70+ Free & Creative October Marketing Ideas

October: Costumes. Columbus Day. Sweet Corn.

Proper?

Improper.

October is house to Monetary Planning Month, LGBTQ Historical past Month, Home Violence Month, and extra. It’s additionally after we have fun Do One thing Good Day, Black Poetry Day, Ladies in Enterprise, and apparently, purses. The purpose is, there are such a lot of alternatives for inventive and significant advertising and marketing that can assist you to authenticate your model voice and stand out. And we’re protecting all of them on this put up—inventive concepts for weblog posts, social media, e mail, and extra, with examples!

Contents

Range, fairness, and inclusion in October

Advertising round consciousness causes affords your small business many alternatives—to help a trigger, to assist your prospects accomplish one thing fulfilling, and to construct up the group round you. Listed below are the range, fairness, and inclusion-focused causes in October that you need to use to have fun and foster a way of belonging for all walks of life. October is the nationwide consciousness month for:

 

And listed below are some particular nationwide days in October that may assist you incorporate DEI in your marketing:

• Nationwide Plus Dimension Appreciation Day (October 6)
• World Psychological Well being Day (October 10)
• Nationwide Coming Out Day (October 11)
• Native American Day (Second Monday in October, also called Indigenous Peoples’ Day)
• Nationwide Curves Day (Second Wednesday in October)
• Nationwide Cease Bullying Day (Second Wednesday in October)
• Nationwide Latino AIDS Consciousness Day (October 15)
• Black Poetry Day (October 17)
• Nationwide LGBT Middle Consciousness Day (October 19)

 

🍂 Get seasonal advertising and marketing concepts for social media that align with each month of the 12 months with our free, copy-and-paste social media calendar template!

October consciousness causes

There are much more month-to-month observances in October. You possibly can see the full list at the bottom of this post, however listed below are some highlights. October is the nationwide consciousness month for:

 

October nationwide days

There are dozens of nationwide days for each month of the 12 months, however let’s check out some notables:

• Hair Day
• World Smile Day
• Custodial Employee’s Recognition Day
• Title Your Automotive Day
• Consignment Day
• Little one Well being Day
• Get Funky Day
• Do One thing Good Day
• Coaches Day
• Contact Tag Day
• Boss’s Day
• Black Poetry Day
• Youth Confidence Day
• Make a Distinction Day

And let’s not overlook Produce Misting Day…

There’s additionally a full list of October national days on the backside of this put up.

📘 For advertising and marketing concepts that final all 12 months, obtain our free information to the 30 best ways to promote your business.

Inclusive October advertising and marketing concepts

Alright, now it’s time for the concepts. Let’s begin with those that embrace DEI. Be aware that you could be additionally need to take a look at our roundup of diversity, equity, and inclusion resources.

Nationwide Bullying Prevention Month

In accordance with this USA Today article, 49% of kids in grades 4-12 report being bullied a minimum of as soon as a month. This October consciousness trigger is especially related to colleges and education-based verticals, but additionally to companies whose goal market is made up of oldsters of school-aged kids. You possibly can promote this trigger by your advertising and marketing by:

• Posting stats to social media or offering your followers with anti-bullying sources or organizations they’ll donate to.
• Donating a portion of your earnings this month to an anti-bullying nonprofit.
• Working a contest the place youngsters can submit drawings or tales selling security, peace, and acceptance.

Nationwide Enterprise Ladies’s Week

Enterprise Ladies’s Week is a time to acknowledge and applaud feminine leaders in enterprise. Throughout this week:

• Share related articles, tales, and stats about ladies within the workforce—like this one we wrote debunking myths about women in business.
• Pull collectively a panel of feminine entrepreneurs and file a dialogue.

• Interview an influential girl in your organization, community, or trade and publish a write-up in your weblog.

Nationwide Incapacity Employment Consciousness Month

NDEAM occurs each October and is geared toward recognizing the vital position individuals with disabilities play within the American workforce and facilitating inclusive employment insurance policies and practices. This 12 months’s theme is “Incapacity: A part of the Fairness Equation.” The NDEAM Social Media Kit is a superb useful resource right here, which incorporates social accounts to comply with, photos to share, pattern posts, and incapacity employment influencers. Listed below are some examples:

• Need to rent a various, proficient workforce? Try this free on-line toolkit from @JANatJAN with instruments to create a extra disability-inclusive and compliant office: https://askjan.org/toolkit/ #NDEAM
• Lydia X. Z. Brown is an lawyer, writer & educator whose work focuses on intersectionality & incapacity justice. Amongst their many different achievements, they have been the lead editor of All of the Weight of Our Desires, an anthology of works by autistic individuals of shade. #NDEAM Highlight

 

You can too obtain the Department of Labor’s free poster or order it by mail.

October advertising and marketing concepts: Trigger-based

Listed below are some extra methods to make use of October month-to-month consciousness for cause-based marketing.

Home Violence Consciousness Month

To assist elevate consciousness for home violence, you’ll be able to:

• Host a Facebook campaign the place you donate $1 to an area home violence shelter for each like your web page receives throughout the month.
• Have your crew put on purple on #purplethursday to point out your help for the trigger.
• Share the nationwide home violence hotline quantity: 1-800-SAFE (7233) in addition to the one to your native space.

Breast Most cancers Consciousness Month

To include breast most cancers consciousness into your advertising and marketing content material this month, check out these concepts:

• Have your crew put on pink and share your #pinkpose on social media.
• Select a help charity to donate to, slightly than an consciousness charity. Help charities that fund direct affected person help, equivalent to Chemo Angels and the American Cancer Society.
• Educate your followers with stats and recommendations on social media.

Vitality Consciousness Month

When you’re within the trade, write an article sharing trade stats or your personal perspective, and promote it on LinkedIn with key takeaways within the put up itself. Make sure that to incorporate a #sustainableenergy hashtag, as this can be a particular matter that can get searched by those that are considering studying about it.

One other strategy can be to share some DIY sustainable vitality concepts, whether or not within the house, workplace, or classroom.

Nationwide Buyer Service Week

Buyer Service Week happens the primary full week of October. This week affords local marketing opportunities each internally and externally:

• Spotlight a distinct customer support crew member every day of this week on social media.
• Supply one thing a little bit further particular to your prospects, equivalent to a coupon or a branded freebie.
• Give a shoutout on social media to a enterprise that exhibited exemplary customer service for you personally.
• Request feedback about your customer support, whether or not by a survey, a Facebook poll, a social media dialog, or—anticipate it— Instagram Story poll!
• When you’ve gained any kind of award (and even should you haven’t), write a put up about the way you ship customer support. It is a good strategy to give tricks to different companies and to draw extra prospects.

These initiatives will spotlight the significance you place on high quality customer support, and shoppers are drawn to customer-centered companies.

Emotional Wellness Month

Emotional wellness is a supremely versatile matter, whether or not you’re a plumber or an inside designer; a SaaS firm or in ecommerce. Listed below are some concepts:

• Share an fascinating article from a current examine on psychological well being.
• Ship an e mail out to your crew and have everybody share one factor they do for their very own emotional well-being. Then share their ideas in a weblog put up.
• Share some sources on discovering therapists or help teams in your space.
• Publish a weblog put up on an “emotional” matter:

October advertising and marketing concepts: Nationwide day-based

As with each different month of the 12 months, October is jam-packed with loads of nationwide [insert just about anything here] days that may take you 90% of the way in which when arising with distinctive advertising and marketing concepts. All it’s a must to do is discover a strategy to tie it again to your small business. Let’s have a look. (And yow will discover tons of October social media ideas here, too.)

World Vegetarian Day

World Vegetarian Day happens each October 1st. That is, in fact, a good time for restaurants or outlets with a largely vegetarian viewers to provide themselves a great ol’ pat on the again on social media or their web site.

However no matter trade, you’ll be able to nonetheless get inventive with this one:

• For the extra carnivorous eating places, provide reductions on vegetarian dishes.
• Well being professionals (ideally who’re vegetarians), run an AMA by way of Facebook Live or Instagram Live on vegetarianism
• In your workplace, you possibly can have a vegetarian potluck, with a prize for the best-voted dish. You can additionally merely encourage individuals to be vegetarian for the day and share their experiences in your social media feed.
• If relevant to your small business, publish related weblog posts containing recipes, info, experiences, sources, and extra.

World Smile Day

World Smile Day is widely known on the primary Friday of October yearly. Listed below are some inventive advertising and marketing concepts you’ll be able to check out:

• Dentists and orthodontists, in fact, can share stats or eye-opening details that encourage individuals to e-book their common cleansing.
• Any enterprise can promote its best-selling services as one thing to smile about.
• Use the day to announce the return of a seasonal favourite or new providing.

Nationwide Cake Adorning Day

Nationwide Cake Adorning Day is held each October tenth. As an alternative of a cake adorning contest, you possibly can:

• Invite your followers to put up their cake adorning fails on Instagram or Fb with a customized hashtag.
• Ask your followers to share their favourite confection creations. Bear in mind, asking your followers to share their very own experiences and views on social media strengthens your personal connection with them and helps them to really feel valued and heard.

Nationwide Financial savings Day

This October observance day occurs on the twelfth of the month yearly. It’s about having a financial savings account, so it’s a fantastic matter for monetary advisors or accountants. But additionally, who doesn’t need to lower your expenses?

Listed below are some methods to market your small business on this present day:

• Write a weblog put up on how to economize associated to your trade.
• Evaluate the value of your providing with the value of dearer alternate options and tally up how a lot cash your prospects save yearly.
• Share useful info or sources to your viewers—native sources if yow will discover them.
• Run a contest. CapitalOne as soon as ran a cool contest based mostly on the outcomes from this examine:

​In its #ShareMySave contest, it invited its viewers to share photos of their most treasured souvenir on Instagram or Twitter and clarify why it’s particular to them. By together with the hashtags #ShareMySave and #Contest, they have been entered right into a contest to win weekly prizes of $500 and a grand prize of $10,000.

Nationwide Boss’s Day

This Fb- and LinkedIn-friendly vacation happens each October sixteenth. You can:

• Shock your boss with a heartfelt put up on what you admire about them, what management abilities they exemplify, or classes they’ve taught you.
• What in case you are the boss? Share errors you’ve made and classes you discovered from them (a great instance of the Pratfall Effect)
• Or simply select one other boss …

Get to Know Your Prospects Day

Get to Know Your Prospects Day happens on the third Thursday of the primary month of each quarter, and solely when the earth is tilted at 23.4 levels (simply kidding on that final half). It is a blatantly superior advertising and marketing day in October, January, April, and July.

• Interact your viewers and collect valuable feedback by sharing surveys and brief polls.
• Ask about objects or companies they’d like to see you provide. Like with this instance…

…or this one:

You can additionally search your organization’s hashtag or location on social media and discover some user-generated content to repost.

Sweetest Day

In accordance with this source, the Nationwide Confectioners’ Affiliation got here up with Sweet Day again in 1916 as a strategy to have fun and help native sweet outlets and bakeries. In the course of the battle in 1917, the message morphed into “Get one for your self and one for the boys abroad!” As soon as the battle ended, 4 Michigan confectioners teamed up with the Pink Cross to distribute sweet to hospitals, orphanages, shelters, and houses throughout Michigan.

By 1929, it grew to become official: Nationwide Sweetest Day happens on the third Thursday of October and is related to:

• Charitable giving.
• Acknowledging and appreciating your family members.
• Paying it ahead.

Basic October advertising and marketing concepts

When you’re too scattered throughout October (or on a regular basis) and don’t have it in you to coordinate a promotion throughout a selected week or day, check out any of those common October advertising and marketing concepts that offer you some extra flexibility.

Showcase a fall services or products

Whereas September has songs of summer season and November has the whispers of winter, October appears like the one true fall month (P.S. why did I get so poetic simply now). This month will be the time to actually concentrate on one in all your fall-themed products or services.

• Inside designers can characteristic fall-themed tasks of their portfolios.
• Flower outlets can show fall-colored bouquets.
• Restaurants can provide a cinnamon-spiced sangria (something however pumpkin, please).
• Landscapers can promote fall specials on Fb or their Google Business Profile.

To get much more members, make it a limited-time provide obtainable just for the month.

Swap up your advertisements with fall messaging and colours

Whether or not you’re working search ads on Google or Microsoft, show advertisements, Hulu ads, or any type of ad in between, October offers the proper alternative to refresh your ad copy or inventive. For instance, you may swap your media-rich advertisements to incorporate background colours equivalent to orange or crimson. In the meantime, your responsive search ad headlines might embody catchy fall slogans, like “spooktacular gross sales.” This may also help you keep away from overtiring your viewers with the identical advert whereas additionally staying related to the season.

💡 Whilst you replace your advertisements for October, it’s a good suggestion to additionally test in in your efficiency. Get perception into your key PPC metrics immediately utilizing our free Google Ads Grader!

Ship out an October e-newsletter

There are many October newsletter ideas here, however for a brief record:

• Ship out a BOO! Shock take care of a Halloween promotion.
• In honor of economic planning month, spherical up any weblog posts you’ve printed with budget-friendly ideas and have them in your e mail.
• When you rolled out new customer loyalty programs, ran start-of-school-year specials, or hosted any occasions throughout September, share photos and ends in an October e mail e-newsletter.
• You can too embody a calendar of any extra specials you’re working throughout the month or for November.

You might also be considering these October email subject lines.

Dabble into the inventive arts

The most effective supply for creative marketing content material? A inventive advertising and marketing occasion.

• Present prospects make their very own fall- or Halloween-inspired craft or recipe.
• Write a weblog put up with a DIY video displaying adorn a mantle with fall flowers and miniature pumpkins.
• There are additionally loads of alternatives for a pumpkin-carving or pumpkin-painting evening.
• If relevant to your viewers, share menu concepts for a Halloween celebration.

