October Marketing Ideas to Generate Leads And Drive Sales

There are plenty of great marketing opportunities in October to take advantage of- from Halloween and Oktoberfest, to the growing excitement for the holiday season, it’s a month packed with potential to connect with your audience and drive growth.

To help you tap into that excitement, we’ve put together our 5 favourite festive marketing ideas for October.

These strategies will help you generate leads, build on the buzz, boost social media engagement, and, most importantly, drive sales.

Whether you’re looking to run a spooky Halloween contest or capitalise on Oktoberfest-themed campaigns, these ideas will give you the tools you need to make the most of this busy month!

Starting off with a classic sweepstakes campaign is a fun way to celebrate Halloween.

A sweepstakes is a fun type of giveaway where users complete entry requirements like signing up to your mailing list, following you on social media, reposting your content, visiting your website, or sharing the giveaway with friends for chances to win awesome prizes.

Halloween is a super fun time to run a sweepstakes because you can make it themed- you can give away spooky prizes like Halloween costumes, tickets to Halloween events, or candy for trick or treating.

You can completely customise this template to be relevant to your brand and prize:

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On the note of a giveaway, you can ramp up the theme of Halloween and run a photo contest where users submit photos of their Halloween costume for a chance to win an awesome prize.

Photo contests are an awesome way to increase the reach of your businesses when people post these photos using a branded hashtag and tagging your brand.

Plus, you can then use these photos to post as fresh content on your social media feed, in your marketing campaigns, or in a beautiful gallery on your website.

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To make the contest relevant to your brand, you can ask participants to incorporate your products, colours, or logo into their costumes.

For example, if you sell fitness gear, try asking for Halloween costumes using your products or clothing.

You could also create themed categories based on your industry, such as tech-inspired costumes or makeup looks for a beauty brand.

This not only drives engagement but also makes the contest more relevant and recognisable to your brand.

To deepen engagement even more, try running a scavenger hunt giveaway.

In this type of giveaway, you hide secret codes across your website or social media and participants enter these codes into the Gleam widget to earn entries.

Each code they find gives them more chances to win. This is a fun way to make your campaign both interactive and competitive.

You can hide codes on product pages, blog posts, social media captions or even inside video or podcast content. This is a fantastic way of encouraging users to explore your content in depth and spend more time getting to know your brand.

This increases the time they spend on your site and social channels, while also driving them to key areas of your website. To increase excitement, you can even announce clues through email or special announcements to keep users coming back.

A scavenger hunt giveaway can also prompt users to turn on post notifications or follow your updates closely. This is an awesome way to ensure continued engagement beyond the campaign.

This fun and engaging approach helps build brand awareness, keeps your audience connected, and encourages interaction with your content long after the giveaway ends.

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World mental health day is on the 10th of October, so a giveaway is a great way for brands to raise awareness and engage their audience. You don't need to be directly affiliated with a charity to run this type of campaign either.

You can align the campaign with the theme of mental well-being by offering prizes such as self-care kits, meditation app subscriptions, or wellness products that encourage relaxation and mindfulness.

To add a charitable element, pledge to donate a portion of sales or a fixed amount for each entry to a mental health charity, showing your support for the cause.

Participants can enter by taking meaningful actions, such as following your social media, sharing posts about mental health awareness, or joining your email list.

You could also invite them to share their own self-care tips, creating a positive conversation around mental health.

This approach helps your brand promote well-being, generate leads, and build goodwill, all while raising awareness for an important cause.

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Another fun event to run a marketing campaign around is Oktoberfest.

This is an excellent opportunity, especially if you're in the hospitality, events, or food and beverage industries, to run a fun giveaway campaign.

With many businesses promoting Oktoberfest-themed events, drinks, and food specials, running a sweepstakes can help your brand stand out and generate buzz.

You can offer prizes such as tickets to local Oktoberfest events, beer or food tasting experiences, or even a themed gift basket featuring your products.

A sweepstakes or contest where participants enter by signing up to your email list, sharing your social media posts, or tagging friends who might be interested in the event can help drive engagement and expand your reach.

For added excitement, you could also incorporate themed actions like asking participants to share their favorite Oktoberfest memory, post a photo in Oktoberfest-inspired outfits, or recommend a dish or drink from your menu.

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