Get a full month’s worth of spooktacular content ideas for October.
Sure, October is spooky season, and there are plenty of spectacular (spooktacular?) content ideas to pull from the Halloween theme. But October isn’t just about ghouls, ghosts, and goblins. There are dozens of other holidays and events to address.
Luckily, there are 31 days in the month. And with these October content ideas, you’ll fill every one of them with posts and newsletters befitting this magical time of year.
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Halloween still stands out as the tentpole of many October content calendars, even with so many other motifs to tackle this month. Not only is it uber-popular (Americans spent over $10 billion on Halloween in 2022), it’s chock full of visually interesting content marketing possibilities.
Let’s start off with an easy and fun one. This vintage shop curated a carousel of offbeat costume ideas.
This is great because you can pick a theme (like movie characters or inanimate objects) to match your brand’s vibe. Just grab a bunch of screenshots and post away.
Blog posts are a great medium for sharing how-to content. When you embed a video with step-by-step instructions for making front-yard ghosts, you’ll really wow your followers.
Even better, you can repurpose those crafty clips on YouTube, TikTok, or wherever your audience hangs out online.
How often do you stop scrolling on Instagram to watch a collection of short, funny Reels? If you’re like us, it’s pretty often. This brand leaned into that trend by posting a series of adorably entertaining clips of kids enjoying the heck out of Halloween.
Copy this one as is, or put a little twist on it. Maybe it’s dogs in costume or hilarious trick-or-treat fails. Make sure to pair it with appropriate music for a multi-sensory experience.
There are several ways to use this idea. You could post trivia questions on a social media post and ask followers to answer them. Or, as this business did, put a bunch of queries in a blog post for your readers to use at their next meeting or get-together.
There’s a surprising depth of content options here. Scary movies, candy questions, and the history of the holiday are just a few themes to explore.
You could write an entire blog post just listing different ways to engage your audience for Halloween. These ideas are just a start:
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October is the gateway to the greater holiday and winter seasons. It’s when many people start making their gift-buying lists and readying themselves for colder temperatures. Dedicate some posts, videos, and emails to helping your audience prepare for it all.
Many kids wind up in new locations when they go to college. This university put out a video of students showing how they cope with the cold Canadian winter.
This idea would be great for real estate marketing or travel and tourism businesses that cater to people moving from place to place. But any brand can tweak it. Try showing the newest cold-weather clothing technology or simply how to layer an outfit.
As a variation of the last idea, this real estate agent posted a carousel of tips to help people winterize their homes.
This is an excellent marketing strategy for any home services business. Auto repair shops, garden centers, and even grocers (which winter staples should you keep in your pantry?) can also use this one.
Parents who participate in Christmas have a lot more on their plates than well-decorated cookies. There are gifts to get, parties to plan, and a seemingly endless schedule of events for the kiddos.
This group aimed to make the merry mayhem more manageable by offering Christmas preparation tips and a checklist.
Of course, the holidays can be hectic for anyone. So, if your customers skew young and single, tweak this topic for students, young adults living far from home, or any audience you target.
Take a few minutes to brainstorm what your ideal customer or follower needs to get done over the next month or two. Use the output to fuel a few posts and videos. Here are some marketing ideas to get things started:
Let’s get serious for a minute. Not to bring things down, but to remember that some important issues deserve some oxygen in October. You have a platform and an audience. When appropriate, use them to spread awareness and education about these topics.
You don’t need to be directly involved in a particular field to share awareness for an important cause. For example, this information technology company launched a campaign to help spread the word for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The campaign was clever. The brand asked followers to share the message on their own social media accounts using the hashtag #thinkpink. For every share, the brand donated to a foundation that supports women dealing with cancer. Thousands of women were reminded to book checkups, and the foundation received vital financial support.
Sharing awareness content can be tricky. If your message is overly promotional, your audience may not take it too kindly. You’ll want to balance brand awareness carefully with the topic at hand.
Here’s how Sephora did it for World Mental Health Day. It partnered with a celebrity influencer to promote its donations to the Rare Impact Fund—a non-profit that helps young people access mental health services.
This works for two reasons. The brand is slightly buffered by the influencer. And featuring their products is okay in this context because they’re donating all the proceeds to charity.
You can launch a scaled version of this by giving a portion of your proceeds for the day to a local, relevant organization. Then, ask the organization to promote the event through its networks.
Here’s another donation variation. This one is in support of World Homeless Day. This time, a health club chain posted a picture of its coffee cups. Each coffee sold sends money to a non-profit that helps people get job training and housing.
One way to vary this for your business is to donate supplies or services directly to the organization. You can mention what you’ve provided, which will help make people aware of what you sell while doing good in the process.
Pitbulls have a reputation that sometimes leaves them last to be adopted and first to be excluded. But on National Pitbull Awareness Day, you can change the conversation and help these pooches have a better life.
This insurance provider did it by publishing a post on its blog.
Try this for yourself and tell the story of shelter dogs, share anecdotes from pitbull owners, or just show off some local dogs ready for adoption.
It’ll help your brand and your heart to pick a passion project for your business. There are plenty of options to consider in October:
If you want to generate lots of engagement online, tap into people’s fandoms and funny bones. Several days dedicated to themes this month will help you do this.
This one’s ripe for hilarious photos and audience participation. This dance studio took advantage of the imagery and held a gaudy getup photo contest.
Contests and giveaways are absolute engagement gold. Hold a dress-up day for your coworkers, or get your followers to show off for fabulous prizes.
Great Scott! Turn the power up to 1.21 gigawatts and celebrate the beloved movie franchise Back to the Future.
There are some creative ways to do it. Casio wrapped up the Back to the Future Day theme with a little bit of nostalgia for its iconic, totally ‘80s calculator watch.
If your business has been around for a while, you could publish a post showing images from when you first opened or what you sold in 1985. Of course, there’s also always the option to dress like Doc and Marty.
This is probably the easiest way to get some attention in October. Gather up a few knock-knock jokes, post them to your blog, social media pages, or newsletter, and watch the likes and shares roll in.
This brand even wrote a complete post about knock-knock jokes, including a little trip down memory lane.
You don’t even need to find the jokes yourself. Just ask people to comment with their favorites. Then, collect them and tag the people who shared. That’ll get your account in front of their followers.
Do you know what your target audience loves? Give it to them this month with some content designed to stoke their passion and feed their need for entertainment. See if a few of these options do the trick:
Your October content sets you up for a stellar holiday marketing season. Build up some awareness momentum this month and ride the wave of attention straight through the rest of the year.
And don’t stop here. Check out these other seasonal guides for more marketing and messaging inspiration.
