7 Best Email Marketing Strategies for Chinese (Lunar) New Year

The Lunar New Year, often called Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, is a peak time for engagement in Asian markets. Email marketing can cut through the noise during this busy season by delivering personalized, eye-catching messages straight to subscribers’ inboxes. 

By combining festive themes with smart targeting, marketers can use email to directly wish “Happy Lunar New Year!” to customers and subtly weave in timely offers. This results in more opens and higher conversions during a period when 72% of consumers prefer branded content by email.

The Lunar New Year is a season of celebration and also one of the most competitive times for brands. Email stands out as the ideal channel to cut through the noise and connect meaningfully with customers because of the following reasons.

• Direct and personal connection: With a major chunk of users checking email daily, it remains the most trusted channel for customer engagement.
• High ROI: Email delivers an estimated $36 return on every dollar spent, outperforming social media and other digital channels for festive promotions.
• Flexible and creative: From festive visuals to interactive offers, email supports rich storytelling and precise personalization, helping brands stand out in crowded inboxes.

Effective email campaigns for the Lunar New Year rely on cultural relevance and audience insight. Below are seven effective strategies, each illustrated with real examples, that email marketers can apply to stand out and engage customers during the holiday season.

Key Email Marketing Strategies for Lunar New Year 

Mentioned below are seven Chinese New Year email marketing strategies, many of which have been used by real brands.

1. Craft Personalized Lunar New Year Greetings

The subject line of your lunar new year email should spark curiosity and convey goodwill. Include auspicious phrases or greetings in the customer’s language, such as  “Gong Xi Fa Cai! Wishing You Prosperity” or “Happy Spring Festival!” When possible, personalize with the recipient’s name or local references. 

The “Fortune Favors the Bold – Toast to the New Year” email is a strong example of how to craft personalized Lunar New Year greetings that feel both festive and authentic. Its headline immediately resonates with Lunar New Year themes of fortune, boldness, and celebration, while the “toast” metaphor evokes gatherings, joy, and shared optimism. Rather than jumping straight into a sales pitch, the email leads with an emotional, greeting-like message that makes the recipient feel included in the celebration.

Design plays a big role in its effectiveness. The layout uses bold typography and celebratory visuals that stand out in crowded inboxes, while likely incorporating festive colors and styling that enhance cultural relevance. This balance of greeting and branding works well: it builds goodwill while still leaving room for subtle promotion.

Marketers can learn to personalize greetings by blending emotional wishes with brand identity, ensuring the message feels timely, warm, and culturally attuned, much more engaging than a generic festive email.

2. Use Festive Design and Themes

Make your email look and feel like a Lunar New Year celebration. Incorporate traditional red and gold colors, symbols of luck and prosperity, and familiar icons, such as dragons, rabbits, lanterns, firecrackers, and zodiac animals. Using these elements brings in the festive spirit and significantly boosts engagement.

Kurt Geiger’s Lunar New Year email immediately sets the festive tone with the header “The Lunar New Year Collection” and vibrant red and gold visuals. These design elements evoke cultural associations with luck, prosperity, and new beginnings, aligning the message with the holiday.

The email emphasizes exclusivity through a limited-edition drop, creating urgency and making the collection feel relevant to the occasion. Product imagery is framed within the festive context, reinforcing the connection to the celebration. 

The call-to-action, Shop the Collection, is integrated seamlessly into the visuals, encouraging subscribers to engage without feeling pushy.

3. Segment Your Audience and Tailor Content

Not all subscribers celebrate the Lunar New Year the same way. Use hyper-segmentation to send the right message to each group. Segment by geography, past behavior, or demographics. 

The Harney & Sons “Friend, we know you’re ready for the Lunar New Year 2021 tea!” email is a strong illustration of how segmentation and tailored content make festive emails more relevant. The subject line and greeting feel intimate and directed, a style that works best when sent to engaged segments such as loyal customers, past tea buyers, or frequent newsletter openers. Instead of a generic holiday promotion, the content presents a tea inspired by Nian Gao, a traditional Lunar New Year delicacy. This cultural reference resonates with subscribers who celebrate the holiday or appreciate specialty blends, making the message feel thoughtful and targeted.

Sent in mid-December, it reaches planners who shop early for seasonal goods rather than waiting until the last minute. That reinforces the sense that Harney & Sons understands their customers’ buying habits.

