Halloween Marketing Ideas

Looking for some Halloween marketing ideas?

As I mentioned in my post, Your August Marketing To Do List, Halloween has become the second biggest retail buying occasion. Last year, spending on costumes, decorating and other Halloween items was more than US$10 billion.

Therefore, I thought I would come up with some creative Ideas for all types of small businesses.

Restaurant & Coffee Shop Halloween Marketing Ideas

If you own a coffee shop or restaurant, offer a Halloween theme drink (or entire dining experience) for the entire month. A good example is how Starbucks and Disney World offer Halloween menu items every October.
If you own a Mexican restaurant, considering offering a Day of the Dead (or Día de Muertos or Día de los Muertos) special dinner, even encouraging guests to dress up for it (even though it will fall after Halloween this year on November 2nd). It can become an annual event.
Work with local attractions that offer “ghost walks” to offer a dining and ghost walk experience package, particularly to guests staying at local hotels.

Retail & Ecommerce Halloween Marketing Ideas

If you own a retail store, decorate your store windows for Halloween, much like people do for Christmas. For your online store, add Halloween banners, categories and shop sections. Give the shop section a cool name like, “Halloween Haven”, the way Grandin Road does.
Offer your regular products in Halloween colors, scents and flavours, like Bath and Bodyworks does with their Perfect Pumpkin Hand Soap, so it becomes part of your Halloween decor.
Turn your store shopping bags into a limited number of keepsake Halloween bags that kids can take Trick or Treating, with free advertising for you year after year.

Travel Agency Halloween Marketing Ideas

If you’re a travel agency, consider offering Halloween weekend experiences, such as to cities with amusement parks that are holding scare events, or even far away ones, like Dracula’s Halloween Party in Romania (Transylvania).

Beauty Business Halloween Marketing Ideas

Halloween makeup is one of the top Google searches every October, so if you sell cosmetics, create a DIY Halloween Makeup Kit to sell.
If you own a beauty salon, offer Halloween makeup services and/or classes for additional revenue during October.

Bakery Business Marketing Ideas

Create a DIY Halloween Cookie Decorating Kit (one of the top searches last year) and/or a DIY Haunted House Decorating Kit (like a gingerbread house).

New Halloween Traditions

Traditions normally associated with Christmas, have now carried over to Halloween, including Halloween advent calendars, Halloween count downs, Halloween wreaths, Halloween stockings, ugly Halloween sweaters, Halloween gnomes and family Halloween pajamas. In fact, searches for Halloween pajamas are up over 350%. These new products pose new opportunities for you.

Other Halloween Business Ideas

A great business idea is a service that decorates houses, businesses, store windows and parties for Halloween. The supplies are your property that you put up, take down and store throughout the year.

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