No, Halloween Won’t Send You to Spam: Email Deliverability Myths Debunked

Halloween is peak season for themed promos, flash sales, and inbox attention grabs. But many marketers still fear that putting “Halloween” or 🎃 in a subject line will doom their email to spam.  

Let’s be clear: that fear is outdated by about 15 years. Deliverability isn’t about spam trigger words anymore. It’s about your sending behaviour, reputation, and infrastructure. 

In this article, we’ll dispel the myths, show you what truly matters, share Halloween subject lines and preview text ideas.  

Myth-Busting: Haunted deliverability myths you can leave in the grave

Myth 1: “Halloween” in a subject line triggers spam filters

Reality: Email filters today don’t typically block or penalise specific keywords. Instead, they surface behaviour patterns such as high complaints, bad reputation, low engagement. You won’t get ghosted just for saying “Halloween”. 

Myth 2: Emojis destroy deliverability 

Reality: Emojis can help when used smartly. One study shows they can boost click-throughs by around 28%. But results vary by audience and context. Use them sparingly. Your engagement metrics (opens, replies, clicks) will tell the real story. 

Myth 3: Sending more emails during Halloween leads to more complaints 

Reality: It’s not frequency that kills deliverability. It’s sending to unengaged or stale segments. If your list is clean and segmented, ramping up your send volume to your most engaged users is fine. Just don’t blast the whole list in one go, which includes contacts who haven’t interacted for years. 

The real monsters in deliverability (what you should fear) 

These are the ghouls that cause emails to vanish into spam or junk folders, and they’re what you must focus on. 

List hygiene and segmentation

You know how critical it is to clean out unengaged addresses, suppress cold segments, and maintain recency-based rules. But how? Use tags or scores to isolate your VIP opens, clickers, and those you should no longer email. 

Reputation, complaints, bounces

ISPs monitor metrics like bounce rates, spam complaints, and unsubs. One bad campaign can drag your reputation down. Having a low or bad reputation with ISPs (IP or domain) is a major hazard, and with that bad rep comes a slow and painful recovery. Exactly what you don’t need during seasonal peaks! 

Authentication: SPF, DKIM, DMARC

These are non-negotiables: 

• SPF: Declares which IPs can send on behalf of your domain.
• DKIM: Adds a cryptographic signature so receivers can verify the message hasn’t been altered. 
• DMARC: Sits on top, telling receivers how to handle messages that fail SPF/DKIM and gives you reports. 

Spotler makes this easier. When you send via Spotler Mail+, technical standards like SPF, DKIM, DMARC, bounce management, and abuse monitoring are baked in. You don’t need to worry about misconfigurations.  

And we’re CSA-certified too for even better deliverability. 

Gradual ramp and volume strategy

Never just unleash your full volume cold. Sudden spikes will trigger filters and impact your domain reputation. Instead, use your most engaged segments first, throttle sends, and use multiple send windows across hours and days for the less engaged segments. This reduces the red flag potential with ISPs. 

Engagement and feedback loops

Encourage opens, clicks, replies. Use dynamic content, personalisation, and subject line variety. Remove or suppress those who don’t engage. Use feedback loops from ISPs to handle complaints quickly. This is what signals legitimacy. 

Content and design hygiene

Above all, avoid misleading content in your subject lines and email copy. This is a surefire way to annoy your subscribers, which may result in them clicking that spam button. When users click the dreaded spam button, it weighs heavy on your reputation.  

Design-wise, don’t rely on overly heavy image layouts. Keep a good text-to-image ratio, clean HTML, alt text, mobile responsiveness, and a clear unsubscribe path. These are the additional things that ISPs look out for.  

No tricks, just inbox treats: How Spotler supports your Deliverability 

Spotler Mail+ supports deliverability in key ways: 

• Technical backend handled: Authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), bounce management, and abuse checks. 
• Smart segmentation: Use Spotler’s tagging & scoring to segment by engagement and behaviour.
• Built-in A/B testing: Mail+ lets you A/B test subject lines, preview text, sender names and automatically send the winning version.
• Ongoing monitoring: Spotler provides support and ISP feedback loop management. 

Because we handle the backend, you can focus on creativity, strategy, and results. 

Halloween subject line + preview line ideas to test 🎃 

Need some inspo? Here’s a list of 20 emoji-powered subject line/preview text combos you can use, or even better, A/B test: 

Emojis: What to use in subject lines 

Final Thoughts

Your Halloween campaign should feel fun, bold, and true to your brand. 

But the backbone that keeps those emails landing in the inbox (not the spam folder) is strong deliverability practices: list hygiene, smart segmentation, engagement-based sending, and proper authentication. 

You don’t need to fear “Halloween” in a subject line. The real risk comes from sloppy sending practices.  

With Spotler Mail+, you get built-in support for authentication, reputation management, and A/B testing, letting you send creative, high-engagement messages without the inbox placement headaches.