Piyush
Nobody can scare us as much as we can scare ourselves. From spooky street advertisements and horror movie thrillers to goofy Halloween jokes on social media, it’s clear that Halloween is just around the corner. Halloween-related search inquiries are on the rise, so what are you waiting for? It’s the perfect time to stock up on Halloween-themed items, run holiday sales, launch social media campaigns, and send out special offers. Not sure where to begin? Let’s dive into some of the best Halloween marketing ideas, leveraging the latest e-commerce trends and statistics to help you profit from this spooky season.
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Before we jump into Halloween promotion ideas, let’s examine the current spending habits. While Americans have traditionally been the biggest spenders on Halloween, recent statistics indicate that the UK market is also getting in on the action. According to Statista, retail spending on Halloween products in the UK more than doubled, rising from £474 million to £1071 million between 2019 and 2023.
According to Mintel data, the primary demographics driving this increasing expenditure are millennials (77%) and parents of under-five children (85%). These are impressive figures, and they are excellent news for marketers.
Let’s take a look at the halloween marketing ideas now!
Incorporating BOGO (Buy One, Get One) deals into your Halloween promotion strategy is an excellent way to drive sales and build excitement among customers. For example, Spirit Halloween, one of the most iconic Halloween retailers, often runs successful BOGO campaigns like the one in the image—offering 25% off the second item when you buy one. This strategy encourages customers to spend more, knowing they’ll get a discount on additional items. Offering limited-time BOGO promotions on popular costumes or spooky home decor can also create urgency and boost conversions.
By providing such deals, you’re not only driving immediate sales but also potentially increasing the average order value. To make the offer even more enticing, consider pairing it with free shipping or adding a Halloween-themed mystery coupon for future purchases. This combination can turn first-time buyers into repeat customers.
Incorporating a Halloween scavenger hunt into your Halloween promotions is a fantastic example of gamified marketing. Disneyland’s Halloween Time Scavenger Hunt is a great illustration of this concept in action.
For their Halloween season, Disneyland offers a scavenger hunt where visitors search for hidden clues and items around the park. Participants use hints and riddles to find spooky decorations, characters, or Halloween-themed details scattered throughout Disneyland Park, Disney California Adventure Park, and Downtown Disney District.
For example, one of the clues reads, “In Frontierland is a plant you can’t miss, growing ghoulish gourds unlike any you’ve seen before.” These hints not only engage participants but also encourage them to explore different areas of the park they might not have visited otherwise.
At the end of the scavenger hunt, participants who successfully find all the clues can receive themed rewards or discounts, making the experience interactive and fun for families and Disney enthusiasts alike. Businesses can adapt this idea by offering digital or in-store scavenger hunts, rewarding customers with exclusive Halloween merchandise, discounts, or vouchers. This increases foot traffic, engagement, and drives excitement during the Halloween season.
Referral programs are a great way to bring in new customers, and adding a seasonal twist can make them even more effective. For Halloween, offer your existing customers an incentive to refer friends in exchange for Halloween-themed rewards. This type of Halloween promotion not only increases your customer base but also keeps your current customers engaged by rewarding their loyalty.
An excellent example of limited-time Halloween discounts comes from Party City’s Halloween Flash Deal. They offered a 30% discount on a single Halloween costume or accessory, with the promotion available for a short window. This flash sale created urgency by using phrases like “Hurry… Offer Ends Soon!” and included a countdown to encourage quick action from shoppers.
The promotion also provided flexibility for customers by allowing them to redeem the deal in-store, curbside, or online, making it easy for all shoppers to participate. Additionally, they included a special promo code (“SOCHAUNT30”), further enticing customers to take advantage of the savings.
This limited-time discount tactic plays into the natural rush of the Halloween season, encouraging shoppers to make quick decisions and increasing sales volume during the promotion period. It’s a great strategy for driving traffic to both physical and online stores.
Updating your website with Halloween-themed visuals engages customers and reinforces the holiday spirit. Starbucks offers a fantastic example of how to give your website a spooky makeover during the Halloween season. Each year, Starbucks transforms its digital presence by embracing Halloween-themed visuals, creating an immersive experience for its visitors. The website’s homepage often features dark, moody colors like deep purples and blacks, overlaid with eerie fonts and ghostly graphics that echo the brand’s seasonal products, like the Pumpkin Spice Latte or witch-themed Frappuccinos.
They frequently add spooky illustrations, such as floating pumpkins, cobwebs, and playful ghosts, which appear around product images. These subtle yet creative changes not only capture the essence of the season but also make the website feel fresh and engaging. The Halloween-themed makeover extends to their mobile app, where users may find seasonal animations and promotions for limited-time Halloween beverages or treats.
By giving their website this spooky seasonal touch, Starbucks reinforces its brand’s connection to the Halloween experience, ensuring that customers are engaged and drawn into the festive atmosphere as they browse or place orders. This kind of seasonal redesign builds excitement, promotes themed products, and increases overall customer engagement during the holiday period.
Delight your customers by offering a small Halloween-themed treat with each purchase. For example, Lush Cosmetics has been known to include free samples of their limited-edition Halloween bath bombs with online orders. This small gesture adds a fun twist to the shopping experience and helps boost brand loyalty.
Halloween-themed flyers are a great way to promote your Halloween sales. Trader Joe’s leverages this by using themed in-store decorations and flyers to showcase seasonal products. Flyers add a local touch and are an effective, budget-friendly way to engage with nearby customers.
