7 Funny Email Examples To Get Inspired [+How To Create]

For some brands, employing humor or creating funny emails is kind of a no-no. They fear they might not be taken seriously. And taking things too seriously can be exactly what disconnects your brand from your target audience.

Adding humor to your marketing messages helps your brand stand out from the crowd and makes communication more personal.

See how I just started my blog post? With a light, playful tone that will get you interested rather than bored straight away.

In this blog post, we’ll be looking at:

• 7 funny email examples from known brands
• how you can create your own successful funny emails

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1. Chubbies

Subject line: HOLY SHIRT

Chubbies has an arguably unique tone of voice in their messages. No matter if it is a promotional email, an announcement or a welcome email, they use humor in all of their communications.

In the above example, we see humor employed right from the email subject line in the form of a wordplay. This is an excellent strategy if you want to attract your target audience’s attention and drastically increase your open rates.

As soon as subscribers open the email, they find an engaging email design. Specifically, the brand uses a large visual that catches the eye along with a short email copy that’s on the lighthearted side.

In this way, the brand manages to turn this sales email into a funny newsletter that has a higher chance of converting its audience.

The funny and playful tones can also be reflected on the CTA buttons found on this email. Here is an example:

The company promotes its T-shirts, while at the same time telling its customers (subconsciously) that T-shirts are never enough. So why not buy a bunch? Not to mention that the following CTAs in the email create some kind of a narrative (e.g. free up your closet space, they are really soft, too).

So, you understand how critical email copywriting is for successful conversions!

Note: If you want to create a newsletter like the one from Chubbies, check out our complete guide!

2. Huckberry

Subject line: Welcome to the Fold

Huckberry is a brand that adds a touch of humor in almost every newsletter they send to their audience. Even in the welcoming one!

As you can see here, the humorous element comes in the form of social proof. One of Huckberry’s customers “devours every email” they send. While this could be an exaggeration or just a “fake” testimonial, their sense of humor definitely doesn’t pass as negative.

Other instances include the one below:

In this example, Huckberry promotes its product in a unique way by giving a 10-year guarantee to customers. The story behind the product is catchy and a young audience would surely get excited. This could also be accompanied by social media ads in the same tone.

Overall, Huckberry uses subtle humor that doesn’t risk insulting the audience’s intelligence. What’s more, this unique style they use can make them stand out from the crowd in the tough eCommerce market.

3. Shinesty

Subject line: this is our most unsubscribed to email of all time

Shinesty has created one of the funniest emails I have ever seen. It’s both self-deprecating and ingenious at the same time. First of all, it plays with one big truth – that some subscribers will never even purchase a product or open an email. These subscribers have the chance to opt out right away.

The “testimonial” used as well as the tone of this email prepares you for similar communication in the follow-up emails and emails sent by the brand in general.

Some people would argue that this form of email marketing might be a little extreme, but the brand wants to capitalize on this “extremeness” and create a deep bond with the audience.

Here is how the brand tries to convince you to explore their website:

Again, we have funny social proof from a happy customer. Then, we have a large visual of the product and some of its best features. Now take a look at the CTA! It’s clever and it fits the context.

Finally, let’s take a look at the footer of the email.

It continues to be on the funny side, while it also incorporates a GIF that will crack you up.

4. Really Good Emails

Subject Line: Oops! Speaking of Templates…

Really Good Emails has got us used to a playful and funny tone in their emails. However, here we have a quite different case. This is an apology email due to a mistake the company made with one of its CTAs.

Specifically, the CTA’s link from the email below was wrong. You can also see the humorous element in the copy of the CTA:

This can happen when using email templates, as they said. The way Really Good Emails handled it, though, was something else! Not only did they send a follow-up email apologizing for the mistake, but they also changed their footer.

You can see how they changed their classic tagline (“Design Better. Spam Never.”) into “Design Better. Spam Never. Check Links Always.”

5. BarkBox

Subject Line: 🤬⚠️ FREE UPGRADE MOTHERPUPPERS

BarkBox is a brand that offers subscription boxes for “cool” dogs. As you can tell from their subject line and email copy, their language is a little provocative yet attention-grabbing. The use of emojis makes it even more eye-catching.

Let’s begin by saying that the subject line (Free Upgrade Motherpuppers) will probably make you burst into laughter. Getting inside the email, the company stays consistent in the “cursing” theme (e.g. free curse collar, gimme this sh*t). The strong vocabulary is present across the whole email.

You could say some dog owners might be offended or annoyed, but the risk of this becomes less due to the preheader text (Get The Curse Collar FREE with your first box.).

Even if this is the case though, I’m guessing these dog owners wouldn’t be the “ideal” target group or customers of BarkBox.

6. Birchbox

Subject Line: Ch-ch-changes

Birchbox references pop culture in this email example and particularly with their email subject line that puts David Bowie’s song in your mind.

