A Halloween Survival Guide for Small Business Marketing

Halloween isn’t just about costumes, pumpkins and trick-or-treaters. There’s a lot more to it than first meets the eye, especially in the world of marketing. For businesses, especially small ones, it’s an opportunity for you to have a little fun with your marketing and to attract attention as a way of giving customers reasons to engage with your brand. 

However, Halloween marketing might seem like a daunting task, especially if you’ve never dabbled in it before or if you don’t have a plan. When you run a tight ship, it can be easy to let your marketing campaign disappear into the darkness at Halloween.

But that’s not something we’re going to let happen here at Kumo. From knowing your audience to being wary of overspending, we’re presenting you with a detailed Halloween survival guide for small business marketing, so here’s where you should begin in your spooky venture:

Don’t let your marketing die

One of the biggest mistakes that small businesses can make is to wait until Halloween comes around before thinking about their marketing and content. Planning ahead gives you time to decide what you want to achieve, create your content and schedule your campaigns. As such, you should start your Halloween marketing campaign by asking yourself what you actually want Halloween marketing to accomplish. What are you trying to do? Are you trying to:

• Increase sales?
• Attract new customers?
• Promote a particular product or service?
• Generate social media engagement?
• Increase website traffic?
• Build brand awareness?
• Encourage existing customers to return?

If you have a clear objective at hand before your Halloween marketing begins, or before you even have a plan in place, for that matter, then it will make it easier for you to decide what type of campaign to create. For instance, you don’t always need a HUGE Halloween marketing strategy. One that is well-planned can be more effective than throwing together some last-minute ideas and costly campaigns.

Know your audience – not everyone loves a fright

Halloween marketing works best when it fits your audience. A playful, spooky campaign might be perfect for a firm whose target audience is children, or for businesses working in the entertainment industry. 

However, a professional service provider will need to take a more subtle approach when it comes to Halloween marketing. Before you go out and cover everything in fake cobwebs, whether it be real ones in your shop or digital ones on your website, you should consider whether the Halloween theme is actually suiting your customers and your brand. 

Halloween needs to add personality to your marketing as opposed to completely changing who it is you are as a business, whether it be your overall brand or your values. Therefore, think about the following things before you get started:

• Who you’re trying to reach
• The type of content they normally engage with
• Whether a Halloween-themed promotion or message would be appreciated
• If the idea fits with your brand personality

Be cautious about a monster budget

Halloween marketing doesn’t have to cost a fortune, which is paramount if you’re a small business. In fact, some of the most effective ideas can be rather inexpensive. So, before you spend money on decorations, advertising or promotional materials, you should decide how much you’re comfortable investing and what you expect to get in return, also referred to in the industry as an ROI. 

If you’re running a paid advertising campaign (PPC), then you should set a budget and monitor its performance. On the other hand, if you’re offering a discount, then make sure you’ve calculated the potential impact on your overall profit margins. 

If you’re running a competition, make sure that the prize is appealing enough to attract attention without becoming unnecessarily expensive. A Halloween campaign should generate opportunities for your business and not leave your finances looking as though the life has been sucked out of them. With this in mind, you need to make sure that you aren’t committing to a monster budget. 

Provide a killer offer

A Halloween promotion can give customers an additional reason to choose your business. Depending on what it is you offer, whether products or services, you could provide a promotion for:

• Limited-time discounts
• Halloween bundles
• Free gifts with every purchase
• Seasonal products
• Special service or product packages
• Referral incentives
• Competitions
• Giveaways
• Free delivery for a period of time

If you create a sense of urgency, then it will encourage people to act fast. A promotion or offer that’s available for a short amount of time will give consumers a clear reason to make their purchasing decision sooner rather than later. Your offer needs to make commercial sense and provide genuine value to your customers at the same time. 

Prevent cobwebs from settling on your website

Getting people to your website is only half the job. If visitors arrive and can’t find what they need straightaway, then your Halloween campaign could quickly turn into a horror story. If you’re promoting a specific Halloween offer, then make sure that the customers can find it quickly and easily. Your landing page needs to match the message in your advertising or social media posts. Essentially, if your visitors land on a generic homepage when they’re expecting to land on a special Halloween package, then they could become confused and will then, eventually, leave, therefore increasing bounce rates. To make sure that your website doesn’t attract cobwebs over the spooky season, you should make sure that it’s:

• Easy to navigate
• Mobile friendly
• Fast to load
• Up to date
• Clear about your offer
• Quick and simple to acquire contact information from

You shouldn’t be afraid of email marketing

Halloween provides a great excuse to contact your existing customers. But how do you do that? Keeping an email database is a great way of bringing old customers back, and a seasonal promotion is the best time to do this so they don’t feel as though they’ve been forgotten. 

As well as seasonal promotions, email marketing can be used to contact existing, new and old customers about introductions to new products and services or to simply provide something entertaining. Use a playful subject line to grab attention and make sure that the email still provides something useful to them. 

The content within your Halloween marketing email doesn’t have to be complicated. If the message is clear, strong and relevant, with a persuasive call to action (CTA) at the end, then you’ll be surprised to learn how far that goes in terms of conversions, leads and sales. The main thing here? Don’t be afraid of email marketing.

Turn your content into a treat rather than a trick

Nobody wants to be bombarded with sales messages. If every social media post, email and advert screams “buy now!” then your customers will quickly become dissuaded and switch off from what you want to convey to them. Mix promotional content with something entertaining, useful or informative. This will help to give your audience a reason to engage with your business, site and brand, even if they have no intention of buying anything from you yet. As an example, some of the things you could share include:

• Halloween tips
• Industry-related facts
• Behind the scenes content
• Customer stories
• Seasonal advice
• A funny video
• A Halloween quiz
• User-generated content 

Stop your marketing from haunting you afterwards

As soon as Halloween is over, you shouldn’t let your marketing efforts drop. You should take the time subsequently to review the campaign. Look at what performed well and what didn’t. See which channels generated the most interest and whether the campaign attracted new customers. 

Did your promotion make financial sense or did you lose out financially? What would you do differently? Take the answers to those questions and apply them next year, or repurpose them for your Christmas and New Year campaign. Don’t waste the experience, however well or not it turned out for you. 

Kumo is pleased to provide a wide range of digital marketing services, including content creation, SEO, PPC, website design and more. You can rest assured that our team of dedicated experts can set you apart from your competitors with excellent content creation and copywriting services. If you’d like further information about how we can help you today, get in touch with a member of our friendly, specialist team – we’re always happy to hear from you.