By Samantha Matz
Halloween is right around the corner, and it is an excellent opportunity to market your company. As an SMB owner, you may have a minimal marketing budget, so you must seize inexpensive ways to get the word about your brand, products and services.
With holidays like this, you can promote your business in a fun way and interact with the community and potential customers. In the process, you attract new customers and garner more sales!
Here are five quick and simple ideas to help you create a marketing strategy for Halloween:
- Host a Pumpkin Carving Contest
Carving pumpkins doesn’t just have to be for children during this holiday – adults will want to get in on the fun. Plus, if you are a family-friendly company, this is an excellent opportunity for parents to spend time with their kids at your establishment.
Here are some tips for hosting a pumpkin carving contest:
- Promote the competition through social media before, during and after the event to attract more people. After? Yes, after! You want to take credit for hosting it and build a bigger audience for the following year if you intend to do it again.
- Create a unique hashtag to receive more engagement and use it in all posts about the event.
- Offer discounts on services and products, as well as prizes to motivate people to participate.
2. Host a Costume Contest
Host a costume contest where customers have to dress up, post a picture in their Halloween costume and tag your business. Offer discounts for participation and a wide variety of prizes for various contest categories. Follow the steps above for this promotion as well.
3. Use Social Media to your Benefit
Social media is one of the best methods for marketing these days. Show that your company is festive and creative by posting unique Halloween inspiration on social media accounts. The more engagement, the better!
Some Halloween Inspirational posts could be about:
- Halloween recipes
- Costume ideas
- Pumpkin patches or haunted houses in the area
- Fun Trick-or-Treat ideas
- Decorative pumpkins
- Influencers
4. Host a Halloween Party
Hosting Halloween parties is one of the best ways to celebrate Halloween! A great way to do this is to gather employees and customers together for a fun, celebratory event.
Some Halloween party tips include:
- Offer sweet, festive Halloween treats for people to snack on at the event. This doesn’t have to get expensive! You can always make bowls and fill them with store-bought candy or store-bought decorative cookies.
- Decorate your event space with festive pumpkins, streamers, posters, etc., to make the event festive while also promoting your SMB!
- Have Halloween music play throughout the night. Create a spooky playlist to celebrate.
- Have games prepared for the event that are Halloween-themed. For example, food eating contests, Halloween bingo or a Halloween-themed pong tournament!
- Offer specials, promotions and discounts for those that attend the event.
5. Run a “Guess How Many” Contest:
This is a cheap and easy way to get customers involved and excited about your SMB. Fill up a mason jar with candy corn, candy or mini pumpkins. Then post a picture on your social media and allow viewers to comment on the post with their best guess for how many pieces are in the jar. Once the post has lots of engagement and shares, choose the winner and offer the winner a complimentary service or product by posting a shoutout to them through social media!
Ensure that your company is taking advantage of inexpensive promotions that seasonal and holiday opportunities provide. Need help with a marketing plan? Contact TLC Marketing Consultants today!