This subject line does not go to extremes to make you laugh, but it will definitely put a smile on your face assuming you know the song. The aim of the subject line, however, is not only to make you laugh but also to prepare you in a nice way about the sustainability mission of the brand – hence “changes.”

Imagine stating this in any other way. It might not get the required attention from subscribers or they might not even open the email.

In this way, the reader is subconsciously prepared to learn what’s different about the brand, while having David Bowie’s song in their mind playing.

7. Soylent

Subject Line: Did you ghost us?

Here we have a funny cart abandonment email example from Soylent. As every marketer knows, cart abandonment is a serious problem for eCommerce businesses. Therefore, getting users back to their shopping carts to finalize their purchases is among the biggest wins.

Achieving that ain’t easy. Soylent tries to bring people back by leveraging very subtle humor right from the subject line. Moving towards the inside of the email, the company does something really interesting.

It has a visual of a supposed open conversation between the shopping cart and well… you! The email copy tries to encourage users to complete their purchase while keeping the mood light. Moreover, the language used (i.e. about ghosting) is very familiar in our everyday lives, so it feels natural and authentic.

Instead of this chat visual, you could alternatively use a funny meme that most users will appreciate.

This type of email can also be accompanied by a coupon code/discount inside the email. In this way, the potential customer has one more reason to complete the purchase.

4 Tactics For Successful Funny Emails

Creating funny emails that hit the mark may not be a piece of cake, but it certainly isn’t rocket science as long as you stick to some key tactics. Let’s see them one by one.

#1 Keep It Short

How long should a sales email be? Anything between 50 and 125 words will work just fine. At least, that’s according to a recent statistical study.

Maybe your funny emails aren’t going to be about sales, that’s true. But it remains the case that people don’t like reading long emails, no matter how compelling.

The internet is a minefield of distractions.

Besides, you don’t need all that many words to make an impact. A little can go a long way. It’s true for this section, and it’s true for comedy in general.

Tip: Use these powerful words to supercharge your funny emails!

#2 Use Humor As An Accessory

Imagine that you’re having a pleasant conversation with a stranger, but all of a sudden, they make a dreadful, horrible joke, delivered with entirely-forced cheeriness. You stop yourself from visibly cringing, but inside you’re suffering. After that, you just can’t focus on what they’re saying, and you definitely can’t take them seriously.

To avoid this, you should only ever use humor to support the ultimate purpose of the email. At no point should any metaphor, silly word or even dad joke be given enough focus to slow or stop the flow.

Instead of detracting from the points you make, questions you ask, and the value you add, they should bolster them with a nice, friendly, welcoming feeling that the reader will appreciate.

Try to be genuinely funny, at least to a very mild extent. Otherwise, you’re better off getting rid of all traces of attempted humor, because they only stand to sabotage your efforts.

#3 Stay Audience-Appropriate

Whatever style of humor you choose to employ, you must make sure that it actually stands a decent chance of being appreciated by your target audience.

Therefore, you need to take into account the tone, language, and references of the intended recipients, and cater to them. Comedy relies heavily on references to shared experiences.

It may be that your audience consists of young people with a strong connection to pop culture. Or your audience might be middle-aged men and women who might not really “tolerate” let’s say provocative humor.

To find the right balance and better understand your target customers, you can create buyer personas. This process will also help you market your products more effectively as well as customize your messaging to resonate with them.

Creating buyer personas is only the first step. You can’t expect to achieve “excellence” without experimenting a little bit. Fortunately, modern email marketing services provide you with testing tools to identify which subject line, email copy, etc resonates better with your audience.

So, you need to conduct what we call A/B testing. For example, you send one variation of your funny email to a part of your email list and another variation to another part of your list. You should only change one thing in your variations otherwise you won’t know what made the difference (i.e., the subject line, the visual, etc).

#4 Draw From Your Personality

Forget rifling through scripts to old comedy routines or ebooks called “501 Ways To Be Hilarious In Business”. You need to say things that match who you are.

Authenticity is a nebulous but powerful influencer, and no amount of ripping off a funny webcomic you saw last week is going to help you achieve it.

If you find something funny, let people know. Even if they don’t find the same thing funny, they will find something to enjoy in your enjoyment of it. We’re all more inclined to like people who come across as open and genuine and in turn more likely to laugh along with them.

Finally, staying true to your brand identity and tone will look and sound more natural. Not to mention, that it will increase brand loyalty among your customers.

Conclusion

Crafting funny emails sure isn’t easy. First, you need to find the right inspiration and remember to pick a relevant topic. Then, you need to think about how you would talk casually to your subscribers.

Avoid extreme humor or sensitive topics that might offend people and create a negative effect on your brand. And, last but not least, don’t forget to experiment first! Try running those emails on a small scale to assess how your audience reacts. This will be your full-proof way to create truly funny emails.