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Read More >>The Fall Equinox has passed. The air suddenly feels crisp, and October is officially upon us…
…which means that All Hallows Eve is fast approaching!
Halloween is one of the largest spending holidays in the United States, second only to Christmas. With the increasing commercialization of this spooktacular holiday, Americans are expected to spend over $10.1-billion throughout the month of October this year as a chill settles over the States.
For retailers, this could mean a major boost in sales if you strategically market your Halloween products.
In this blog post, you’ll learn 6 promotional ideas you can use right now to attract shoppers and boost sales, all in the spirit of Halloween!
Before we dive in, we should first mention that Halloween is not for everyone. As a retailer, the last thing you want to do is offend your customer base. If the majority of your customers religiously observe the Christian, Judean, and Muslim faiths, among others, then we recommend that instead of using Halloween decorations and spooky marketing graphics, you simply focus on autumn color schemes, colorful leaves, pumpkins (not carved pumpkins!), and other heartwarming seasonal accents.
IN-STORE DECORATIONS
Cast a spell over your customer base and enchant them with in-store Halloween decorations that feature your promotional products and add a festive flair to your in-store advertising.
Decorating your retail store doesn’t have to be a major production. By simply adding pumpkins, faux cobwebs, and colorful leaves to your displays, you can quickly transform the ambience of your location and draw shoppers in from the street. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can include Halloween food and even goodie bags to make visiting your store a real treat!
But Halloween decorations alone won’t actually sell your products.
Take your Halloween decor to the next level with digital signage. In-store digital signage comes with countless benefits, the biggest of which is that these attention-grabbing displays help increase awareness about your current and ongoing sales. Unlike static, printed signs, which can only convey a single message at a time, digital screens have the potential to expose your customers to dozens of promotions as they journey through your store. Make sure the digital content you display presents Halloween colors and themes, and you’ll see a boost in seasonal sales this October.
WEBSITE AND ECOMMERCE
Decorating your store in the spooky spirit of Halloween is a great way to draw in a crowd, but what about driving online shoppers to your website and eCommerce store?
By making a few key adjustments to your website, you can increase web traffic, which will either lead to a boost in eCommerce sales if you have an online store, or it will help improve the in-store sales at your location.
Simply change the color scheme of your website’s Home Page so that it features black, orange, and other classic Halloween colors. Then, add a couple targeted keywords or longtail keyword phrases to your Home Page content, using common Halloween words and phrases that Google users are likely to type into the search bar.
Don’t worry. You won’t need to hire a professional graphic designer in order to do this. You can create professional-looking graphics for your website, eCommerce site, and even your in-store digital signage and social media accounts using FTx AdPro, a free, cloud-based graphic design program that was built for people like you. AdPro comes chock-full of Halloween-themed templates for every retail industry under the sun.
EMAIL MARKETING
Have we got the Halloween marketing tricks for you that will surely treat your customers! See what we did there?
Whether your retail business is primarily brick-and-mortar, strictly eCommerce, or a combination of both, it’s a good idea to design and launch a strategized email marketing campaign to let your customers know what you have in store, literally, this Halloween.
The Halloween-themed designs you create using FTx AdPro can also be formatted and imported into all of your email marketing campaigns.
The Halloween holiday and email marketing itself are pretty much a match made in heaven, and will definitely boo-st your sales this October. Just remember to segment your recipients into small groups so that the specific Halloween sale or discount code you’re promoting is highly personalized. When it comes to email marketing campaigns that yield a high click through rate, the best tip we can give you is to keep it simple. Focus on three products based on the customer group’s purchase history and Wish List items, and don’t forget to include strong CTAs.
FACEBOOK MARKETING
Facebook is a fantastic platform for marketing your Halloween promotions this season, especially since this social media site supports both photos and videos.
Halloween costume photo contests are one of the fastest ways to boost brand awareness on social. Get the word out about your virtual Halloween costume contest by posting a video featuring one of your ghoulish employees explaining the contest rules.
Be sure to include a creative branded hashtag that contestants should use and don’t forget to highlight the prizes your winner and frontrunners will win.
You can boost engagement even further, in fact, by allowing your followers to vote for which costume they think should win. Try narrowing it down to five and let your followers choose the first, second, and third place winners. Facebook itself will allow you to create a poll or survey using photos.
INSTAGRAM MARKETING
Instagram is another wicked good social platform to host a Halloween contest in order to market your current Halloween promotions online.
Since Instagram is all about beautiful, colorful photos, try holding a pumpkin carving contest.
Participants can even use Instagram’s carousel feature and include several pictures that document their pumpkin carving progress.
Depending on the nature of your retail business, the winner could receive a Halloween product or some other seasonal freebie they’ll appreciate. That’s up to you. What’s most important is that you take advantage of the social engagement that occurs by responding to comments, reposting the contestants’ photos, and consistently posting ad-like posts that invite more and more people to join in the fun. As long as every ad-like post includes a caption that markets your retail business and your current sales, you should see an increase in social followers and overall revenue.
CUSTOMER LOYALTY REWARDS PROGRAM
The Halloween holiday will certainly draw in customers, but what are you going to do to retain those customers long after the pumpkins have been replaced with mistletoe? Do you have a marketing strategy in place that is designed to boost customer loyalty?
If not, there’s no time like the present to launch one. Customer loyalty rewards programs are hands-down the most affordable long-term marketing strategy for retaining customers.
FTx Loyalty offers three options for retailers to get started with a customer loyalty rewards program that’s just their size.
If you want to incentivize your customers to shop with you year-round and not just on Halloween, then FTx Integrated Loyalty, FTx Enhanced Loyalty, or FTx Cloud Loyalty is for you! Our loyalty solutions can guide you to market effectively so that you steadily grow your loyal customer base. By providing your loyal customers with worthwhile savings on the products they want, need, and love, you will generate sales, reinforce brand messaging, and steadily nurture customer loyalty.
The 6 fun Halloween promotional ideas that we covered in this article prove that you don’t need to spend a frightening fortune to boost sales and promote your brand this October.
Are you ready to get started with FTx Digital Signage, FTx AdPro, and FTx Loyalty? FTx Solutions has the retail tools you need to streamline your operations and market your merchandise. Contact us to learn more about our Point-of-Sale systems and the retail industries we serve.
This article was written by FasTrax Solutions, a software solutions provider specializing in Retail POS, Warehouse Management Systems, Digital Marketing Solutions, and Customer Loyalty and Reward Solutions.