Holidays are a great time to step up your marketing game. It gives you an excuse to run promotions, get new swag, and deck out the office. With Halloween just around the corner, it’s time to start planning how you are going to utilize this spooky holiday to boost your sales.
Ambiance
Take the time to decorate your office, especially if clients or customers visit often. It makes your company feel fun and creative. Hang bats, ghosts, witches and cobwebs from the ceiling, and play spooky music. If you have front facing windows, decorate them with a creative display. Dress up, and allow your staff to dress up as well. Have a Halloween costume contest in the office with sweet prizes (of course, branded with your logo). Give out candy to people who visit, or dress up and pass out candy and promotional materials to nearby businesses. Allow the public to come to your space on Halloween to get a picture to enter a social media contest. Post Halloween decoration, costume and safety tips on your website. Carve your business logo onto pumpkins to set outside your store or office (just make sure to put them inside at night to dissuade vandalizing). This marketing strategy is known as retail-tainment.
Give away promotional materials (that people actually want)
Create Halloween-specific postcards to pass out during the Halloween season. Make them interesting and relevant, filled with Halloween safety tips, fun statistics, or coupons good until November 1st. Instead of stapling your business card to a candybar, contact a local company about printing your logo directly on the wrapper. Partner with another local business or restaurant with deals like “Spend $xx at our store and get a free appetizer at our partner restauraunt!” Put your brand on useful items, like bottle openers and keychains, and give those away to local businesses as a Halloween Gift. Create a Holiday Buyer’s Reward program that will give them a discount for Christmas if they buy something now for Halloween.
Weigh the costs
Creating an over-the-top Halloween promotion may not be beneficial for your company. Forking out hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a Halloween campaign or display may actually hurt your business if it does not generate enough revenue. Halloween is a very saturated market, and with that comes a lot of competition. Always be wise when making marketing decisions and be sure to effectively track your customer base to determine which marketing endeavors are most successful.