14 Breathtaking Halloween Marketing Ideas for Your Business

In recent years, the Halloween party has made a place for itself in the marketing strategy of brands. This event is a springboard allowing e-merchants, brands and retailers to promote their offers or products through ever more original promotional campaigns.

Halloween is the perfect time to get out of your habit and explore fun new ways to communicate effectively with your customers. To do this, start simmering on the subject early and plan your strategies. Thus, you will take full advantage of the opportunity to think outside the box and create beautiful Halloween promotions.

Benefits of Halloween Marketing Promotions

It is important to clearly identify what you hope to get out of your marketing efforts by creating a Halloween promotion. Although some will want to increase their sales for the month of October, others will want to create a strong sense of commitment from their clients to encourage customer loyalty.

Keeping your goals in mind, know that the more imagination and originality you use strategically, the more chance you have of differentiating yourself from other players in your industry and reaping interesting profits for your business.

So, here are the main benefits:

• boosted sales and traffic. People are eager for offers, therefore retailers have a chance to take advantage of this and increase traffic to their websites;
• an opportunity to reduce inventory before the holiday season. Many businesses view Halloween promotion as a chance to get rid of old goods so they can launch newer merchandise for Christmas; 
• customer acquisition. Getting new clients might be expensive, but by analogy with Black Friday marketing strategies Halloween gives businesses a chance to do so during a crucial season. If clients can be kept for a longer period of time and eventually purchase items at full price, this justifies offering discounts around Halloween;
• additional sales. Halloween is a fun time when you can offer your products in a different light. Even if they are not directly used during this holiday, they can be adorned with orange and black in order to attract users fond of this celebration. Finally, during Halloween promotions, nothing prevents you from offering ancillary products inherent to Halloween on your site.

According to Statista, in 2021, consumers in the United States spent a record $10 billion for Halloween. Compared to 2020, this is a significant increase, just over two billion US dollars. 

The Halloween Sales & Marketing Numbers Over The Years

14 Halloween Marketing Ideas for Your Business in 2023

To ensure that all of your Halloween marketing ideas are effective and hugely successful, you absolutely must ensure that each promotion, contest or other activity of your choice is relevant to your customers and remains in the image of what represents this holiday.

1. Run a short but effective campaign

We advise you to run a short but powerful campaign to launch your Halloween business ideas. Unlike family celebrations like Christmas or Easter, which often extend over a longer period, Halloween only takes place on October 31. Even if the public is now accustomed to this festive celebration, integrating it into your communication for several weeks seems to have little point.

We therefore recommend that you concentrate your actions over a short period of time, for example during Halloween week only. By broadcasting a short but impactful Halloween promotion, you will benefit even more from its positive effects.

It can be an ultra-limited edition of one of your products, a one-off poster campaign or even a series of Halloween-themed videos according to your activity, your targets and your budget. 

For example, this year Heinz is introducing a vegan "Tomato Blood Ketchup" wrapped in a creepy Halloween-themed limited edition bottle.

The promo is supported by a witty and funny PSA encouraging everyone to go vegetarian.

2. Use humor over horror

Although the Halloween party highlights scary elements, we recommend that you bet on humor rather than horror. While people may appreciate a little spookiness, adding a good dose of humor to your Halloween communications is still best.

An effective Halloween promotion involves making fun of usually terrifying characters or concepts – vampires, ghosts, zombies, fear of the dark, etc. A good thematic pun can also be very impactful for your targets.

And another idea for bold brands: why not troll a competitor? For example, Burger King combined customer interaction with the witty trolling of rival McDonald's with its celebrity clown Ronald McDonald. As part of the promotion, Burger King offered a free Whopper Burger to the first 500 people to visit select Burger King stores dressed as clowns.

3. “Halloweenize” your products

Even if you are not specialized in marketing typical Halloween products, you can festively present them to attract more clients.

For example, if you have a restaurant, offer themed desserts or drinks; or if you sell clothes, pitch Halloween costume ideas based on your items. Be sure to inform your customers of your new offers by posting photos on social networks to convince them to visit you before October 31st.

