The holiday season is here, and it’s one of the best times to connect with your customers. For hospitality venues like restaurants, cafés, and hotels, a strong email strategy can help you maximise bookings, boost engagement, and drive seasonal revenue. We've put together a list of five effective Christmas email marketing ideas to inspire your campaigns and make the season brighter for your venue.

1. Festive Welcome Email

Make a great first impression with a warm, festive email to new customers or subscribers. Highlight your venue’s unique rewards and invite them to experience the season, offering an incentive like a Brandollar reward to encourage a visit. Share a glimpse of your Christmas menu or upcoming events to inspire their plans.

This busy season, catch more customer emails from QR codes that open your branded Magic App with seasonal incentives to subscribe to venue news or join your loyalty program. From there, let automated marketing do the work with welcome emails, seasonal menu updates, gifting ideas and more.

2. Special Holiday Promotion

A well-timed promotional email is key to standing out during the festive season. Highlight your unique offerings, whether it’s a special Christmas Eve menu or holiday rewards for early reservations. Make your email visually appealing by showcasing beautiful photos of your dishes and decorations using OrderUp, and create urgency with limited-time offers to drive bookings.

With Liven Engage, you can simplify your marketing by using pre-built campaign templates designed for hospitality. These templates make it easy to highlight your seasonal promotions and encourage diners to act quickly. Plus, automated scheduling lets you send the right message at the right time without the stress of manual follow-ups.

3. Highlight Gifting

Liven Gifting is a holiday staple, and a dedicated email campaign can help you maximise sales. Position your Liven Gifting as the perfect solution for last-minute shoppers and offer special incentives, such as “Buy a $100 Brandollar, get $20 bonus.” Streamline the experience by embedding the Brandollar tiers directly in your email for easy purchasing.

Using Liven Engage, you can seamlessly integrate Gifting into your email strategy. The platform centralises your customer data, making it simple to target specific segments, such as your loyal customers. With just a few clicks, you can set up an eye-catching campaign that drives sales and builds excitement.

4. Re-Engagement Email

Reconnect with past customers by reminding them of what makes your venue special. A re-engagement email is a thoughtful way to invite them back, especially when paired with a festive incentive like a reward. Personal touches, such as referencing their favourite dish or a previous booking, can make the email even more effective.

Liven Engage simplifies this process with smart segmentation and automation. By tapping into your customer POS data, the platform helps you personalise outreach, ensuring your emails feel tailored and genuine. Whether it’s highlighting a favourite meal or suggesting a Christmas event, Liven Engage can help you create messages that encourage customers to return.

5. Holiday Thank-you Email

The festive season is the perfect time to thank your diners for their support. Share how their visits, referrals, or feedback shaped your year and let them know how much you value them. This isn’t about sales—it’s about showing appreciation and building stronger connections.

With Liven Engage, creating personalised thank-you emails is easy. Use customer data to reflect on the year and add a warm, genuine message, ensuring every recipient feels appreciated without the extra effort.

Make Christmas Easy with Liven Engage

If you’re a hospitality operator, Liven Engage is your ultimate partner this Christmas. It’s a marketing automation platform built specifically for hospitality, helping you boost engagement, personalise outreach, and streamline your marketing efforts. With deep integrations, pre-built templates, and effortless automation, you can focus on delivering great customer experiences while Liven Engage handles the rest. Why not have a chat with us? Give it a try and make this festive season your most successful one yet!