10 Wicked Halloween Marketing Ideas To Boost Your Online Sales!

Did you know Halloween is the fourth most popular holiday after Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter?  This is the time when customers go crazy with shopping. Many retailers tend to focus more on Thanksgiving and the holiday season that follows. Halloween becomes no one’s child. But you are only missing out on amazing marketing opportunities and sales!

Halloween is not just about trick or treating and spreading fear in the air. It’s one of the best holidays where you can unleash your creativity and fly off the handle with marketing ideas. 

We fished around to gather more information on Halloween’s origin and previous year marketing data to derive some delightful and exciting Halloween marketing ideas for you!

Halloween…The Origin…

Halloween tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. On this day, people lit bonfires and wore costumes to ward off ghosts. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human demise. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes, and eating treats.

Spookily Increasing Sales & Marketing Numbers Over The Years…

A quick Google News search for “Halloween” leads readers to a long list of articles speculating on how the holiday will look this year as COVID-19 continues to impact every aspect of our lives. But tradition and celebrations are much needed now than ever. According to The National Retail Foundation’s recent study, 74 percent of Millennial moms and young parents say that Halloween is more important than ever this year.

What does this mean? 

Halloween is arriving soon and you still have a lot to prepare if you need to skyrocket your online sales. Don’t be spooked. We are here to help you with some wicked Halloween promotional ideas to boost your sales. 

10 Frightening Halloween Marketing Ideas To Boost Sales This Scary October!

1. Bone-Chilling Holiday Deals

‘Werewolves howl. Phantoms prowl. Halloween’s deals are upon us now!

Based on the National Retail Foundation’s research, 40% of active buyers tend to complete their shopping before Halloween hits the ground. So, here is your chance to rack up with Halloween discounts and deals for your customers to grasp in the early bird sales fever. This will give you a BIG start for your holiday season sales.

Get those scary promos running, store decorations, customized accessories and other Halloween promotional goodies stocked up. If you are skeptical about starting this a month before, move towards social media and email marketing campaigns to spread the word on the upcoming sales. Ensure you spread the word terrifically well so that your buyers do not miss out on the deals!

2. Optimize Your Halloween Website for Mobile Version

‘I am in all sea of thunder. I sign up. I shop. I am agile, so dare not forget to optimize for mobile’

With more than 54% of online shopping, are you ready to drive a sale to your store? Dynamic researches and surveys keep indicating the growing preferences of mobile devices by shoppers. Make your shopper’s journey comfortable to search and purchase the needed items from anywhere anytime. Online shoppers are streamlining themselves towards mobile devices than working on desktops.

With online shopping through smartphones exponentially increasing, you cannot overlook the fact that your website must be mobile-responsive. To make sure you don’t get caught in this spider’s web, design a mobile-responsive website or you may optimize your existing website to be mobile-responsive. This will smoothen your customer’s buying journey. Just a single touch and your customer can complete the purchase like magic.

3. Don’t forget to decorate your online store with a spooky look

‘The night is filled with a ghoul.  The costume you selected is cool. I hope your website is ready to make me drool’

You are aware of the power of social media and email marketing for promotions. But is it enough? Oh! Come on… It’s Halloween! Take every effort to boost your Halloween sales.

Gear up and start decorating your website and products. It must sound crazy. But everything is fair and crazy with Halloween. Decorating your website can help you in growing your sales. 

Wait, let me explain. 

For instance, take a look at your favorite cafe’s website during the festive season, you must have noticed the website is all decorated with the festive theme.

Have you ever wondered why?

Top-consumer psychology surveys show that people tend to buy 2x their needs if they’re in a good mood or more satisfied with the look and feel of the website.

If you intend to shoot up your online store sales this Halloween, then you need to appeal to your customers emotionally. As you are doing great business, you should go over and beyond to change the look and the feel of your online traffic.

4. Get the urgent discount promotion running

‘She conquered the devilish deals and wore the dreaded discounts with a zeal’

Online shoppers are always a step ahead. They are very smart and intuitive. It is natural to compare the best deals on products over various platforms before they make a final purchase. 

It is not easy to tie-up your customers within your offers. So, what can you do here?

You have to frame

• Very dynamic and upfront with various offers on different product sections 
• Hideous deals like some lucky draw or extra-hour sales, one of a kind discounts, etc. 
• Upsell and cross-sell strategies on products with higher demand
• Shoot better discounts to grab the nerve of the best sale for your store

5. What about ghastly social media campaigns?

‘Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and let the social media bubble’

Your Halloween marketing ideas are taking shape and it is really good. But you should first decide on your marketing strategy for social media platforms. These platforms are heavily populated and are an easy way to trigger the psyche of consumers. 

