32+ St. Patrick’s Day Email Examples & Subject Lines That Spark Engagement

March 17th rolls around, and everyone’s sipping green beer and feeling lucky. Originally an Irish Holiday, St. Patrick’s Day has evolved into a global celebration in 200+ countries. 

In the United States alone, holiday spending reached a record $7.2 billion in 2024. And according to the National Retail Federation, 61% of Americans plan to celebrate the day, and 75% of them wear green. Some dine out, a few host parties, while some people decorate their homes and offices. 

This gives retailers and e-commerce brands a real opportunity to tap into the fun with vibrant green designs, playful copy, and tempting deals. If you’re to make the most of this holiday, here’s how you can plan your email marketing to maximize engagement. 

CleverTap can help you automate all this magic at scale. 

Why St. Patrick’s Day Email Marketing Matters

St. Patrick’s Day is huge for retailers, both brick-and-mortar and online. 

People love this excuse to celebrate: parades, parties, special meals, and lots of green. Marketers can ride that wave. Bars, restaurants, and pubs see spikes in foot traffic. Since the holiday isn’t limited to Ireland, Americans, Canadians, Aussies, and more join in, making it a global chance to connect.

The psychology is simple: everyone’s in a festive mood and open to themed deals. Light-hearted holidays like this allow brands to show personality, make customers smile, and bundle products into lucky day promotions. For example, clever subject lines with “luck” or “pot of gold” can skyrocket opens. 

Savvy brands craft themed emails that entertain (think shamrocks, puns, playful quizzes) and push limited-time offers. In the next section, you’ll see them actually doing it through the lenses of some winning St. Patrick’s Day email examples. 

12 Winning St. Patrick’s Day Email Marketing Strategies

March 17th doesn’t come every week, so plan a campaign that feels lucky and lively. Here are a few strategies to help you get started: 

1. Start the Party Early with Pre-Holiday Teasers

Don’t send only one email on the 17th. People shop early. It’s best to start teasing the holiday a week before. For example, email subscribers about an upcoming “Lucky Week” sale or new green products coming soon. Then, send a final reminder on the day of. 

Early teasers get people excited and on your site ahead of time. Some brands even send green “coming soon” postcards to increase suspense!

Consider this Best Day Brewing example, for instance. It’s creating FOMO to order early to get the products on time, preferably before the holiday.

Explore more: 12 creative examples of holiday marketing campaigns that spark sales.

2. Use Luck as a Creative Hook

Give your campaign a lucky charm.  Weave luck and gold imagery into your copy and visuals. Brands can play with phrases like “Lucky Day,” “Pot o’ Gold,” or “Lucky You,” and sprinkle clovers or rainbows in the design. 

Take this example, for instance:

Yellowbird Sauce uses “Lucky” in its discount coupon and positions it prominently in its email. The email goes with a subject line “17% Off Your Next Bottle = Lucky You 🍀,” which increases its chances of opening. 

3. Go Green, Visually and Emotionally

This holiday demands green. Make your email pop with emerald hues, shamrock patterns, or even green-themed graphics. It catches the eye and ties in immediately. But emotional green can work, too. 

A clever twist is to celebrate “going green” in the eco-sense. For example, Sauna House sent a St. Patrick’s email titled “We’re green every day” to highlight sustainability. Instead of discounts, they shared their eco-friendly highlights, like reduced water usage. This hits double duty: the email feels on-theme (green = eco) and gives customers a feel-good story.

4. Send Limited-Time Offers with Urgency

Time-sensitive deals are gold. Flash a countdown or “ends tonight” to make folks act fast. Rugs.com nailed this with a big green banner: “Feeling Lucky: St. Patrick’s Day SALE up to 50–60% off: Today Only!” The email’s headline and bold “Today Only” button create real FOMO. 

Try phrases like “Today Only!”, “Ends at midnight!”, or “While the shamrocks last!” in your copy and CTAs. In one Rug.com email, they even split products into sections so customers could click directly to them, improving conversion. A ticker countdown or expiring promo code (like 17% off with code ending at midnight) can turbo-charge clicks. Here, urgency plus a green design equals a recipe for high engagement.

5. Personalize the Pot of Gold

Everyone loves to feel special. Use the subscriber’s name and tailor the content to their preferences or past purchases. Actually, you can go beyond that. For St. Patrick’s Day, CleverTap’s segmentation tool helps you go beyond just green-themed emails. 

You get to segment by behavior (past holiday shoppers or recent browsers of festive products), location, and lifecycle stages. Pair this with RFM data to reward your high-value champions with early-access offers while re-engaging dormant users through luck-themed discounts. 

You can use psychographic tags, such as party lovers or DIY decorators, to tailor messaging and visuals. This level of personalization scales effectively across your customer base, enabling high-conversion storytelling. 

Learn more about how to do RFM-based segmentation. 

6. Add Humor and Irish Wordplay

Puns and laughs are practically expected on St. Patrick’s Day. A silly subject line or punny copy keeps the mood light. You can ask whimsical questions like “Ready to shamrock?”, using Irish slang “Top o’ the morning!”, or offering silly luck tests.

Remember to match your brand’s tone. If you’re usually cheeky, go all-in with quips. Lighthearted humor not only entertains but also makes people remember your email. 

7. Celebrate Loyalty and Give Back

St. Patrick’s Day is about community. Use it to reward loyal customers or give back. You might run a “Lucky Loyalty” special where VIP members get an extra discount. Or donate a portion of profits to a charity, and tell subscribers in your email that green doesn’t only mean gold; it also means good deeds. 

