April Fools’ Email Ideas That Drive Engagement & Boost Conversions

Why send out April Fools’ emails

April Fool’s is one the best and most challenging days of the year in the marketing calendar. On one hand, it allows marketers to explode with creativity. On the other hand, coming up with something both funny and not too offensive is super hard, no kidding. But still, April Fools can bring you a lot of business. Here is what a healthy dose of humor can help you with. 

Strengthening brand identity and trust through creativity

Let’s consider hard stats: According to Oracle, 91% of consumers prefer brands to be funny. While we don’t want to overwhelm you with numbers, the data is so fascinating, that it’s worth sharing a few additional facts. For example, a whopping 41% would skip the brands that do not make them smile or laugh. And more than 80% are more likely to buy from “funny” brands again and recommend them to their friends and family. It’s not a prank, folks. 

Why humor plays such a big role? It’s all about emotional connection and happiness. People tend to be overwhelmed with everyday lives. Take the US as an example: just in one year the country dropped from 15th to 23rd place in the World Happiness Ranking, according to an eponymous report (reported by Axios). Everyone deserved a break! Here is where marketing and advertising come along — to make a great joke we can collectively laugh at and relax a bit.  

Boosting engagement and shareability

“Collectively” here is an important word — we want to share a joke. And funny content, like memes, for example, is highly shareable. Humor makes content digestion easier. This is supported by science, by the way: In 2021, a study from the University of Pennsylvania and the Ohio State University found that viewers are more likely to share humorously presented news clips and remember content from them compared to non-humorous segments. Here is the reason: humor stimulates activity in brain regions associated with social engagement.

So, a humorous email is more likely to be shared and engaged with by your subscribers. It also might give you some free publicity! Though popularity is tricky: In 2024, British restaurant chain Gourmet Burger Kitchen found itself in the rough waters over an April Fools email with the subject line “Order confirmation: 1046758092”. While the brand tried to promote new burger customization options, subscribers were panicking over hacked email accounts. The funny thing is, almost the exact same thing happened with the Deliveroo app in France in 2021 failed email “prank”.  Both were shared a lot, though, so the joke was on all of us.

How to create an effective April Fools’ email campaign

Funny jokes can certainly add new dimensions to your marketing campaign and earn you better results but only if used appropriately. So let’s go over all the steps of creating a humorous marketing email. 

Define your goals

First of all, figure out what goals you pursue in launching this campaign. Do you need to notify the customers about holiday products and promotions? Boost sales? Increase brand awareness? Simply entertain your subscribers and cheer them up? Clearly formulate the objectives of your April Fools’ marketing campaign, and define what success means for you.

Stay true to your brand and keep the joke in tune with your company’s culture. If your company’s tone of voice is usually serious, trying to be funny once a year might come off as awkward and forced. If you’re sending a B2B email marketing campaign, be especially careful and considerate.

Segment your audience

Before you start sending out your campaigns: do some research and think about the customer profile your joke will be addressed to. Yes, you won’t be 100% accurate. It’s impossible to match the joke perfectly to every subscriber. However, such an approach is helpful when it comes to determining how customers will react to the joke and how far you can go. One of the ways you can use segmentation is to specifically target dormant subscribers. An email newsletter with a fun design and subject line might be just what you need to re-engage this part of your audience.

Come up with a catchy subject line

According to the Oracle research shared previously, 69% of consumers would open brand’s email if the subject line was funnier. So the subject line is crucial here, so don’t be afraid of experimenting it: you can try several different marketing strategies to see which one works best for your audience. 

To make sure that your emails will be open, intrigue the subscribers! Make a crazy or bold statement to surprise them and awaken their curiosity. Take a look at this email Everyman sent on April 1st as a good example. 

Subject line: ✍️ Our new AI pen that writes by itself

Preheader: Experience the future of writing with our AI Grafton

The subject line looks so absurd that it immediately grabs the attention and increases engagement, making the readers open the email to see what’s going on. A clever marketing trick!

Another option is to set up a joke in the subject line and offer a payoff in the preheader. Here is a punny option by a cookware and dinnerware brand:

Subject line: Why do eggs like April Fools’ Day?

