Spooky enjoyable that boosted engagement — Stripo.electronic mail

In electronic mail advertising and marketing, standing out throughout Halloween could be fairly a trick. Manufacturers all over the place vie for consideration with spooky presents, festive themes, and promotional offers. What might be finished if the problem have been twofold: create an electronic mail marketing campaign that will be enjoyable, inventive, and interesting sufficient to encourage actual interplay from subscribers?

On this case, Stripo electronic mail marketer Oleksandr Dieiev explains how one can mix a powerful thought, fascinating mechanics, and social context in a single Halloween electronic mail marketing campaign and nonetheless get advertising and marketing outcomes for your corporation.

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Oleksandr Dieiev

Oleksandr Dieiev

E-mail advertising and marketing specialist at Stripo

About Oleksandr Dieiev

Oleksandr Dieiev is an skilled advertising and marketing skilled obsessed with direct advertising and marketing and its tangible impression on enterprise development. With over eight years of expertise in advertising and marketing — 5 of these particularly in electronic 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 initiatives, occasions, marketplaces, and SaaS merchandise, making him well-versed in crafting tailor-made methods for numerous audiences.

What Oleksandr loves most about electronic 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 isn’t busy creating compelling electronic mail methods or writing insightful articles for the weblog, you could find him climbing within the mountains, studying historical past books, taking part in video video games, or having fun with a recreation of DnD together with his buddies.

The important thing thought: Make a enjoyable Halloween electronic mail with gamification

The important thing thought behind the Halloween marketing campaign was easy: to create an electronic mail for Halloween as a result of it is one of many crucial dates we put together for yearly. It’s a major alternative to attach with our viewers as a result of only some main occasions supply such an opportunity all year long.

Our advertising and marketing targets have been the next:

  1. To remind customers that with our pre-built templates, they’ll rapidly and simply create participating emails for Halloween.
  2. To popularize gamification. We imagine in utilizing enjoyable, interactive mechanics to interact customers, and Halloween supplied an ideal alternative to point out how these playful approaches may improve their campaigns.
  3. To showcase certainly one of our latest options: the interactive module generator. This device 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 folks know the way it may make their lives simpler and assist them create one thing distinctive for Halloween.

We wished our viewers to know that gamification wasn’t nearly having enjoyable — it may additionally assist them obtain vital advertising and marketing targets. Whether or not providing Halloween reductions or operating a themed promotion, incorporating an interactive aspect makes the message extra participating and will increase the probability that clients will act on it.

Along with merely creating an electronic mail marketing campaign, as a socially accountable firm, we wished so as to add a component of charity and do one thing significant. The aim was to create a marketing campaign to entertain, have interaction, and contribute to trigger. We knew we wanted greater than only a fairly electronic mail — we wanted an idea that will immerse our viewers in a fascinating expertise.

Consequently, they unexpectedly bought a significantly better interplay with the sport as a result of it was a major motivation that labored even higher than reductions.

Oleksandr Dieiev

Oleksandr Dieiev,

E-mail advertising and marketing specialist at Stripo.

How we selected the successful 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 have been filtered out — generally as a result of they have been too difficult to execute or didn’t match the aim. 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 may see which Halloween monster matched their character. It sounded enjoyable and becoming for the event, however as we dug deeper, it grew to become clear that it might be too difficult to execute. Plus, we have been involved it is perhaps 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

Finally, we landed on a possible and interesting concept that our customers may simply work together with. Nevertheless, even that preliminary thought advanced throughout implementation. The ultimate model was a recreation referred to as “Guess the Halloween Film,” wherein customers needed to guess film titles based mostly on emojis — an idea that merged the Halloween spirit with one thing enjoyable and simple to interact with.

As we labored by way of the small print, we determined to supply some form of reward to collaborating customers. Promo codes are often a well-liked selection, however we wished to make the bonus unusual this time. We wanted a prize that will resonate with our customers and provides them a way of reward with out counting on reductions.

That’s after we considered making a charitable donation. Given the present state of affairs, with many individuals extra conscious of social points, we felt it was the correct time to do one thing significant. So, we got here up with the concept we’d donate a greenback to a kids’s charity for each one who accomplished the sport.

Halloween is usually related to children, so supporting a kids’s group felt appropriate for the theme. It was a strategy to join enjoyable engagement with trigger and struck a chord with our customers. Each time they guessed the flicks, they knew they have 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 electronic 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 once they work properly to make them accessible as reusable instruments for everybody else.

This Halloween marketing campaign was no totally different. We constructed the emoji guessing recreation mechanic particularly for this electronic mail, however we knew it had the potential to develop into one thing extra.

Ultimately, we referred to as it “Uncover the Film,” which was a becoming identify 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 properly for the Halloween vibe we wished 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 impression.

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 an important position in refining the thought, figuring out potential challenges, and proposing options to make sure easy execution. Their enter helped us stability creativity and practicality, thereby making certain the ultimate electronic 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 electronic 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 total appear and feel.

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 issues. As soon as the coding was full, we examined the e-mail throughout a number of units and electronic mail shoppers to verify that every little thing — from the design to the mechanics — functioned as supposed.

Resolution: Halloween movie-themed expertise

To sum up, the answer we discovered and the important thing options of our electronic mail marketing campaign have been:

  1. The sport idea: We selected emojis as our recreation parts to make the expertise enjoyable and easy. Emojis are immediately recognizable and simply understood, which makes them good for a large viewers.
  2. 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 wished 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.
  3. Person engagement: The sport format allowed us to interact our subscribers instantly. 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 top, we pledged to donate an quantity similar to the variety of completions.

Halloween electronic mail marketing campaign with gamification

Right here is the e-mail we bought because of this.

Topic line: You play, we donate👻

Preheader: Play proper within the electronic mail

Step 1: Clarify the principles of the sport.

Halloween email interactive idea

Step 2: Present the sport.

Halloween email with gamification

Step 3: You’re the winner! Congratulate gamers and provides the hyperlinks.

Halloween email example

Outcomes: A win for engagement and charity

The outcomes exceeded our expectations in a number of methods:

  1. Increased engagement charges: In comparison with our standard promotional emails, this marketing campaign noticed an 11% improve within the open fee and a 1.2% increase within the click-to-open fee (CTOR). The simplicity of the sport and the attract of charity contributions performed an enormous half in these higher-than-average engagement metrics.
  2. Conversions past the sport: Along with recreation engagement, the e-mail led to rising downloads of our Final information to electronic mail gamification and introduced us new registrations for our Academy, which provided a course on creating AMP-powered mechanics. The interactive generator featured within the marketing campaign additionally noticed use, exhibiting how sensible a inventive strategy might be in driving a number of types of interplay.

Key learnings: Maintain it easy, preserve it participating

This marketing campaign taught us a number of key classes that might be invaluable for any electronic mail marketer:

  1. Early collaboration is crucial — bringing a developer into the method in the course of the thought stage is at all times transfer. It saves time and helps be sure that your idea is achievable.
  2. Simplicity wins — some of the essential classes was that simplicity is usually extra highly effective. Our earlier campaigns had tried extra difficult interactive parts, which led to confusion. This time, we simplified every little thing — emojis have been simple to acknowledge, the directions have been clear, and the sport was direct.
  3. Information the person visually — the movie show design wasn’t simply there for Halloween aptitude — it served a practical function. 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 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 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 protecting the design intuitive ensured that customers instantly understood the place to click on and learn how to take part.

Create your participating electronic mail video games with Stripo