In e mail advertising and marketing, standing out throughout Halloween may be fairly a trick. Manufacturers in all places vie for consideration with spooky gives, festive themes, and promotional offers. What might be accomplished if the problem had been twofold: create an e mail marketing campaign that may be enjoyable, inventive, and interesting sufficient to encourage actual interplay from subscribers?
On this case, Stripo e mail marketer Oleksandr Dieiev explains how one can mix a robust thought, charming mechanics, and social context in a single Halloween e mail marketing campaign and nonetheless get advertising and marketing outcomes for your corporation.
Knowledgeable
Oleksandr Dieiev
E-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 talent set working throughout company and SaaS environments. His background spans varied sectors, together with eСommerce tasks, occasions, marketplaces, and SaaS merchandise, making him well-versed in crafting tailor-made methods for various audiences.
What Oleksandr loves most about e mail advertising and marketing is the huge potential for automation that allows 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, you will discover him mountain climbing within the mountains, studying historical past books, enjoying video video games, or having fun with a recreation of DnD together with his buddies.
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 vital 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 will shortly and simply create participating emails for Halloween.
- To popularize gamification. We consider in utilizing enjoyable, interactive mechanics to have interaction customers, and Halloween supplied an ideal alternative to point out how these playful approaches might improve their campaigns.
- To showcase one in all our latest options: the interactive module generator. This instrument permits customers to create their recreation mechanics effortlessly with none coding. As a result of this was a current addition, it was essential to let individuals know the way it might make their lives simpler and assist them create one thing distinctive for Halloween.
We needed our viewers to grasp that gamification wasn’t nearly having enjoyable — it might additionally assist them obtain necessary advertising and marketing objectives. Whether or not providing Halloween reductions or working a themed promotion, incorporating an interactive aspect makes the message extra participating and will increase the chance that prospects will act on it.
How we selected the successful thought for the Halloween marketing campaign
Our preparation course of included a number of levels.
Stage 1. Workforce brainstorming
We gathered a spotlight group to throw round as many concepts as doable.
There have been many options; some had been filtered out — typically as a result of they had been too difficult to execute or didn’t match the purpose. However that’s a standard a part of the inventive course of.
For instance, initially, we had this bold thought about constructing a “monster generator” for Halloween — one thing interactive the place customers might 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 could be too difficult to execute. Plus, we had been involved it is perhaps too troublesome for customers to take pleasure in.
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
Finally, we landed on a possible and interesting concept that our customers might simply work together with. Nonetheless, even that preliminary thought developed throughout implementation. The ultimate model was a recreation referred to 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 straightforward to have interaction with.
As we labored by way of the small print, we determined to supply some form of reward to taking part customers. Promo codes are often a preferred selection, however we needed to make the bonus unusual this time. We would have liked a prize that may resonate with our customers and provides them a way of reward with out counting on reductions.
That’s once we considered making a charitable donation. Given the present scenario, with many individuals extra conscious of social points, we felt it was the suitable time to do one thing significant. So, we got here up with the concept that we might donate a greenback to a kids’s charity for each one who accomplished the sport.
Halloween is commonly related to youngsters, so supporting a kids’s group felt appropriate for the theme. It was a technique to join enjoyable engagement with trigger and struck a chord with our customers. Each time they guessed the films, 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 every little thing from scratch, particularly for this e mail.
By the best way, a lot of the mechanics we embrace in our interactive module generator begin as one-off concepts for a marketing campaign. We take these ideas, take a look at them, and refine them after 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 recreation mechanic particularly for this e mail, however we knew it had the potential to develop into one thing extra.
In the long run, we referred to as it “Uncover the Film,” which was a becoming title as a result of that’s precisely what it was all about — clicking by way of 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 difficult and nonetheless made an influence.
Stage 4. The e-mail manufacturing
We started with an preliminary assembly with builders, the place we offered the idea and acquired 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 steadiness creativity and practicality, thereby making certain the ultimate e mail could be participating however not overly difficult to implement.
Subsequent, we moved into the textual content and design preparation stage.
A significant 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 components would stream collectively. This part 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 appear and feel.
Lastly, the e-mail underwent coding, testing, and revisions. The developer introduced the interactive components to life. All through this stage, we made small tweaks based mostly on sensible issues. As soon as the coding was full, we examined the e-mail throughout a number of gadgets and e mail shoppers to substantiate that every little thing — from the design to the mechanics — functioned as meant.
Answer: 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 recreation components to make the expertise enjoyable and simple. Emojis are immediately recognizable and simply understood, which makes them good for a large viewers.
- Visible design: We created a visible illustration of a movie show with an enormous display screen showcasing the emoji film puzzles and little “monsters” sitting within the seats. This design selection wasn’t only for aesthetics; it helped direct the person’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 immediately. Clicking on an emoji or guessing the film title was enjoyable and rewarding, and the promise of a charity donation for every accomplished recreation 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 received in consequence.
Topic line: You play, we donate????
Preheader: Play proper within the e mail
Step 1: Clarify the foundations 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:
- Increased engagement charges: In comparison with our traditional promotional emails, this marketing campaign noticed an 11% enhance within the open price and a 1.2% increase within the click-to-open price (CTOR). The simplicity of the sport and the attract of charity contributions performed an enormous half in these higher-than-average engagement metrics.
- Conversions past the sport: Along with recreation 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 inventive strategy might be in driving a number of types of interplay.
Key learnings: Preserve it easy, hold it participating
This marketing campaign taught us a number of key classes that might be priceless for any e mail marketer:
- Early collaboration is crucial — bringing a developer into the method throughout the thought stage is at all times transfer. It saves time and helps make sure that your idea is achievable.
- Simplicity wins — one of the essential classes was that simplicity is commonly extra highly effective. Our earlier campaigns had tried extra difficult interactive components, which led to confusion. This time, we simplified every little thing — emojis had been straightforward to acknowledge, the directions had been clear, and the sport was direct.
- Information the person visually — the movie show design wasn’t simply there for Halloween aptitude — it served a purposeful objective. We visually directed subscribers’ consideration to the sport by structuring the e-mail like a theater scene, guiding their focus to the vital interactive components. It’s at all times value remembering that design isn’t nearly trying good; it’s about main the person journey intuitively.
Wrapping up
This Halloween marketing campaign proves {that a} inventive but simple 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 maintaining the design intuitive ensured that customers instantly understood the place to click on and how one can take part.
Create your participating e mail video games with Stripo