Ring in 2026 with these 7 New Year’s marketing ideas and examples

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New Year. New you. New opportunities to engage your audience in fresh, inspiring ways.

With the holidays winding down, your audience is likely relaxed, soaking in the post-Christmas lull. They’re not in a rush. They’re reflecting on the past year and contemplating their aspirations for the next one.

It’s a prime opportunity for you to send thoughtful, engaging messages that capture their attention. The challenge lies in knowing exactly what to talk about or what to do to inspire action without overwhelming your audience during a restful time.

While we can’t plan your entire New Year’s strategy, we can showcase 7 New Year’s marketing ideas that will resonate with your audience (and perhaps secure a sale or two) as you both look forward to new beginnings.

1. Send a personalized product round-up

Take it from Spotify: looking back at the last 12 months is a good way to tell a heartwarming and nostalgic story about what the year meant for you and your customers.

One of the best ways to do this is through a personalized product round-up. Similar to how Spotify Wrapped is different for every person, your yearly lookback can use customer data to send offers based on products someone browsed or purchased within the last year.

New Year’s marketing idea: With AI, you can go beyond highlighting your bestsellers to create a bespoke customer experience. This is especially important for New Year’s offers, which are reaching people who may be burnt out on buying after the holidays.

New Year’s marketing example: Methodical Coffee meets Spotify Wrapped

Here, Methodical Coffee highlights their top-selling products in an email that does a great job emulating the Spotify Wrapped experience. While the coffee brand is highlighting bestsellers, they use “you” language to showcase their top coffee blends, pastries, and merch.

Methodical Coffee also adds some fun numbers that count the year in units of breakfast sandwiches and pumpkin spice lattes, then closes out with tidbits of news about milestones that improved the customer experience throughout the year.

Source: ReallyGoodEmails

2. Incorporate New Year’s resolutions into a quiz

People love setting goals for themselves at the start of the year. It’s a great opportunity to align with your audience’s ambitions and collect customer data that can help you serve them better next year—a win-win.

Think about what resolutions your customers are likely to have. For example:

• For a tech brand, the focus might be on productivity and time management habits.
• For a beauty or apparel brand, the focus might be encouraging customers to embrace their individuality by sharing makeup tutorials or fashion tips that inspire them to celebrate who they truly are.
• For a fitness brand, it’s an easy win: create a campaign around healthier living and use customer stories to show how your products fit in.

New Year’s marketing idea: After you’ve determined your general approach, try encouraging people to flesh out the details of their New Year’s resolutions with a quiz. Quizzes are essentially elaborate sign-up forms that educate customers on the products that are best for them while collecting high-quality customer data that maps back to your products.

With 74% of shoppers now expecting personalization from brands, according to Klaviyo’s 2025 future of consumer marketing report, a simple product quiz may be just the thing to start exceeding customer expectations in the new year.

New Year’s marketing example: Naked Nutrition offers an incentive with a quiz

You might offer a simple, no-strings-attached quiz to help your audience get a head start on their New Year’s resolutions. Or, you might do what workout supplement brand Naked Nutrition does here and assign value to the data collected with a 20% discount on a first purchase.

Source: Milled

3. Invest in next year’s customer acquisition with a giveaway

Holiday marketing fatigue is real. By the time November hits, people are already overwhelmed with endless promotions, deals, and marketing messages. And who can blame them? With so many brands clamoring for attention, it’s no surprise when even loyal customers start tuning out.

But this fatigue also presents an opportunity for investment. Klaviyo’s 2025 state of retail marketing report found that 68% of retail marketers report rising customer acquisition costs (CACs). Believe it or not, a giveaway can serve to reduce some of these costs by shifting your social media audience to owned channels.

Consider running an end-of-year giveaway that asks for an email address or phone number in exchange for entry. That way, you’re building your owned audience and reducing your reliance on expensive ads to reach shoppers.

New Year’s marketing idea: Use a B2C CRM that integrates marketing automation, customer service, and analytics under one roof to make the most of your email, text, WhatsApp, and mobile marketing lists.

New Year’s marketing example: Graza gives away a $300 product bundle

Take Graza and their end-of-year giveaway as an example. The olive oil brand is doing almost everything right here: giving away a product bundle of significant value, encouraging people to share, and even including a Whole Foods gift card that can help people make the most of their olive oil prize.

But note that all Graza’s audience has to do to enter is drop a follow and tag a friend in the comment section. To step it up, we’d recommend launching this same giveaway via email to a segment of VIP customers who have engaged with a certain number of emails recently. The entry requirement, in that case, would be a phone number. Then, next year, the brand could send early-access offers via text message to those VIP customers.

Source: Graza Instagram

4. Promote party favors to the right audience segments

If there’s one thing people love about New Year’s Eve, it’s the chance to throw a party that sets the tone for the year ahead. If you sell festive clothing, snacks and drinks, or other party gear, this is where your ecommerce brand can step in, positioning your products as must-haves for making the celebration special.

Let’s say you’re a clothing brand. Which of your statement pieces might be perfect for a New Year’s Eve glam look? Think shimmering dresses, dapper suits, or accessories that add sparkle to any outfit, and use language that taps into the celebratory mood: “Shine brighter than the ball drop!” or “Step into the new year in style.” Or, if you’re in the food and beverage niche, position your products as go-to party starters.

