Halloween is not just the celebration of the spooky and scary, it’s one of the most popular and profitable holidays, both in the U.S. and around the globe. According to reports, Americans spend about $9 billion on Halloween – on costumes and decorations to tricks and treats.
For eCommerce and online sellers, this is a huge pie to grab. More than 40% of shoppers will go online to buy holiday goods, making the opportunity scarily lucrative for Halloween eCommerce. The festival itself is on 31st October but the preparation and shopping starts weeks earlier.
So, how can you come up with some eerily good Halloween marketing and promotions to boost sales with just two weeks to go? The answer to this question will be uncovered in this post so you better stay tuned till the end.
Here are some must-follow tips and tricks to hype up your Halloween marketing and promotion in 2019 –
Spook Up Your Online Store
Halloween is all about celebrating the scary and spooky, so your online store should embody the same spirit. Popular elements of shock, scare, and surprise include – pumpkins, ghoulish art, skeletons, spider webs, lanterns, etc. and you can easily start incorporating these on your website.
Here are some tips to prepare your store for Halloween –
- Landing page banners are the first element shoppers will see, so make sure to add Halloween themed banners on your landing pages. If they like what they see, they’re more likely to buy what you are selling.
- Include Halloween themed copywriting on product pages (for example – you can go with phrases like ‘offers that are too scary to be missed’, ‘want to get tricked or treated from us’, ‘an eerily amazing offer awaits you’ and so on).
- Revamp your email newsletter popups and fill-up forms with a Halloween theme and give your visitors something interesting to see and engage with. You can also include the concept of easter eggs to add an element of surprise to your store.
- Add a spooky, Halloween themed welcome coupon pop-up that catches the attention of shoppers as soon as they land on your website. To further sweeten the deal, you can include a Halloween themed quiz to keep things interesting.
Halloween is a fun holiday and thus a great opportunity for eCommerce store optimization in a unique way. Give a character to your store and establish well-thought-of copy and design elements to excite and engage your customers.
Optimize Your Online Store
Shoppers love to splurge on costumes, makeup, accessories and much more during the Halloween season so your store should be more than ready to give them what they want. To optimize your marketing and sales for Halloween, start with optimizing your eCommerce store first.
Here are few optimization tips that you can incorporate to prepare for Halloween 2019 –
- Discount the right products – costumes, makeup and accessories are the most popular Halloween products, followed by candies, pet costumes, lights and home decor products. Prepare your store for Halloween by giving good deals and discounts on the popular items that most people buy. You can also run combo offers and give extra discounts on multiple products.
- Write and publish content (blogs, articles, guides) related to popular Halloween search terms like – ‘Halloween Gift Ideas’, ‘Halloween Costume Ideas’, ‘Halloween Makeup Ideas’ and so on. This way you can make sure your content is read by people searching online for such keywords and you get more search traffic to your online store.
- Make sure your eCommerce store is mobile-ready and optimized for browsing and shopping. As per research, there are about 200 million mobile shoppers in the U.S. alone. This Halloween, ensure that your landing pages, email pop-ups, offers and other marketing elements are optimized for mobile devices. Nothing scares shoppers than poor browsing and shopping experience.
- To prepare your store for Halloween, start with stocking the right products on your website. Think about what type and style of costumes, accessories, decor elements and makeup products are most popular during the Halloween season. The idea here is to be well-prepared and properly stocked up to meet sales demands. If customers don’t find popular products in your store, you will miss out on sales.
Market Your Online Store
There’s no dearth of marketing ideas for Halloween, but the key is to pick the right ones and ignore the rest. To prepare for Halloween marketing and promotions, it is advisable to first understand your target audience and what they could be looking for.
Include these ideas in your eCommerce marketing strategy for Halloween 2019 –
- User-generated content – marketing works best when it is word-of-mouth. Getting people to participate in your Halloween themed marketing strategy is a good way to boost sales during the holiday season. You can do this by inviting shoppers to share their Halloween selfies, scary makeup ideas and weird costume hacks in exchange for freebies and amazing giveaways.
- Social media promotion – Halloween marketing and promotions are incomplete without social media and so your eCommerce store should focus on getting maximum social value during the season. Start with running ads on popular Halloween products on Facebook, Instagram, etc. You can also run Halloween themed contest on your brand pages and invite your fans to join in the celebrations.
- Email marketing: emails are a great way to promote your Halloween deals and discounts. If you already have an email subscriber base, prepare your marketing emails with Halloween themed content and design. Start the promotional emails 2-3 weeks before the festival and continue to include product recommendations, deals of the day, sale reminders and additional discounts to attract shoppers.
- Influencer marketing: collaborating with influencers who are big on followers is a good way to get your message to maximum people. Although cash-intensive, influencer marketing can get you great return on your marketing money. Look for local influencers in your area and ask them to endorse your store or brand online.
For optimizing your marketing and sales smartly, use a strategic mix of the above methods and see what works for you. Once you find what’s effective, build on that to attract shoppers and sales.
Summing Up Our Guide on Halloween Marketing and Promotions in 2019
Halloween is an amazing time to be a shopper and a seller.
To make sure you tap into the huge opportunity, get started with your eCommerce store optimization and marketing using the ideas listed above. Hype up your Halloween spirit on time and reap great sales numbers during the holiday season.
We hope our Halloween marketing and promotions guide for eCommerce helps you acquire more customers and increase business.
If you need professional help to prepare your store for Halloween, do not hesitate to utilize our eCommerce store development services. From website design and development to product listing optimization and beyond, our professionals have the right mix of knowledge and experience to help you grow.
Get in touch with us to share your requirements. We’d be happy to hear from you at info@suntecindia.com.