A dash of creativity for real revenue: 10 bewitching Halloween email + SMS marketing examples

Profile photo of author Tiff Regaudie
Tiff Regaudie
12 min read
Ecommerce industry
August 19, 2024
Image shows a woman in costume with children, with letters in large white text reading "Halloween Marketing"

Total Halloween spending in 2023 was set to exceed $12.2 billion.

That’s according to the National Retail Federation, which also reported that consumers planned to spend a record $108 each for Halloween, between candy, decorations, costumes, and party supplies.

If your brand sells makeup, clothing, or food and beverages, your Halloween email marketing strategy may be a no-brainer. But there’s plenty of spend to go around if you don’t fit neatly into these categories.

Creating a Halloween email is much like conjuring up a spectacular costume: it takes a bunch of brainstorming, a dash of artistry, and a sprinkle of guts to produce an email marketing campaign that’s hauntingly click-worthy.

Regardless of how your audience intends to spend this Halloween, there are ways to make your email marketing campaigns out-of-this-world relatable and applicable to their plans. You just need the magic words—and images and layout.

Here are 10 examples of brands that got their Halloween email and SMS concoctions just right.

1. BABOON TO THE MOON plays with the colors of the season

Just because your products don’t directly relate to Halloween doesn’t mean you have to sit on the Halloween marketing sidelines. Find inspiration from the quintessential color scheme of the festivities and share Halloween messages that visually engage your subscribers.

In this Halloween email, adventure brand BABOON TO THE MOON showcases their bright orange travel bag product line against a black background. They keep their call to action (CTA) simple, encouraging subscribers to “shop orange things.”

With the added touch of the witch’s hat, BABOON TO THE MOON visually evokes the Halloween spirit—while keeping the copy of their Halloween email short and sweet.

Image shows a Halloween marketing email from adventure brand BABOON TO THE MOON, which features a product shot of one of their orange bags wearing a witch’s hat. On a black background, the simple white email copy reads, “trick or treat,” and the orange CTA button at the bottom of the email encourages readers to “shop orange things.”

Source: BABOON TO THE MOON

2. Printfresh puts people first, products second

Seasonal events open the door for you to build relationships with your brand’s community through a shared experience. You build these relationships through conversations—not just sales (although an enticing promotion never hurts).

In this Halloween email, luxury pajama brand Printfresh pairs their team’s cozy, in-home Halloween evenings with their movie favorites. You may not think Halloween and pajamas are a match made in heaven, but Printfresh makes it work by focusing on their staff’s spine-chilling film recommendations, rather than their product.

Image shows the top of a Halloween marketing email from luxury pajama brand Printfresh, featuring a photo of one of their team members wearing their pajamas with a movie projector screen in the background. The email headline reads, “Here comes Halloween: hauntingly good movies.”

Source: Printfresh

Image shows part of a Halloween marketing email from luxury pajama brand Printfresh, featuring photos of team members wearing their pajamas with movie reel-styled frames, plus quotes from each featured team member about their favorite scary movies.

Source: Printfresh

3. Supply explains the magical properties of their products

Do you sell hand-stitched throw blankets? Or clothes made from the softest, most sustainably grown organic cotton known to humankind? Are your beauty products filled with clean, all-natural elixirs that’ll get rid of even the deepest crow’s feet?

Your Halloween email campaign can serve as the perfect means to share the unique qualities of your products—the things that make them truly magical.

Supply, a brand that sells personal grooming products, takes this seasonal email as an opportunity to educate their subscribers about a Halloween-appropriate ingredient in their healing post shave product: witch hazel.

With a customer review and a cheeky joke to boot, Supply effectively drums up brand awareness and potentially some product sales.

Image shows a Halloween marketing email from grooming brand Supply, which keeps it simple with a headline that reads “Not magic potion. But close”; a short snippet of copy providing background on the product; a 5-star customer review; a Halloween pun; and CTA button that reads, “shop healing post shave.”

Source: Supply

4. Minor Figures creates mystery—and community

Not every marketing email has to include product information and big sales. Millions of people spent a lot of time on their phones during the more active stages of the pandemic—which means that now, people may find themselves heading online to feel like they’re a part of something.

Minor Figures, a coffee company, boils down their Halloween email to 4 CTA buttons with alternating copy: “trick” or “treat.”

Image shows a Halloween marketing email from coffee brand Minor Figures, featuring the headline “trick or treat” in slasher film-style font followed by 4 stacked CTAs, which alternate with “trick” or “treat” in white copy on black.

Source: Minor Figures

When people click on one over the other, they might see a creepy image. Or a funny one. Or a cute one. It’s a Halloween Choose Your Own Adventure that ends in delight rather than a sale.

 Image shows a screenshot of a creepy photo subscribers land on when they click one of the “trick” links in the Minor Figures Halloween marketing email. The photo, titled “abandoned rubber duck factory in Cleveland,” shows a dozen rubber duckies lined up on a wooden shelf in the night.

Image source: Minor Figures

Image shows a screenshot of a fun cat photo subscribers land on when they click one of the “treat” links in the Minor Figures Halloween marketing email. The photo shows someone’s outstretched hand holding up a black kitten in a vet’s office. The kitten is wearing bat wings and looks like it’s ready to take flight.

Image source: Minor Figures

Does a move like this necessarily help you sell more products? Not likely—or at least, not in the immediate term. But it can go a long way toward building brand awareness, and it creates a relationship with your subscribers that goes beyond the transactional.

5. BirdDogs tells a ghost story

One of the goals of any marketing email is to get your reader to read the entire thing—or at least scroll far enough to reach the CTA button.

With that in mind, why not tell an actual story? One that will keep them on the hook, complete with images and funny, on-brand storytelling?

