Spooktacular Marketing Ideas for Halloween
Staying on top of marketing tasks can be daunting if you’re doing it consistently. Coming up with topics for blogs, making sure you post up-to-date pictures on your website, frequently posting fresh material on Facebook … all of this takes time. Even if you manage to find time, coming up with new ideas can be frustrating. How many times will patients read about veneers or adult orthodontics, anyway? Lucky for you, the holidays provide an opportunity for new material; with Halloween just around the corner, we thought we’d provide some ideas to help you take advantage of seasonal marketing.
- Host a candy buy-back event. Promote this event on your website, your social media pages, and emails well before the big day. When the kiddos (or their parents, more likely) come to trade in their candy, take lots of pictures to share in November. Once the candy is collected, your local Veteran’s organization can help you send the sweet treats to our troops via Operation Shoebox. This is a win-win situation: you get to promote your practice, educate young patients about how bad candy is for their teeth, and do a kindness for our service men and women.
- Hold a “Jacked-Up Jack-o-Lantern” Contest. Encourage your patients to carve a pumpkin with serious dental needs and post the image to your Facebook page. Then you can draw a random winner. The winner can receive a free toothbrush, lunch with you, or a simple certificate of achievement. You’ll want to take pictures when you present the award so you can share them later. Best part about this activity? When your patients post to your practice Facebook page, their friends and family get to see who their dentist is.
- Offer Halloween-themed specials. How do you tie dentistry into Halloween? With lots and lots of puns. For example, if you’d like to promote your whitening services, you might offer a special rate for “Boo-tiful Smiles.” Do you want your patients to know that you offer Botox and facial fillers? Reference a “Frightening Face” in your promotional materials.
Americans spend billions of dollars on Halloween every year. It’s the first of the fall holidays and offers opportunity to create memories without the pressure that comes with Thanksgiving and the winter holidays. There’s no better time to have a little fun with your patients and team members while adding fresh materials to your marketing efforts.