Don't be afraid to experiment and make changes to your audience's favorite products. Be like Nike. Last year, the company traditionally wowed its fans with the new Nike Dunk Low sneakers. The model has very Halloween-y colors. Moreover, a closer look at the black overlays reveal a spooky pattern that glows in the dark.

It’s important to inform your customers of your new offers in advance by posting photos on social networks to convince them to visit you before October 31st.

4. Host an online candy promotion

Organizing a playful Halloween sales event invites your customers to participate in the festivities thanks to an exciting and rewarding experience. 

For example, you can organize a contest where Internet users will have to find the candies hidden on your site. You can also slip packets of treats into orders, from a certain purchase value. You will benefit from this celebration even if your business does not sell Halloween items.

5. Improve your online presence

Let the spirit of Halloween take over your social networks and your website. Spider web, witch hat, black cat, ghost and pumpkin can be displayed on your banners, logos, and cover photo. 

You can also change your site's font by offering a sinister font such as Google Fonts: Creepster, Nocifer, Butcherman or Vampiro One.

Your website is your Halloween costume. Don’t spare fangs and red paint in the design!

6. Post Halloween-themed content

Create content for the Halloween promotion to help your readers celebrate the holiday in style. Your blog posts could be about: “Halloween Costumes Ideas for Kids”, “Halloween Decoration Ideas,” or “How to Throw an Awesome Halloween Party.” You can also recommend your products to encourage purchase subtly. 

Sprinkle your content with keywords relating to Halloween to ensure your natural referencing during this period.

Throughout October 2017, M&Ms ran an interactive campaign via their socials that featured a weekly installment of an ongoing ghost story.

Each video led to two alternative endings, and viewers voted on their preferred finale. The following week, the story continued, based on the previous week’s winning ending.

7. Host a costume contest

This is a great way to attract more customers. Host a contest that encourages people to submit photos of their costumes on Instagram. 

If you have a physical store, encourage customers to come and dress up on October 31, in exchange, they will get a discount. 

You can show creativity and imagination, whether in-store or digitally. The more your Halloween promotions are eccentric and original, the more they will appeal and increase your visibility. 

Discount coupons are a way to build customer loyalty. They make it possible to create or maintain a relationship of trust between the customer, the company or the brand.

8. Use hashtags

Last year there were over 103 million Tweets about Halloween globally. Top hashtags included: #Halloween, #Halloween2021, #HappyHalloween, #TrickOrTreat. 

#Giveaway and #Win were also popular, indicating people at Halloween love a good contest. 

So, remember to use Halloween-themed hashtags on social media to expand your reach and connect with potential customers. Making a memorable hashtag and waiting for the trend to spread among users is the simplest approach.

9. Use pop-ups

Create a pop-up email message that is directed at visitors who have expressed interest in your website and products. 

Pop-up ads that give customers special discounts, savings, early access to specials, and other incentives can entice them to buy from you. You may show your clients your appreciation by emailing them with a special offer or early access. 

You can choose a design and discount amount of Claspo pop-ups templates to make captivating images and convert your visitors into buyers. You can test pop-ups for free in your personal account: Claspo offers you ready-to-use solutions for every purpose and swift integration with your platform.

Below you will find 3 pop-ups templates from Claspo:

10. Launch a creative Halloween promotion on social networks

The possibilities are limitless. Remember to make the best use of the different media you have available to distribute your marketing campaign.

For example, the American company Airbnb, known for its increasingly innovative Halloween campaigns, once offered haunted places that customers could rent. These advertisements were shared more than 1000 times on Twitter. As for the houses, they were all rented during this period.

11. Create a downloadable resource

Another good way to take advantage of the Halloween promotion to reach your target is to provide them with a downloadable resource, i.e. a tool that brings value to a visitor to convert him into a lead. The latter can take different forms, all while adapting easily to your type of business: a guide, a white paper, an evaluation grid, an explanatory video. 

A few years ago, American retail and outdoor recreation services corporation REI had the brilliant idea of ​​offering a survival guide in the event of a zombie attack on Halloween, entitled "13 Essential Tools for Surviving a Zombie Outbreak". The guide presented different types of situations while promoting the store's products. This initiative was a great success and was repeated several times.

