Halloween is one of the best times of the year to run a marketing campaign. It’s less expensive than other major holidays, but at the same time it’s highly popular and fun. However, if you don’t want to spend a lot of money on an advertisement plan that will only run a few weeks, browse our list of some of the most effective, creative, and affordable Halloween marketing tactics. Get inspired and launch your very own ghastly Halloween campaign today!
CREATE A HALLOWEEN-THEMED SALES CAMPAIGN
There are multiple ways to incorporate some Halloween fun into your advertising plans. For example, you can offer discounts on products in your store or online shop that are only valid for the holiday season. Another popular option is having limited-time products that are only available around Halloween or during fall. Think pumpkin spice lattes. They are very popular, but Starbucks keep this delicious flavour off the menu until fall every year. It makes us want it even more!
MAKE A HALLOWEEN CONTEST ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Including your customers in your marketing plans can be one of the smartest things you can do in terms of advertising. People love to participate and will gladly share photos of their awesome Halloween costumes, artistic and creepy make-up, holiday décor, and Halloween-themed baked goods. Of course, the details of the contest will depend on the nature of your business. For example, if you own a cosmetics company, it would be fun to run a contest for the best Halloween make-up photos.
DESIGN A LOGO WITH HALLOWEEN ELEMENTS
You have surely noticed that when you go to the Google homepage on a festive day or on the day of an important historical event, the logo looks different. Google cleverly adds some holiday-specific, often interactive elements to their logo. Most people enjoy these, and it could be a useful marketing tool for your company too. No one wants to spend time designing an entirely new logo for just a few weeks of use, but simple tricks like making your usual logo black and orange, adding a black cat or a pumpkin, can make it a little extra fun for Halloween.
SEND A HALLOWEEN NEWSLETTER
Do you have a newsletter? If not, it’s something you should seriously consider. Statistics show that email marketing—that includes newsletters— is up to 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter posts. This can be used to your advantage, especially around the holidays, when you can send out Halloween coupons, relevant articles, fun facts, and whatever else you think your subscribers might enjoy.
CREATE A HALLOWEEN HASHTAG
Although a relatively new phenomena, hashtags are extremely powerful when used correctly. They have multiple functions and can add a somewhat narrative tone to posts. Being interactive, they allow users to click on them and be taken to other posts with the same hashtag. They’re often used as search terms on social media and they’re fun and trendy—so if you come up with a catchy one for your Halloween campaign, it has the potential to be shared a lot.
DIGITAL TRICK-OR-TREATING
Target is one of the first companies to have started this trend. The retailer set up a virtual neighbourhood on Instagram, all made from taggable images that are laid out next to each other. Each image has two houses, a trick and a treat. When a user clicks on the “treat” house, they’re taken to pages with Halloween-themed recipes. If a user chooses the “trick” house, they’ll get access to DIY projects. Although this does take a bit of programming know-how, if this is your skill set it’s a great way to get customers engaged during the holiday season.
PUBLISH HALLOWEEN-THEMED CONTENT
If you run a blog on your website, holidays are a great time to work on your writing and to put together a quick, fun blog about the occasion. If you don’t blog, no problem! Just share other people’s articles (of course giving credit to the original writer). This should be completely separate from your marketing campaign. Just share interesting articles people will enjoy reading, like stuff about the history of Halloween, fun recipes and DIY projects, interesting traditions from around the world and more. Be creative!
FINAL THOUGHTS
Although it’s a bit late in the season, you can still launch a last-minute Halloween campaign. People shop until the very last hour before parties and trick-or-treating begins, so you still have time!