BirdDogs, a men’s apparel brand, sent this Halloween email with comic-book-like vignettes and irreverent, on-brand storytelling.

The CTA isn’t until the very bottom—and it doesn’t exactly announce itself. But we still think this is a clever, entertaining move that could help build trust with your subscribers.

Image shows a Halloween marketing email from men’s apparel brand BirdDogs, containing a vintage-style comic called “A BirdDogs Boys Halloween: Ghost Hunting in NYC.” After 5 panels with accompanying storytelling captions, the email encourages readers to “cut the line and get a text when new styles arrive. Text DANGUS to 332-244-0333.”

Image source: BirdDogs

6. HOMAGE offers BOGO sales—and seriously big discounts

Why not use Halloween as an excuse to get some merchandise in front of your subscribers? If a buy-one, get-one-with-a-discount offer is in your brand’s future, time it so it lines up with Halloween.

HOMAGE, a sports apparel company, seizes Halloween as an opportunity to offer a real treat: a big incentive to purchase through buy-one, get-one 40% off.

Not only that, the products are Halloween-themed, each with their own CTA button that reminds subscribers of the 40% they’ll get off a second purchase.

Image shows a Halloween marketing email from sports apparel brand HOMAGE, featuring a graphic design of a Jack O'Lantern face with the copy “buy one” in the left eye, “get one” in the right eye,” and “40% off” in the crooked smile. The CTA button reads, “thru Saturday.”

Image source: HOMAGE

7. Dog Bakery unlocks early access to a product bundle

The average consumer only subscribes to 2-3 brands via SMS. If you’ve got a customer’s digits, you’re special—up there with their friends and family, and able to reach them while they’re eating dinner, watching TV, or even in bed.

What should you do with this great power and responsibility? Use it wisely.

Make your SMS subscribers feel special—and grateful that they put you on their (likely small) list. What better way than offering them early access to a sale?

The Dog Bakery sells dog treats and celebration cakes. They give their SMS subscribers early access to a Halloween bundle in this MMS.

With a kooky, on-brand image and short email copy that gets straight to the point, along with a clear link to click, this text gives the subscriber everything they need to take advantage of the early access.

Image shows a Halloween marketing text from The Dog Bakery, featuring a photo of a Halloween treat bundle, two siren emojis, and the copy, “EARLY ACCESS ALERT: Grab your dog their own Lick Or Treat Halloween Bundle that’s jam packed with goodies.”

Image source: Klaviyo Showcase

8. Vivie & Ash develops a Halloween product launch

Consumers have plenty to shop for leading up to Halloween: costumes, candy, home decorations, and party supplies, to name a few. If your inventory doesn’t fall into one of those categories and you want to sell more products during this season, you may have to do something special.

Consider a product launch—or a “first ever” event.

Vivie & Ash, a children’s apparel brand, uses this Halloween email to launch their first-ever Halloween collection, offering subscribers both a pre-sale and a giveaway.

The email includes high-quality product close-ups and links above the fold that take the subscriber directly to the relevant product pages.

Image shows a Halloween marketing email from children’s apparel brand Vivie & Ash, featuring a few short lines of copy with clickable links followed by beautiful, up-close product shots of items in their new Halloween collection.

Image source: Klaviyo Showcase

9. Essentia creates real urgency with a countdown clock

Urgency is a great way to drive sales, and there are plenty of ways to create it. But a countdown clock—one that updates in real time, accurate to the subscriber’s time zone—does a lot of that work for you.

Essentia, an organic mattress company, held a “midnight madness sale” on Halloween, and sent this email at 12:00 a.m. local time. At the very top is a countdown clock, so whatever time the subscriber opens the email, they can tell how much time they have left to take advantage of the deal.

Image shows a marketing email from essentia. The H1 reads "Scary good sleep" and includes a countdown clock for the 30% discount.

Image source: Klaviyo Showcase

This is great for a few reasons:

  • It’s personalized. The subscriber doesn’t have to do any work to figure out how much time they have left to buy.
  • It’s considerate. While creating urgency, it also lets you know that if you can’t shop right now, you can mark your calendar for a few hours ahead to look through the products and see if you can take advantage.
  • It’s clear. Positioned at the top of the email, the clock is front and center so the reader can’t miss it. It’s easy to catch, and it’s easy to refer back to—after the reader checks out all the other good stuff in the email (social proof, additional discounts, and delivery details).

Learn how to add a countdown timer to your emails in Klaviyo.

10. Dr. Brite goes all in on Halloween puns

Halloween is a fun, lighthearted holiday that tends to be less stressful than Thanksgiving and the other winter holidays. Why not play along by getting a little silly with your marketing?

Dr. Brite, a health and wellness brand, features a playful subject line and headline in their email: “Wipes, just for Boo.”

The rest of the copy above the fold is on-theme with Halloween allusions and imagery. Below the fold, the email displays 3 separate CTA buttons, so the reader can easily find the exact product they want to buy.

Image shows a Halloween marketing email from health and wellness brand Dr. Brite, featuring a product shot of a package of their wipes against a backdrop of fall-themed foliage. The headline reads, “Wipes, just for Boo” with a ghost emoji making a silly face. Underneath the email copy, which reads “Perfect for spills and sticky hands” with an orange CTA button that reads “shop now,” 3 more product images direct readers to unique product pages where they can buy each item.

Image source: Klaviyo Showcase

Capitalize on key ecommerce dates with email and SMS
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Tiff Regaudie
Tiff Regaudie
Tiff (she/they) is a writer and content consultant who specializes in marketing, health, and the attention economy. Before devoting herself to freelance writing full-time, they led content teams at various startups and nonprofits in Toronto, Canada.