Decorate your social media profiles to create strong messaging for Halloween. Spruce up your social media profiles to exert the Halloween vibe. Create spooktastic visual content adding Halloween images, GIFs, and videos to grab the attention of social media audiences. When you have the right tools and some time to spend, it becomes very easy. Try hosting a Halloween-themed giveaway on Facebook or polls on Twitter.  There are numerous ways you can experiment with social media for implementing your Halloween marketing ideas.

6. Go horrific with your creatives

‘Oh look, another Halloween creative. Makes me feel ghoulishly delightful’

Content and creatives are your trump card for any occasion. Especially with an occasion like Halloween, you can go crazy, quirky, and ghostly freaky.  

Get ready with your Facebook posts, Instagram stories, or tweets with engaging content and interesting images before the big day. Use popular hashtags such as #trickortreat #Halloweendeals #Halloweensales to increase the visibility of your posts. There is no limitation here. Create your custom hashtags and make it go viral to attract more sales.

Amp up the creator in you and come up with video creations to leave your audience with goosebumps. Every time you plan to create resources for your marketing strategies, remind yourself that festivity brings the reasons for celebration, joy, and acknowledgments. That is why targeting the consumers’ emotional connection in the right direction will help you grow better with your targets.

7. Try to find fellow witches/wizards for business collaborations

‘When black cats scream and pumpkins beam, let our duo gleam’

Being an active member of the business community, always be open for collaborations. Search for events that are planned by a local organization that is pacing with a holiday sale. Join them and enhance each other’s business through different avenues.

Unfortunately, if nobody is planning, don’t give up. You may suggest other special occasions on the theme of Halloween promotions and events. Taking ownership of being an investor or sponsor in local festive gatherings projects a strong vision and can also immensely fuel growing your brand image and brand value as well. In the current situation, ensure you are following the government’s protocol for conducting business events.

• Host a Trick-or-Treating Event
• Host a Pumpkin-Carving Contest
• Host a Scavenger Hunt
• Share Others’ Halloween-Themed Content
• Throw a Halloween Party

8. Horror-Themed Email Marketing Campaign

‘Sticky fingers; Tired feet; One last email on Trick or Treat’

With Email marketing, you can never go wrong. It is never old but gold. Active surveys show that even today, existing customers prefer personalized emails and coupons than the social media flyers. The fascinating fact is email advertising is additionally 40 times more viable at obtaining new clients than Facebook or Twitter.

When you are implementing Halloween marketing ideas with Email marketing, don’t forget to customize your emails. Brainstorming and designing new Halloween email templates for new offers is the best way to lure your customers. Halloween-customized themes will make your clients feel joyful and excited which will reflect in your sales.

9. Brew your Google Ads with extra spookiness

‘There is magic in the night when Google Ads glow by the moonlight’

Paid advertising campaigns always have incredible potential benefits for the business if done right. But when not planned well, it can cost you a bomb and turn out to be a bummer. It’s Halloween hour planning and nothing can go wrong. 

To make sure you reap maximum benefits, you must be ready with a well-searched analysis of keywords and their trends before you plan to bid on keywords for your ads. Place great emphasis on your ad copy for the best possible reach. Your google ads will incorporate a major section of your Halloween marketing ideas. So, use them to skyrocket your Halloween online sales.

10. Don’t forget those fang-tastic photos

‘Shadows mutter. Darkness stutter. We hope you never close your Insta shutter.’

Halloween gives you the best opportunity to curate photos from Instagram for your customers. Halloween is the best occasion for costumes and decorations. Everyone’s Instagram gallery is going to brew with incredible photos with your costumes, products, decorations, and many more. Do not miss this opportunity even if you need to buy Instagram likes. Instagram curation will create social proof to enhance your brand’s reputation and sales eventually. Check out TargetBay’s BayPics (Shoppable Instagram) to make your job easier here.

We have reached the Tick-Tock Hour!

So there you have it – 10 spookily effective Halloween marketing ideas to boost your online sales. We hope that you get to employ all these ideas this year and get that extra boost in engagement and sales that you’re looking for!

The recent pandemic might have changed the way Halloween is celebrated. But it cannot take away the excitement, creativity, and craziness that comes along with Halloween every year. 

Magic is really simple. All you have to do is want something and then let yourself have it. 

Let the magic happen! Beware of October 31st… Something big is yet to come!