100+ Halloween Email Subject Lines For 2024 [+Tips]

Looking for Halloween email subject lines for your seasonal marketing strategy? We’ve got you covered.

As October begins, your audience will start searching for Halloween deals. It’s up to you, email marketers, to align your content marketing with the holidays to increase conversions.

Taking advantage of the season with effective Halloween email campaigns will give your brand the boost it needs. But first, your audience needs to open your email.

Today, we’ll share subject line examples from popular brands, tips to create your own and analyze what makes some of them work.

Want to start creating your Halloween email campaigns early? Try Moosend’s email editor and pre-made Halloween templates to craft the spookiest messages for your business!

Limited Time Halloween Discount

Use the code SPOOKY20 at checkout and get 20% off the plan of your choice!

GET STARTED

Best Subject Lines for Halloween

Before we begin, check some of the best Halloween email subject lines for the pre-Halloween, Halloween, and post-Halloween season.

Also, since there’s a trend going on with brands running spooky Halloween campaigns a lot earlier than expected (e.g., in May or July), we included some examples to get you inspired.

How To Craft Your Own Halloween Email Subject Lines

To create fang-tastic subject lines for your audience, you have to keep a few things in mind.

Come up with creative and fun copy

Use clever puns and playful wordplay to create your copy. A well-crafted subject line can stir curiosity and make your subscribers eager to open your email.

For example, “Witch-ing You a Spooky Good Time!” or “Gourd-geous Deals Inside 🎃.”

Keep them short

Aim for subject lines between 20-40 characters. This ensures your message is fully visible on both desktop and mobile devices.

Examples:

• Spooky Savings Await!
• Boo! 👻 Treats Inside!
• Fright Night Deals

Use emojis

Emojis can add a playful touch and help your subject line stand out in a crowded inbox.

Use Halloween-themed emojis like ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, vampires, or bats to catch the eye and enhance the festive mood.

For example, “👻 Scare Up These Boo-tiful Deals!” or “🎃 Unmask Our Halloween Specials!”

Avoid spam words

To keep your emails from haunting the spam folder, avoid using overly promotional or spammy words.

Instead, opt for more creative and subtle language that still conveys urgency and excitement, such as “Sneak Peek” or “Exclusive Halloween Offers.”

Add a preview text

The preview text should complement your subject line, providing additional context or a teaser that compels the reader to open the email.

For example, if your subject line is “Get Your Ghoul On 👻,” your preview text could be, “Discover spine-chilling deals and spooky surprises!”

Align with your email design

Your subject line should grab attention and align with your email’s design and content to create a seamless experience. If it teases a spooky surprise, for instance, ensure the design matches with matching copy, Halloween-themed visuals, colors, calls to action (CTAs), and fonts.

To save time and ensure your design is spot-on, consider using pre-made Halloween email templates. These will let you achieve a professional and festive look.

Here’s an exclusive Halloween template you can customize by signing up for a free Moosend account. You could pair the design with subject lines like these:

• For a home decor store: Transform Your Space into a Haunted Haven 🕸️
• For a costume shop: Step Inside: Your Perfect Halloween Costume Awaits! 🎃
• For a Food & Beverage brand: Boo-tiful Brews & Spooky Snacks for Your Haunted House 🧛‍♂️

Create for free

Optimize your subject lines

Creating the best email subject line may be a little difficult. Thankfully, here’s where tools like Refine, a free subject line tester, enter the scene to help you make sure your subject line can stand out in a full inbox.

For instance, let’s use the following example to see what Refine has to say about it.

Subject line: Need a simple Halloween look? 🎃

Refine Analysis:

You can use the tool to see how your Halloween email subject lines will perform based on your industry and the number of your email subscribers. Also, it’ll provide you with valuable suggestions on how to make them better. For instance, Refine might suggest using an emoji, personalization, or a sense of urgency to increase your open rates.

Further reading: Find more tips and tricks in our email subject line best practices guide.

Now that you know what it takes to come up with eye-catching subject lines, we’ll analyze some additional examples to see the above tips in action.

Halloween subject lines examples

1. MAC Cosmetics

Subject line: Down to Clown?🤡Get this spook-tacular Halloween look!

