30+ Fall Marketing Ideas to Promote Your Business

Ahhh, fall. It’s the most beautiful time of the year. Pumpkin patches, pumpkin bread, pumpkin spice lattes. Pumpkin everything.

Consumers love pumpkins and festivities, and everything is filled with Autumn splendor. That’s why fall is a prime opportunity to promote your business.

Sure, the winter holidays are inspiring. And spring makes everyone feel good, too. But there’s nothing like the buildup to cooler weather, warm hues, falling leaves, and autumn holidays. 

If you’ve been looking to take advantage of the fall season to build brand awareness, you should stick around for this article. Today, we’re breaking down top fall marketing ideas you can use to promote your business. Ready to check them out?

Best Fall Marketing Ideas to Get Noticed

Here are top marketing ideas to help you maximize lead generation and bring revenue to your business.

Update Your Website with Fall Themes

One of the simplest ways to promote your business during the fall is to upgrade your website with autumn themes.

When updating your website, you’ll want to throw in some design, but don’t forget about adding value as well. While stunning imagery is lovely, more is needed to convert visitors into customers.  

Here are some quick suggestions to help you evoke value while pushing visitors closer to conversion:

• Include a themed call-to-action that’s easy to spot, i.e., “Download Our Fall Recipe Guide”;
• Use a banner to highlight an autumn-themed giveaway at the top of your ecommerce website;
• Use images to promote fall-themed products and services;
• Add a new fall-inspired product or service to a dedicated website page.

Participate in Small Autumn Business Saturday

Whether you own a children’s boutique, a dental office, or a commercial real estate firm, participating in Small Business Saturday is a great way to get noticed.

On Small Business Saturdays, nestled between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, consumers shop at their local neighborhood stores to help small businesses across the US get more feet in the door.

To encourage more attendees to show up to your booth during the event, give them a good reason to come to see you. For instance, if you’re a realtor, you might invite your prospects to take advantage of a free comp evaluation. Or, if you’re a baker, invite your audience to enjoy a slice of your fresh apple pie on the house.

Another hot tip to help you generate more attendees is to host a sales blitz with your team. It’s when multiple employees contact as many prospects as possible to encourage them to take a particular action within a limited window. In this case, it’s visiting you during the holiday.

Also read: 19 Cyber Monday Email Examples for Your Upcoming Campaign

Launch an Instagram Photo Contest

An Instagram photo contest is a fun way to generate excitement about the holidays and boost your brand’s virality potential. 

When you plan Instagram campaigns like photo contests or challenges, it’s best practice to include a giveaway as the reward for the winner. What could it be? It’s best to combine your product or service with a fall theme.

For instance, giving away pumpkin-decorated iPhone covers may sound brilliant, but if your brand doesn’t sell them, you’re not nurturing prospects — just creating clickbait campaigns.

On the other hand, giving away autumn-inspired journals when you own a stationery store would be an appropriate way to boost your brand’s image.

Fall Advertising with Irresistible Deals

Irresistible deals to consumers are what candy is to Halloween. We just can’t get enough.

To keep your promos relevant, dig deep to understand your audience. What do they love about your store? What do they buy from you again and again? What products do they buy as gifts? Use these insights to create deals your audience can’t miss. 

For instance, if your customers love your apple pie-scented body lotion, consider creating a ‘Buy One Get One’ free promotion (BOGO) to launch a few weeks before the holidays. 

Or, if your audience always buys your fruit and nut baskets as gifts, offer a discount for anyone who buys one by a certain date. 

When creating irresistible deals, don’t be overly promotional. The key is to focus on your audience’s value from taking advantage of your offers. 

Following the given examples, in your campaigns, focus on how your gift baskets help relieve the stress of gift-giving during the holidays. Or, highlight how your apple pie-scented body lotion moisturizes and makes skin smoother after just one use.

Also read: 21 Halloween Marketing Ideas with Real-World Examples

Hold a Thanksgiving Weekend Sale

You should take advantage of every holiday during autumn, and Thanksgiving is one of the largest. 

With a Thanksgiving weekend sale, you can:

• Promote next season’s products and services;
• Promote products and services that are going out of stock soon;
• Sell out Thanksgiving-themed products and services.

Your options will depend on your offer and your current business goals. For instance, if you own a clothing boutique, getting rid of last season’s clothing stock might be what you and your customers need.