Add mystery to your discounts , like Fright-Rags’ Halloween 5 promotional campaign. To celebrate the 35th anniversary of Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, Fright-Rags incorporated exclusive mystery discount codes into their campaign. Customers could apply a coupon code like “REVENGE” during checkout, which offered them a 20% discount on a variety of Halloween 5-themed merchandise, including T-shirts, trading card sets, and limited-edition items.
This type of mystery discount offer, combined with a limited-time promotion, created a sense of excitement and urgency. Customers were enticed to explore the collection and use the discount code before it expired, ensuring a higher engagement rate and a boost in sales during the Halloween season. Offering mystery discounts or surprise deals is an effective way to encourage shoppers to make spontaneous purchases and keep them returning to check out new promotions.
Businesses can easily replicate this by offering mystery coupon discounts that reveal a percentage off or a special reward when customers complete their purchase. This adds a fun, gamified element to shopping while driving up customer engagement.
Product bundles for Halloween can be an effective marketing strategy to drive seasonal sales, create buzz, and cater to holiday enthusiasts looking for exclusive, themed products. Bundling multiple items together, especially with a festive or nostalgic Halloween theme, adds value and excitement for the customer. These bundles often include limited-edition merchandise, such as themed apparel, accessories, and collectibles, making them perfect for fans or collectors.
By offering a curated selection of products at a slightly discounted price compared to purchasing each item individually, businesses can entice buyers to spend more while feeling like they are getting a great deal. Additionally, limited availability or exclusivity can increase urgency and lead to quicker purchases, especially when promoted well across social media and other platforms.
In the case of Fright-Rags, they created a Halloween bundle around the “WNUF Halloween Special,” which includes various items like a T-shirt, tote bag, and collectible buttons. These items combine practical use (such as a safety strobe light and tote bag) with fun, nostalgic designs, making the bundle appealing to Halloween lovers who enjoy themed merchandise. By creating product bundles, businesses can capitalize on the festive spirit, encourage higher spending, and enhance customer loyalty through memorable, exclusive offers.
Offering Halloween-themed gift cards is an entertaining and efficient approach for attracting customers during the spooky season. Gift cards are already a popular choice for convenient gifting, and adding a Halloween touch, such as frightening artwork or themed packaging, makes them even more festive and appealing.
Starbucks is an excellent example. Every year, it sells limited-edition Halloween gift cards with humorous, frightening themes such as pumpkins and witches. These seasonal cards tap into the Halloween excitement and create urgency, as customers rush to get them before they’re gone.
Businesses can use this idea to boost sales and encourage repeat visits by offering their own Halloween-themed gift cards, both physical and digital.
When it comes to rewarding customer loyalty, Target has mastered the art of offering bonus points during seasonal events, including Halloween. Through its Target Circle rewards program, customers earn additional points on purchases, especially during limited-time events like Halloween. Target often introduces special promotions, offering double or triple rewards points for members who shop for costumes, decorations, or candy during the spooky season.
For example, Target might run a campaign where customers earn 2x loyalty points on all Halloween-themed products in-store and online. This not only drives Halloween sales but encourages repeat purchases as customers feel they are gaining more value through the reward system. By providing such perks, your brand can mimic this successful strategy, increasing customer retention and encouraging higher spending during the Halloween period.
Get your customers involved by encouraging them to share their Halloween experiences with your products. Launch a contest or hashtag campaign where customers can submit photos or videos of themselves using your products during the spooky season. Lego is a great example of this, regularly encouraging fans to share their Halloween builds on social media, which helps create community and boosts brand visibility. Reward participants with exclusive discounts or free products to increase participation.
Email marketing is 40 times more effective at customer acquisition than social media, according to studies. Brands like Wayfair and Costco have mastered this by sending out Halloween-themed email blasts with promo codes, sale highlights, and product recommendations weeks before the actual holiday. Make sure your emails have a spooky design, fun visuals, and compelling copy to get customers excited about shopping for Halloween.
You can also use this opportunity to grow your email list by offering exclusive Halloween promotions for those who sign up on your website or at local events. Repurpose your flyers into email content to maintain consistency across all platforms.
In this Target example, the brand partnered with Cynthia Erivo, a well-known actress and singer, for their Halloween-themed campaign. This influencer collaboration ties into the promotion of the upcoming Wicked movie, aligning with the Halloween spirit through a creative and engaging ad. Cynthia’s performance and charisma make the content more relatable and shareable, reaching a wide audience on social media.
Target leverages the star power of an influencer to elevate its seasonal marketing, creating a memorable connection between their brand and Halloween festivities. This kind of collaboration not only promotes products but also taps into the emotional and cultural resonance of Halloween.
During the Halloween season, suggest Halloween-themed add-ons at checkout or cross-sell related items. For example, if a customer buys a Halloween costume, recommend matching accessories or decorations to enhance their Halloween experience. This increases the average order value and introduces customers to more of your offerings.
Halloween is rapidly approaching, so if you want to capitalize on the festive spirit, now is the perfect time to start your campaign. Setting up your campaign should be quick and easy if you have a strong and adaptable promotion management system. If your current promotion engine does not provide such flexibility, consider moving to a solution such as 99minds to help you expedite the process and get your Halloween promotion up and running quickly.
Hosting small events, like costume contests or themed photo booths, drives foot traffic and social media buzz—both affordable and effective ways to establish a Halloween vibe.
Behind-the-scenes photos of your team in costume are popular, and special Halloween discount codes encourage followers to engage and share their experiences. Encourage UGC by asking customers to post Halloween photos with your products using a branded hashtag, increasing visibility and engagement.