Holidays in a Hurry

The month may be halfway over, but it’s not too late to plan a holiday message for your customers, clients, members, and supporters. Whether you want to whip up a brand new message with a themed template or simply add cheer to your usual emails, we’ve got you covered.

Adding a Dash of Mistletoe

If you already have an email, survey invitation, or event invitation planned, it’s easy to add a few select holiday elements.

• Bring in some holiday flavor with images. Nothing grabs attention like a picture, and a single image that matches your holiday greetings may be all you need to brighten up your message.

• Add to your existing photos. Details make a huge difference. If you upload your image to us and then edit it in Picnik, you can add any number of graphics. Toss a wreath over your logo or add some snow to a product picture. It’s all open for you.
  
  
  
• Indulge in the whimsical. Polls are a fun, engaging way to add a little extra to any email. When you have an occasion like the holidays, you can use that opportunity to be a little more playful. Ask about favorite candy cane flavors or favorite shopping days — or anything else in between.

Picking the Perfect Template

If you do want to create the perfect holiday email from scratch, you’ve got several options. Here are a few tips you’ll want to keep in mind.

• Check everywhere! Every single template can be modified, however there are three places where you can get a head start on holiday or winter themes.
  
  
  • Industry: Holiday – There aren’t many templates under this category, but that makes it perfect for reviewing its options quickly.
    
    
  • Type: Holiday – This is the big stash right here. No matter what holiday you celebrate, whether it's Christmas, Hanukkah, or something else, you'll find everything that's snowman or gingerbread related under this type.
    
    
  • Type: Seasonal – I always check the seasonal category when I want to find something that is more color orientated than object focused. After all, I can always add elements if the color scheme is appropriately wintery.
    
    
    

• Remember your image options. Not only can every image be changed, but we also offer a choice of images for some templates. Any time you see the symbol below while you are browsing, it means that there are recommended additional images available for that template.
  
  
  
  Just click on the little magnifying glass on your preview and an overlay screen will show you those additional options.
  
  
  

Best of all, none of these possibilities disappear with the holiday season. All of our template categories have multiple image options, every image can be altered in Picnik, and you can always add a dash of spice to any newsletter, whether it’s the season for jolliness or not!

To read more about creating or perfecting some of the things we suggested here, check out these FAQs:

FAQ 2814: Add a poll to an email, blog, or social networking site
FAQ 4915: Share an event invitation email on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
FAQ 2884: Optimize images for upload into Constant Contact
FAQ 3465: Adding stock images to the image library

Contributed by: Jaime McCall, Knowledge Base Writer, Constant Contact