Halloweeeeee’en! Get ready for them sales!

Hallowe’en

This is the 4th biggest revenue generating holiday after Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. We write this blog for you because 49% smart retailers launch Hallowe’en campaigns before the spooky holiday actually arrives.

With a 158 million Americans celebrating this religious cum secular cum commercial holiday, and a gazillion more in Europe and other parts of the world, you certainly want your e-commerce business to be ready with its products and marketing strategies before the deluging sales hit, or worse, miss, you!

There is no ambiguity as to what things people will want to buy on Hallowe’ens – costumes, treats, decorations and pumpkins.

So gear up for the scary season with these hacks:

• Offer Hallowe’en freebies Instead of discounts and coupons, bait shoppers with free Hallowe’en themed giveaways. This makes it more exciting! Remember to make the freebies relevant and thrilling, and not just for the sake of scoring a marketing point. It should be something they can use or gift to their family/friends.
• Display the product well, either on your home page (to hook attention) or on the cart page (to nudge them on to checkout). You could always add a clause which reads ‘shop for this much or more and get free merchandise…’

• Spook up your store window This is akin to decorating a brick-and-mortar to inspire a festive spirit. You don’t have to re-deign completely as this would cost a lot of money and seems like a waste if you have to change it back as soon as the holiday passes. Use flexible elements, like:
• funky images and smart copy on the welcome coupon pop-up
• promoting your promotions on the home page banner sliders
• cleverly making use of the header bar and CTAs to convey a spectral feel

• Send customers gift cards beforehand It sorely sucks when you buy something at full price and learn later about the gift card. So make sure people are aware of your big promotions two or even three weeks earlier. It could be a discount, an offer for free shipping, a freebie etc. that becomes valid during Hallowe’en week or day or whenever you want. The idea is to encourage them to come back, collect more gift cards, and shop more during the sales week, because they know that they are getting a good deal and saving lots here than anywhere else.
• Don’t forget to use automated e-mail follow-ups to remind them to redeem the gift-cards.

• E-mail them to remind them of your promotions

E-mail marketing tends to receive excellent response and action. And promotional mails on holidays are always welcome because that’s when people are already purchase-ready.

Before promotions

–  Be absolutely succinct in your messaging.

–  Introduce the promotion with a clear coupon code and an unambiguous CTA.

During promotions

–  Send product recommendations, highlight applicable coupons, and remind them of the countdown to the limited period offers.

–  Use app analytics on abandoned carts to intimate them when those products are on sale, show them alternatives or related products, or bait them with additional bonuses.

Before the promotions end

–  Create a sense of urgency to hurry them along with making decisions. For instance, you could use phrases like last day or only ‘x’ many products left.

–  Amp up the last day with additional sales and bonuses, especially if you’re trying to push out the last of your stock.

–  Drive site traffic with specially written Hallowe’en content

No matter what you do, content is still king. Right before D-day, searches for ‘Hallowe’en gift ideas’ spike. Putting out content relevant to this topic, as well as content related to the festival itself is bound to get some traction with potential shoppers who are out specifically looking for information on this.

Don’t forget the religious brushstroke to this festival. Include content on the traditions and myths of the festival, and use it to help highlight certain traditions of the festival; then work in your mercantile angle for a sale that makes customers feel like they are buying more than just stuff, but rather make their purchase feel more relevant and less temporary.

• Galvanise some user-generated content Customers have become benumbed to advertisements. The one way to build brand credibility while fuelling sales is to get your own patrons and site visitors to speak for you. If they like it, they tell others about it, and others will believe them. Feedback, reviews, testimonials are the usual trucks in this bag. But generate more engagement using social media (like Facebook and Twitter) by –
• hosting a Hallowe’en costume photo contest
• host a Hallowe’en themed gift-making competition
• host a best Hallowe’en scare-a-friend video contest
• give away prizes to people who came up with the best caption for a Hallowe’en product
• Upsell and Cross-sell

Firstly, as mentioned earlier, this time of the year people are already purchase-ready. Secondly, they aren’t going to buy one or two things, they need the entire costume, they need a tonne of make-up, they need pumpkins and they need treats. Moreover, it isn’t any one particular social or religious group that celebrates this holiday; its children, women and men across all demographics and age brackets who want these things. So your audience is ready, you need to provide.

The key is relevance. When someone shops for a witch’s robe, suggest a hennin, broom and Goth make-up. When someone adds a pair of plain wellies, suggest pointy toed witch shoes. It may cost more than wellies but when the customer sees it offered at a bargain price instead of actual cost, they will feel they have got their value for money.

This kind of relevance and timely intervention turns individual buys into a wholesale purchase.

There may be a million other things you could do by projecting these pointers to suit your business’ needs. These are practical, common-sense and easy-to-achieve ways to get you ready for Hallowe’ens without you having to spend too much money on it!

Have a scarifying Hallowe’ens with super scarifying sales!