Preheader: They like practical yolks!!

You can stick to a more traditional approach by simply using holiday-related words like “prank”, “joke”, kidding”, “fool”, “fun”, and “crazy” in your subject line. It may not be as attention-grabbing as the previous strategies but still performs well.

Here are some examples of the subject lines for your inspiration:

Joke

• No Joke! Open to Reveal Your Exclusive 1-Day Offer…
• It may be April Fools’ Day but our prices are no joke!
• No joke, your April Fools’ Day deal is 40% off!
• Jokes On Us!  Savings Inside
• It may be April Fools’, but we’re not joking…

Prank

• April Fools’’ Day Sale — No Pranks, just Real Offers. This Weekend only!
• 3 Lasting Benefits Of April Fools’ Day Prank Marketing;
• OMG these pranks are too good ??
• April Fools’ prank ideas! + 40% off with code SPRING40
• Prank All Over Me

Fool

• Don’t Be Fooled – This Deal is For REAL
• Ready for April Fools’?
• 15% OFF Online Only! No Foolin’
• Free Shipping All Day — No Fooling!
• No Foolin’! This Deal is Not to Be Missed…
• With Jewelry, We Don’t Fool Around 🤡 (James Allen Rings)
• You won’t be fooled by our mystery bundle 😱(Benefit Cosmetics)

Make sure you’re mobile-friendly

When you think about how to create a“good-looking” email, every detail matters. Stats say that 71% of consumers primarily view emails on their smartphones. So, make sure your digital marketing campaign displays correctly on all types of devices, especially when it comes to templates with GIFs, videos, and complex layouts.

Unsure how to check it? Selzy’s email templates are all responsive, so your viewers on both desktop and mobile can enjoy your email design. Plus, our email builder is powered by AI for content generation. Try Selzy for free to create impactful holiday campaigns.

Provide a clever call-to-action

The CTA should be clear and noticeable and a bit festive, of course. Instead of boring “Shop now” and “Visit our website”, you can use more creative variants to boost engagement and increase sales. BarkShop did that in their campaign, jokingly offering subscribers’ dogs to get a job:

It is not necessary to squeeze out something extraordinary if you don’t have any ideas. Here is a fun 2024 email from Kate Spade with a classic April Fools-themed copy and a simple “Take a look” button. 

Personalize your emails

Personalization is another sure way to enhance customer experience and make your contact with subscribers even deeper. The simplest technique is to include your customer’s name in the email. Although this is a common strategy, it doesn’t work well when users don’t provide their real names. And checking the customer profiles requires resources, so if you decide against it, you can end up with an email like in the example below:

This email has a greeting at the very top that looks a bit strange as instead of their real name, the user seemingly typed in random letters when making a profile. 

If you want to go beyond using a customer’s name, you can also explore other personalization techniques.

Keep it ethical

The downside of humor is that it’s easy to offend people. As we’ve mentioned, coming up with a clever line is hard — even professional comedians spend months crafting new material and still risk being canceled. So keep it light, and test all your fun and creative email ideas first. Try them on colleagues, friends, or trusted acquaintances, preferably from different backgrounds. Are they laughing, or are they about to block your number?

April Fools’ Day email ideas to use in your campaign

Here are some noteworthy design and content ideas you can use for inspiration when creating your April Fools’ Day campaign.

Play with fake product launches

It’s been done before and people love it: for example, in 2024, Oreos announced the divorce between wafer and cream and fake-launched two separate products. 

Here is another great example from the grooming brand Supply: in 2024, they decided to fake-launch a lawn mower so the grass in their customers’ gardens would be as well groomed as customers’ beards. That was, of course, a joke followed up by a great CTA button “Shop real products”. 

Promote a surprise product

Some brands go beyond fake announcements and even let you in on the joke. In 2025, apparel and underwear brand Shinesty pulled off the ultimate prank. They promoted “Inflatabulge Boxers” — a gag gift customers could send to their friends as an April Fool’s Day prank. The pranked friend would first receive a humorous email, followed by the real package in the mail a little later. And the “real package” is no joke! While this approach is extremely risky for many brands, it’s perfectly on-brand for Shinesty.

