach to reducing or increasing volume across all major holidays might lead to missed opportunities or unnecessary deliverability issues.
I often see marketers struggling to balance promotional pushes with maintaining a healthy sender reputation. Understanding how email volume and its fluctuations affect deliverability and sender reputation is key, especially during peak sending events. Let's delve into the nuances of holiday email sending strategies.
Understanding holiday email dynamics
Major holidays, particularly those associated with significant shopping events like Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, often see an exponential increase in email volume from brands. For many B2C (business-to-consumer) companies, these days are not about decreasing volume but strategically increasing it. The goal is to capitalize on peak shopping intent and drive sales.
Data shows that Thanksgiving can be a record-setting day for email service providers (ESPs), indicating massive sending volumes. Deals often begin even before the official holiday, starting as early as Wednesday night for online retailers. This means marketers are sending at minimum one email per day, often for a solid week, to capture consumer attention during these crucial periods.
However, this surge in volume comes with its own challenges. The increased competition in the inbox can lead to lower open rates for all brands, as consumers are inundated with messages. Therefore, while increasing volume might be necessary for sales, careful segmentation and compelling content become even more critical to cut through the clutter.
Balancing opportunity and risk by audience
The decision to adjust email volume on holidays hinges significantly on your business model. What works for a B2C e-commerce brand during Black Friday will likely not be effective for a B2B software company on Christmas Day. B2B marketers, for instance, typically see decreased engagement on major holidays because their audience is often out of the office and not checking work-related emails.
In fact, many sources advise against sending important marketing emails on holidays like Christmas Day or July 4th, as engagement is significantly lower. For B2B, the days before or after a holiday might be more ideal for sending. Similarly, some non-commerce B2C industries might also benefit from toning down their email frequency on actual holidays.
B2C holidays (e.g. Black Friday)
Volume: Likely increase frequency and overall volume to capitalize on sales opportunities.
Content: Focus on promotions, sales, and urgent calls to action. Leverage pre-holiday anticipation.
Timing: Send during peak shopping hours, which might extend into evenings on holidays.
B2B holidays (e.g. Christmas Day)
Volume: Consider decreasing or pausing sends, especially for typical business hours.
Content: Shift to evergreen content, value-driven newsletters, or pause non-essential communications.
Timing: Focus on the days surrounding the holiday, or target specific segments not observing the holiday.
This distinction is crucial, as attempting to apply a B2C holiday strategy to a B2B audience can lead to low engagement and potentially damage your sender reputation. Conversely, a B2C brand that significantly reduces volume during a key sales holiday might miss out on substantial revenue.
Maintaining deliverability amidst volume changes
Regardless of whether you increase or decrease volume, maintaining email deliverability during periods of high sending activity or significant fluctuations is paramount. Mailbox providers pay close attention to sending behavior. A sudden, drastic increase in volume can trigger spam filters and lead to your emails being marked as spam or even your IP being added to a blocklist (or blacklist).
A good rule of thumb is to ensure that your email volumes do not exceed previous volumes by more than 20% to 25% for optimal delivery. This controlled increase helps in managing your sender reputation, which is influenced by factors like engagement, bounce rates, and spam complaints.
Best practices for holiday sending
Segment your list: Don't send one-size-fits-all emails. Tailor content and offers to specific audience segments based on their engagement history or purchase behavior. This is crucial for avoiding email fatigue and improving email deliverability rates.
Monitor performance: Keep a close eye on your domain reputation, engagement rates, and blocklist status throughout the holiday period. This helps identify and address issues quickly.
Sudden volume spikes, especially if not backed by strong engagement, can lead to your emails going to the spam folder. This is why a controlled approach to volume, even during peak times, is essential.
Strategic considerations beyond volume
Beyond just volume, consider the broader context of holiday email marketing. Your strategy should include advanced planning, unique content, and clear value propositions to stand out in a crowded inbox. Email fatigue is a real concern during the holidays, so over-sending irrelevant content can be detrimental.
For example, while consumers might be actively looking for deals on Black Friday, they might be disengaged from promotional emails on Christmas Day itself. A study noted a link between an abrupt increase in email volume during the holiday season and a decrease in open rates across all campaigns. This underscores the need for strategic timing rather than just mass sending. You can find more information about holiday email deliverability on Simondata's guide to best practices.
Also, consider the global audience if applicable. Not all countries observe the same holidays or have the same consumer behavior patterns. Even within the US, non-commerce B2C industries might differ from retail. Twilio suggests that while major holidays often see lower open rates, the day before or after can be ideal.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Maintain a consistent sending cadence throughout the year and gradually increase volume if needed, rather than sudden spikes.
Segment your audience based on engagement and behavior to tailor holiday messages for maximum relevance.
Provide clear value and avoid overly promotional content, especially on holidays where engagement is traditionally low.
Monitor your deliverability metrics closely during peak seasons to quickly address any issues.
Common pitfalls
Suddenly increasing email volume without prior IP warming or a consistent sending history.
Sending generic, one-size-fits-all emails to your entire list during highly competitive holiday periods.
Ignoring audience segmentation and sending B2B emails on major consumer holidays, leading to low engagement.
Failing to monitor email deliverability, potentially leading to blocklist listings or spam folder placement.
Expert tips
Pre-planning your holiday email marketing strategy months in advance allows for proper list segmentation and content creation.
Focus on nurturing relationships and providing value, not just sales, to maintain long-term subscriber loyalty.
Consider alternative channels or different email types (e.g., transactional) for holidays where promotional emails might not perform.
A/B test subject lines and send times leading up to major holidays to optimize for your specific audience.
Marketer view
A marketer from Email Geeks says that while they would love to send less email, during the holiday season, the pressure is often to send more.
2022-11-22 - Email Geeks
Expert view
An expert from Email Geeks says that Thanksgiving is often a record-setting day for ESPs, indicating extremely high email volumes.
2022-11-22 - Email Geeks
Finding the right holiday email balance
There's no universal rule for holiday email volume. For B2C marketers, major shopping holidays often necessitate increased sending to capture revenue, but this must be balanced with smart segmentation and relevant content to avoid subscriber fatigue and maintain positive sender reputation. For B2B or non-commerce B2C brands, decreasing volume or shifting to evergreen content on actual holidays can be a more effective strategy, respecting audience availability and preventing messages from being lost in crowded inboxes.
The key is to understand your specific audience's behavior during different holidays and to adjust your strategy accordingly, rather than adhering to a one-size-fits-all approach. Prioritize engagement, maintain consistent sending practices, and continuously monitor your deliverability metrics. This proactive approach ensures your emails reach the inbox effectively, no matter the season.