I imply, who wouldn’t need to sink their tooth into these…tooth. (Image source)

Take part in a pumpkin patch

Farmers markets or pumpkin patches are considerable throughout October,

• Do some local research to see if there are any annual occasions the place you’ll be able to arrange a stand, provide a sponsorship, or volunteer at. Being concerned in native occasions and causes is a win-win, because it markets your small business for you whereas facilitating community building.
• You can additionally donate free merchandise or courses as part of any raffles the occasion is working.

Image source

Open your doorways

When you’re situated on a downtown foremost avenue, or should you’re in part of the nation the place the climate is gorgeous right now, get some recent air into your constructing. This makes your small business extra inviting to passersby. A chalkboard outdoors along with your specials, an inspiring quote, or a enjoyable reality is an added bonus.

Run a fall sweepstakes or giveaway

A sweepstakes or giveaway is a go-to advertising and marketing technique for a lot of rising companies year-round. October is the proper alternative to have enjoyable with a fall-themed giveaway or sweepstakes that generates leads for your small business. When you don’t have the marketing budget for a grand prize sweepstakes, gifting away a collection of smaller prizes could be equally as efficient.

Source

Halloween advertising and marketing concepts

What sort of October advertising and marketing concepts put up would this be if I didn’t point out Halloween? Many of those Halloween marketing ideas are conventional, tried, and true, however with a little bit brainstorming and brand voice, you’ll be able to at all times add that inventive twist to catch your prospects’ eyes.

Embrace the Halloween garb

Get your small business within the spirit of the season by adorning your workplace, retailer, and even your web site and social media pages with all the great things: mums, pumpkins, gourds, hay bales, burlap, skeletons, spiderwebs, ghosts, and the record goes on. That is extra of a cliche advertising and marketing thought, however that doesn’t make it any much less efficient.

While you’re proactive with your small business’s look, this indicators to prospects that you just care concerning the impression you permit on them, and reminds them that yours isn’t just a enterprise, however a ardour. You may even get actually loopy and carve your organization emblem right into a jack-o-lantern to position in your storefront with an electrical candle at evening.

Host a sweet counting contest

Run a guessing contest to get customer email addresses in-store. Put a large canister of no matter sugary Octobery sweets you select, and have prospects present their e mail addresses with their estimate, or write it on the again of their enterprise card. This may be completed just about, too. The winner will get a prize (maybe the entire sweet) ((except you’re a dentist)) or coupon or low cost off their subsequent buy.

Gown up for Halloween

I cringe barely upon giving this suggestion, however I believe this could possibly be a fantastic thought for companies that cater to kids. Plus, you don’t should be in a full-blown clown swimsuit. Dentists and hair dressers could make in any other case scary appointments extra enjoyable with a pleasant scarecrow, farmer, or cowboy costume. Clowns and vampires may scare the children, so keep on with safer or extra impartial choices.

Host a Halloween costume contest

This one can be fairly cliche but it surely’s by no means not a enjoyable time. Have a dressing up contest to your college students, prospects, workers, and even prospects’ pets. Share the photographs in your weblog, Fb, Instagram, or Twitter and ask prospects to vote for the winners. The winner will get a prize and is featured in subsequent month’s newsletter.

Take part in a Halloween occasion

Collaborating in any Halloween occasions happening round you—zombie 5k’s, trick-or-trunk nights, youngsters trick-or-treat afternoon within the workplace, or any building-wide Halloween actions should you work in a shared area. It’s robust to cease if you’re working a enterprise, however most of the time, the break free out of your duties and the added laughter can truly recharge you and lead you to be more productive in the long term. Plus, the extra you’ll be able to work together with the individuals in your group, the extra you’ll be able to study serve them and actually make a reputation for your self.

Create a shareable Halloween-themed playlist

To maintain your small business top-of-mind for patrons as they have fun Halloween, you possibly can create a Halloween-themed playlist on a public streaming platform, like Spotify or Pandora. So long as you embody your business name within the playlist title or small business logo on the quilt picture, this could be a distinctive strategy to join your viewers along with your model throughout Halloween. You can embody spooky songs, songs from well-known Halloween films, and extra.

As a bonus, you’ll be able to play the playlist in your retailer or workplace, and share it on social media asking your followers to remark again with their favourite songs. With this October advertising and marketing thought, your viewers can hear together with you all season lengthy!

Simple, efficient, and cheap October advertising and marketing

Working an October-themed advertising and marketing marketing campaign is an effective way to authenticate your model, work together extra along with your area people, and check out new instruments and platforms. Whereas they’re enjoyable and artistic, they’re additionally efficient and may also help you to extend your publicity, appeal to extra prospects, and construct up your popularity. Check out one in all these simple October advertising and marketing concepts and get your self armed and prepared to your vacation campaigns.

Fascinated by extra marketing ideas for every month of the year? We may also help with that.

And for planning, check out this marketing calendar template.

Full record of October month-to-month observances

Full record of October nationwide days and dates