Of course, this is not your budget-friendly idea, but it’s so cool that we can’t skip it.

Offer special discounts and deals

Traditionally, companies and brands time their sales to coincide with upcoming holidays. April Fools’ Day is no exception — it’s a chance to get creative and showcase your business in a profitable way. Take a look at this offer from Spyder: they advertised a 100% discount… on delivery. It’s a sweet deal that still carries the spirit of a prank.

Use unexpected, hilarious visuals

This goes without saying! Add amusing comics or illustrations, memes, or GIFs to your April Fools’ email marketing campaigns to take advantage of the occasion.

In this email, nood showed a comical character made almost entirely out of hair. It’s a surprising and eye-catching visual. The email also pokes fun at the company’s competitors showing how unrealistic the brand believes their claims to be.

Best April Fools’ email examples that we’ve ever seen

Here are some really creative examples of April Fools’ emails, email marketing ideas, and best practices to steal. 

Pokemon Sleep

This campaign by Pokémon was named one of the best in 2024 (for April Fools’ Day, of course — not the entire year!). With it, the brand promoted Pokémon Sleep — a real sleep-tracking app, in case you were wondering. For the campaign, marketers created a fake event called the Pokémon Sleep Champion Tournament and a video featuring sports-style commentary. It was a clever way to engage the game’s fans.

Everyday Dose

Here’s an example of great copy: just look at the “Mush’s Health” review section in coffee brand Everyday Dose’s April Fools’ email. Let’s face it — coffee toothpaste is an amazing idea. An even better idea? Including a “reply corner” to ask for feedback. With enough replies, you could gather inspiration for plenty of great pranks in the future.

Almond Cow

Sometimes, you don’t need to create out-of-the-box content — unusual facts about your brand or product can do the trick. That’s the strategy Almond Cow used in their 2024 April Fools’ email. The brand’s machine allows users to make plant-based milk, so in the email, marketers shared unusual recipes made from unexpected ingredients. It grabs attention and creates just enough intrigue to make readers check those brownies out!

Copper Cow Coffee 

This April Fools’ campaign goes above and beyond to prove that fake coffee for babies exists. The email has believable images and addresses real parents’ concerns — the possible fatigue babies experience staying up all night, the need to improve their focus and productivity. And when subscribers clicked on the CTA (below which is a very small text explaining the joke), they saw a real product page that only revealed the product was fake at the very bottom.

Kelty

Very often April Fools’ emails prank the subscribers. But what if you offer subscribers to prank each other? It can be even more effective — Kelty proves that displaying the way you can prank a friend using their products. Such an intriguing approach!

Sofa Club

This email is minimalistic and imitates a product launch campaign. What caught our attention was the clever use of a GIF to show the product’s characteristics. The idea itself deserves credit too as it is nice and almost plausible.

Final thoughts

A touch of humor can add new dimensions to your campaign, and earn you better results, but only if used appropriately. Here are the simple steps to follow when creating a good-looking email for an April Fools’ Day:

• Define your goals — choose the key pros of launching your campaign, and build your strategy based on these goals.
• Make sure that your audience reacts to the prank properly — do some research before you start sending out your campaigns, and think about the customer profile your joke will be addressed to.
• Create a catchy email: choose an attention-grabbing subject line, use a prominent CTA, and check whether your campaign is mobile-friendly.

Here are the noteworthy ideas you can use in your April Fools’ Day campaign:

• Don’t be afraid to show your sense of humor. Use puns, play on words, bright pictures, tell funny stories — it depends on your taste and the company’s tone of voice
• Offer special discounts and deals. April Fools’ Day is a chance to be more creative in your promotions and show your business in the most profitable way possible.
• Try creating a fake product. It makes the readers curious and forces them to open the email to see what’s in it.
• Use funny visuals. Grab subscribers’ attention with colorful and humorous illustrations to create a festive atmosphere.

A half-hearted attempt to capitalize on April Fools’ Day won’t get your emails noticed. So, try to add some personal approach to your campaign, and you’ll definitely get incredible results!

This article was originally published in March 2022 and was updated in March 2025 to make it more relevant and comprehensive.