Why it works: If you favor creativity, you can create a unique Halloween subject line that will stun your audience. MAC takes advantage of its brand (make-up products) to intrigue its subscribers, offer solutions, and promote its products in the smoothest way possible.

2. AirBnB

Subject line: Trick or treat! Try a spooky stay

Why it works: By keeping its Halloween email subject line simple and to the point, Airbnb created a great Halloween email that holds no surprises. Those who will open it will truly be interested in making a booking through their website.

3. MasterClass

Subject line: Get in the Halloween spirit on MasterClass!

Why it works: Masterclass uses a simple Halloween subject line with the classic “get in the (holiday) spirit.” This is perfect for exciting your subscribers, as the subject line hints at something that will help them get in the spooky mood! Overall, this example is pretty straightforward to give your audience an idea of your email content.

4. Rogue + Wolf

Subject line: The treats still keep coming!

Why it works: Rogue + Wolf’s subject line is Halloween-themed without being over the top, and the recipient knows what it’s about right off the bat. Pair that with a fang-tastic email campaign, and you’ll see your audience returning for more!

5. Bellami Hair

Subject line: Don’t get ghosted👻LAST DAY to grab 15% Off Hair Extensions

Why it works: Bellami Hair uses the word “ghosted” along with the corresponding emoji to incentivize seasonal shoppers to get their “Halloween treats.” Of course, the immediate benefit (15% off) is right there before their eyes!

6. Topshop

Subject line: BOO! Get 20% off everything! 👻

Why it works: Your Halloween email subject lines don’t need to be too long or full of emojis to get noticed. Here, Topshop’s example conveys its message in a short and beautiful way, using a spooky salutation (BOO!) to get the recipients into the right mood and promote their Halloween flash sale.

7. EM Cosmetics

Subject line: Get Halloween READY 👻

Why it works: When it comes to Halloween email marketing, you need to discover what customers want and when they want it. Some will be looking for Halloween costumes, gifts, hot deals, etc., earlier than expected! So, like EM Cosmetics, create a subject line that will solve their pain points using actionable words and emojis!

8. A Beautiful Mess

Subject line: My Halloween Tour (and ghosts of Halloweens past)!

Why it works: Here, we have a Halloween subject line by the A Beautiful Mess blog. As you can see, this example leverages the first person to make the subscribers feel like this is a personal message from the blogger. Just make sure to pick the right blog email newsletter template to present your content and promote engagement!

9. MeUndies

Subject line: Last Chance: 35% Off Halloween Prints 🎃

Why it works: Urgency is a powerful weapon to incentivize your email list to interact with a piece of content. For your subject lines, you can use specific words like MeUndies’ “Last Chance” to motivate your indecisive customers to act faster. Of course, showing the immediate benefit (35% off) will also supercharge your Halloween email subject line!

10. Walmart

Subject line: Ellen DeGeneres’s faves for Halloween! 🎃

Why it works: Walmart uses a celebrity’s name to attract attention. The logic is simple: the brand wants to promote its collaboration with Ellen DeGeneres and, at the same time, use it as a powerful social proof weapon to get subscribers to interact with the campaign. Clever, right?

11. Julie Blanner

Subject line: Tricks AND TREAT

Why it works: Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, and Julie Blanner’s example embodies that! Instead of coming up with complex subject lines, you can follow this example and show your subscribers exactly what your campaign is about. Do that by leveraging the famous “Trick and Treat” line, and you are ready! Want to find what truly resonates with your audience? Sign up for a Moosend account and use the A/B Testing feature to do just that.

12. LARQ

Subject line: Happy Halloween!👻15% off ENDS TODAY! 🖤

Why it works: LARQ goes for a more traditional Halloween email subject line wishing its audience “Happy Halloween” first and then showing them what their email campaign is all about. The brand also uses a ghost and heart emoji to grab their attention and incentivize them to click on it.

13. Jack Daniel’s

Subject line: Try Halloween Drinks So Good You’ll Scream!

Why it works: Jack Daniel’s has created a beautiful subject line example that combines their product with the holiday spirit. The copy gives their subscribers the promise of something new that will be too good to be true. All they have to do is open the email and find out more!

14. Sanshee

Subject line: The Afterlife of Our Sale is Approaching!