CleverTap Promos delivers personalized loyalty experiences in real-time rewards based on users’ behavior, preferences, and lifecycle milestones with our loyalty rewards platform. It lets you define triggers, rewards, and delivery rules with no-code campaign creation using an intuitive visual builder. 

On CleverTap, you get all this with end-to-end lifecycle management for wallet creations, reward code generation, validation, and analysis. You can use it to show your loyal customers that you care, building goodwill while displaying a little generosity.

CleverTap allows you to automate loyalty management at scale.  

8. Launch Interactive Emails or Games

Engagement through interaction is pure gold. Embed mini-games like spin-to-win, scratch cards, or quizzes directly in your email (or link to a microsite) to make shopping fun. 

For St. Pat’s, think wheel-of-fortune with Irish spins or a “find the four-leaf clover” clicker. This combo of play and urgency drove huge click-throughs. 

You don’t need a full developer team. Many email marketing platforms, and CleverTap itself, support interactive blocks or GIFs that simulate games. The point is to get customers to click and share. 

Learn more about setting up and executing AMP campaigns in CleverTap.

9. Blend Storytelling with Festive Emotion

Don’t just sell, tell a story that fits the holiday’s tone. This could be a short narrative like, “Once upon a time on March 17…” or a mini case study. Here’s an example that blends storytelling well with other deals and promotions: 

You could recap your brand’s own St. Paddy’s party photo or share an Irish recipe tied to your product. 

The goal is to entertain and engage first, then lead into the offer casually.

10. Optimize Timing and Frequency

Timing is everything. Don’t send too many emails in a row. Two or three is enough to stay top-of-mind without annoying your list. Also consider time zones.

You can use tools like CleverTap’s send-time personalization so New Yorkers receive the email at 9 am EST and Californians at 9 am PST, etc. On the day itself, a final SMS or push notification can capture last-minute shoppers. CleverAI learns from real-time analytics and strategies, and emails at the right time and frequency accordingly.

It’s best to space out your sends and A/B test at different times of day to find the sweet spot when the audience engages most. 

Related: Learn more about the best time to send emails. 

11. Use Gamified Subject Lines to Drive Curiosity

Just as you gamify the email content, gamify the subject line. Tease a game or reward to get that open. For example, “Feeling Lucky? Spin the wheel for prizes!” immediately hints at interactivity and a surprise. 

These lines trigger curiosity (and FOMO). Readers have to open and see what the deal is. 

Other ideas: 

• “Secret Pot o’ Gold Inside – 17% Off!” 
• “Spin to Win: Your St. Paddy’s Treat Awaits”. 

Even a clever emoji can spark interest. Just be sure the promise in the subject is actually in the email (no disappointment!). A little wordplay here goes a long way. Quotes like “Top o’ the mornin’: 17% off!” or “Sham-rock bottom prices inside” are fun and clickable.

Related reads: 14 inspiring app gamification examples to boost your mobile user experience.

12. Extend the Celebration with Post-Holiday Follow-Ups

The green fun doesn’t have to end on March 18th. After the holiday, send a thank-you or follow-up to keep engagement going. For buyers, send an order survey or “How’d you enjoy St. Paddy’s?” email, perhaps with a loyalty offer for Easter. 

For non-openers, a “still feeling lucky? One more gift for you” note recaptures interest. So if someone joined your list around St. Pat’s, follow up with a quick “Welcome: Here’s a new subscriber special!” email. Or, remind non-converters of their cart. 

A little post-Paddy outreach shows you value the new relationship and often turns a casual browser into a loyal customer.

20+ Catchy St. Patrick’s Day Email Subject Lines

Now for the fun part, subject lines. Below are 20+ subject lines, grouped by theme, with quick notes on their reasoning.  

Luck-Themed Subject Lines

Below are some St. Patrick’s Day subject lines focusing on the “luck” angle.  

Green-Themed Subject Lines

Below are some St. Patrick’s Day subject lines focusing on the green theme. 

Urgency and Action

Here are some subject lines to encourage action: 

Game/Contest Invites

Here are a few ways to gamify the experience in subject lines: 

Playful Puns

Here’s some humor to keep the holiday feeling up: 

Community/Celebration

Subject lines that keep up the festive spirit: 

Run Powerful St. Patrick’s Day Campaigns With CleverTap

All of these fun campaigns can be automated and measured with the right tools, and that’s where CleverTap comes in. With CleverTap’s email marketing platform, you can design and execute St. Patrick’s Day campaigns across email, push, SMS, and in-app from one dashboard. 

For example, you could create a multi-step journey that first emails customers green-themed product picks, then sends a follow-up reminder on 3/16, and finally sends a final “Lucky You” push notification on the 17th, all personalized by user behavior or location. CleverTap’s segmentation lets you send that extra-special “pot o’ gold” discount only to high-value customers, or only to folks who haven’t opened your March emails yet. Plus, CleverTap’s analytics help you learn from each campaign. 

It makes it easy to schedule and test messages by integrating real-time triggers. The platform turns the luck of holiday engagement into repeatable marketing success. It’s personalized, omnichannel campaigns capturing attention wherever customers are. 

As St. Patrick’s Day approaches, use CleverTap to run timely “Luck of the Irish” sequences. Tease your sale early, personalize the gold, A/B test your subject lines, and follow up with push or SMS for last-minute shoppers.

Make The Most of St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day may only come once a year, but the marketing lessons last all season. With inspiration from real St. Patty’s campaigns and the proper planning, your emails can capture that pinch-proof green magic. 

So raise a glass to lucky subject lines and engaging emails, here’s to more opens, clicks, and conversions. May your campaign be as rich as a leprechaun’s pot of gold.

Get the right tools and start strategizing for the big event on March 17.