[Update]: This article was first published on October 23, 2019. It was updated with examples of modern email signature templates.
Dedicated Halloween email signatures – who would do that, right? That’s the first thing that comes to mind for most people. The thing is, those Halloween-themed signatures work so well in email marketing that it’s scary. If you want to boost your sales and make the most of the Halloween season, read on for spooky email signature inspirations and ideas.
Why use Halloween signatures
The end of October is a perfect time for the Halloween-related campaigns. People are in the mood for scary, so it might be a good idea to update your email signatures with Halloween-themed marketing banners.
Why email signatures? Because you send lots of emails. Traditional, HTML marketing newsletters can score a few clicks, but are you happy with their open rate? My inbox is overflowing with those bland, repetitive emails, endlessly waiting to be opened.
Email signatures as a promotional medium feel entirely different. Who doesn’t love a well-designed email signature? It adds a professional touch to business correspondence. Holiday-themed email signatures, if planned well, are exceptional attention-grabbers and are much less aggressive than dedicated advertising newsletters.
Inspirations for Halloween email signatures
Depending on your kind of business and your customers, you might need various degrees of scary. That’s why I have divided the Halloween email signature templates below into three categories.
Inspiration level 1: just a hint of scary
If you don’t want to miss the opportunity, but the upcoming holiday doesn’t really fit your style, take a look at the following Halloween email signature design:
The only themed element is the banner on the right. While it doesn’t fulfil the whole Halloween potential in your emails, it can still get the job done. The banner fits the rest of the design very well and it grabs attention because of the differently colored element. The discount code makes your recipients curious, especially if they are returning customers.
Pros:
- Perfect for remarketing.
- Doesn’t require any Halloween-related services or products.
- Makes it easy to stay compliant with the corporate identity.
- Shouldn’t hurt recipients who hate Halloween.
Cons:
- Adding additional element might make your signature look cluttered.
- Won’t work with every design.
Inspiration level 2: goose-bumps
The design below is the perfect balance between the toned-down and the insane design:
The carved pumpkin might seem a bit cliché, but there’s a cliché that clichés become clichés for a reason… There are three elements which add the festive feeling to this email signature design – the banner, the decoration, and the surprise. Thanks to the banner (its colors and graphic elements) your recipients will find it hard to ignore the signature. If you have Halloween-related offers, you should get lots of traffic with this kind of design. Adding a decorative element on the photo is easy and makes it clear that the person responsible for managing email signatures knows their job well.
Did you find the trick element? I’ve asked Jane and the job title in this email signature is not her real one. You might not make every recipient laugh, but the ones who notice the “Easter egg” are priceless.
Pros:
- Great to boost your Halloween-themed offers.
- Contains social media icons & one-click CSAT survey.
- The design is edgy and full of the Halloween spirit (and I don’t mean Bloody Mary).
- Very likely to catch attention.
Cons:
- Might be too much if it repeats multiple times in a single conversation (it may be a good idea to prepare two different designs).
- May not fit every type of customer.
Inspiration level 3: Halloween madness
There are times when you simply need to let your Marketing department loose. Otherwise, you risk that their pent-up creativity explodes in the least expected situation. Halloween might be the perfect opportunity for such an explosion:
While this sample email signature follows a simple design, it is the most expressive of the three. The most attention-grabbing element is the stylized photo. While the photo won’t make you get more clicks, it will surely be appreciated by everyone who is into Halloween. This email signature design is also the one most likely to be shared.
Another important thing to notice is the attention to detail – all elements come together for one good impression. Black social media icons, together with the black and red banner make the design elegant. Halloween email signatures can be stylish.
Pros:
- Despite the simple design, the signature has the greatest potential.
- Good opportunity to impress your customers.
- A photoshoot is also a great idea for a company event.
- The most creative ideas are likely to be shared.
Cons:
- Will not work well if your recipients don’t like Halloween.
- A particularly creative idea will require a lot of work to get it right.
More inspirations
Below you will find more examples of Halloween email signatures. If any of the templates catches your attention, make sure to download it for free.
Jack-o’-lanterns everywhere!
A perfect marketing banner for all end-of-October campaigns. Once packed with carved pumpkins, it makes the signature eye-catching and lively. If you like it, you can download this signature template here.
Drop-dead gorgeous Halloween
Simple but lovely email signature. All contact details are shown first, so your recipients should not feel overwhelmed with the Halloween-themed banner. Feel free to download it here.
A Ghostly Tale
Just look at these social media icons! Little ghosts make this email signature cute but stylish. If you’re not scared, download it here for free.
What to be careful about?
Halloween email signature design can boost your campaigns and doesn’t have to require a lot of work. However, if you use any holiday- or event-related email signatures, there are a few things you need to be aware of:
Email signature campaigns work best if used by all employees
While this is true for all email signature campaigns, it is particularly important for the themed ones. Imagine that you chose an email signature design which is completely different from your standard one. Later on, during a conversation, it turns out that each employee is signed with a completely different email signature design. It doesn’t look professional, leaves a careless vibe and a sour aftertaste.
Mind the mobiles
Are you using mobile devices to send emails? These days, it is rare to find a company that has no mobile email users. Now think about email signatures – normally, each email client and each device needs a separate email signature set up. To make a good impression, this email signature must be compliant across email clients and devices, which makes a Halloween-themed (or any other, really) campaign much harder to launch.
Don’t overdo it
Each of the ideas for Halloween email signatures above is positive. However, for longer conversations, seeing the same email signature template over and over again might be tiresome for both the sender and recipients. That’s why it is good to configure a different email signature for the first impression and for messages that follow up the conversation. While it might complicate your email signature configuration, it will be the most professional approach and, with the right tools, it can be achieved automatically.
Schedule the campaign well
Getting a Halloween-themed email signature a week after the holiday is simply unacceptable. It’s not the Groundhog day and your recipients are not going to like such a déjà vu – even the best Halloween parties shouldn’t last more than a single night. This factor, together with the ones mentioned above, might cause you to reevaluate themed email signature campaigns. But what if all those worries could be solved in a simple way?
How to make holiday campaigns stress-free?
One way to simplify setup of email signatures for the whole company at once is to use an email signature manager. With such a solution on board, you can easily configure multiple email signature campaigns for all or individual users in your company, all at once.
This means you can, for example:
- Set up a Halloween email signature campaign with a dedicated template editor in just a few minutes.
- Let the software personalize the template for each user automatically.
- Make the signature look perfect on every email client and device.
- Add Office 365 users’ photos automatically.
- Design a complete email signature for the first impression and a simplified version for follow-ups in the same conversation.
- Schedule the campaign beforehand, so that themed email signatures are added whenever you need them.
Let your email signature campaigns go wild. Avoid configuration headaches.
Further reading: