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5 Tips For Marketing Your Music This Halloween [Video]

Halloween Music Marketing

The spookiest time of year is here, and the opportunities to boost your career with timely marketing efforts are endless.

Halloween and music go together like flesh and bone. Both bring people together, and both have the potential to make everyday people feel special, even if only for a moment. So, why doesn’t the music industry capitalize on the spooky season with timely music marketing? Your guess is as good as ours.

Aside from a select few groups who are synonymous with Halloween (Ice Nine Kills, Rob Zombie, Motionless In White, etc.), the vast majority of artists only mention Halloween when it’s time to share their costume. That effort always creates engagement with fans, but it leaves a lot of potentially incredible community-building opportunities unexplored.

Don’t follow the pack. This Halloween, we want you to make every effort possible to engage your audience, build your community, and raise awareness for the excellent music you work hard to promote, all while having fun. We’ve got five tips to get you started, and we’ll tell you about them all in the latest Music Biz 101. Check it out:

For those without the time or ability to watch our finely crafted video, here are a few quick tips to get you started:

  • Brand Refresh. Go through your online presence and find simple ways to leverage Halloween aesthetics to temporary update your presence. Some easy examples include changing your profile picture, changing the theme of your Twitter page, and change your social handles to include ‘spooky’ content such as skulls or pumpkins.
  • Exclusive merch. Fans love feeling like they are part of something special. Create limited edition merch that is only available until Halloween utilizing seasonal trends. Fans most likely won’t receive the items in time for Halloween this year, but they will be ready for 2021 and beyond.
  • New music. Every listener wants something new. Artists trying to deliver something special could choose to record a Halloween-themed original or cover a holiday classic. The Nightmare Before Christmas has many songs to choose from, but the “Monster Mash” never goes out of style.
  • Livestream Event. COVID-19 will (hopefully) prevent any mass gatherings this October, so give your fans something to do with a special one-night-only online event. You don’t have to perform, per se, but do make yourself available. Fans will appreciate having a place to go to be around people with similar interests (which, in this case, means your music).
  • Costume Contest. You can add this idea to your livestream event or leave it as a standalone competition. Challenge your fans to make costumes inspired by your music. Share their creativity online to engage the community further and give a prize (or multiple prizes) to the ones who blow you away.

We’ve added an extra suggestion to the video, but you’ll haver to watch it for the reveal. Good luck!

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Treat your fans with exclusive merch this Halloween

Special edition and limited-run merchandise can engage fans and bring in extra cash as the end of year holiday shenanigans begin.

October is here, which means spooky season has officially begun. In just over four weeks people everywhere will celebrate Halloween. You can tell me Christmas is the best holiday, but just know that doing so would prove how little you know about Halloween. October 31st is the only day of the year where self-expression and all the creative possibilities it entails are openly celebrated. For one short period, everyone is welcomed (and encouraged) to be themselves. There’s also candy. 

In short, everyone wins during Halloween.

Musicians can leverage America’s love of Halloween for personal through smart marketing and limited edition merch. Those needing proof of this need only look to the biggest brands on the planet. Target, Wal-Mart, and Amazon have all dedicated space to Halloween themed merchandise, as have countless other chains. They may have “terrifyingly low prices” or “ghoulish offers,” but varying puns aside, the idea is always the same. 

The everyday products being sold are changed for the holiday as well, with everyone from Yankee Candles to the makers of Twix trying to cater to seasonal shoppers. I recently purchased hand soap that has a seasonal theme!

Halloween is the perfect time to release limited-edition merchandise. Not only does this give your core audience the chance to purchase something special, but it provides you the opportunity to express yourself in new ways. You can try your hand at large prints or scary prints, with beanies or socks. Halloween merch is as merch a treat for your fans as it is a treat for you, the creative people tasked with keeping an audience engaged all year long.

Chicago’s Real Friends understand how to make great Halloween merch.

As with any item sold, the key to getting a strong response from seasonal merchandise is executing a great idea people will be unable to overlook. As you see in the example above, the possibilities are seemingly endless as far as approaches to Halloween merch are concerned, so take that as a sign that creativity is encouraged. Find something you love about this season or something about this season you feel reflects your music, and use it to create something unique your fans can cherish forever.

