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

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.

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.

Source: Printfresh

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.

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.”

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 source: Minor Figures

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 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 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 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 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 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 source: Klaviyo Showcase