9 Spooktacular Halloween Marketing Ideas for Your Restaurant

Let’s creep it real: for restaurant owners, Halloween can be a little scary. 

The good news? With the right marketing strategy, you can set up your restaurant for success and achieve spooktacular results.

Let’s look at a few marketing ideas that you can use this Halloween to generate more business.

1. Revamp your menu
2. Partner with local businesses and attractions
3. Decorate your dining room
4. Style your staff
5. Host a fang-tastic event
6. Promote in-store and online
7. Entertain trick or treaters
8. Leverage user-generated content
9. Launch Halloween promotions

Revamp your menu

Halloween is a great time to highlight autumn flavors on your menu. Speak with your chef about including seasonal ingredients like pumpkin, sweet potato, butternut squash and apple, for example. 

You can run a special prix fixe menu throughout October. Or try a Halloween menu for the week before October 31. You can also have unique items available on Halloween weekend with pricing per item.

Don’t forget the boos!

Cocktails are key. A quick online search will reveal loads of Halloween-themed cocktails that use ingredients most bars already have. 

Here are a few to get you started:

• Grenadine to imitate the look of blood in layered drinks or shots
• Cranberry juice adds a crimson tone to vampire-themed drinks
• Dry ice is safe to consume and leaves a gorgeous trail of smoke

No time? No problem. You can also temporarily rename a few bestsellers to add a little Halloween flair. 

In the days leading up to Halloween, use your POS to generate reports that show which items sell the most. Simply renaming a few menu items will give your restaurant a fun Halloween vibe. Don’t be afraid to get punny with it, like so:

• Edamame becomes Edamummy 
• Transform your cold cuts into a char-cut-erie board
• Chicken wings are bat wings 
• Add adjectives like “haunted” or “frightful” if you’re stuck

Bone appétit! 

Partner with local businesses and attractions

Halloween is a great time to team up with local attractions that feature seasonal activities. No need to be the ghost with the most, either. Some simple ideas include:

• Every purchase of a table d’hôte meal comes with a discounted admission to the local haunted house
• Sell reduced price tickets to a pumpkin patch in your restaurant

If there’s a costume store in your area, offer to keep rebate flyers on your bar. In exchange, these local shops can promote your restaurant.

Working with other local businesses builds community. It also expands your customer base and sets up future partnerships.

Decorate your dining room

Here’s your chance to get extra creative. 

For an eerie vibe, dim the lighting and set up a few artificial spider webs. For a more farmhouse feel, it’s a gourd idea to use small pumpkins—either plain or painted—as centerpiece decorations. 

Ready to kick things up a notch? 

• Hang paper skeletons from the walls
• Place jack-o-lanterns around the restaurant
• Sprinkle plastic spiders on your tabletops 

For extra inspiration, visit a decoration store before Halloween. Check Pinterest for more ideas if you have a general sense of what you’re trying to achieve. 

Cue the music

Your dining room can also feature seasonal sounds. If it’s appropriate, you can pipe creepy sounds at low volume, or create a party vibe with a themed playlist. Check Spotify to see if they have anything already curated.  Just remember to make sure to give it a listen before you play it for your patrons!

Style your staff

Asking your staff to dress up for Halloween can be a great way to create a fun and memorable experience. Many neighborhood restaurants celebrate Halloween with costumed staff members. It’s a great way to get some word-of-mouth publicity.

You can choose a theme for your staff’s costumes, or let them pick their own get-ups individually. Either way, you’ll be showcasing your restaurant as the place to be for Halloween. 

Dressing up can boost morale and primes everyone for a night of great service.

If your business is less suited to a costumed experience, you can also encourage your employees to wear orange and black. It’s a subtle way of getting into the Halloween spirit. 

Host a fang-tastic event

Have a Halloween party at your restaurant to boost sales and encourage repeat business. 

Adults also love Halloween. Do you want a kid friendly or family-focused party? In any case, there are dozens of activities patrons can join:  

• The classic costume contest or its cute spinoff, the pet costume contest
• Pumpkin carving contests 
• Guess how many candies are in a jar

Winners can claim prizes like gift cards, vouchers or a bottle of wine. 

Hosting a halloween party lets you focus your marketing efforts (like decorations and a custom menu) into one night. 

Your event doesn’t have to be competitive. In Branson, Missouri, Table Rock Coffee Roasters host a pumpkin painting night for their customers. 

Promote in-store and online

There’s no magic spell for drumming up business. Luckily, you can tap into two powerful forces instead: word of mouth and social media.

If you plan to offer a special Halloween menu, you can tease its arrival with printouts. You can also give them to other businesses in the area.

Social media is a great way to announce Halloween happenings. Tell followers about your plans across all the platforms you use for your business.

Recess—home of Chicago’s largest patio—is hosting a Nightmare Before Christmas-themed event. 

Entertain trick or treaters

Get ready to give the neighborhood pumpkin to talk about! 

Is your business in a residential area? Giving candy to the local kids is an eerie-sistible way to generate goodwill towards your restaurant. And it can be a way to create compelling user-generated content.

If you make treat bags, be sure to include your business card. 

Leverage user-generated content

It doesn’t have to drive you batty. User-generated content (“UGC”) is, simply put, social media content that your customers put onto the web. 

It’s one of the most effective ways to build social proof. It’s scary how effective it is. There are lots of ways for restaurants to use UGC to build their brand. 

Participating in community events (or just by giving Halloween candy to local kids) typically brings user-generated content to your fingertips. 

You can create a hashtag and promote its use on your menu board. Or tag customers and encourage them to do the same in their pictures and videos of your restaurant. 

Launch Halloween promotions

Late October is a great time for a promotion. 

• You can offer 13% off certain menu items
• Have a “buy three get one free” promotion
• Include a free dessert for every $31 purchase

Have fun out there

Halloween is an opportunity to try new marketing ideas for your restaurant. Get creative and enjoy!