In e-mail advertising and marketing, standing out throughout Halloween may be fairly a trick. Manufacturers in all places vie for consideration with spooky provides, festive themes, and promotional offers. What may very well be finished if the problem had been twofold: create an e-mail marketing campaign that might be enjoyable, artistic, and fascinating sufficient to encourage actual interplay from subscribers?
On this case, Stripo e-mail marketer Oleksandr Dieiev explains how one can mix a powerful thought, charming mechanics, and social context in a single Halloween e-mail marketing campaign and nonetheless get advertising and marketing outcomes for what you are promoting.
Professional
Oleksandr Dieiev
Electronic mail advertising and marketing specialist at Stripo
About Oleksandr Dieiev
Oleksandr Dieiev is an skilled advertising and marketing skilled enthusiastic about direct advertising and marketing and its tangible influence on enterprise progress. With over eight years of expertise in advertising and marketing — 5 of these particularly in e-mail advertising and marketing — Oleksandr has constructed a flexible ability set working throughout company and SaaS environments. His background spans numerous sectors, together with eСommerce initiatives, occasions, marketplaces, and SaaS merchandise, making him well-versed in crafting tailor-made methods for numerous audiences.
What Oleksandr loves most about e-mail advertising and marketing is the huge potential for automation that permits companies to scale their campaigns effectively whereas sustaining private engagement with their audiences. When he is not busy creating compelling e-mail methods or writing insightful articles for the weblog, yow will discover him mountaineering within the mountains, studying historical past books, enjoying video video games, or having fun with a sport of DnD along with his mates.
The important thing thought: Make a enjoyable Halloween e-mail with gamification
The important thing thought behind the Halloween marketing campaign was easy: to create an e-mail for Halloween as a result of it is one of many crucial dates we put together for yearly. It’s a big alternative to attach with our viewers as a result of only some main occasions provide such an opportunity all year long.
Our advertising and marketing objectives had been the next:
To remind customers that with our pre-built templates, they’ll rapidly and simply create participating emails for Halloween.
To popularize gamification. We imagine in utilizing enjoyable, interactive mechanics to have interaction customers, and Halloween offered an ideal alternative to indicate how these playful approaches may improve their campaigns.
To showcase certainly one of our latest options: the interactive module generator. This software permits customers to create their sport mechanics effortlessly with none coding. As a result of this was a latest addition, it was essential to let individuals know the way it may make their lives simpler and assist them create one thing distinctive for Halloween.
We needed our viewers to know that gamification wasn’t nearly having enjoyable — it may additionally assist them obtain essential advertising and marketing objectives. Whether or not providing Halloween reductions or working a themed promotion, incorporating an interactive factor makes the message extra participating and will increase the chance that clients will act on it.
Along with merely creating an e-mail marketing campaign, as a socially accountable firm, we needed so as to add a component of charity and do one thing significant. The objective was to create a marketing campaign to entertain, interact, and contribute to a superb trigger. We knew we wanted greater than only a fairly e-mail — we wanted an idea that might immerse our viewers in a fascinating expertise.
In consequence, they unexpectedly obtained a significantly better interplay with the sport as a result of it was a big motivation that labored even higher than reductions.
Oleksandr Dieiev,
Electronic mail advertising and marketing specialist at Stripo.
How we selected the profitable thought for the Halloween marketing campaign
Our preparation course of included a number of levels.
Stage 1. Staff brainstorming
We gathered a spotlight group to throw round as many concepts as attainable.
There have been many options; some had been filtered out — generally as a result of they had been too sophisticated to execute or didn’t match the objective. However that’s a standard a part of the artistic course of.
For instance, initially, we had this formidable thought about constructing a “monster generator” for Halloween — one thing interactive the place customers may see which Halloween monster matched their persona. It sounded enjoyable and becoming for the event, however as we dug deeper, it grew to become clear that it might be too sophisticated to execute. Plus, we had been involved it could be too troublesome for customers to get pleasure from.
We had confronted one thing related earlier than. We as soon as created an elaborate quest, and, whereas it was a cool idea, it ended up being too complicated, and never as many customers engaged with it as we’d hoped.
Stage 2. Particulars of the ultimate thought
In the end, we landed on a possible and fascinating concept that our customers may simply work together with. Nonetheless, even that preliminary thought developed throughout implementation. The ultimate model was a sport known as “Guess the Halloween Film,” during which customers needed to guess film titles based mostly on emojis — an idea that merged the Halloween spirit with one thing enjoyable and simple to have interaction with.
As we labored by the small print, we determined to supply some form of reward to collaborating customers. Promo codes are often a preferred alternative, however we needed to make the bonus unusual this time. We wanted a prize that might resonate with our customers and provides them a way of reward with out counting on reductions.
That’s once we thought of making a charitable donation. Given the present state of affairs, with many individuals extra conscious of social points, we felt it was the fitting time to do one thing significant. So, we got here up with the concept we’d donate a greenback to a youngsters’s charity for each one that accomplished the sport.
Halloween is commonly related to youngsters, so supporting a youngsters’s group felt appropriate for the theme. It was a solution to join enjoyable engagement with a superb trigger and struck a chord with our customers. Each time they guessed the flicks, they knew they had been contributing to one thing optimistic.