If you’re a brand that sells in many product categories, consider using past browsing and purchasing data to segment your audience based on those categories. You may even want to target people who browsed certain products but didn’t buy during Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) or Christmas. These are people who may be most willing to spend with your brand if you present them with an urgent New Year’s offer.

New Year’s marketing idea: Keep in mind that not everyone is in the mood for a big bash, so make sure your messaging resonates with both the party-goers and the chill crowd. Use your customer data to determine which products resonate most with which customer segments, then promote items like comfortable loungewear, soothing drinks and snacks, or even self-care products for those who may be planning a solo celebration.

New Year’s marketing example: Boarderie taps into end-of-year FOMO

Here, see how charcuterie brand Boarderie’s New Year’s Eve campaign showcases a perfect centerpiece for a New Year’s Eve celebration. The brand even taps into FOMO by clearly stating that these boards are almost sold out, prompting the audience to place their orders quickly.

Source: Milled

5. Pair customer reviews with “fresh start” products

If you don’t sell products people can use at a party, don’t despair. Beyond the big countdown, New Year’s is a time when people are eager to shed the old and embrace new habits, routines, and, yes, even products.

It’s more than just a seasonal change. It’s a mindset shift. People are thinking about improving their spaces, wardrobes, and lifestyles, so this is the perfect time to reframe your marketing around fresh starts and new opportunities.

Rather than focusing on promotions, tap into this feeling of renewal by highlighting customer reviews that speak to the “fresh start” mindset. According to our future of consumer marketing report, reviews are the most influential factor when consumers are deciding on a first purchase.

New Year’s marketing idea: Use marketing automation to pair personalized product recommendations with reviews for those products, both of which change depending on known customer data. When reviews are personalized to the products you’re recommending, your New Year’s promotions gain instant relevance by speaking to each customer’s actual pain points.

New Year’s marketing example: FluffCo uses customer reviews to encourage a bed refresh

Bedding brand FluffCo does this beautifully with their “New Year, New Bed!” email campaign. By layering in genuine customer testimonials, the brand makes the idea of change feel tangible and credible. And the section on customer testimonials serves as a gentle nudge, showing that others are already enjoying their bedding to make the upgrade feel worthwhile.

Source: Milled

6. Run in-store promotions and target customers by zip code

While many people are wrapping up their holiday shopping, some are always on the lookout for a deal—and you can be the brand that gives it to them. Consider launching an in-store promotion to start your New Year sales strong.

Use channels like email or text to drive foot traffic to your store by offering exclusive in-person discounts or “store-only” New Year deals. Just remember to target recipients by zip code. One of the worst offenders for creating message fatigue is sending irrelevant messages. If you’re running an in-store sale in Miami, you wouldn’t want to let text subscribers in Raleigh know about the sale.

New Year’s marketing idea: Segment your audience by location, then perhaps segment even more deeply by targeting only those who regularly shop in-store. The best promotions lean into known customer behavior, so don’t be afraid to get niche with your targeting based on multiple parameters.

New Year’s marketing example: Snowe reminds shoppers the sale ends this evening

If you’d prefer to add a little urgency to your sale, follow home essentials brand Snowe’s lead and remind your audience to act now because savings end soon. This is great for when your in-store sale is coming to a close, but you still want to move some product. Exclude those customers who bought from your sale in person, add some urgency, and you’ve got your final sale of the year.

Source: Milled

7. Make your VIPs feel special on their preferred channels

If you want to make your most loyal customers feel valued, consider offering them exclusive New Year’s deals. Think about how you can offer something unique to this group, whether it’s early access to a limited-edition product, a special discount, or even a sneak peek at what’s coming in the year ahead.

You can do this over email or text message, but text message works particularly well as a VIP channel because it’s personal and immediate. Anyone who’s given you access to their phone has given you access to an intimate space. Use that access wisely.

New Year’s marketing idea: Better yet, use AI-powered channel affinity to reach customers on their preferred channel. According to Klaviyo’s 2025 online shopping report, 77% of omnichannel consumers regularly shop across 3–4 channels, but they might engage with some more than others.

If someone is on your email list but consistently engages over text message, consider dropping email as a first-line approach. Send a text message instead, where they’re more likely to engage right away.

New Year’s marketing example: Rebels Refinery rewards VIPs via text message

Here, see how skincare brand Rebels Refinery uses SMS to reward their top customers on New Year’s. With phrases like “EARLY DROP VIP SMS,” “limited edition,” “extremely limited,” and “early access,” they make it impossible to mistake this offer as anything but ultra-exclusive.

Source: Klaviyo

Close out the year with Klaviyo B2C CRM

New Year’s may be your last chance at a sale this year, but it’s also an opportunity to collect the customer data you need to personalize your marketing efforts next year.

Klaviyo B2C CRM makes it easy for brands to collect the zero- and first-party data they need to deliver personalized experiences for their customers. As a data platform with marketing automation, customer service, and analytics under one roof, Klaviyo is making it possible for brands to scale personalization for thousands or even millions of customers.