Essentially everyone—at every age—uses email. In fact, 95% of Baby Boomers use email, and even 80% of Gen Z do too. And while email’s effectiveness spans across four key generations, each generation has its own preferences on what kinds of email tactics appeal to them. 

Of course, this is a cornerstone of email marketing. However, while nailing the right generational approach is lucrative at any time, as the holidays approach especially, it’s the best time to nail exactly what your brand needs to send each of your buyer groups, whether they’re Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X or Baby Boomers.

Backstroke personalizes email content based on your subscriber segments. Our new AI email generator does this with email body copy and designs, and our AI email subject line generator does as well. Here, we’ll explore the latter: crafting effective email subject lines for four key generational segments, with the upcoming BFCM and holiday seasons in mind.  

Tips for Email Marketing to Gen Z

Want to know how to market to Gen Z over email? We got you. Or should we say, “we got you fam” (We’ll explain later! We promise.) 

Email is super effective with the younger generation! In fact, Edison Mail says that 60% of Gen Z rely on their email inbox for online shopping. You just have to tailor its contents to suit their interests and unique speaking styles. 

So let’s take a look at how to generate the most effective AI messages for marketing to Gen Z right now, as it’s email’s busiest time of year! This can be done in just a couple of simple steps . . .

1. Select your audience segment. In Backstoke’s email subject line generator, select the 18-29 age range in your Audience Filter, then click Save. 
2. Next, click the Adjust Tone button and make a few Gen Z-specific selections! 

This is where things get fun, as Backstoke’s AI message generator can really speak Gen Z! Marketing to Gen Z gives an opportunity to explore fun and unique content, due to their preferences in email messaging. 

Since email marketing to Gen Z is most effective when it prioritizes emotional content, slang, and a casual vibe, make the following selections:

• All Caps: Nope! Gen Z’s unique way of speaking generally doesn’t include ALL CAPS. (It also often doesn’t include punctuation either.)
• Personality Filters: Set both Risk and Brand Voice to Stand-Out and Emotional, respectively. This is because Gen Z marketing should prioritize authenticity and emotion-based content, in order to appeal to younger consumers. 
• Slang: Yep! This is your opportunity to add a little rizz to your subject lines. And don’t worry . . . If you’re unsure what that means, our email subject line generator and your Gen Z subscribers certainly do! 

Take a look at a few examples of Gen Z-beloved and super effective email subject lines for young consumers this holiday season.

Tips for Email Marketing to Millennials

Email marketing to Millennials is another unique opportunity for creatives today. This is because while many Millennials do shop for themselves, many are also shopping for their children, Gen Alpha. As with all four of the generations we’re examining, Millennials too have their own unique preferences.

Regardless, there are a few critical ways to ensure your holiday email marketing campaigns appeal to the Millennial consumers, no matter whom they’re shopping for! After setting your Audience Filter’s age range to 30-44, we suggest making the following selections in our email subject line generator:

• Emojis: Yes! Though Gen Z often makes light of Millennials’ outdated taste for emojis, the slightly older crowd is still super into them! When it comes to marketing to Millennials, we suggest you include emojis in your subject lines and throughout the full email body content the Backstroke’s AI email generator creates.
• Slang: Yep! Interestingly, even though historically the youngest generation tends to set the tone for popular slang, our data shows that Millennials are the generation who tends to engage with slang-filled subject lines the most!
• Don’t forget the Discount: Having been through crisis after financial crisis, Millennials tend to be the thriftiest generation. Therefore, we suggest generating subject lines that tout any type of Specific Sale for them. They’re more likely to open and click through these emails, as they love a good deal!

Here’s a look at some effective email subject lines to use when marketing to Millennials this holiday season.

Tips for Email Marketing to Gen X

Ahh, the elusive Gen X. They’re just as unique and interesting as all other generations, but sadly, they often don’t tend to be top-of-mind, at least stereotypically. Regardless, there are ways to resonate with Gen X in your holiday email marketing, and this is easier than ever if you make the right choices in our email AI generator.

After setting your Audience age filter to 45-60, we suggest making the following selections:

• Personality: You can set your Personality Filters far to the right. Gen X has never been afraid of expressing themselves, and the data tells us that they interact with expressive email content as well! In fact, they’re the generation most likely to interact with subject lines that showcase Surprise and Anticipation as their primary emotions. (Backstroke’s natural language processing helps us understand this insight, and you can learn more about that here.)
• Personality (Again!): Along with the expressive emotions that your Personality Filters can convey in your holiday email marketing content, it’ll also include the right punctuation. Interestingly, Gen X is more likely to engage with email subject lines that contain exclamation points!
• Seasonality: Yep! As a means to add a timeliness factor to your holiday email marketing content, we suggest turning up the Seasonal filter. This will highlight the upcoming holidays for your subscriber segments and pick the words, emotions, and emojis that resonate with their current interests. 

Take a look at some of the great email subject lines Backstroke generated for BFCM email campaigns that are marketing to Gen X consumers. 

Tips for Email Marketing to Baby Boomers 

Ok, Boomers, we’d never forget you! As the wealthiest generation to ever live, and with 95% of them regularly checking their email, Baby Boomers are a lucrative audience for email marketers to connect with!

After setting your Audience Age filter to 65+, you can make the following selections for the most effective email subject lines when marketing to Baby Boomers: 

• All Caps: YEP! Boomers are the generation most likely to engage with ALL CAPS marketing copy. Have fun with adding in ALL CAPS WORDS . . . Especially as Baby Boomers prefer more straightforward, non-slang-focused messaging otherwise, which we’ll get into next . . .
• Slang: Make sure this is set to No, as Boomers prefer their marketing to be clear, straightforward, and to the point.
• Personality: Keep it professional and don’t add a lot of emotion here. We suggest you slide your Personality Filters to the middle to left-hand side of their ranges.
• Personality (AGAIN!): Much like Gen X, data tell us that Baby Boomers are more likely to engage with content that contains exclamation points! However, they’re not as flexible as Gen X when it comes to questions . . . So DON’T ask them anything in your subject lines. They’re pretty turned off by emails that are inquisitive.

Nail Your Holiday Email Marketing for Any Generation 

Backstroke’s proprietary dataset, which contains data from 12k+ consumer brands, helps email marketing teams get super personal with the content they send. This means that Backstroke's AI email generator can pin-point EXACTLY what each consumer wants to see arrive in their inbox . . . No matter their age, location, device type, and more! 

Of course, generating effective email subject lines is only part of the story. Our latest release generates FULL email campaigns, including email layouts, images, copy, CTAs and more, that are fine-tuned to any audience you specify, making 31% more revenue per send easy to achieve!