5 creative (and easy) ideas for your Halloween email campaigns

The scariest holiday of the year is coming up in a few weeks which means it’s time to start hunting around for ghoulish ideas that you can include in your Halloween email campaigns.

Over on Pinterest, we are collecting some really innovative examples from brands like J.Crew, Warby Parker, and Asos. You should head on over and check it out yourself.

In the meantime, take a scroll through some of our favorites and see what creepy ideas come to mind for your own Halloween email campaigns. Just don’t get too scared!

1. Haunt with color coordination

Nothing says Halloween like black on black with a side dish of black. So why not bring that color coordination into your Halloween email campaigns? What’s more, this idea doesn’t require a lot of money or budget to recreate. If you’re a product company like these two examples, grouping your products based on black ghoulishness is probably the easiest thing you can do.

If you’re service-based then coordinating darker backgrounds, font colors or even darker themed images is no problem provided you’re using a good ESP. You should be able to edit these elements directly within your email marketing platform.

In Ungapped, you can browse and use thousands of royalty-free images just like these Halloween pumpkins. Source: Ungapped

2. Add spooky illustrations later

What I love about this idea is that it’s evergreen and can be used over and over again without retaking product shots. In the example below, the image itself isn’t Halloween-themed at all. It’s a regular product image with the vampiresque sketch drawn on top – simple but clever. Fashion giant Asos has also done something similar in the past. Check them out below:

3. Get freaky with a pun, two or three

The language we use in an email campaign is one of the most influential elements that will decide whether someone converts into a customer or not. Your Halloween email campaigns are no different.

Related: 4 copywriting tips for your newsletters

A great way to do this over the holiday season is to use puns that enhance the mailing experience. Here are a couple of great examples:

4. Taunt readers with gifs

I’m a fan of gifs no matter the occasion but the holiday season is the perfect time to start incorporating gifs into your email campaigns. You don’t even need to create them from scratch yourself. There’s a bunch to choose from over on giphy (just remember to check copyright guidelines). Here are some of our favorite examples:

5. Don’t sell costumes? Turn your products into one

Warby Parker does a really great job with their email creative all year round but one of their Halloween email campaigns was particularly eye-catching. As an eyewear retailer, one might not immediately associate their products with spooky specs for Halloween but alas, they took the chance and rolled with it anyway. Using their products in association with the time of making it fun, novel, and relevant. Check it out:

There you have it, folks. Five creative and easy-to-implement ideas for your Halloween email campaigns. If you’ve not already created your free Ungapped account, make sure you do that here »

Updated Oct 2022. The article was written in 2016.