It’s The Scariest Time Of The Year
Holidays are the perfect time to connect with your customers. So as a small business, it is pertinent that you take advantage of any and all opportunities to do just that! With Halloween right around the corner, your hair business can really rack up on some hauntingly good sales!
The Facts
Did you know that over 35% of customers perform online searches to find their perfect Halloween costume? Stats like this communicate that it is imperative for you to implement themed marketing schemes into your business plan. Doing this will enable you to drive Halloween celebrating customers to your website or your brick-and-mortar business on top of the normal traffic that you receive.
The plus side to this tactic is: you are attracting new consumers. Not only that, but they are spreading the word about everything they see online to their friends and other potential customers. So you want to make sure that you capture their attention with everything that you do.
Don’t Worry About The Money
You may be worried that you don’t have the big budget that a lot of other online retailers or storefronts have. We get it! There are no extra funds to do a complete makeover of your website, and pumpkin decorations with phantom ghost accessories are just not in the cards, that is okay! Keep reading for more information on the five things that you can do to ensure your hair business caters to your target audience during the spookiest time of the year!
1. Make Your Products Halloween Ready
I understand that if you don’t sell any Halloween products, you may be a little confused as to how you can generate more sales during this holiday in particular. But it’s all about positioning. Even if you don’t sell anything remotely scary, you can still put your products in the position to cater to Halloween party goers or trick or treaters! For instance, a lot of Halloween costumes cater to cosplay enthusiasts or celebrities fantasies. There are so many ways you can take advantage of that!
Take Kim Kardashian for example, for years both her and Nicki Minaj wore calf grazing hair that immediately reminded you of their looks. Meaning, if you’re selling 40-inch Vietnamese hair, you can always display some costume ideas based on those two pop icons. You could also suggest lash styles to set off someone’s super sexy Vixen costume.
Another great marketing tactic could play up your blonde hair assortment. Both Kylie Jenner and Blac Chyna wore rainbow colored hair that you can market to your customers via Russian blonde or Malaysian blonde bundles. Even long bundles of Russian blonde hair can be styled into two long pigtails to portray an adult Sailor Moon character!
The Importance of Images
Advertise these styles using pictures via social media outlets like Instagram and Facebook. Get your customers in the mood to not only participate in the holiday but shop with you! And be sure to post pictures of all of your exclusive Halloween costume ideas. Make sure the hair is prominently displayed to remind your customers to stop in well before Halloween night.
2. Host an online trick-or-treating promotion.
If you were to host an online trick or treat promo, you can not only boost engagement from people coming to your website, but you can also increase conversions from your social media platforms. Steps like that enable you to help create and facilitate and genuine organic conversation online about your hair brand.
You want to use this marketing tactic and turn the promotion into a game for your customers. In doing this, your target consumer will gain a shopping experience by participating in the game on your site. Additionally, if you have a storefront, shoppers will have an incentive to buy from you in the comfort of their own home.
A great marketing ploy would be to have your website visitors search for hidden pumpkins on your site. In finding the pumpkins, they will also find a discount off of their shopping cart.
Other online trick or treat themed promotions can both generate sales and put your email list to good use. For example, instead of having your customers search your site for hidden discounts, send a promotional email that enables them to click one of two discount options. With each option labeled trick or treat allow whichever option that the customer picks to be the discount applied to their order. The catch? One discount is significantly lower (the trick) than the other (the treat).
Either of these ideas can serve as a fun scavenger hunt for your customers. There are plenty of other ideas that you can put into play to capture their attention. Use these ideas to ensure that they make their way over to your site before their Halloween festivities.
3. Halloween-ify your online presence.
Where is your business located online?
-Do you have an Instagram account? Post Halloween pictures.
-Do you tweet? Add a couple of ghosts behind your one hundred and forty characters.
-Are you on Facebook? Change your banner to something a little more orange than usual.
Halloween is a holiday that many people would consider their favorite. You want to cater to that audience by giving them content that they can like and share with their own following. Creating a more Halloween friendly presence will do that.
You also want to decorate your website. Don’t make the mistake of sending an email out saying that you are completing a holiday Halloween sale and leave your webpage looking the same as it did last month. Not only will viewers come to your website and be confused at the lack of festive spirit, but they’re going to stay just that: passive viewers. They will not convert into shoppers. They will not engage in looking around and finding your pumpkins or participating in your sale themed scavenger hunt.
Remember, none of this has to be expensive! You can win over your audience by going to free apps like PicMonkey, Photoshop Mix, or Video Shop. Remix traditional elements of Halloween and make them spooky! This includes the likes of jack-o’-lantern pictures, ghost-like fonts or any other conventional Halloween images. Add these elements to your Hair Biz’s social channels or site to give it a look you want.
4. Create Halloween themed content
To understand this tactic you only need to know two things:
-Content marketing can get you about three times as many leads as outbound marketing.
-Content marketing costs about 62% less than outbound marketing.
All this means is that you need to create and publish Halloween posts on your blog and all of your social media channels to drive sales to your website. Remember you are targeting Halloween shoppers. You are trying to solve a problem for them. That problem: costume perfection. All of your content should ease the stress of finding the right character for your ideal shopper.
For example, A lot of people have issues executing their look outside of the costume that they bought. You can create blog posts that cover the topics of Halloween hair and Halloween makeup to get their look all the way together.
In these post be sure to mention the products that you offer that will solve all of their unforeseen issues. Make it easier for your customer to shop by adding in the links that they need as well. Remember, do not be too pushy. You want to encourage them to buy from you, but you don’t want to scream “BUY THIS!” throughout the content. That will make them more likely to ignore the post or exit the site prematurely. You want the material to be so good that they share it with their friends who they may be partying with over the holiday.
5. Have a Virtual Halloween Costume Contest
If you have a Halloween costume contest, you are guaranteed to get people into your brick and mortar store. Once they’re there, they will buy from you to either complete the costume that they already have on or purchase a new one.
If you don’t have a brick-and-mortar store, you can always hold a Halloween costume contest online. Have customers submit images, videos, or Facebook post and tag your company in everything. Then award your favorite costume with coupons or free lashes to accompany their outfit.
Because it’s the beginning of October, you can even hold a weekly costume contest on social media up until the actual holiday. Then require each of the contestants to share your contest post and tag their friends under a post on your page. This will work to increase your account’s engagement. Remember to include lots of Halloween themed hashtag so you can expand your reach across all social media platforms and maximize exposure.
Halloween Is Here!
A lot of the time so many businesses think that they need to break the bank to go outside of their everyday marketing strategy. However, these tactics are proof that you don’t have to spend an additional dime. Take heed to at least one of these great ideas. You will be able to push your storefront or online hair brand to achieve more Halloween holiday revenue than usual.
Customers want to have fun when they shop for the holidays. If you enable them to do that at your expense, they will reward you for it with sales! Do yourself a favor and start planning your Halloween campaign now. That way, when the last week of October rolls around you can use these tricks to get more treats.
Have another marketing tip for the holiday season? Share it with us in the comments below.