13 of the Best Halloween Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

Halloween might be known as the spookiest night of the year, but it shouldn’t be scary for small business owners.

It’s one of the best opportunities to build brand awareness and generate revenue for your company. Whether you work in a brick-and-mortar store, ecommerce, or service-based industry, there are plenty of ways to market your business during Halloween.

This post will discuss the best Halloween marketing ideas for small business owners. I’ll explain how you can implement each and provide examples from companies that have used these strategies. By the end of this post, you’ll have everything you need to run an effective Halloween marketing campaign.

1. Start a social media campaign.

Social media is great for engaging existing customers since they’re already familiar with your brand and choose to follow your content online. Keep them engaged with tips, entertaining videos, promotions, and more.

Here’s an example from a home decor company specializing in Halloween decorations. This post teaches followers how to build a DIY ghost stack using supplies from the store Five Below. How-to posts like this are engaging because they provide actionable tips relevant to the Halloween season.

You can also go the route of entertainment, like our social media team does for this video:

@getthryv

A #hauntedhouse that would terrify any #smallbusinessowner 🎃👻😱 #howyouthryv #halloween #smallbusinesstiktok

♬ Haunted house ghost story horror (for background)(23672) – Neko Dama

Pro Tip: Not sure to what post? Check out this guide for social media marketing ideas for Halloween.

2. Give out branded merchandise.

Candy isn’t the only thing you should give out on Halloween. It’s also a perfect time to distribute branded merchandise for your business, like keychains, stress balls, and pins.

Or, if you want to get into the holiday spirit, you can create branded Halloween goodie bags like this one:

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This idea is great because it’s something that people can actually use on Halloween. And, as kids walk around trick-or-treating, more people will see the logo on their bags, generating brand awareness for your business. It’s a good example of a timely Halloween marketing campaign that benefits you and your customers.

3. Send customers a Halloween-themed email.

Email is another effective channel for connecting with customers. If you use marketing software, most email tools will have pre-made templates you can customize for each season. Some even have a Halloween theme, so all you have to do is fill out the email with your company’s information.

Here’s an example of a Halloween marketing email. Notice the black background, the white text, and Halloween-themed images. The subject line reads, “SCARY Good Halloween Deals! Save up to 60%!” so I know there’s a special offer even before I open the email. This also creates an incentive to open future emails because if I mention this email at checkout, I’ll get the discount. Details like this make the message more festive and grab the attention of your target audience.

4. Launch a limited-time offer or deal.

Halloween is a good time to start a promotion or deal because it’s one of the last holidays before the winter. People are looking to get things done, and a limited-time offer can be just the right promotion to sway them to your business.

For example, Try the World is an ecommerce brand that sells specialty snacks from different countries worldwide. Last Halloween, it launched a limited-time offer of 20% off its products.

Halloween is a snack-friendly holiday, so this is a timely promotion for a brand like Try the World. Even if customers don’t buy anything for Halloween, they can use this extension to purchase snacks for the holiday season instead.

5. Host an online or in-person event.

A lot of people have plans for Halloween. Your community has parties, festivals, and events where you can market your products to potential customers.

You can host your own event, too, like a haunted house or virtual movie. Try to come up with something relevant to your business. For example, if you work in beauty services, provide tips for Halloween costumes or set up a booth where people can get their makeup done. It doesn’t have to be an extravagant event. It just needs to be fun and convenient for your audience.

Here’s a Halloween marketing campaign for a local movie theater. It used its extra space and off-hours to host Halloween parties for kids and families. You can even rent a theater and watch a football game on the big screen with your friends. It’s a creative approach to event marketing that lets the attendees dictate the festivities.

6. Promote Halloween deals with direct mail.

Direct mail isn’t dead. Like a monster in a scary movie, it comes back again and again as one of the most effective ways to market your business. In fact, 90% of Americans engage with local business promotions via direct mail.

Direct mail helps you build brand awareness and connect with customers who are ready to make a purchase. If you use your CRM properly, you can identify people who are a good fit for your business and send them mailers that promote your company or encourage them to book an appointment.

For example, your mailer doesn’t have to be overly promotional. If a customer hasn’t shopped with you in a while, send them a little reminder like this one to thank them for their business.

Using a card and message ideas like the ones in this Instagram post is fun, and it doesn’t put pressure on the customer to buy anything. Instead, they gently remind them about your business and provide ways to contact you if they need one of your products or services.

If you want to share a special offer, put the details inside the card and position your discount as a gift instead of a promotion. That will make your card look more like a gesture of gratitude than a pushy sales pitch.

7. Add a Halloween theme to your website.

Your website is like a digital home for your business. Make it festive and decorate it with page elements highlighting the Halloween season. For instance, add orange, black, and white text to your home page and include images of ghosts, spiderwebs, and black cats where possible.

Have fun with your site design, but don’t overdo it. Your changes should direct people to the page elements you want them to focus on. They shouldn’t be distracting or make your site more difficult to navigate.

