A Guide to Successful Halloween Email Marketing

Halloween is fast approaching, and it’s the perfect time for businesses to stand out and bring joy to consumers with creative and playful campaigns. While last year’s Halloween was marked by caution due to economic uncertainty, this year we find ourselves in a more stable situation. Despite ongoing challenges, we have adapted to the new normal and can once again celebrate and gather with friends and family. This presents a golden opportunity for businesses to engage their customers and encourage festivities and activities with both creativity and enthusiasm.

Spice up the marketing with Halloween themes

If you don’t sell costumes or sweets, you as a retailer may think that Halloween isn’t a relevant sales holiday to invest in. But here you should think twice! There are creative ways for companies operating in all possible industries, to take advantage of the holiday and give your customers what they want during Halloween. In this guide, we highlight a few different ways to spice up your email marketing with Halloween themes.

Word games is successful with Millennials

Word games are an art that causes divided opinions. Some love them, others roll their eyes as soon as they hear them. Middle-aged dads are stereotypically fond of so-called ‘Dad jokes’, but new studies show that word games are most popular with millennials . Regardless of the top demographics of your business, playful word games are a hallmark of Halloween. It’s a pretty easy way to inject some warmth and personality into your Halloween email marketing!

Give your discount codes a Halloween twist

Halloween is a great time to master the art; emotionally driven marketing. Take advantage of the customer enthusiasm that is brought to life during this holiday and offer a festive discount. By taking the time to make sure that the discount code is also synchronized with the rest of the Halloween content, you boost your email marketing.

Arouse curiosity with the help of a layer of mystery

While this is usually not the best idea and we would not recommend that you make it harder than usual for your customers to take advantage of an offer, Halloween is a time when customers are more receptive to playful tricks.

Recommendation:

There are lots of creative ways to create some mystery in your Halloween campaigns, where you include secret offers that require a click to unlock. Just be careful about how you use this tactic so it’s not perceived as misleading!

Multichannel marketing for a successful halloween campaign

To maximize the impact of your Halloween marketing, it can be beneficial to combine email with other communication channels. With Rule, you have the opportunity to complement your email campaigns with both SMS and RCS (Rich Communication Services), creating a more engaging and interactive experience for your customers. RCS allows you to send messages that include images, videos, interactive buttons—offering more creativity and personalization than traditional SMS. By also integrating social media and web push notifications, you can build a seamless and engaging customer journey across multiple platforms. This multichannel strategy increases the likelihood of your messages reaching the right audience at the right time, fostering strong engagement leading up to the Halloween season.

Change a little in your automations

Automations in Marketing Automation flows are generally considered as ‘Arrange-once-then-let-it-be’ bets. You create communication such as cart abandonment mail, welcome loops and win back mails and then let them roll. But a smart move is to update your automations continuously throughout the season. By adding some eye-catching graphic Halloween elements to some selected automations, you stand out in the mailbox and make your emails even more efficient. It also gives you the ability to automatically market your Halloween promotions further.

Don’t forget the basics

An effective Halloween marketing campaign requires more than seasonal content – make sure you also send the content to the right recipient at the right time.

If you have created halloween email marketing before, there is data in Rule about which recipients have engaged with the content. You can consider creating segments that include customers who have opened previous Halloween emails and target offers to them. Or segment based on offers around specific products where customers who have bought similar products in the past are certainly extra interested in your Halloween offer.

A good idea is to keep time in mind when planning your Halloween campaign. If your e-commerce doesn’t sell Halloween specific products and you simply just want to get in the mood, you can schedule this communication until mid-October until Halloween.

Bonus tips for successful halloween email marketing

Halloween has been used as an opportunity for extra income for decades. Your brand is unique and the holiday offers a great opportunity to show your brand’s personality, while driving sales. Here are some bonus tips for successful Halloween email marketing:

Think outside the box and try to capture the interest with more than ‘Boo’. Nothing against ghosts – but we think you can do better than that! If you need help figuring out creative headlines, try using resource resources to find ways not to misuse phrases that are already overused.

Upcoming Halloween and Christmas holidays are associated with ‘giveaways’ and are a time for companies to show appreciation to their loyal customers. Why not also send a branded candy giveaway, discount code and a wonderful Halloween greeting with the orders. A great way to use Halloween to build deeper relationships and encourage repurchases!

Use referral marketing and your loyal customers to get new customers. By getting your customers to recommend exclusive Halloween deals to their loved ones, you build your customer base and increase your sales.

To summarize:

Halloween offers trading companies a unique and fun opportunity for additional sales and to build deeper customer relationships. The secret to successful Halloween email marketing is to embrace the playful holiday, get really creative with the marketing content and create Halloween-themed campaigns that are still in tune with your brand. By segmenting your customers and adapting Halloween communication accordingly, your marketing becomes more effective and you increase the engagement on your mailings.

Particular demographics may be more enthusiastic about Halloween than others; Gen Z is a good starting point! Given the prevailing circumstances, consumers can appreciate a playful and friendly gesture from companies – we wish you a successful Halloween sale and we are here to share digital strategies with you.

Do you have an e-commerce and need help getting started with newsletters or do you want to update something in your templates for Halloween? Contact Us! Don’t have a Rule account yet and want to get started with digital communication ? Explore Rule for free!