After most people missed out on Halloween as we know it last year, your customers are ready to party! Even more importantly, as research shows they are also ready to spend! With 65% of Americans prepared to party this Halloween you can bet on having plenty of competition for their hard earned dollars as well. Here are a few ideas to help you make the most of the spookiest night of the year at your bar!
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Halloween Vibe
While putting up decorations may seem like the most basic idea possible, that’s exactly why it’s so easy to let it fall through the cracks. You don’t have to turn your bar into a full on haunted house, but making sure the décor is festive is a must. Simple things like dimming the lights, hanging some cobwebs and skeletons, or even having a few jack-o-lanterns lying around can go a long way. For that extra mile, you can even look into renting a fog machine!
Another way to step up the Halloween atmosphere is making sure your employees are feeling the spooky spirit. A costume contest is fun, festive, let’s them ditch their normal uniforms for a night, and you can even get your customers involved by having them vote for the winner.
And lastly, who can forget the music? Halloween wouldn’t be right without a proper Halloween soundtrack. Whether you want to go 100% Halloween tunes, or have a few spooky songs and sfx mixed in with a killer party playlist, Control Play has got you covered with playlist options for all types of venues. Learn more about our seasonal themed playlists here.
Halloween Menu
Another great way to get spooktacular in your bar this Halloween is with your food and drinks! The cocktail options are endless, from seasonal ingredients and Halloween colors to the type of vessel you serve it in. For some more inspiration, check out this list of Halloween drink ideas.
With Halloween being the official season of pumpkins, there’s lots of opportunities to incorporate Halloween ingredients in special menu items as well. Or, simply go all in on the theme and serve items decorated with fake eyeballs and spiderwebs. Even easier, if you don’t feel like creating a whole menu of new items, consider simply renaming some of your normal offerings for a themed menu. Anything with tomato in it can be blood related. And the classic chicken wing can become a bat wing for the night!
Promote, Promote, Promote!
Even if you execute all of the above to perfection, it means nothing if you don’t properly promote all you’re doing. Your regular customers, as with most special events, are your best target to fill up your venue with vampire fangs and frightening amounts of revenue! So, in the weeks leading up to your big Halloween party, make sure to use your digital signage to inform your customers on all you have planned. Check out another of our blogs to learn about how using digital signage can increase your revenue per guest by 10-25%.
Scheduling the right digital signage to play at the right time is important too. Have some killer Halloween drink specials cooked up? Make sure you’re promoting that to your thirsty happy hour guests that are likely to be enticed by a Bloody Mary or shockingly sour shots. And if you have some fantastic food items planned for your menu, make sure your regular diners are seeing that while they eat. Making sure this goes off without a hitch can be made super simple by integrating your digital signage right into your playlists.
For more information on using digital signage, click here .
Follow these guidelines and you’ll be sure to have plenty of happy visitors to your haunt this Halloween.