Here’s a good example. Below is a website for Funway Park, a small-town family fun center designed for kids. Notice the bright colors and light-hearted images.

In the fall, Funway Park becomes Nightmare New England, a haunted-house theme park that caters mostly to adults. Take a look at how the website differs for this event.

The theme is much darker, the text is spooky, and images of each haunted house are scattered throughout the site. It’s a much different vibe that fits the tone and persona of the event. It gets people excited to attend the festival without distracting them from the information they came to find.

8. Ask for customer reviews and referrals.

Halloween candy is great, but it’s nothing compared to getting a customer review for your business. Customer reviews are incredibly important for small business owners. Good ones build a position reputation and help you get discovered on Google. The more good reviews you have, the easier it is to find your business when people search for things like “best plumbers near me.”

Customer referrals are another way to attract new people to your brand. Referrals work because they’re recommendations from real customers, not advertisements from your company. People are more likely to trust these reviews because they came from customers who had positive experiences with your brand.

You can encourage buyers to participate in a customer referral program by offering coupons and incentives that reward them for each person they refer. For example, this bank gives customers $100 every time they refer a friend. That generates more revenue for the business while keeping existing customers happy with a small gift.

Pro Tip: You can use this free tool to request Google reviews from customers.

9. Create a Halloween video for your business.

Halloween is the perfect time to create content for your business, and video is one of the most effective ways to draw your audience’s attention. In fact, 90% of marketers say that video has produced a positive return on investment for their companies.

There are several ways you can leverage video for marketing content. This chart breaks down the most popular use cases for small businesses:

Now, let’s look at an example. Here’s a video created by a small lawn equipment company in England. It provides tips for carving jack-o-lanterns and decorating your lawn for Halloween.

It’s simple and straightforward, and this video didn’t require many resources to produce. You can film yours on a smartphone and share it on your social media pages. If you don’t have time to create videos, you can use a free AI tool to help you. 75% of marketers have used AI to create or edit videos for their business.

Pro Tip: Audio is as important as video. Make sure your audio is loud enough and free of static or feedback.

10. Sponsor a local party, festival, or fair.

If hosting an event seems daunting, another idea is to sponsor one, instead. Check your area’s Facebook Groups and community pages for events like parties, fairs, and festivals. These outings typically have sponsors who set up booths and signage around them.

For example, here’s an advertisement for a holiday market in upstate New York. Vendors can set up booths and sell products to potential customers. These fairs are great for ecommerce businesses because they put your products into the hands of the buyer. It’s much easier to buy something right in front of you rather than in a digital shopping cart.

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11. Partner with another small business.

Partnerships are great because they give you access to an entirely new customer base. You can advertise on another company’s website, in its stores, or on its social media pages to drum up awareness for your business.

You can also run joint marketing campaigns that promote deals for both companies. For example, one idea is to share punchcards between each business and offer coupons to people who discovered your brand from your partner’s store. This strategy creates a stream of customer referrals from another trusted company.

Here’s another idea for a Halloween marketing campaign. This company partnered with local animal shelters to donate money throughout October. Wisdom Panel donated $1 to a partner charity for every product purchased.

An initiative like this generates brand awareness and builds goodwill with your customer base. People will see that you care about the same causes that they do and will want to participate in your campaign. Not only does that lead to more sales, but happier customers, too.

12. Run a contest or giveaway.

Contests are a great way to bring some attention to your business. After all, who doesn’t like winning free stuff?

Consider using your social media accounts to launch a contest or giveaway. These apps make it easy to share your messages online and connect you with people who care about your brand.

Ensure your event’s rules are clear and that you’ve set a deadline for entry. You should also have a goal for what you want to gain from hosting this giveaway.

For example, this company wants to increase its following and engagement rates on Instagram. How can we tell? The posts ask participants to follow its page, like its post, and tag a friend to enter this contest.

Whether your goal is to drive more sales, get more followers, or go viral online, ensuring your business has a goal will make creating contests and giveaways that benefit your brand easier.

13. Share seasonal content.

Maybe this isn’t your company’s busiest holiday, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of it. One of the easiest ways you can generate buzz for your business is with seasonal marketing content. This timely content speaks to an immediate trend or pain point that customers experience during that time of year.

For instance, this pet services company wrote seasonal blog content about caring for your pets during Halloween. It includes tips like safe candy storage and ideas for pet-friendly Halloween costumes.

Pro Tip: Invoice marketing is a sneaky way to advertise customers. Use the tips in this video to create top-notch invoices this Halloween.

Halloween Marketing for Small Businesses

Don’t get spooked by the holiday season. Use these Halloween marketing tips to generate brand awareness and drive more sales for your business. Craft a marketing message that resonates with your target audience and take advantage of communication channels like email, social media, and text. Combining these strategies will help you engage more customers and produce successful Halloween marketing campaigns for your company.