Abhishek Chauhan
Halloween is just around the corner, which means it’s time for you to ramp up your spooky season marketing. So take the plastic skeletons out of the closet, dust off the fake cobwebs, and ready your pumpkins.
Halloween is one of the most popular holidays in the US. Therefore, leveraging this opportunity to promote your business and make a hefty profit is crucial for its survival. Studies show that about 40% of people complete their spooky season shopping well before Halloween. This is why you need to start your Halloween prep at least a month in advance.
So you’ve put together a nice Halloween sale for all your customers. Now what? Now it’s time to get the word out there. Let people know about your spook-tacular Halloween sale using these wicked, tried-and-tested promotional strategies.
1. Spook up your website
This month, turn your online store into Halloween central. This will help direct your customers’ attention and take them to the special seasonal landing pages you want them to go to.
The first thing you need to do is create a welcome pop-up for your site – something your customers see as soon as they enter. On this pop-up, advertise your sale and offer a special promo code that people can use to get their discounts during checkout.
Make sure to add a catchy and engaging call-to-action (CTA) button at the end of your pop-up so people know where to go. Something like “avail your wicked discount” or “start your spooky season shopping here” can really help direct your customers’ buying needs.
Apart from this, you should add exciting little tidbits to your website to celebrate Halloween and get people excited. Put on a tiny witch’s hat on your logo. Or have some ghosts floating around the screen periodically.
Every year, The Body Shop gets people in the Halloween spirit with special Halloween goodies on their website.
2. Spread the word with some ghastly flyers
Reach out to the people in your locale. Let them know that you’re pumped for Halloween, and that they should be too. People love a local business that runs seasonal festivities because it gives them an opportunity to be a part of something.
This is also a great strategy if you’re looking to build trust in your community, and rack up a permanent loyal customer base.
As a young business, you may not have the time or money to hire graphic designers to create flyer designs. At the same time, you want your flyers to look professional. Luckily, sites like PosterMyWall have tons of ready-made Halloween flyer templates that you can customize and print out in minutes.
Create a schedule for handing out your flyers. For instance, do a flyer run in the morning and evening, because that’s when people are out running or with their families.
You should go door-to-door and drop flyers in people’s mailboxes. Door dropped flyers are 78% more effective than other flyer distribution strategies. Make sure to also hand them out in parks, and outside grocery stores and movie theatres.
3. Sell Halloween gift cards at your store
Stack up Halloween gift cards at your store’s checkout station, and offer them to customers when they come to you. These gift cards will make great Halloween gifts and they’ll increase awareness of your store.
Offer the gift cards at a special, discounted price and let your customers know exactly how big of a steal it is. Allow gift card owners to use it on your online store as well, and offer free shipping for anything that they purchase off of it.
Chances are, people who come to your store because of the gift card will stay for your amazing prices and quality products. And that’s exactly what you want!
4. Send out some wicked emails
According to one study, email marketing is 40 times more effective than Facebook and Instagram when it comes to customer acquisition. This is because you’re talking directly to your customers, which increases the chances of your message reaching them and of them listening to it.
Start sending out Halloween emails at least a month in advance. Mention your sale, the different deals you have, the products you have to offer, and a promo code people can use to avail their discounts. Make your emails as spooky and fun as possible. You can also repurpose your flyers and add them to your emails.
Make sure not to spam your customers with emails though. A couple of emails every two weeks should be enough to do the trick and grab your customers’ attention.
Use your website to build your email list – ask people to sign up for exclusive offers and discounts. Moreover, when you’re distributing your flyers, keep a sign-up sheet with you and ask people to provide their emails in exchange for more exciting offers.
5. Run a bone-chilling social media campaign
When it comes to running a seasonal promotional campaign, social media is your best friend. It’s the perfect tool for creating hype around your sale and for getting people talking.
So this Halloween, prepare a well-planned Halloween campaign for your social media. Below are some strategies for Instagram that work and that can be repurposed for other social media sites:
Introduce a Halloween bingo
Give people something to do each day for the 30 days leading up to Halloween e.g. a horror movie to watch, a costume to create etc. Dedicate one day to shopping at your store and mention the promo code. As people share the bingo on their pages, your promo code will gain more and more traction.
Run a costume contest
User-generated content (UGC) is 42% more effective than branded content. So ask people to share pictures of themselves in Halloween costumes, using a special hashtag. Incentivise people to share by offering freebies and special discounts to everyone participating.
Share scary movies, Halloween recipes, and freaky make-up tutorials
Keep your page as active as possible during the days leading up to Halloween. This will increase engagement on your page, and draw more attention to your sale. Don’t forget to add posts about your sale periodically.
Final thoughts
People love a creative, well-thought-out Halloween campaign that they can be a part of. So this spooky season, give it to them by leveraging your website, flyers, gift cards, email, and social media effectively. Happy Halloween!
