Key takeaways
- Use Halloween themes in emails to strengthen customer relationships and boost seasonal sales.
- Halloween has measurable marketing potential: a 2014 NRF finding cited 68.5% of consumers plan to celebrate, average spend is $72 and total spending reaches $7 billion.
- Make subject lines spooky but tasteful to catch attention, consider a short spooky story as context for your offer.
- Differentiate your message from other holiday emails by emphasizing quality time and family, not just gimmicks.
- Include short, fun Halloween trivia as a side tidbit to entertain without distracting from your main call to action.
- Keep the primary focus of the email on its business purpose, holiday elements should enhance, not replace, the message.
Introduction
Boo! Did we scare you? Halloween is right around the corner, which means great, spooky fun will soon be had for all. We include marketers here, of course. Just because you’re a professional sending emails, doesn’t mean you can’t sprinkle a little Halloween flavour into your messages to really spice up your customer’s experience. In fact, honoring the holidays in your emails can help strengthen the personal link between you and your readers, which would bode well for the future of your business relationship. Sit tight, turn the lights off, and prepare to have your October business ventures thoroughly spook (sorry, spike) up!
The numbers say it all
Halloween is a hugely popular holiday, known and celebrated by most people, and that’s the reason why good businesses tend to capitalize on it. According to research conducted by the National Retail Federation on July 13th, 2014: 68.5 % of consumers plan to celebrate Halloween, and as annual Halloween overall spending reaches $7 billion, the average amount spent on Halloween is $72. Aside from being a truly unique tradition rich with history, Halloween spells big money every year it comes around. If you’re looking for a piece of that action, keep it tucked in mind when planning October’s strategies.
Use the Halloween theme to promote your products
Give your e-mail some Halloween sparkle by including scary subject lines to really catch your costumer’s eye. As long as you do it tastefully, you can also include a small spooky story as a background for your selling point. Maybe there’s a horrifying ghost that follows anyone who doesn’t buy your product!
Make your email stand out from the rest
The thing about holidays is that everyone will be trying to capture the spirit of the event in their emails, not just you. That’s why it’s important to make your outgoing message stand out from the rest, while of course paying respect to the spirit of the holiday. By all means, sprinkle your correspondence with fun content honoring Halloween in all of its spooky splendor, but also make sure to give your email distinction by imploring your customer to enjoy the quality time spent with their families during this season. Halloween isn’t only about ghosts and vampires, after all.
Aim to educate
Take advantage of the holiday by educating your customers with some interesting Halloween trivia. With everyone in the spirit some fun facts about the holiday will be a welcome read. Through our own reading, we’ve found that Halloween is a truly fascinating subject to learn about. For instance, did you know that trick-or-treaters originally had to perform a little dance at the door in order to earn their treat? Even more shocking than that, the earliest Halloween holidays were filled with people who walked around wearing animal skins and heads! We can surely imagine that PETA would have a field day if that sort of thing went on in 2016! Fun facts can put a smile on your customer’s face, and that’s something you should always strive for. Don’t think that you can’t bask in the spirit of the holiday just because you put an emphasis on professionalism. Not only can you have fun on Halloween, but you can also use that spirit to boost your business. Of course, it’s important to keep the focus of your e-mail on its given subject, and just include the Halloween trivia as a side tidbit. It’s all in the details!
FAQ
Keep the main business focus of the email and add Halloween elements as side tidbits, tasteful subject lines, a small spooky story or brief trivia, so the holiday vibe enhances rather than replaces your message.
Use scary or spooky subject lines to catch the customer’s eye, but do so tastefully so the line attracts attention without undermining professionalism.
Include a short spooky story as context for the offer, sprinkle in fun Halloween trivia and remind readers to enjoy quality time with family, keeping these elements as secondary to the email’s main purpose.
Respect the spirit of the holiday while differentiating your message, focus on unique content and emphasise family or quality-time angles so your email feels distinct from others that rely only on ghosts and gimmicks.
Yes. The National Retail Federation (NRF) found (in July 13, 2014) that 68.5% of consumers plan to celebrate Halloween with annual overall spending reaches $7 billion and the average amount spent is $72.
Yes. Include short, interesting facts as a light, entertaining side tidbit so readers enjoy the content without losing sight of the email’s main call to action.
Be tasteful and respectful of the holiday’s spirit, use humour and historical facts lightly and ensure the Halloween elements support, not overshadow, your professional message.
