Spooky Ways to Market Your Restaurant for Halloween

Halloween is one of the most popular holidays in America. It's a chance to dress up as your favorite character, eat candy, and spend time with friends and family. For restaurants, this means creating a fun atmosphere for diners!

Halloween is a great time to market your restaurant, and it doesn't have to be scary.

Make a splash with food, drink, and decor. Make sure your dishes look enticing and inviting by using seasonal ingredients like pumpkins, gourds, or other fall fruits; carving out pumpkins on the bar; or setting up tables in front of windows with lit jack-o'-lanterns as focal points. If you're able to do all this yourself (or at least some of it), then even better! But if not, let someone else take care of those details so that they can focus on what matters more: serving customers well-made food that gets people in the door—and keeps them there long enough for them to buy something! Here are some ideas for how you can make your restaurant into an actual Halloween destination this year:

Decorate Your Restaurant 

The best way to get people in the mood for Halloween is by creating an atmosphere that matches their expectations. Decorations are a great way to do this, and you can use props like fake spiders or skeletons. You may also want to consider using a fog machine or smoke machine if you have one handy! Decorate your restaurant with pumpkins and other Halloween decorations. Use black and orange colors to create an eerie atmosphere, or use props like a witch's cauldron to set the mood.

If you have a projector, it’s easy to create a spooky atmosphere by projecting an image onto the wall or ceiling. You can also project images onto other surfaces like mirrors or windows so that they appear to be coming from inside your restaurant. Lighting is also an important element of Halloween decorating, so ensure you have enough lights throughout the restaurant. Use lighting to create an eerie glow around your restaurant's name. This will give customers the impression that something is lurking just beyond their peripheral vision. You can also use music to help create a spooky atmosphere that people will want to stay in your establishment all night long!

Make Your Drinks Fit for a Count or Countess

Spooky food and drink can be a fun way to create a mysterious Halloween atmosphere. Use props, decorations, costumes, and music to build up the mood for your patrons. Try renaming some of your most popular dishes for October or the last week to spark the spooky vibe. 

Have a special menu for your haunted restaurant. This can be anything from an extra-spooky burger to some old-fashioned treats like apple pie and pumpkin pie (which are both traditionally associated with Halloween). Your guests will love having something new on their table every night!

Offer drinks that are perfect for this time of year—and don't forget dessert! The most common drink choices include Halloween cocktails like spooky smoothies or cups of apple cider with candy corn ice cream on top. You could also serve hot cocoa spiked with alcohol, which adds an extra kick without being too scary for young ones (especially if they're going trick-or-treating later in the evening). 

Make drinks fit for a vampire! The classic blood cocktail is one of the most popular drinks in any bar and can be made even more delicious by adding some chocolate syrup. Vampires love their chocolate (and sparkling wine) so why not give them what they want? Plus, who doesn't want to be invited over for some blood-drinking fun? You might even want to add some blue food coloring so that your patrons will know when their drink has been spiked with real blood!

Don't Forget the Desserts!

When it comes to dessert, you want to make sure that your customers don't leave the table hungry. If you're going to have a dessert special or theme night, make sure that all of your entrees are also available. Have a dessert contest! Create an online poll where people vote on their favorite desserts and share photos with friends on social media. Then invite them over for Happy Hour when the winning desserts come out!

Offer several different options at each meal (like appetizers, main dishes, or sides). You could even have chalkboards listing everything on the menu so people know what they can expect before they order something else off of theirs instead of yours; this way customers won't end up ordering twice just because they don't remember which items were available at another time during their experience at your establishment.

Have a Costume Contest

Halloween is a time when people come together to celebrate the season by dressing up in costumes and going out to eat. It's a great time to make new friends, but it can also be overwhelming trying to decide what kind of costume you want to wear.

A restaurant hosting a Halloween costume contest provides a great opportunity for guests to dress up without having to worry about creating their costumes. It's also a great way for your restaurant to get some extra publicity and attention from its loyal customers.

When you host a Halloween costume contest at your restaurant, customers will be able to come in and enjoy themselves while they dress up for the night. You'll also get some press coverage for your business because everyone who attends will be spreading the word about how fun your event is!

When announcing your plans for Halloween celebrations at your restaurant, make sure that you include information about prizes for those who win their respective categories: Best Overall Costume; Best Group Costume; etc. If there are any other categories such as "Best Individual Character" or "Most Creative Theme," let everyone know which ones they're eligible for so that everyone has an equal chance at receiving one if they participate!

Create Social Media Contests for Halloween

Halloween is a great time to get creative with your social media marketing. We know that you want to be as spooky as possible, and the best way to do that is to create a Halloween contest for your restaurant.

The first thing you need to do is decide how many prizes you want. A good rule of thumb is 1 prize per 100 fans, but you can adjust this based on what kind of prizes you want. You could offer gift cards or vouchers for your restaurant's website or social media accounts, or maybe even tickets to a special event.

Once you've come up with an idea for prizes, it's time to pick a theme! This will help set the tone for your contest and give people something to look forward to when they're following along on Twitter or Facebook. It also helps if the theme isn't too complicated—something like "Best Costume" might work well because it's simple enough that kids could participate, yet still gives adults a chance at winning something special (like $50 off their next meal).

Throw a Halloween Party

You can throw a Halloween party for your guests, too. In fact, you should! If you have an indoor space that would allow for dancing (or if you live in an area where it's safe), consider hosting a dance party with music from DJ Spooky.

When you throw a Halloween party at your restaurant, you'll have the opportunity to showcase all the best parts of your restaurant. You can offer discounts on certain items, or even include a special menu just for this one night. You can dress up the restaurant with spooky decorations, and put together a DJ or live event to get the party started.

If it's a big event, it could even be worth hiring a professional photographer to document all of the fun. The photos can help people who don't live in your area see how amazing your restaurant is! It's not just about getting people excited about Halloween—it's also about telling people that they should go there when they have time off work and enjoy themselves!

Halloween is a time to enjoy the company of friends and family, but it can also be a great time to market your restaurant. Many restaurants will have special food and drink offerings on Halloween, so making these items available at all times of the year isn't necessary. The best thing about marketing your restaurant during Halloween is that people will remember the location when they visit during this holiday season.