Did you know Halloween is the third most popular holiday in the United States? While October is a month full of fun and interesting events, Halloween is one special day that always seems to take the cake. Halloween, for the most part, is a commercial celebration of the spooky and macabre—the type that encourages shoppers to start shopping.
We’re serious when we say that Halloween is a big deal.
Even with the current COVID-19 pandemic, The National Retail Federation’s Annual 2020 Halloween Spending Survey reports that many users polled “still expect to spend a record $91.12 each, up from $86.27 last year, the most since the survey started in 2005.” That’s why it’s highly important for all business owners to take advantage of its marketing opportunities.
Like the Fourth of July and Cinco de Mayo, you don’t need to wait until the day of Halloween to leverage the holiday for your business efforts. In fact, we recommend coming up with engaging promotions and content for increased engagement, lead generation, and customer reach right now.
In this blog, we cover 7 ways you can maximize Halloween for your marketing strategy. Let’s take a look at them!
1. Offer Halloween-related products or services.
If you aren’t sure how to offer or even promote Halloween-related products, don’t fret too much! There are a few creative ways to get into the perfect Halloween spirit, even if your company isn’t spooky. For example, if you own an ecommerce business, you can try creating a line of creepy-themed items like pumpkin shirts or cozy candles. You can also offer creative themed food if your business involves food or create a small event that invites participants to wear costumes.
Remember Halloween isn’t just a holiday for masks, candy, and fall aesthetics—any business can tweak their products and services to fit the Halloween theme, even if it’s something as simple as adding a little Halloween pun in your sales promotions! Of course, make sure to announce these products and services to your social media, business, and website pages to generate buzz.
2. Add a touch of Halloween to your branding.
Adding a dash of spookiness to your branding isn’t a requirement but it does get consumers excited! Whether it’s implementing popular Halloween symbols into your logo, adding some in-store pumpkins, or making scary pop culture references, you can create interest about your business. Some of the best ways other businesses have incorporated Halloween themes include adding popular trends like Stranger Things into their branding (like Lyft did a few years ago!), and creating a festive flair into your social media and website.
There are numerous users online who are obsessed with Halloween and the things associated with it. By adding a little Halloween into your branding, you invite many people to like, share, and click on your social media channels and website.
3. Create Halloween-themed content.
A great way to drive shoppers to your business is to create engaging Halloween-themed content that users will love to read. As reported by Demand Metric, effective content marketing generates more leads than traditional marketing efforts, and costs less. Content marketing also educates your audience about your brand, builds customer relationships, and increases brand value. Be sure to take advantage of content marketing during the Halloween season.
You could easily produce content that revolves around the holiday, including blogs, infographics, and pictures. For example, you might write a blog that discusses “scary things” about your brand’s respective industry, DIY How To articles on a Halloween-related activity, or even a downloadable creepy guide on sales and engagement. Make sure that all content your team creates closely relates to your business or the industry it belongs to.
4. Take advantage of social media.
Whether you like it or not, social media is everywhere. As stated by statista, as many as an estimated 3.6 billion people were using social media worldwide in 2020, which is set to increase to almost 4.41 billion in 2025. Because of how prevalent social media is today, it’s highly crucial for brands to take part in it through social media marketing. For this Halloween, all of your social campaigns should have a spooky feel to it—obviously, it should be something appropriate (nothing too macabre that can turn away your audience). Your social media content can include pictures of Halloween decorations at your office, Halloween-themed items or services, themed discounts or sales, and even quirky captions that relate to the holiday.
When sharing your content on your social channels, don’t forget to include relevant hashtags. It also allows audiences to find your brand, especially if other brands are using similar hashtags. Be creative with your hashtags. For instance, you can introduce a hashtag contest that encourages others to post their photos using your hashtag. Through this, you can gather user-generated content and achieve brand awareness.
5. Produce a scary (but appropriate) video.
According to Brain Rules, people are more likely to remember pieces of information when it’s paired with a visual component. It’s for this reason that video remains one of the most effective ways to communicate with an audience. Video content also allows you to get creative during the Halloween season, which can attract potential audiences to your brand.
Some video content ideas include creating a video series relating to your business with traditional monsters (like Frankenstein or Dracula), a video discussing a Halloween-themed sale that’s available, and a recap of a seasonal event you recently hosted. When you create videos about your business, you help your audience understand your brand, what it offers, and how it can help them—all while having some spooky fun!
6. Throw an in-store Halloween event.
Halloween is the perfect holiday for a good, candy-filled event, especially if you want more foot traffic. Of course, with the current COVID-19 pandemic, you will need to change the structure of your party so that it adheres to social distancing guidelines. This allows you to have a small number of people in-store at a time, in compliance with the social distancing guidelines. Halloween parties don’t have to be expensive either; you can opt for cute autumn or pumpkin decorations, free candy or treats, and festive music.
We also recommend offering exclusive sales so customers can feel enticed to make some purchases while they enjoy the party.
Remember to have fun while you create a creepy, fun-filled atmosphere for your customers, both online and in person. For many consumers, Halloween stands as an important holiday that allows them to express themselves, celebrate the autumn season, and invite a little spookiness into their lives.
You should always combine your marketing efforts with a little fun (as long as it’s appropriate) to help engage your audience, especially during these current tough times. As Thomas Griffin from Inc.com states, “For marketers, taking advantage of the holiday season is crucial. It’s a time when consumers are willing to spend more money and are looking for new businesses to invest in. When done correctly, it can lead to a spike in leads, subscribers and sales.” As such, start planning your campaigns early so that you can turn your average trick-or-treaters into loyal customers!
Be sure to check out our white paper, Marketing Post COVID-19 to learn more about how you can sustain your brand during this ongoing pandemic.