Halloween is the spookiest time of the year, but it is also one of the most entertaining events around the world. What used to be viewed as a holiday for the kids now justifies partying for all ages, and we'd probably say that some adults have more fun than the kids on Halloween. This is a holiday unlike other family holidays such as Christmas and Thanksgiving, where families may spend money buying gifts or on getting together for a meal. However, it has become a great occasion for selling or running different campaigns – even if your business is not related directly to Halloween. 🎃 Actually, Halloween marketing embraces one of the biggest sales peaks in the year, before the holiday season really begins. This makes it the ideal time to put some effort into your email marketing to try and increase your sales. In 2019, 8.8 billion dollars were spent to celebrate Halloween in the US alone. So, in this article, we're going to focus on this match made in heaven: Halloween and marketing campaigns. Let's explore some ideas to bring you that spooky profit. Halloween Marketing Ideas For Your Campaign There are many ways in which you can profit from your Halloween marketing campaigns. We'll give you some ideas about how to make the best out of it – without frightening your customers, of course. Well, maybe just a little. But c'mon, who doesn't love some pumpkin carving and funny skeletons? 💀 1. Offer Halloween Freebies to Your Customers If your business has nothing to do with Halloween, that's not a problem at all. Everyone loves a freebie, and this is an opportunity to reach out to your customers with some Halloween freebie. For example, let's say you have a marketing agency. Why not create a guide to Halloween campaigns that you can email to your customers free of charge? It's something that takes a bit of effort, but it's perfect to start a conversation. And, remember, do not use a do-not-reply email for these messages. You want engagement too – what use is it to send a resource if your users cannot discuss it with you? Keep your social media on too by posting often during this month and interacting with users. 🍬 2. Suggest Halloween-Themed Gifts If you run an eCommerce business, we're sure you have some Halloween-themed products. These can range from candy to costumes, funny novelty items, anything you sell that is spooky and fun. As an example, this sports gear store got some fun items to sell that fit their usual product while being Halloween-themed: So, as you can see, you don't have to change your catalog for Halloween campaigns. A few related products are enough to get your customers curious and make them shop at your store. 3. Use a Spooky Design in Your Emails Use all your creative teamwork to design a Halloween marketing campaign. We'll show you some examples further in this article, but for now, here are a few suggestions that will bring out the fun: Use a dark theme. This is not only a recommendation for Halloween since dark themes are quite trendy right now, but dark visuals are great to create that scary motif. Add elements that are related to Halloween: this could range from pumpkins, coffins, spider webs, skeletons, even spooky candy. Beware of not leaving enough blank space. If your creativity goes into overdrive, your call to action might get lost in all the visuals. Keep it fun but simple. Use gifs. In the link, you'll find a few examples of great usage of them that can inspire you into creating some fun Halloween gifs. Plus, most email clients support them, which does not always happen with video. Gifs are one of the best ways to make your email stand out in the inbox. 📥 4. Segment Your Messages According to Demographics This is recommended not only for festive emails but for every single campaign you put out. If your customers come from different demographics and locations, your email campaigns need to cater to each demographic accordingly. Let's say you send an email about costumes for your Millennial users, but for your Boomer demographic, you send a discounted Halloween themed blanket to keep them warm on the spookiest night of the year – and for many cold nights to come. 🌙 This is just an example, but it shows that you need to know what each demographic expects from you. To find out your users' demographic, you can run surveys, or ask for a bit of information while completing a purchase. All data that you can cross-reference is great to understand who is buying from you, and what they are buying. When it comes to surveys, you can also offer some freebies or a discount on your products in exchange for participation in the survey. Easy-peasy. 5. Start Sending Early Studies show that 40% of adults start shopping for Halloween at the beginning of October. However, 4% of them will begin their hunt for scary goods as early as August. Of course, in August you're probably still selling summer products (if you're in the Northern Hemisphere like us), but in the middle of September, you can start Halloween marketing to offer goodies for your customers. 🦇 This has to do with your audience too. If your typical consumer has kids, you can bet they're going to start shopping early. You have to meet your customers where they are. 6. Combine Social Media & Email Marketing Social media and email marketing might sometimes be portrayed as rivals, but that couldn't be further from the truth. These two channels should be used together. It can start with something simple like adding social buttons at the end of your emails or running social media ads where users can subscribe to your mailing list easily. These are just two examples of how you can mix social media and email. The main lesson you should take from this item on our list is that you need to look at your users' engagement in a holistic way. Your strategy needs to mix all the channels you're on seamlessly. 