Spooktacular Ways to Market Your Restaurant for Halloween

Restaurants can benefit from some creative Halloween marketing to get more people through their doors throughout the month of October. Love of the holiday isn’t limited to kids, and their candy obsession. Many adults view it as a time for fun, and celebrating the fall weather as well.

It’s a night that people love to eat out, go to parties, and have a few drinks. Halloween is a big night for bars and pizza. The beauty of Halloween marketing is that you don’t have to limit your promotions to just one night. You can run with a Halloween theme throughout the month of October.

Take Advantage of These Halloween Marketing Ideas

1. Rename Popular Dishes

Halloween might be the one time of year that people will spring for a dish named to turn their stomach. Maybe your spaghetti and meatballs can be affectionately renamed the slimy snake pit. Chocolate becomes dirt or mud. You get the idea. The more creatively you can rename your menu, the better.

There’s always an opportunity to upload pictures of renamed dishes onto Facebook, Instagram and other social media networks.

2. Dress in Costume

This is an easy way to get into the Halloween spirit. Have your wait staff dress in costume, and get into character as they interact with your customers. You could also offer coupons or discounts for the best customer costumes. This is a Halloween marketing idea that can greatly enhance the dining experience.

3. Create Halloween Specials

You can also enhance your Halloween marketing by creating holiday-themed specials. An October menu with your Halloween themed dishes can generate interest and help showcase your creativity. Promoting your specials on your website and social media channels will alert people that you are in the holiday spirit. The more creative you can get with your specials menu, the better!

4. Partner With a Haunted House

What if you offered customers who spent more than $50 or $100 free tickets to your community haunted house? You could also run a discount for people who can show proof of admission from the haunted house. There are any number of creative ways that you could partner to showcase your Halloween spirit. If you can form the partnership, your restaurant will successfully become part of their marketing campaign as well.

5. Host a Halloween Party

This can work especially well if your restaurant has a bar. It can be a way to generate interest on a high traffic bar night. There are a number of ways you can capitalize on the theme including: Halloween themed cocktails, decorating the bar area for the party, costume party, or any combination of the above. Halloween offers a great opportunity to get people through the door and have a great time.

What ideas have worked for you in the past?  

Successful restaurant marketing is about experimenting and running with the ideas that produce results. If you have run successful Halloween marketing promotions in the past, tell us about them in the comments below.