Stage 3. Technical challenges
Technically, creating the marketing campaign was difficult. Nothing was ready-made to suit completely, so we needed to develop all the things from scratch, particularly for this e-mail.
By the way in which, many of the mechanics we embody in our interactive module generator begin as one-off concepts for a marketing campaign. We take these ideas, check them, and refine them once they work nicely to make them obtainable as reusable instruments for everybody else.
This Halloween marketing campaign was no totally different. We constructed the emoji guessing sport mechanic particularly for this e-mail, however we knew it had the potential to grow to be one thing extra.
Ultimately, we known as it “Uncover the Film,” which was a becoming title as a result of that’s precisely what it was all about — clicking by emojis to guess the film titles. It was easy, enjoyable, and labored nicely for the Halloween vibe we needed to create. Above all, it was accessible, which was precisely what we aimed for — an interactive expertise that wasn’t overly sophisticated and nonetheless made an influence.
Stage 4. The e-mail manufacturing
We started with an preliminary assembly with builders, the place we introduced the idea and obtained suggestions on its technical feasibility. The builders performed a vital position in refining the concept, figuring out potential challenges, and proposing options to make sure easy execution. Their enter helped us stability creativity and practicality, thereby guaranteeing the ultimate e-mail could be participating however not overly sophisticated to implement.
Subsequent, we moved into the textual content and design preparation stage.
An important life hack to hurry up e-mail manufacturing: I wrote the e-mail copy early, which allowed our designer to visualise how the content material and interactive parts would circulate collectively. This section ensured the design was cohesive, participating, and aligned with the Halloween theme.
The designer then created a whole mockup that built-in the interactive mechanics with the e-mail’s general feel and look.
Lastly, the e-mail underwent coding, testing, and revisions. The developer introduced the interactive parts to life. All through this stage, we made small tweaks based mostly on sensible concerns. As soon as the coding was full, we examined the e-mail throughout a number of gadgets and e-mail shoppers to substantiate that all the things — from the design to the mechanics — functioned as meant.
Resolution: Halloween movie-themed expertise
To sum up, the answer we discovered and the important thing options of our e-mail marketing campaign had been:
The sport idea: We selected emojis as our sport parts to make the expertise enjoyable and easy. Emojis are immediately recognizable and simply understood, which makes them excellent for a large viewers.
Visible design: We created a visible illustration of a movie show with a giant display screen showcasing the emoji film puzzles and little “monsters” sitting within the seats. This design alternative wasn’t only for aesthetics; it helped direct the consumer’s consideration exactly the place we needed it — onto the sport display screen, encouraging interplay. The film reel and Halloween-themed colours tied the entire visible story collectively, making the e-mail really feel festive, inviting, and intuitive to navigate.
Consumer engagement: The sport format allowed us to have interaction our subscribers straight. Clicking on an emoji or guessing the film title was enjoyable and rewarding, and the promise of a charity donation for every accomplished sport added motivation. If customers performed till the tip, we pledged to donate an quantity comparable to the variety of completions.
Halloween e-mail marketing campaign with gamification
Right here is the e-mail we obtained consequently.
Topic line: You play, we donate👻
Preheader: Play proper within the e-mail
Step 1: Clarify the principles of the sport.
Step 2: Present the sport.
Step 3: You’re the winner! Congratulate gamers and provides the hyperlinks.
Outcomes: A win for engagement and charity
The outcomes exceeded our expectations in a number of methods:
Larger engagement charges: In comparison with our normal promotional emails, this marketing campaign noticed an 11% improve within the open charge and a 1.2% enhance within the click-to-open charge (CTOR). The simplicity of the sport and the attract of charity contributions performed a giant half in these higher-than-average engagement metrics.
Conversions past the sport: Along with sport engagement, the e-mail led to growing downloads of our Final information to e-mail gamification and introduced us new registrations for our Academy, which supplied a course on creating AMP-powered mechanics. The interactive generator featured within the marketing campaign additionally noticed use, displaying how sensible a artistic strategy may very well be in driving a number of types of interplay.
Key learnings: Hold it easy, maintain it participating
This marketing campaign taught us a number of key classes that may very well be invaluable for any e-mail marketer:
Early collaboration is important — bringing a developer into the method throughout the thought stage is at all times a superb transfer. It saves time and helps make sure that your idea is achievable.
Simplicity wins — some of the essential classes was that simplicity is commonly extra highly effective. Our earlier campaigns had tried extra sophisticated interactive parts, which led to confusion. This time, we simplified all the things — emojis had been straightforward to acknowledge, the directions had been clear, and the sport was direct.
Information the consumer visually — the movie show design wasn’t simply there for Halloween aptitude — it served a practical goal. We visually directed subscribers’ consideration to the sport by structuring the e-mail like a theater scene, guiding their focus to the crucial interactive parts. It’s at all times price remembering that design isn’t nearly trying good; it’s about main the consumer journey intuitively.
Wrapping up
This Halloween marketing campaign proves {that a} artistic but easy thought can obtain nice outcomes. By leveraging acquainted symbols like emojis, we made the sport accessible to all subscribers, no matter background or language. Including a component of charity helped foster a way of goodwill, and preserving the design intuitive ensured that customers instantly understood the place to click on and learn how to take part.
Create your participating e-mail video games with Stripo