This year, I went in search of some truly creative holiday email marketing ideas to pass along to you. This year, I failed.

It’s easy to find the usual, like 30 creative holiday email marketing blah blah blah. And there’s some practical advice about emailing on weekends and which kinds of discounts perform best in this post. There’s also some advice for B2B holiday emails. But none of those jumped out at me. So I pulled together my own atypical ideas.

Below you’ll find four more atypical holiday email marketing ideas based on my own experiences on both sides of the Send button, from the email marketing vendor side and the gift-buying consumer side too.

Market to receivers, not givers

Who says you can only market to the ones doing the shopping? A savvy marketer lets a consumer make a wish list and share it online. So offer a wish list option and encourage people to use it via your email marketing, then encourage them share their lists with loved ones who might be buying for them.

Re-engage the inactive

Take advantage of the holiday season to send re-engagement emails to inactive subscribers, offering them discounts on gift buying. They might have lost interest in you for a while, but the holidays might bring them back, at least temporarily, especially with a good deal.

Re-market to the ones that walk away

Be ready for the cart abandoners, with a program and incentive in place to bring them back to finish their purchases. It could be you already have a cart abandonment program. If so, consider changing to holiday-themed messages in those automated emails.

Work on your welcome

Marketers are likely to see new subscribers during the holiday shopping season, as people shop online and come across websites new to them. Welcome emails in general tend to perform better than the usual marketing message, so craft a great welcome email for these holiday season subscribers. Send it promptly and send it with an offer they can’t refuse, like a coupon code or special offer. (Then after the holidays, keep these subscribers as a unique segment, since they will likely require a different kind of messaging to keep them engaged post-holiday season.)

Think about mobile, first

Not really a revolutionary idea but did you think about a mobile-first when you where planning for this shopping season? If not, start right now. Mobile is not just a trend. It’s pervasive to the shopping experience, and marketers and vendors should think mobile first through the year.

Oh, remember that you’d rather have these customers annually, not just seasonally, and consider a follow-up campaign that will get and keep them engaged post holiday.

About the Author: Scott Hardigree is Founder of Email Industries (the folks behind Indiemark, BlackBox, FormSwell and Email Critic). Connect him everywhere, here.