4. Build Automated Multi-Step Journeys

Lunar New Year spans about two weeks, so marketers can plan a series of emails rather than a single blast. Begin with an early greeting or teaser well in advance of the festival, and then follow up with promotional emails. For example, 

• Send a friendly “Happy Chinese New Year!” message ~7–10 days before the holiday
• Follow this with a reminder or limited-time discount as it approaches. 
• If Lunar New Year overlaps with Valentine’s Day, as it did in recent years, you can even tie both themes into a single journey 

Use the email platform’s automation to schedule these touches. Trigger follow-up messages based on engagement. For instance, send a special offer only to subscribers who clicked your initial greeting. Automated workflows ensure you stay top-of-mind during the long holiday period without manual effort.

5. Add Interactive and Engaging Elements

Surprise subscribers with gamification and dynamic content in their email. One fun idea is a digital “red envelope” (红包) scratchcard where recipients click on an envelope image to reveal a discount code or prize.

This mimics the tradition of giving red money envelopes and makes opening the email an active experience. Interactivity like this boosts engagement and memorability. 

You can also include countdown timers to key moments. For example, include a timer that reads “2 days until Lunar New Year!” to create excitement and urgency.

This email from Google includes details about the Year of the Tiger. It contains myths, facts, or cultural traditions that the Google product can help its users with. This content turns the email into something to explore rather than just scroll past.

6. Perfect Your Timing and Cadence 

Identify the best time to send email campaigns. Send emails when customers are most receptive to your message. Early morning timing from 9–11 am local time often yields high open rates. Start your Lunar New Year sequence about 1–2 weeks before the holiday to catch planners. If possible, schedule follow-ups on major festival dates, such as the first day of the new year, since people may be checking news and email. 

Build in urgency by including countdowns for “last chance” deals as the New Year arrives. Some brands even combine Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day in January and February campaigns, as the holidays can be close together, so bridging those messages can maintain momentum.

Keep an eye on results by using quick surveys or monitors to see if subscribers prefer one day over another. Above all, don’t let momentum drop. A post-holiday thank-you or survey can keep engagement rolling after the celebrations, too.

7. Offer Culturally Relevant Deals and Rewards

Lunar New Year shoppers expect special promotions. Nearly 75% of consumers look for holiday discounts in their inbox. Make your offer feel on-theme by tying products or values to traditions.

This email features a limited-edition collaboration between Roots and CLOT that leans into heritage, melding contemporary streetwear with traditional motifs. The email highlights rich colours and iconic embroidery, known to bring prosperity and good fortune, tying product design to traditional Lunar New Year symbolism. It uses culturally meaningful rewards such as themed designs and aesthetics rather than generic discounts. And it sweetens the deal with free shipping on orders above US$70, a reward that encourages purchase without undermining brand value.

This is effective because it makes the offer not just transactional, but meaningful within the festival’s context, matching customers’ mindset during Lunar New Year.

What marketers can learn:

• Use collaborations or limited editions to drive exclusivity and cultural relevance.
• Embed culturally symbolic design elements and colors associated with good luck.
• Combine rewards, free shipping, and bonus points with design or product relevance to align with the festival’s themes.
• Position deals not just as discounts but as meaningful offerings that reflect the spirit of Lunar New Year.

Why These Lunar New Year Email Marketing Strategies Work 

The best Chinese New Year email marketing campaigns succeed because they blend personalization, cultural relevance, and smart timing.

• Personal, measurable, and scalable: A well-crafted Lunar New Year email enables direct one-to-one communication at scale. With measurable data, every campaign can be optimized. Research shows 80% of shoppers are more likely to buy from brands that deliver personalized experiences.
  
• Festive design and personalization drive engagement: Using Lunar New Year colors, greetings, and culturally relevant offers taps into emotion and tradition. Segmented and tailored Lunar New Year emails consistently achieve higher open and click rates than generic blasts.
  
• Automation and timing maximize ROI: Contextual messages sent at the right moment, whether it’s a greeting, festive offer, or last-minute reminder, ensure relevance and conversions. With 99% of people checking email daily, email Chinese New Year campaigns deliver unmatched ROI.

How CleverTap Helps Brands Deliver Impactful Email Campaigns 

CleverTap, an all-in-one customer engagement platform,  empowers marketers to transform festive ideas into scalable, automated, and measurable results, not just for Lunar New Year, but all year long. Its powerful combination of automation, segmentation, and real-time analytics makes it the go-to platform for brands looking to deliver festive campaigns that perform at scale. 

