Photos are integral to social media marketing year-round. Still, Halloween presents unique opportunities to increase your sales.
Halloween is just days away as of this writing, meaning consumers are eager to splurge on celebrating the spookiest time of the year.
Not only is Halloween the second most popular holiday after Christmas in the United States, but it’s also a built-in photo-sharing holiday! In years past, Facebook saw traffic double around Halloween and users uploading more than 20% more photos than normal! While this stat is old, and we couldn’t find a recent one, look no further than any of your feeds to see the flurry and spike of costumes and Halloween posts. Why not delight your audience by spreading some bone-chilling cheer?!
Follow the consumer spending to also see the commercial impact of the holiday. Halloween spending is forecasted to hit a record $10.6 billion in 2022. With significant percentages of those sales happening online, this can represent an excellent opportunity for your brand or business. Data from the National Research Federation shows that the percentage of Halloween purchases made online has only increased in recent years — and up to 75% of the consumers making those purchases will use social media to research a brand before buying.
In turn, most of those social media experiences will start in the same way: with an image.
While this most frightful and delightful season can undeniably help spur your brand’s fourth-quarter sales to finish the year strong, standing out on crowded social media feeds is key. Read on to discover some spine-tingling tips for harnessing the power of photos this Halloween!
This Halloween, Harness the Power of Images in Your Brand’s Social Media Marketing
“Decorate” Your Brand Assets
Brick-and-mortar businesses may fill their storefronts with goblins and ghouls or hang fake cobwebs from the walls, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get in on the festive fun in your digital storefront.
Now is your chance to add a fun and scary twist to your logos, avatars, banner images, landing pages, and other social media and online assets.
Of course, it’s as crucial on Halloween as ever to ensure your brand identity is visually consistent across channels — creating and adhering to a visual brand identity helps customers recognize your brand more easily and builds trust.
That said, a holiday like Halloween is a great time to have a little fun by “Halloween-izing” your branding. You can even get started easily with user-friendly templates from Canva.
Encourage and Leverage User-Generated Content
User-Generated Content (UGC), or content that your followers create about your brand, is one of the most powerful ways you can earn trust from your audience.
Resharing content like this creates social proof, demonstrating that real people love your brand. What’s more, according to AdWeek, 85% of consumers find authentic, original UGC more influential than anything you could ever post yourself.
Halloween can be a perfect time to encourage your audience to engage by creating content related to your brand. In the upbeat atmosphere of a holiday, many people are eager to participate in things like giveaways, contests, or photo challenges.
Encouraging user-generated content can build excitement around your brand…while helping you get in the Halloween spirit, to boot!
Show Off Your Team with Throwback and Behind-the-Scenes Photos
Special occasions, like holidays, are also a fantastic opportunity to showcase your human side — the actual humans working hard to make your brand a reality!
Asking your team to share throwback photos of their childhood Halloween costumes is fun and festive…not to mention adorable! You could even create a series of “then and now” posts featuring your valued team members today.
Furthermore, while pulling back the curtain with “behind-the-scenes” photos can help humanize your brand year-round, sharing this type of content around a holiday is especially enjoyable. Are you throwing a company Halloween party? Encourage your team to dress up in costume and take lots of photos to use on social media!
Remember, all marketing, whether “B2B” or “B2C,” is ultimately “P2P” — person to person. Behind every brand is a human or group of humans, and your audience will always be more excited to engage with your brand (and buy your products) if they can see your brand’s human side now and then.
Get Creative When Showcasing Your Products
Pumpkin spice up your product photos for October!
Just about any product can be presented with a Halloween theme or twist, so why not add some spooky vibes to your images this month?
This also gives you a good justification to change up the aesthetics of your social media feed, which can help keep users engaged…and since Halloween comes every year, you can always utilize themed content again in the future.
So get creative, and have some freaky fun with your brand’s social media photographs! After all, that’s what Halloween is all about.
Would You Like Some More Help?
No matter what time of year it is, images are essential to a strong social media marketing strategy that achieves meaningful results to grow your business.
If you’re ready to build your comprehensive strategy to help your customers discover and connect with your brand, Sociality Squared is ready to help. Reach out today to learn how.
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