It's the spookiest time of the year. Halloween is less than two weeks away and this is another opportunity for businesses to take advantage of the celebration with some creative marketing to stir up some sales.
Although most of the sales come from candy, costumes and decor, that doesn't mean other businesses can't benefit from having some fun with their brands too. Thinking that's almost impossible? Think again with these four simple ways to make the most out of Halloween.
SwAp Your Branding
You don't need to go crazy on this, but simple things can make a long term effect. Changing your Facebook profile/cover and other social media platform images are a simple thing any business can do. Your profile picture can be something simple but you want to make sure people would notice the change; whereas your cover photo provides you with a canvas to go big. If you have some sort of special related to Halloween this is your opportunity to sell it. Changing these images not only alerts your customers of a new profile change but it allows them to see a fun side of you as well. 
Halloween Themed Email Campaign
Email is still one of the most powerful forms of marketing. With that in mind, creating a small Halloween themed email campaign can have its benefits as well. Increased sales or brand awareness can be difficult if you have a service based business, but that doesn't mean you can't share valuable content with your audience with a twist of Halloween.
Imagine you're a real estate agent, sending out a newsletter to your clientele hoping they have a happy Halloween and then provide a check list of things to be sure you don't have in order to sell your house fast.
Example: No ghosts, no zombies in the basement and absolutely no Hocus Pocus scenarios.
When planning this, it is important to note that you should only follow this if you are regularly sending newsletters to your subscribers. If you haven't sent an email in over a year and suddenly hit your fan base with a Halloween themed email they might think you have pivoted.
CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN
After your profiles have that new spooky look it might be time to create a campaign to match. Since Halloween doesn't have the same effect or build up that Christmas, Valentines Day or Black Friday hold, your campaign efforts should reflect that. Halloween is only searched heavily the week of Halloween according to Google Search Trends so spending months on a huge campaign around the day isn't the best use of your company's time. However, a few social media posts with some funds behind them to increase reach and engagement is bang on.
If you are a bar or restaurant owner, creating a drink specific for Halloween with a special price around it could be a great idea. Clothing stores could post ideal clothing to wear while taking the little ones out trick or treating and grocery stores can share recipes for Halloween related treats.
I am a big fan of watching what Bulk Barn is doing on Instagram. They have been finding micro-influencers to create Halloween treats using their products bought in the store. With their latest push on marketing to people to bring their own reusable containers instead of using the bags they have been sure to tie that into each video. This type of social media marketing is super effective and on trend.
HAVE A HALLOWEEN CONTEST
User Generated Content (UGC) is quite possibly the most powerful form of content and brands are on board in taking full advantage. Creating a Halloween themed contest can be an easy way to generate this type of content. Since Halloween is all about having fun, ask your audience to provide you with a photo of their decorations or costumes in exchange for a discounted service or free product.
Spending a few bucks to get the most out of the campaign is a good use of funds since UGC performs so well online. Not only will you get content from your audience to use in the future but you will be exposed to new audiences that you might not have had before since the people who share their photos will be visible to their network as well.
Be sure to visit our Facebook page next week to see what we have in store.
ThE TAKEAWAY
Halloween is a fun night that everyone can appreciate whether you are young or old. In order to take advantage of this scary day for your business its important to set expectations when coming up with your idea. Although you might not have a big budget like big brands, you can still create something powerful with a creative email campaign or some eye catching social media posts.