Why it works: After a while, subject lines can feel repetitive, especially if your audience has signed up for multiple email newsletters. To stand out, Sanshee takes a different approach to the classic “Sales ending soon.” As you can see, this example is unique and totally in line with the holiday theme!

15. Zillow

Subject line: 5 ways your house might be haunting you

Why it works: Now Halloween isn’t only for eCommerce stores but for bloggers, agencies, and even real estate agents! Thus, you can easily create some spook-tacular subject lines to increase your engagement like Zillow. All you need to do is use Halloween-related words and a beautiful real estate newsletter template, and you’re ready for the holidays!

16. Lush

Subject line: Need to calm a sugar high?

Why it works: This subject line by Lush aims to do more than just celebrate Halloween and create offers around it. The clever wordplay indicates something meant to calm a parent’s little monsters’ trick-or-treating sugar high with a nice, relaxing bath.

17. ModCloth

Subject line: Don’t let Halloween sneak up on you!

Why it works: This example by Modcloth offers us one of the best email subject lines out there because the content is obvious: Shop your Halloween attire early! That’s all you need to get your email subscribers interested. To make it more effective, you can also add an emoji to make it stand out in your subscriber’s inbox!

18. WeTransfer

Subject line: Le freak? C’est chic!”

Why it works: Using one of the most popular songs of the late ’70s is a power move. This is one of the best Halloween email subject lines due to the title’s popularity. Oh, and the fact that freaks roam the streets on Halloween! Smart move, WeTransfer!

19. Etsy

Subject line: You can still be a unicorn!

Why it works: This email subject line by Etsy sneakily utilizes a good old email marketing tip: time sensitivity. Using the word “still” isn’t a matter of chance, as it pushes for that last-minute Halloween purchase.

Halloween Email Marketing Campaign Tips

Email marketing is supposed to engage, using various techniques. As you already know, you will need to understand how to create an email list before your holiday email newsletter campaign.

But how will you entice your subscribers and lead them one step further down your marketing funnel? Let’s see:

Dos

The short answer would be an email design that will scream “Happy Halloween,” but this is too generic. To win, you’ll need some extra help:

• GIFs to capture the attention of your readers
• Halloween-themed videos
• Landing pages that will host your Halloween deals (or free gifts)
• Advanced segmentation to make sure that you send the right message to the right person
• A drag-and-drop email editor, like Moosend’s and automation tools

If you want to start creating your Halloween campaign, you can sign up for a free Moosend account, hop into the editor, and work your magic.

Customize it

Of course, none of the above will matter if your Halloween email subject line isn’t the best one your audience has seen. Remember, they receive tons of emails every day, and emails full of Halloween ideas are not any different.

As we’ll see below, the trick is to avoid common rookie mistakes and use your email testing tools to create subject lines that will convert without landing your email in the spam folder!

Don’ts

While the “Do’s” are relatively straightforward, the “Don’ts” of the perfect email subject line are a little more complicated. So, here’s what to consider:

• Don’t forget your goals: This should be a no-brainer; however, you should not forget your KPIs.
• Don’t leave out personalization: Personalized emails draw more attention and generate more opens as they look and feel friendlier.
• Don’t forget your branding: Your email subject line needs to be in line with your brand tone and email content.

Additional Halloween Resources

Below, you’ll find our Halloween resources to help you with your email design, website, email marketing strategy, and more.

• Halloween Email Marketing Guide with Tips & Examples
• Free Halloween Email Templates
• Halloween Email Newsletter Examples & Best Practices
• Halloween Website Ideas to Increase Conversions

Create the Best Halloween Email Subject Lines

A good Halloween email starts with a unique Halloween email subject line! So, get ready to create cringe-worthy puns, craft intriguing Halloween content, and add a dash of Halloween fun to captivate your audience. Whether you’re promoting pumpkin spice products, ghoulish delights, or Halloween decorations, a well-crafted subject line can deliver scary savings and boost your open rates.

But before you do all that, create your free Moosend account to help you out throughout your spooky email marketing journey.

Then, you can start working on a Halloween-themed email template, add some spooky visuals, and give them some frightfully good offers and spooktacular deals that’ll ensure your Halloween sales or promotion’s overall success.