October is the month of black and orange, scary entertainment, pumpkin pies and spooky costumes. It also is a launch-pad for many online stores into a chain of marketing campaigns that stretch into the first week after the New Year. And that is because with Halloween customers enter in a period of product engagement frenzy. Meaning that customers are more likely to purchase what they desire without second guesses. And a lot of online stores have started to adjust properly for this special occasion which transitions very smoothly in November’s Black Friday.
If your online store is pretty new and this is the first Halloween that you experience, there are a couple of things that you should do that do not require major investment in order to see some positive results.
Make sure that your online store sells products that are Halloween friendly and can bank on it.
For one, knowing your clientele and the type of customers you want to gain, you should have a basic idea if your products or your merchandise has good synergy with Halloween. This is an overlooked aspect as many brands flush tons of money into Halloween ads and campaigns that don’t quite give them the results they were looking for, simply because their business is just not Halloween friendly. For example, pharmaceutical companies have much less to gain from Halloween, given that their products don’t quite fit in with the concept of monsters, zombies, ghosts and blood splatter. It’s quite the opposite. And in order for them to succeed they have to invest more in extremely brilliant ideas that can twist the narrative in the company’s favor. A task that is not easy nor cheap to achieve.
Therefore, if your brand is Halloween friendly then you’re left with few basic changes that will attract a bigger audience and will greatly increase the chance for a full conversion.
One of them is to use a overall design overhaul of your store. Meaning a simple change of background, the addition of small visuals assets like skeletons, smoke, ghosts and pumpkin faces, will really freshen your products to a new customer. In addition to this you can create simple Facebook, Instagram and Google Ads that use this new design and advertise for spooky deals with scary discounts. Always make sure that your color palette revolves around dark blue and purple and obviously, black and orange. It is a very easy on the eye color palette that grips the customer to pay more attention than needed for your offer. Use social media and all its available tools to their utmost potential and use the proper hashtags.
Thematically create and advertise limited scary offers.
Offer “trick or treat” freebies for every order, create special Halloween coupons with catchy IDs like CHEAPASHELL or SILLYPUMPK1N. Host contests for your customers with special prizes. Deliver Halloween gift-cards to your customers that they can share with their friends. Use email communication through thematic Newsletters. Make use of pop-up banners that highlight all these special occasion offerings for every single customer that visits your online store.
There are a myriad ideas and opportunities that do not require too much investment. And Halloween allows you to gain trust in changing things and adapting a lot more often to circumstances that arise even beyond the usual holiday craziness. Positive results from such changes will give you a boost of confidence to not stick to your guns all the time and when you feel like you have a good idea, just go for it and learn from the experience. Losses are always expected but the gains in these moments are always remembered.