Now that Labor Day has come and gone, you probably are finding your marketing and promotion efforts quickly heading into the dark night of Halloween. Hanging the plastic spiders and their gauzy webs, you may be wondering how to scare up more excitement in this first major holiday of the season. After all, Americans spent in excess of $6.9 billion last year to celebrate this spooky day. Here are seven chilling ways to market to your customers and scare up new sales. 

1. Office Zombies – Whether it’s zombies, ghosts, witches or ghouls, choosing a zombie theme can bring these characters into the spirit of your business. Do you sell office equipment? Create a zombie headquarters, with the creatures wearing glasses and answering the phone.  Witches could be brewing up recipes found with food sold in the store, and ghosts can be hiding in the products pages of your website with special savings.

2. Scary Deals for Great Customers – Send out spooky invitations and emails to your best customers for a private sale.  Enjoy some witch’s brew and caramel apples while giving them the scariest sale prices you can conjure up.

3. Mascot Costume Contest – Do you have a great mascot or a really catchy logo? Have a costume contest for the best company based costume, with a large prize for the winner. Having even 20 of your mascots running around town for Halloween is great advertising, and the bigger the prize, the more of your “brand ambassadors” will be out and about.

4. Ghost Hunting – Partner with other local businesses to host a ghost hunting adventure to encourage people to shop your local area while searching for ghosts that offer special prizes and savings. This opportunity offers a good mix of retailers, and you have a full day of activities for your customers.

5. Sweeten the Cauldron – Have a never-ending cauldron of treats to thank customers for their business near the checkout, and attach a ticket for a future holiday shopping discount.

6. Witch & Warlock Watch – Santa has an application that tracks his progress across the sky, so maybe it’s time to have a witch and warlock watch during Halloween. Create a map, online or on a cork board in your store, and place little witches and warlocks on the map where a “sighting” has occurred. You can run a news blotter on the side of all the naughty & nice activities these little witches have gotten up to, such as going to bed late, flying on her broom instead of cleaning her room, or making a best friend potion for her buddy at school. Parents may be able to give you good ideas of witch sightings in your neighborhood to add to the board. Kids will want to come by often to see what little witches and warlocks are up to.

7. Midnight Madness – Stay open late, beyond the last candy trickster and offer amazing deals at the stroke of midnight. It’s a great way to clear inventory and make space for the biggest holiday season of the year.

Halloween can be a fun time of year to celebrate the silly and scary.Celebrate by using clever marketing tactics for this fall holiday and get your customers and employees into the zombie swing of things!

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