Here’s how CleverTap can help marketers create meaningful, high-performing Lunar New Year email campaigns:

1. Segmentation and Personalization:

Build precise audience segments based on geography, behavior, purchase history, app activity, and lifecycle stage. Personalize subject lines, offers, and visuals for each segment to make festive messages truly relevant.

CleverTap’s AI-driven customer segmentation automatically groups users based on predicted engagement or purchase likelihood, helping you tailor your “Happy Lunar New Year” campaigns for maximum resonance. Example: Trigger a “fortune cookie” email for users browsing Lunar New Year collections, or send a curated reminder to shoppers who engaged with, but didn’t complete an earlier festive offer.

2. Omnichannel Orchestration

Go beyond inbox-only campaigns by unifying touchpoints across email, push notifications, WhatsApp, SMS, and in-app messaging. Reinforce festive greetings with follow-ups on the channels your customers prefer, ensuring consistent engagement across the journey. You can automate cross-channel sequences where an unopened email triggers a push notification or a WhatsApp follow-up, ensuring your festive message reaches customers wherever they are.

3. Real-Time Triggers for Contextual Messaging

Automate timely outreach based on customer actions. Send a Lunar New Year discount immediately after cart abandonment, or greet users who just installed your app with a festive welcome. Context-driven triggers help you strike while intent is high.

CleverTap’s event-based triggers and real-time data processing ensure every action, from browsing a festive collection to redeeming a coupon, can launch a personalized follow-up in seconds.

4. CleverAI: Agentic Intelligence for ROI-Driven Campaigns 

At the core of CleverTap’s innovation is CleverAI, an agentic intelligence engine that operates through a network of autonomous yet collaborative agents. Each of them is designed to drive a different aspect of customer engagement.

• Strategy Agents define campaign goals, refine approaches in real time, and continuously optimize for growth in customer lifetime value (CLV).
• Decision Agents analyze data, predict user intent, and map the right product, offer, or workflow for every customer.
• Creative Agents generate individualized copies, templates, and message variants, blending emotional intelligence with data-backed personalization.
• Action Agents put everything into motion by orchestrating 1:1 interactions across channels, following your brand guardrails and goals.

Together, these agents form the CleverAI Decisioning Engine, enabling marketers to move beyond static automation into a realm of adaptive, self-learning engagement. For festive campaigns, CleverAI ensures every message feels timely, emotionally relevant, and outcome-optimized, making Lunar New Year communications smarter and more human.

5. Lifecycle Journeys Beyond Festive Campaigns

Use CleverTap’s no-code journey builder and drag-and-drop editor to design multi-step campaigns. Set up funnels such as: Greeting Email > Product Showcase > Reminder > Last-Chance Countdown > Post-Holiday Thank You. Nurture customer relationships beyond Lunar New Year, building loyalty into the months that follow. This helps maintain engagement before, during, and after the festival, nurturing customer loyalty beyond the celebrations.

6. Cohort Analysis and Real-Time Analytics

Access detailed dashboards showing open rates, conversions, and revenue impact across festive campaigns. CleverTap’s cohort analysis feature helps identify which user groups engaged most with Lunar New Year content, enabling marketers to refine future campaigns and optimize budget allocation. The platform also supports revenue attribution, allowing brands to track exactly how much each festive email journey contributes to sales.

CleverTap enables marketers to blend creativity with automation, ensuring festive emails are not only beautifully designed but also intelligent, data-driven, and effective. It unites personalization, predictive intelligence, and cross-channel delivery and helps brands turn seasonal greetings into lasting customer relationships. Whether you’re planning a Happy Lunar New Year greeting or a year-long retention strategy, CleverTap provides the tools to deliver contextual, personalized, and measurable campaigns at scale.

Celebrate Lunar New Year with Campaigns That Deliver Results

The Lunar New Year presents a golden opportunity for email marketers to connect with customers. By using personalized greetings, festive visuals, precise segmentation, automated flows, and creative engagement tactics, your emails can stand out amid the holiday clutter. 

Emails with culturally-relevant offers and on-theme designs drive open rates and sales. Moreover, with a platform like CleverTap handling the heavy lifting via automation, omnichannel delivery, and analytics, marketers can efficiently roll out professional campaigns at scale. 

Apply these best practices, and your ‘Happy Chinese New Year!’ emails will delight recipients and boost your bottom line during this important festival season. 

Ready to craft personalized, high-converting Lunar New Year campaigns? Schedule a demo with CleverTap and see how you can turn festive engagement into year-round growth.