With Halloween just around the corner, now is the time to start getting your marketing emails into the spooky festive spirit. There are many ways you can use Halloween to your advantage with your email marketing. But, watch out, because there are also some scary pitfalls you should avoid:
Trick or Treat?
Treat!
Our advice is to plan ahead and have your content prepared, proof read and ready to insert into your email template. This helps avoid any spelling errors and also helps you identify what style of layout that is required to suit the amount of content you will be using.
Halloween is a great and fun opportunity to send a campaign to your customer base. Campaigns of this style can be creative and show off your company’s sense of humor. You don’t even have to to sell Halloween-related products to take advantage of the theme.
Most people wouldn’t think of firing up the barbecue at the end of October, but that didn’t stop Weber (a barbecue manufacturer) from sending out a Halloween email:
Instead of assuming that their customers wouldn’t be interested in their products at that time of year, Weber have managed to use Halloween to their advantage. By showcasing a Halloween-inspired recipe, they are showing their customers an alternative way of using their products, encouraging them to use things that would usually spend the autumn and winter gathering dust!
Trick!
Be careful of sending subject lines like the following:
A frightfully good offer – up to 50% off Halloween
Trying to be overly creative with your Halloween subject lines could see your emails burn on the fire. The example above contains some of the most common words used by spammers and can be rejected by spam filters.
A better example would be this one from Waitrose:
This subject line cleverly uses a Halloween trope without being too heavy handed, and without using ‘spammy’ words. It also hints at the email’s content while still sticking to the theme.
Treat!
Use Halloween to inspire your email’s design. An occasion like Halloween is the perfect opportunity to inject a little creativity into your email’s design, helping to attract potential customers in the process.
A high-quality, responsive email design will mark you out as a professional company, and a cleverly-used Halloween theme will inspire and excite your customers. Take this example from Hobbycraft:
Although light on copy, Hobbycraft have effectively used their email to inspire their customers. Their clever Halloween-inspired design encourages their subscribers to unleash their creativity and, hopefully, make some crafty purchases!
Trick!
Avoid going overboard with the Halloween theme. You can use a few Halloween-inspired design touches without it taking over your whole email. All your emails should, generally, stick to a single design template. This is so your subscribers can quickly recognise messages from you. Stray too far from your regular template, and you emails could end up in the trash. So, make sure your Halloween emails stick to regular design and layout, but add a few spooky touches!
Like any special date, Halloween offers a lot of opportunities for email marketers. By avoiding a few mistakes, you can turn your marketing emails from frightful to delightful!
Image courtesy of Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
