How To Take Halloween To Another Level

Halloween is about reveling in naughtiness

After Christmas celebrations, Halloween is number two when it comes to overall spending in the United States. This year estimations say that U.S. citizens will spend 8.4 billion dollars on Halloween.

How come to this 2000 years Celtic celebration is now turning into a massive event with steady growth year after year?

Some people argue it is for the “Trick-or-Treat,” others for the costumes and the parties where you can do whatever (almost) you want behind a mask. Add to the list the pumpkins and the play around with death almost in a glorious manner, and you’ll get the most fantastic tutti-frutti of all needs and desires. If you like, you can say that Halloween covers the need of every single individual. What a target population!

Some also bring up Halloween as an event as close as you can come to a carnival, which usually is earmarked to Latin countries and connected to Catholicism which is the predominant religion in those countries.

Halloween is like an anti-holiday that you can’t attach to any religion or other bring-together-the-family excuses. It’s a holiday where it’s socially acceptable to party off as on no other occasion during the year.

It used to be much more of a children’s holiday, with candies and costumes. But as the huge group of baby boomers becomes more active in the celebration, parties, and booze are added to the list.

Halloween Spending Is Increasing

Taking a quick look at what and how the 8.4 billion will be spent on things that relate to Halloween, a recent survey made by NRF (National Retail Federation) shows some interesting data:

Few holidays like Halloween, including Christmas, can show such a diversity of different niches where commerce can benefit from consumer spending.

The same survey also points out that 21.8%, equal to more than 1.8 billion dollars in the U.S. only, will be assigned to online purchases. That is up 26.1% from last year.

Add to the information that Halloween celebrations are taking off seriously in other countries than the U.S., And the holiday is quickly becoming a global event.

For all online marketers, the Halloween niche is a segment that is reaching a size you can no longer ignore. On top of that, the segment includes a large variety of business opportunities. The chart above only shows the main four opportunities; costumes, candy, decorations, and greeting cards.

Halloween Offers An Endless Number Of Opportunities

The flow of ideas can be endless. Here are just a few:

Trick-or-Treaters: So far, this part of the party has been heavily surrounded by candies. Without any doubt, the giveaways are one of the essential ingredients of the Halloween mix. According to the statistics, candy represents the highest spending during Halloween. As adults become more involved in the party every year, as an online marketer, you can use this to your advantage. Giveaways are always necessary for successful online marketing. During Halloween, you will have a great opportunity to boost it up and get the attention of more potential customers than usual.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Be consistent with what you are doing. As a blogger or whatever other informative methods you are using, you can ride the wave of this character and switch the content of your messages radically without changing the fundamental goal or tone: an original Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde behavior.

Jack-o’-Lantern: Provoke smiles as much as you can. People online love pictures. Halloween is a perfect opportunity to use a lot of fun pictures to grab your audience’s attention. The fun part is more important here than the level of perfection.

The Zombie: All is alive, even the death. This is a great character to let your imagination fly away. What you publish on the web will always be there. Take this opportunity to blow new life into the old material you have been using. Halloween opens up for all kinds of “unusual” procedures.

Dracula: All work can stand the light…even the darkness. Could you get a better time to experiment with light and darkness? Either it can be through pictures or dark and light content. Your imagination is the limit, and don’t forget Halloween allows you to do almost whatever you want. As long as your audience can relate to the character you have in mind, it will be a hit.

Frankenstein’s Monster: Use good material even if it isn’t ready. This is once in a year opportunity to publish or launch something that isn’t completely ready, connecting to the properties of this character. Do it with intelligence and a strategy, and your audience will love it the same way they love Frankenstein.

Let the Halloween Creativity Be Your Ally

You set the limit of how to take advantage of this unique holiday celebration. What is true is that Halloween and all the businesses around it are expanding at an impressive speed.

All the different areas in the Halloween circus can commercialize. Use your imagination and push the start button.

If you don’t want to bother about all the logistics involved in the sales of a product, you can make an affiliate arrangement through platforms like Amazon. The possibilities are unlimited.

If you Google Halloween affiliate programs, it will be a surprise when you see how many different options you can find to commercialize this holiday event.

By now, the train for this year’s Halloween business is gone. But you have a whole year to prepare for 2017. However, you’ll have Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner, and you can use the same pattern.

Make a list of all holidays and celebrations during the year. Start to create a marketing strategy for each and every one of them. Utilize your skills and knowledge to sell when potential customers open their purchasing minds, the credit card in their hands, and just waiting for you to reach out to them.