🖇️ As another example, you can ask for your email subscribers to follow you on social media as your CTA (call to action). At the same time, you'll give special offers to your followers or giveaways on your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter… Even Reddit has proven to be a good social network to help with your advertising. Reddit now allows for ad campaigns too, and if your products are related to a specific niche, you'll find your fans are somewhere on Reddit looking for the items that you sell. So, do not be afraid of mixing email marketing with social media. These two channels can form a symbiotic relationship that will make it easier for users to get an ideal experience with your brand. 7. Craft Fun Email Subject Lines This piece of advice is applicable all year round, but when it comes to subject lines, you can't drop the ball. And, sometimes, simple is better. Just take a look at this example from Stacked Marketer: See? Short, sweet, and to the point. Using emojis in your subject lines is also recommended because Halloween is all about the fun approach. Stacked Marketer is a marketing newsletter, but even though their product has nothing to do with this holiday, every business can profit from communicating Halloween-themed subjects. Every successful company hypes up Halloween marketing, and so should yours. If you follow all our tips, your Halloween marketing is going to convert easily. 8. Do a Flash Sale Every holiday is a great opportunity to make a flash sale. Customers are excited about the upcoming festive season, so they are much more inclined to buy anything. As we mentioned before, every kind of business can profit from Halloween marketing, and flash sales are just an example of how you can increase your ROI through this spooky season. For a flash sale, we recommend having a deadline bar on your website, such as this template from Convertful: Of course, you can adapt this design to anything that strikes your fancy. The important thing is to make the countdown easily visible all over your website, to make your users get the fear of missing out (FOMO, in short) that is highly conducive to purchases. You might not be swayed by a discount if you're not sure about buying a product, but if you hear that the discount is only going to last for a few hours, you're much more likely to buy. Use marketing and psychology together to increase your sales numbers exponentially. 9. Offer a Trick & a Treat in Your Emails “Trick or Treat” is an essential part of Halloween, and it should be a part of your festive marketing too. Basically, what we're proposing is to have something that spooks your user out, like a gif of a skeleton jumping out of a coffin or other fun and scary item. Right after the gif plays the first time, you offer a discount on selected products or services. Doing so will excite your customers into buying from you. Bring out the big guns into your treat, and keep it classy on the trick. Halloween Email Marketing Examples Now that we've given you nine suggestions about what to do for your Halloween email campaigns, we'll go through a few examples of email marketing done right for this occasion. Check these out! Accessorize This is a clear example of Halloween-themed graphics without losing brand identity. You can either shop their usual collection or go for the treats, which is a great way to assure a great click-through rate on your emails. Lush Halloween does not always have to be about spider webs and coffins. Lush nailed it with this “Spooky Slumbers” email, which emanates a dark vibe without being actually scary. It actually gives you a kind of cozy feeling. Lands' End This apparel brand did something cute with their “Black Magic” themed email. Cats are the internet overlords, so using a black cat to communicate a campaign (especially one that is going to end soon) is a great idea. Plus, the cat is made of wool, which emanates softness and warmth in the cold Autumn season. Fresh Picked Deals We mentioned gifs in this article, and this example is perfect. It's another cutesy approach to Halloween, while offering free shipping on all orders. Loft Remember we said to keep it simple? Well, Loft couldn't make it simpler with their glow-in-the-dark eyes and the message “A sale so good, it's scary”. And we love it! Wrapping Up Halloween campaigns can bring the best out of your creative team. Give them free rein to create something spooky and fun, while at the same time keeping it connected to the spirit of your brand and products. Like we mentioned before, Halloween is no longer just for kids. Adults get into the scary spirit and dress up in whimsical costumes, decorate their homes, making this event not just for families but for all demographics. As we showed you, your message does not have to be necessarily about tombstones, cobwebs, and ghosts. There are so many ways to approach Halloween marketing that you just need to get your creative juices flowing to surprise your customers. Using Platformly, it is easy to design an email template for your campaign. Don't have Platformly yet? Well now is a great time to start using it! Join Platformly today! As usual, the comment box is yours for any questions or remarks. Also, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for brand updates and much more.