A few key things to remember:

  1. Do not steal anyone’s design/copyrighted materials. Doing so could result in legal troubles whose costs far outweigh any benefit associated with seasonal merchandise.
  2. Order your product in time for it to ship before Halloween. Receiving a Halloween-themed shirt in the middle of November or December doesn’t really do anyone any good. Fans won’t wear it, and worse – they probably won’t order seasonal merch from you again. Think and plan ahead.
  3. Targeted marketing helps. No one likes paying Facebook to reach their fans, but doing so can help sell new/limited merch items. Even as little as $5 can double, if not triple, the reach of your average post. As the saying goes, “You have to spend money to make money.”
  4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Want to make seasonal merch, but don’t know what to offer? Ask your fans. They’re the ones who will ideally be buying whatever you create, so you might as well ask them what they want and do your best to meet their demands.
  5. Turkey merch is not a thing. While you might be able to leverage Halloween, Christmas, and even Valentine’s Day for merch sales, Thanksgiving doesn’t create the same market. You can try, but you will more than likely fail.
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Job Board News

Haulix Weekly Update #61: Happy Halloween! Here’s Your Treat…

This may be the only Haulix company update of the year that falls on a holiday, and to be honest we haven’t the slightest clue how to make the most of the occasion. We do love Halloween however, and we love music that sounds inspired by the holiday even more. Take Harley Poe, for example. Hailing from Indiana with music that could double as the song version of your favorite horror film, this folk punk outfit offer unique thrills and chills that make it possible to enjoy Halloween all year long. Check it out:

Each and every Friday we like to take a brief break from our regularly scheduled programming to update and reflect on everything happening at Haulix HQ. We are far more than a music blog, as many of you already know, and posts like this give us an opportunity to share more our efforts with all of you.

WE HAVE A DEV UPDATE!

Last week was the first in over a month to not end with some kind of major development update, and it looks like that will remain the case for the foreseeable future as our team of creative minds continue to churn out releases that improve the Haulix experience for clients and members of the media alike. This week, our development team released a Promo Grouping feature that allows for clients to better organize and assign their team efforts. Here’s how it works:

Continuing our recent string of platform updates, we are pleased to announce Promo Grouping — a feature that will simplify your organizational efforts. This tool is one we have received many requests for, and we think you’ll find implementing it to be incredibly easy:

Sign into your Haulix account. On the Dashboard you will see your current promos listed at the bottom of the screen.

To begin creating Groups, first click the ‘Promos’ tab at the top of the page. When the new page loads, click the ‘Groups’ button at the top of the page. A new window will open and ask you to name your new group. Enter the desired title and click ‘Create.’ Another window will ask you to confirm the information. Agree and your new group will appear on the left rail of the ‘Promos’ page.

Once the Groups have been created, it’s time to organize your promos. Using the list of promos on the left rail, drag and drop each promo name underneath the group you want it assigned to. If you would like to organize the order in which the groups appear, use the arrows next to each group title to move them up or down the list.

You can also assign your new promos to a group as they are made. When editing a promo, click the ‘Groups’ dropdown list on the promo screen and select the group you wish to assign that particular promo to:

The Groups created on these pages and the promo order set in place will immediately be reflected on your Dashboard and Invitation screens.

Deleting a group is as easy as creating one. Return to the ‘Promos’ screen, click ‘Groups,’ then click the red ‘X’ next to the Group you wish to remove. Deleting a group will not delete the promos contained within that group.

Please note: Promo groups cannot be added or deleted by Sub-Administrators. Only Master Account holders are able to create and organize promo groups.

On the promotional side of things, our very own James Shotwell appeared on the 100 Words or Less Podcast. He spoke of Haulix and our plans for the future, as well as his own life experiences. Click here to check it out.

Our own podcast, Inside Music, is taking the week off. We will be back next Thursday with a brand new episode and plan to continue delivering new content every week in November. Fun fact: James turns 27 this month. He’s the youngest on our staff, but soon we won’t even be able to call him young! Where does the time go.

In case you missed anything this week, here is a rundown of our latest content:

How To Defeat Writer’s Block Without Going Insane

8 Steps to Creating an Effective Sales Promotion Strategy for Your Music

What Exactly Does An Artist Manager Do?

How To Fund Your Own Full Length Album

Journalism Tips: The Patience Test

New Client Feature – Promo Groups

Music Industry Job Board (10/26/14)

That’s all the updates we have for you this week. Have a safe and absolutely insane Halloween. We’re taking tomorrow off from posting new content, but will return Sunday with a new Job Board update. Thank you for your continued support and readership.

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News

Weekly Recap #8 – Here Comes Halloween

Hello, everyone! The week is finally coming to a close,which means it’s time once more to reflect on everything happening at Haulix HQ. The past seven days have been some of the busiest in recent memory. I know we say that a lot, but we are constantly pushing ourselves to bring you better software and more in-depth writing. 

On the product end of things, there is not much to report this week. We have some big projects in the pipeline, but until things are closer to completion we want to keep them under wraps. Just know that we’re planning A LOT for 2014.

The blog has stayed busy throughout the week, launching 4 features and putting in time on a plethora of upcoming ones. We spoke with some great talent this week, including our first Director of Social Media. You can find a recap of posts below:

That’s it for this week. Have a safe weekend, everyone!

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