Here's the email to put together when your boss comes to you at 4 p.m. on a Friday afternoon and asks you to come up with another Memorial Day message. Modcloth sent this email midafternoon on Memorial Day, probably aiming to capture interest from revelers who were either just getting up and checking their phones or taking a break from the weekend-long festivities.

Chubbies meets the challenge of standing out in the inbox with an eye-catching subject line (“I sincerely regret not opening this email.”) and preview text (“Signed, Future You”). Once your customers open your email, are you going to bore them with a basic offer? You'd be better off following Chubbies' lead, creating a simple but clever design on a topic — swim trunks — that will be on your customers' minds as summer arrives.

We picked this email because it's a simple and stark reminder of what the day is all about. This one stands out from the pack because it uses color effectively and sparingly in a black-and-white photo. It also mentions both men and women in its tribute. Lots of Memorial Day photos focus only on service members who happen to be men. Including women is a gesture of respect ... and recognizes the reality of today's military.

When you plan a Memorial Day Weekend promotion, get out in front of all the other big discounters. Gap sent this email on the Monday before the holiday weekend, when competing retailers relied more on generic messages or sent nothing. The subject line prods shoppers to act (“Redeem your code now! You've been given early Memorial Day deals”), the email copy highlights the deep discounts, and the offer code (“PARTY”) is easy to remember.