Fall Marketing Ideas To Help Your Small Business Get Noticed 

Fall is truly almost here and with all of those pumpkin-spice lattes, seasonal events, and the holiday shopping season coming your way, there are a lot of things that you can be excited about. Sure some of these things will look different this year, and might even be completely remote. But that’s even more reason to adapt your ad campaigns and to try out some fall marketing ideas.

Fall marketing ideas for social media 

Tap into Halloween 

You can use social media to promote and make the best possible use of Halloween offers. And just to connect with your audience around the things that make them excited about Halloween. Halloween is celebrated by millions of people around the world and all of the traditions that are associated with this holiday results in a lot of purchases being made.

If your business sells anything with a natural tie-in to Halloween, you can partner up with a non-competing business to create social media events and offers. You can then promote to your customers across the various social media platforms. If your business doesn’t seem to have a natural way to leverage the holiday, then just use the occasion to share behind the scenes posts of how your team is decorating, and dressing up. Nothing like a few behind-the-scenes posts to make your audience feel more connected to you.  

Run a Fall photo contest

For many, one of the hallmarks of any popular seasonal event is to take pictures and post them on Instagram. So have an Instagram photo contest to connect with your audience. In this case, you can invite your customers to post pictures of themselves doing their all-time favorite fall activities.

These could include things like apple picking or visiting a pumpkin patch for example. Whatever might be deemed safe, and permitted where your audience resides. You can also ask them to include a contest hashtag when they post the picture. And you can share some of the posts, and make the most of the user-generated content. You might want to post the runners up, or special mentions, as well as your big winner.

Post content related to Fall

This can include quotes, greetings for any holidays, or even just including fall themed elements, e.g. leaves or pumpkins. And think outside of the box with this too. There are tons of obscure, funny and/or interesting observances you can mark besides Halloween and Thanksgiving. For example, you could promote and celebrate International Guacamole Day or International Coffee Day. Just make sure that the posts are festive and vibrant and catch the eye of your audience. 

In the post below, Starbucks has used a post that is related to the season and is also full of wit and humor. You can draw inspiration from posts like these with a little bit of research and start creating posts that will usher in the unique character of the season.

Fall marketing ideas for email campaigns 

Give them a countdown until the holidays

Now we don’t mean that you should literally make a countdown the focus of every email you send out. But you can include a countdown in your email newsletters. Or particular campaigns. And you can do this subtly – for example, by sharing tips for getting prepared early and beating the rush. Another way you can build up some anticipation and get your customers thinking about the holidays (whether that’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, or something in between) is to launch a loyalty program. The goal is to have the program run until the particular holiday or holidays you want to promote. And you can give your customer the opportunity to earn a discount on their holiday purchases based on the amount they spend until then. 

Add some themed campaigns

Pumpkins are synonymous with fall because of the weather as well and not just halloween. And then you’ve got pumpkin spice everything – from lattes, to beer – popping up. So hop on the bandwagon. Even if you don’t serve up food or beverages, you can still incorporate imagery that contains pumpkins in your email designs. 

Imagery can also be incorporated into promo emails you send your subscribers weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Simply tie each promo into a particular Fall holiday, occasion or theme (e.g. pumpkins, leaves that have changed colours, Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc.) You can also try doing a play on words e.g. “Fall into _____ sale!” If possible, try to offer promotions on products or services that are particularly popular or useful this time of year.

Pamper your best customers

Another way to use the change of the seasons, is to pamper your best customers. Especially as fall kicks off a busy season for most people, and they’ll appreciate the gesture. Reach out to them with exclusive offers and deals. In the event that an in-person event would be possible, invite them out to an exclusive opportunity to enjoy your product or service.

You can be as creative as you’d like here, just remember that from the invite design, down to the reminders, and follow ups, you’ll want everything to have an air of exclusivity. If you’ll be having an in-person event, try to incorporate signage that is custom designed for it.

Fall marketing ideas for your website 

Straight off the bat, one of the things that you could do would be to change the theme of your website to suit the season. Try updating your hero and/or product images, as well as your text copy to add a little bit of seasonal flair. 

You can also use your social media profiles, other promotional channels, to direct customers to your product page and promotions page on your website. Try to incorporate the design style, and seasonal elements you’ve updated your site with, into your social media posts. Make sure that the pages are easy to find, load and navigate so that customers can browse through your products easily and can also make use of all the great seasonal offers and promotions that you have going. 

Fall marketing ideas for your blog updates 

Keeping your blog updated might seem a bit intimidating, but adding some seasonal touches can be fairly simple. For one thing, you can make sure your feature images, and other imagery that you use in your blogs are fall themed. This can be a matter of choosing the right stock photos, which you may want to touch up, or use as is. Or you can have a custom design done. 

You can also incorporate mention of your seasonal promos, via text or through a well-designed banner.

As far as the topics you’ll be covering, do a bit of research to figure out the types of blogs that are getting more engagement – at present, or even this time last year.

A few ideas to consider are: 
  • Recipes for the season, or particular holidays 
  • Decor for the season, or particular holidays 
  • Best holiday outing ideas 
  • Unique ways to have fun with kids during holidays 
  • Halloween theme costumes for the entire family 
  • Where to shop for various festivities and why 
  • A blog on the best discounts and offers available for the season from your store

Another way to use blogs to reach your target audience is to advertise on others’ blogs. To do this, identify popular blogs in your niche, and reach out about advertising opportunities. If you reach out ahead of the crunch just before a particular holiday, chances are you’ll get yourself on your target audience’s radar, and have a lower ad spend.

Fall marketing ideas for your outdoor signage 

In general you can use your outdoor signage and decor to let customers know what is in store for them. It could be as simple as a chalkboard, or as elaborate as a series of custom-designed signs in various sizes, positioned to inform and draw customers to you. Whatever approach you choose, make sure that your messaging is easy to read, and use large, bold fonts for this. Avoid script styles on your outdoor signs, as they’ll be difficult to read at a distance, or at a quick glance. And of course, incorporate Fall colors and elements. For more ideas on outdoor signage check out our blog on effective outdoor advertising. 

While you can choose from a wide range of things to promote with your outdoor signs, one thing we would encourage is to promote your gift cards if you offer any. With the pandemic making it difficult to be out and about, reminding your customers that there’s an easy way to purchase gifts could go a long way towards driving sales. 

Source: avemateiu.com

Are you ready for your fall marketing? 

As a business, it is very important that you shift your marketing strategies from season to season. It shows your audience that you’re in tune with the transitions they are experiencing. And it helps them connect with you too, when they see you marking occasions that are special to them.

Just be sure that the messaging and imagery you use are in line with  your brand’s personality. And that you get going as early as you can. As with any other campaign, the more prepared you are, the better your results will be. So go ahead, and take these fall marketing ideas as inspiration for your fall campaigns this year. And don’t be afraid to tailor and customize as you need to, to the needs of your niche.