# Haunt Marketing?



## Xfireboyx (Sep 19, 2008)

Hello friends!
The haunt that I am going to be working for is now a few years old, and don't yet have the same kind of presence that some of the other bigger dogs in town has.
They have, however, been named one of the scariest haunts in our state by hauntworld, so I am sure this could be used for marketing purposes.

My question is, what kind of marketing would you recommend? Obviously, I know that word of mouth is the strongest form of marketing, but as far as social networks go, what kind of recommendations do you have? Does your haunt use twitter? Groupon? 

I am just looking for non-conventional ways to spread the word! I believe in this haunt, and I am sure that as people visit it, they will be very satisfied!

Thank you in advance!


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## Rania (Oct 27, 2011)

What is their website? You have to do it all. You have to have a superb website, social networking, radio ads, local papers, magazines, etc etc. Professional pics are the first step, some graphics for the web, video and any other enticing ways to show people how awesome it is.


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## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

Don't forget a billboard or two - get a few of those in the general area and a hot traffic spot and make sure the website is awesome and easily read off the billboard and that's sure to drive interest.

I wouldn't go so far as magazine advertising. I would definitely do local radio, billboards, facebook, local papers (but don't blow a ton on the newspaper stuff - the kids/young adults that is your audience aren't as into newspapers) ... also Groupon and twitter is pretty good to get out there and seen. You should look into web ads that will key off of their IP location like Google ads and the like (no idea how to even start with this, but I'm sure it's easy to find info).

Do a QR code on any paper advertising you do tho. Anyone can scan that with their smartphone and be on your website instantly.


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## Xfireboyx (Sep 19, 2008)

Cool! Thanks guys! I have a Press Release that just got approval from the owners, so I will be sending that out to all the local news outlets.
We got a bunch of spots on the highest rated morning show on the radio that will be spread out throughout october and the end of september.

we had really good success handing out fliers at the county fair and running a facebook promotion doing a ticket giveaway. 
We are also going to plan a free media day for the tv and radio stations in hopes that they will do some filming.

Check us out online at http://www.creepyhollowwoods.com


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## Blarghity (Sep 2, 2012)

Most importantly, don't go hog wild trying to build market share. Build up the advertising year by year as you can afford it. 

Also, if you do yard signs (as most smaller haunts do), design them so the date and time listed can be changed easily. And keep track of where you placed them. This way, if you buy 100 yard signs a year, in a few years, you'll have several hundred to distribute through the region.

Also, your website fails. People on an iphone or ipad can't view it at all, nor can people who hate flash. Right there, your web designer has cut off about 25% of the internet's users. And it loads at a ridiculously slow rate - over 4 minutes to load at 2:50 AM. And it crashed my web browser when I clicked a link. Every page loads slower than molasses, and the photo gallery is more heavily photoshopped than the average issue of Playboy. Overall, between the flash and slow loads, most visitors will leave the site before the first page loads. But most, I mean at least 4 out of 5. Seriously, as a pro web developer myself, if I met your designer in person, I'd be seriously tempted to kick him in the balls hard enough to ensure his fail gene can't be passed on to future generations. The site is that bad.


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## DeadTed (Aug 12, 2007)

The website loaded just fine for me - but I could see how it would be slow on some computers. It's not my cup-o-tea with the flash and I'm a real hater on automatic music/sound on a website (especially if I'm viewing at work in my office where I forget when the volume is cranked up ).

I also checked it on my Droid and it loaded fine there as well... I like the smartphone version better because it's static and a little easier to read.

With the flash on your website, folks with slower internet connections are going to have issues with load times and crashing.
I found the pause button for music, but the music resets when you click on the attractions link - It'd be nice if once you pushed pause, it stayed that way - or, better yet, remove the music all-together
The site has some good elements to it that are at least populated well - all your links work and have relative content

I don't think that website is a total loss - with a few adjustments it'll be just fine for it's purpose. Ask your guests for feedback (both on how they came about your haunt and what they thought about the website, if they visited it) -- that'll be your biggest help in fine-tuning it.

As far as marketing goes, I'd say consistency is key! If you have a logo - use it in everything you print/web. If you have a color-scheme, stick to it in all your ads. If you have a simple, clean, modern feel, then you use that in all your marketing. If you have a kitchy-halloween feel, then you use that. I haven't seen anything but your website, so I'd only be able to go off of that.
I think that'd be my only other issue with the website - it's trying to do a lot at once (green slime, lightning, bats, skulls, blood, woods, etc). You may have a many elements in your haunt that don't necessarily mesh into one theme (think I saw a clown, headless horseman, etc), which is awesome! But as far as the website/marketing goes, I like to see one theme/element stand out (your photo gallery, customer reviews (another nice addition to a website), and 'about' sections can provide the details of the haunt).

I think examples are the best way to express advice with marketing, so I'll do that.

I live in Tampa Bay so we get to see a ton of ads for Busch Gardens Howl-O-Scream. Just like Halloween Horror Nights, they have a yearly theme. This year is "The Dark Side of the Gardens" (which I love by the way). If you've every been to a gigantic haunt like those, they have a bunch of different themes going on with their haunted houses (prison, western, killer kids toys, vampire, zombie, fantasy, etc, etc, etc), but I know when I see a billboard with sweet, creepy old looking garden gates, and twisted vines, and crap, that I'm looking at Busch Gardens "Dark Side of the Gardens" ads. If they showed their prison haunted house, I wouldn't readily get that it was a Busch Gardens haunt (unless I scanned the ad for text that told me - but we're going for quick and easy to identify here!).

Anyway, my point is, they keep their marketing consistent, and they leave a lot of the park details (haunts, sub-themes) to be found out elsewhere (a link on their site, or just going to the park and seeing it). So if you use Twitter, Facebook, Groupon, Foursquare (any perks for mayor of your haunt?), I suggest using the same icon, the same handle, the same colors, etc.

http://howloscream.com/tampa/homepage.aspx

Make sense? I hope so, because I tend to ramble and things get lost in translation. Do you have any print media you can show us here?


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## Xfireboyx (Sep 19, 2008)

Thanks for the all the help guys!

The person who designed the website is a personal friend of the owner, and I have talked to them about making a few *cough*SEVERAL*cough* changes... but they don't want to invest in a new site.
I really wanted them to work on an HTML-only site just to help out with SEO... I know that google can read metatags, but I just don't trust that the results are as good.


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