8 Killer Halloween Marketing Ideas For Instagram

Many companies go big with their Halloween marketing strategies. Some brands celebrate this spooky holiday by adding pumpkin popups to their websites while others change their homepages to something more eerie.

And since it is about that time again for urban legends and pumpkin spice lattes, your business can join the fun in 2023. Here are eight killer Halloween marketing ideas for you to use on Instagram to scare up more sales.

1. Spookify Your Social Media Profiles

It’s no secret that Americans love Halloween. Your social media followers likely dress up to go trick or treating in their neighborhoods. And just as they love seeing physical storefronts decorated for the spooky holiday, they also love seeing brands making an effort with their online stores and social media profiles.

Choose simple changes like switching your brand colors to orange for a week or two or adding virtual spiderwebs into your images. Carry these changes through to your website, especially if you offer Halloween specials or discounts.

You don’t have to specifically hire a designer for website changes if you know your way around the back end of websites. Various online platforms offer free images that you can use to spookify your website and social media profiles.

2. Use Halloween-themed Templates for Emails

Email marketing isn’t going anywhere in the foreseeable future. Use this to your advantage during the spooky season. Find fun Halloween-themed templates on platforms like Canva that tie in with your brand voice. You can implement these templates as early as September to build up excitement around Halloween promotions and discounts.

3. Alternate Product Content With Fun Halloween Facts

Halloween is all about unearthly fun, so intersperse your usual product content with fun Halloween facts. If you’re a horror movie fan, this is your time to shine on Instagram. Share eerie, lesser-known facts about horror movies or the inspiration behind them. Or encourage your followers to share their own real-life creepy stories.

While this content doesn’t relate directly to your brand, it is a fantastic way to increase engagement on your Instagram profile. When you create a good rapport with your audience about something as well-loved as Halloween, you have a much better chance of convincing them to support your business.

You can take the fun facts one step further by setting up polls and quizzes on your profile to test your audience’s Halloween knowledge. If your employees love getting dressed up at work, you can use a poll to get your followers’ opinions on the best costume.

If you offer small incentives with the polls, it will help drive engagement and sales, especially if you offer discount codes or 2-for-1 deals.

4. Build Up To a Halloween-themed Product

Planning on releasing a limited-time product in October? Why not make it Halloween-themed? You could offer an orange version of the product or add a custom trick-or-treat bag sporting your company logo.

If you feel like this has all been done before, do a couple of Google searches on Instagram trends for Halloween. Before you know it, you’ll be creating your own version of a popular trend and winning over your Instagram audience.

Social media audiences love one-of-a-kind products and adore trends, so don’t be surprised if you sell out before October 31.

5. Use Halloween-themed Advertising Campaigns For Inspiration

If you’re out of ideas on how to make your Halloween Instagram campaign something people will remember, watch old Halloween-themed ads that made a splash on TV. Doing this might spark some inspiration. Or, do a Google search for previous campaigns created by big brands.

Remember Burger King’s #ScaryClownNight ad? Or the 13th Floor Halloween Fanta campaign? How about the Coca-Cola Dracula ad from 1992? You probably remember all of these simply because they were so well-made. And once you’re inspired, you may create a viral video that will pop up in a ‘best Halloween marketing ideas’ article a few years from now.

6. Connect Your Instagram Shop With Your Physical One

If you have an Instagram shop, dress it up for Halloween. Carry the changes you made through to your physical store. If you use a particular filter or theme in your online store, try to get posters or temporary wallpaper printed in the same design. Not only will you have fun doing this and draw more foot traffic, but you’ll also make your brand easily recognizable.

You can add a little Halloween flavor to your products by giving them spooky online tags. You can use the same names to label the products in your physical store. Use Instagram Reels to introduce the new names and guide your followers to your online Instagram shop or your physical address.

You can also employ the Stories feature to tell a creepy fictional tale about each product. If you’re not a creative writing whiz, you can enter a few prompts into ChatGPT and tailor the spooky tales the AI bot spits out.

7. Add a Twist To Customer Reviews

Just because it’s Halloween doesn’t mean you can’t share customer reviews. Add a little twist to make them fit in with the Halloween spirit. You can present reviews in video, reels, stories, or carousel format. Add creepy music and haunting background images to heighten the eerie Halloween mood. Your customers and followers will get a kick out of this while learning how valuable your products and services are.

8. Team Up With Other Brands

Double up on the Halloween fun by partnering with brands in your niche. Together, you can host giveaways for Halloween or present limited-time bundle offers. Don’t forget to use Instagram’s ‘tag a friend’ feature to increase the exposure of each Halloween-themed post.

The Bottom Line

Halloween presents an annual opportunity for your brand to bring some fun and creativity to Instagram. With Instagram's various features and your creativity, there is no shortage of ways you can keep up and improve your sales over this period while keeping your audience engaged. Use some of these Halloween marketing strategies to go all spooky on Instagram and watch your sales soar!