11 Spooky Social Media Strategies for Halloween 2024
Do you remember the feeling of scoring a full-sized chocolate bar on Halloween? What about putting together a great costume that you were excited to show your friends? If you didn't love the costumes, you surely liked missing a couple hours of school to watch a movie and eat snacks.
People love Halloween because it’s a chance to be creative, indulge in your favourite treats, bond with your community — and if you’re into scary stuff, get an adrenaline rush.
Luckily for brands, Halloween campaigns can evoke a sense of nostalgia, give people a chance to indulge in their product or service, connect with the community associated with your brand, and get a dopamine hit when they hit the purchase button.
If you want your brand to recreate these feelings, associate them with your brand, and have people hit purchase on your website, here are 11 spooky social media strategies for Halloween 2024.
Use Influencer Marketing + Hop-On Trends
People like feeling “in-the-know.” Last year, everyone was on the Wednesday Addams train for Halloween, and this year, you can expect to see a lot of Beetlejuice costumes, decorations, campaigns, etc.
Just look at the makeup brand about-face, who used influencers and trends to make the “Beetlejuice Lipstick Hack” go viral. Here are just a few of the hugely famous TikTok stars who hopped on the trend.
Jeffree Star's is definitely worth a watch because it’s a fail, but still great marketing!
Start Your Campaign Early
Halloween shopping has already started. I’m sure you’ve noticed decorations and treats lining the shelves as early as September 1. Luckily, 64% of consumers don’t start shopping until October. And when people start shopping, they really go for it. Canadians were expected to spend $1.64 billion for Halloween in 2022, up 28.4 percent year over year. Most of that is spent on costumes, candy and pumpkins.
If your Halloween campaign hasn’t started yet, now would be a good time to get going, ramp up the ads the first two weeks of October, and set an alarm for early next September to get going on Halloween 2025!
Use Previous Insights
Although we are “word people,” data has its place in your campaigns.
- Do you need to try some new strategies?
- Which platforms had the most engagement?
- What did your competitors do well last year?
- Which days had the most traffic on your website?
- Is there anything you need to advertise more this year?
Leverage what worked and toss what didn’t. Use these insights to create impactful content that resonates with your audience.
Update Your LinkTree
This might seem like an easy one, but you would be surprised how many brands have out-of-date links on their social, or website. The internet moves fast, and there is always something one click away to distract your audience. Make it simple for your potential customers to get to your order page.
Integrate Omnichannel Experiences
Omnichannel marketing is connecting your marketing experiences across platforms and offline.
Customers should be able to see the same key messages whether they visit your brick-and-mortar locations, open your app, or see your ads on social media.
Burger King has nails the omnichannel marketing each Halloween by merging their digital marketing and in-store experiences.
There are several examples, but one of our favourites is the “Come as a clown, eat like a king” campaign. Burger King combined several marketing tactics to get people talking about their brand and into their restaurants.
It was released in 2017, making Pennywise the Clown a popular costume. They took advantage of making their rival the villain and invited people dressed up as clowns for a free burger on Halloween.
They encouraged guests to tag them on social media, released a video, promoted the event in-store, and advertised on their app.
Offer a Halloween Discount
With the cost of everything skyrocketing, discounts and promo codes are a great way to attract more customers.
Discounts can create excitement, engage people, and help you stay competitive. Plus, fun Halloween promotions done well can boost brand awareness and make customers more interested in your business.
Collaborate with Other Companies
Mutually beneficial business relationships allow companies to share resources, ideas, expertise, and best of all, better products and services for the customers.
Collaboration also helps brands reach new customers by combining each other's audiences.
We love this example from last year: Reese’s x Nextdoor.
The two companies came together to make a “Treat Map” that informs neighbours who is celebrating Halloween and how. Basically, it lets parents pick the best places in the neighbourhood to go trick or treating and see spooky decorated homes.
Share Behind-The-Scenes Content
You don’t need to go crazy to capitalize on Halloween marketing. Join in the fun by letting your audience in on your company culture. It builds a connection and adds a little fun. Think of planning a day for team members to dress up, carve pumpkins, do a pet parade, or share baked goods and share it on your social channels. Add engaging features like polls and questions to boost your engagement.
Create a Game or Challenge
Who doesn’t love a good game? We’ll never say no to a bingo card — especially if there is a reward.
Hosting challenges like these is a smart way to engage your audience and get them in a Halloween mood. Find something your target would like to do, and doesn’t require a lot of work. Think: filming a Story and tagging you or dropping off a colouring sheet at your location.
This example is a little mean, but people LOVED Jimmy Kimmel’s “I Ate My Kids’ Halloween Candy” videos. At least there is a call to action to donate candy to the Ronald McDonald House at the end.
Halloween Hashtags and Keywords
Make your content easily searchable this Halloween with keywords on your website and specific hashtags on your social pages.
Join in on popular hashtags like #Halloween or #SpookySeason, and ones that match your products like #HalloweenCandy for grocery stores . Here are some tips if you create your own:
- Stay relevant to your brand
- Make it easy to remember
- Focus on one message
- Keep it short
Get people involved by encouraging them to share their own content and use your brand’s hashtag.
For SEO, brands should add Halloween-related words like “costumes” or “spooky decor” to their website. Writing blogs with fun ideas, like “Top Halloween Party Tips,” can help them show up in searches. And don’t forget to use Halloween keywords in product descriptions to draw in more shoppers.
Make Memes
You better believe we “like” every meme we see about Spirit Halloween. Whether it’s about taking over a failed retail space or making fun of a profession, you’ll start to see these memes popping up around now.
Funnily enough, we don’t think Spirit Halloween had anything to do with these jokes, but leaning into them has made them culturally relevant, and hey, who doesn’t want free advertising?!
They even made a blog about their favourite fake costumes last year.
Halloween marketing can be challenging for brands who don’t see how the celebration ties to their business objectives. It can be as simple as building your relationship with clients by sharing behind-the-scenes footage, growing brand awareness with influencer campaigns and giveaways, or seeing direct sales with promotions and discounts.
Our social media marketing service provides you with a content strategy, using data to make sure your posts are shared at the right time, and are seen by your target customers. We write, schedule, and promote your social media content for you and generate awareness about your brand by engaging strategically with your ideal customers.
Never miss a campaign opportunity again! Get in touch with us here.