12. Adapt your newsletter

Sending your monthly digest is a unique opportunity to reach your subscribers directly. This is a perfect time to communicate your Halloween marketing ideas for October 31 by sharing the various links to your blog articles that allude to the subject or your current promotions during October.

And to complete your terrifying visuals, nothing better than matching sound elements. Choosing Halloween music and sound effects is essential for your thematic video to have maximum impact.

Whether it's the visuals or the soundscape of your communications, be sure to create a spooky atmosphere that inspires Halloween but is still attractive enough to seduce the intended audience.

13. Offer holiday packages 

Try upselling and cross-selling if you don't think a standard discount is sufficient. Customers with FOMO (fear of missing out) triggers will want to buy more because bundles typically appear to be insanely excellent deals. They will believe that this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get so much at such a low price. 

For instance, a store offers clothing. For Halloween, they can provide a storewide discount, in which shoppers will buy one or two items before realizing they have purchased more than they need. However, they can combine three or four things to create a complete set that is more likely to draw attention.

14. Partner with other retailers

You should seek out competitors or brands and make them allies for October in an appropriate niche. You need to be quite a visionary and search for potential innovative alternatives to execute this Halloween promotion. 

A cool example of a Halloween collaboration is “Terrifying Tales'' from Lego, Star Wars and Disney+. Along with releasing the new spooky movie's trailer, Lego Star Wars also presented a series of five shots, each featuring a humorous Halloween-themed plot and a few beloved Star Wars characters.

To see whether someone offers collaboration, it might be beneficial to grow your network, reach out to other online business owners, or join communities.

5 Tips to Create Catchy Halloween Emails

Email marketing is 40 times more effective at getting new customers than advertising on Twitter or Facebook, so you should implement your Halloween marketing ideas specifically for emails. You must stand out from the crowd, and display a dynamic and youthful image to attract attention and seduce prospects. That will position you with your connected customers at the top of the list of trendy businesses.

1. Pass the anti-spam barrier

Anti-spam filters can haunt your campaigns unless you make sure to prefer graphic creations in several blocks, limit the weight of your message to 60Kb, integrate an unsubscribe link readable and accessible, reduce the use of capital letters or use exclamation and question marks sparingly.

2. Contextualize your emails

Make your Halloween promotions look whimsical with spooky fonts, dark color combinations, and the integration of cobwebs. Change the design of your emails by adding Halloween-specific elements. You can also replicate this approach on your landing pages. Even if it means playing the game, you might as well do it to the end.

3. Launch interactive marketing actions 

What better way to attract the attention of your subscribers and increase the chances of a higher conversion than to integrate dynamic and attractive content into your emails? Gamification, cinemagraph, GIF, video… Be creative to bewitch (and terrify) your audience in more original and unexpected ways.

4. Offer an attractive loyalty program

The Halloween party is a guarantee of pleasing your subscribers. Double their reward points or give them gift cards. Take advantage of this period to enhance them by introducing exceptional offers or progressive discounts to your Halloween promotions.

5. Choose A/B testing

Perform tests to learn more about your contacts' behavior and adjust your campaigns. Detect the best time of day to send your message, see which subject line gets a better response from recipients, check your message in various inboxes, and anticipate how spam filters will handle your Halloween sale ideas.

How to Implement Your Halloween Marketing Ideas

First of all, take care of your content marketing strategy. You can boost your site traffic by posting Halloween-related content in the weeks leading up to Halloween. Recipe ideas, tutorials for applying make-up and creating your disguise or even the top 10 best horror movies to watch on Halloween night: you can approach the subject from many different angles.

However, to attract maximum qualified traffic and encourage your new visitors to come back regularly, keep in mind that you must always offer content:

• that really interests your targets. To do this, the easiest way is to provide concrete solutions to their needs;
• ideally in line with your area of ​​expertise to give more weight to your messages.

Also, consider diversifying the formats: blog articles, videos, infographics, etc.

Don't skimp on the details, it's the little things that sometimes make all the difference. The visual and textual content of your website, Halloween promotions in social networks, emailing campaigns, and your blog can be your key to more clients. In short, be creative, this is the perfect opportunity.

Halloween Marketing Ideas FAQ