Although the current restrictions are still putting the brakes on many Halloween traditions, it hasn’t done much to dampen people’s enthusiasm for the holiday. There may not be as many outdoor parties, but families are still determined to celebrate Halloween while keeping safe.
Party City found that 70% of parents have been searching for fun alternatives to trick or treating and 63% are planning events at home.
With those numbers, it’s safe to say that enthusiasm for Halloween is alive and well. However, the climate still has a firm grip on the nation. Some adjustments to your Halloween marketing strategy will be warranted.
Here are our Halloween marketing campaign ideas to get you started…
Decorate your website for Halloween
You will want to prepare your website for Halloween traffic with online Halloween decorations. Upping the ante a little by switching up your website’s appearance can influence more consumer engagement. Animated GIFs will add some spooky interactive fun. Consequently, a few ghastly and ghostly backgrounds will help get your visitors in the spooky mood. To sum it up, consumer psychology tells us that if your visitors are in a good mood (or like your website’s look and feel), they’re twice more likely to engage with your content and less likely to click away.
Once your website is fright-worthy, don’t forget about your social media channels. Image libraries can be an excellent resource for Halloween themed banners, headers, and backgrounds to suit various social media platforms.
Run virtual Halloween events
From the above statistics, we know that many families will be playing it super safe and enjoying Halloween at home.
Getting your audience to engage with your brand using Halloween-themed user-generated content can work positively for your brand. Your brand can host costume contests, Zoom Halloween parties, or even virtual Halloween marathons for fitness enthusiasts. Make use of platforms like Houseparty, Zoom, and Google Meet. There are plenty of possibilities to try out.
Create content that helps
Many people will be staying home this year, but that doesn’t mean they want to skip Halloween altogether. Likewise, that means you will find tons of user-generated content can work well for your brand. If you’re in the right industry, your Halloween marketing campaigns could help people have an awesome Halloween at home. For example, pumpkin carving tools and ideas and Halloween themed baked goodness. Moreover, Halloween themed art projects and decor for parents would greatly benefit parents in a home-schooling environment.
Giveaways
Consider running a giveaway that encourages interaction through your social media accounts.
Come up with a prize, which could be tasty Halloween sweeties, cool Halloween decor, or a popular spooky product. Whatever the prize is, it has to be enticing enough to gain sustained engagement.
Here are a few of our tips for running a giveaway on social media:
- Each day of the promotion, ask a question or give a prompt on your social media channels. (“Tell us about your favourite local haunted house” or “Share pictures of your neighbourhood’s festivities.”)
- Keep the prompts locally oriented and family-friendly.
- Your team should be ready to engage with all who respond and keep the conversation going. After the promotion is over, collect the names of all who engaged every day and randomly select a winner.
But don’t forget about the non-winners. You can even throw in a short-term discount code at the end of the contest just for taking part, encouraging those who didn’t win to visit your website and make a purchase. Holiday promotions should always be more than a simple sale, and social media is the perfect platform for unique customer interactions.
Halloween might still look different this year, but that doesn’t mean you can’t keep the spirit alive through some good ol’ fashioned marketing. Are you looking to enchant your followers and summon up more sales in October and beyond? Get in touch on thrive@418group.com to find out how we can help.