If you plan on launching a new product soon, offering it at presale might be the right strategy.

Send a Fall Newsletter Campaign

Keeping up with your target audience by email is a classic lead-nurturing technique. Why not implement it into your fall marketing tactics?

To create a high-converting newsletter, consider planning a series of autumn-themed emails with a core purpose, value, and call-to-action (CTA).

And here’s an example to demonstrate what we mean:

#1 email sequence

• Purpose: Send an email advertising an upcoming Fall Knitting Festival.
• Value: Learn how to knit your autumn-themed blankets.
• CTA: “Sign up today and receive 20% off your first two spools of yarn.”

#2 email sequence 

• Purpose: Send a newsletter showcasing the latest fall collection and a tutorial.
• Value: Learn to pair dresses with the proper hats, boots, and accessories. 
• CTA: “Sign up for our free tutorial today to learn how to make the most of your fall wardrobe.”

#3 email sequence

• Purpose: Send a newsletter highlighting upcoming October promos.
• Value: Be the first to know about the hottest deals and enjoy a gift. 
• CTA: “Sign up for our October VIP Club and be first to know about our upcoming deals. If you sign up by midnight tonight, we’ll send you our top-selling lip kit.

If you want the best tool to create and send out a visually stunning fall email newsletter, listen up. Sender is truly the best choice. Omnichannel marketing software’s built-in email design tool makes it a breeze to build emails quickly and efficiently using simple drag-and-drop editing.

Mobile-responsive premade email newsletter templates make it extremely easy for you to send emails.

Discover enticing fall newsletter ideas that will leave your readers falling for more: Best 10 Fall Newsletter Ideas

Start a Deal-of-the-Week Promotional Email

Put an even bigger smile on your audience’s faces by starting a deal-of-the-week email. 

Do some digging to ensure your deals are topical and relevant to your audience. Find out:

• What types of discounts does your audience value most; 
• What products and services interest your customers; 
• What do your audience’s consumer shopping habits look like;
• What are your audience’s language and communication preferences; 
• When they check their emails and at what times;

For instance, your audience might value free check-ups or discounts on specialty tests if you’re in healthcare. Likewise, your audience might appreciate free ebooks and webinar invitations if you’re in education. 

Use the insights you gathered to plan deal-of-the-week campaigns in line with your audience’s needs and preferences. 

You can also schedule them to send on specific fall holidays, such as:

• Back-to-school;
• Thanksgiving;
• Black Friday;
• Cyber Monday; 
• The first day of Fall; 
• Halloween.

Offer Back-to-School Deals

Here are some ideas you can take advantage of when brainstorming your back-to-school promos:

• Go classic and promote school deals the old-fashioned way: pass out flyers at various offices and apartments in your community. Include a discount on each flyer;
• Run back-to-school ads focusing on your latest products for students. Offer a discount if customers shop by a specific date; 
• Invite students to show off their new back-to-school purchases and deals on Instagram.

Everything you need to know about Back-to-School marketing in one place: Back to School Marketing Ideas (Advertising & Email Campaigns)

Fall Promotional Content

Sharing seasonal content is a total given during the holidays. We’d be sure to include this tip, as it effectively engages with your audience via your blog, newsletter, and social media accounts. 

You can also scale your content marketing efforts faster by creating seasonal content around trending topics — and then start building links to them. Talk about a win-win. 

Join in on the Halloween Fun 

Don’t forget about Halloween! 

Consider planning and marketing a Halloween content series on your social media channels, Facebook groups, and website. You can also sprinkle it into your email newsletters.

Take your Halloween content up a notch by embedding:

• Dedicated Halloween promos; 
• Halloween discounts;
• Spooky Halloween imagery.

Halloween is more than just bats and carved pumpkins. Get inspired for your own unique spooky marketing campaign by reading this article: 21 Halloween Marketing Ideas with Real-World Examples

Run a Cross-Channel Marketing Campaign

Cross-channel marketing uses multiple connected channels to reach and nurture customers. 

Cross-channel marketing aims for an easier and more seamless transition from channel to channel. Each channel you use records information about each customer and communicates that information to other channels. 

The gist? Using cross-channel insights can help you create a consistent customer journey. This way, important aspects, such as messaging and branding, stay consistent across all channels.

Post Content Related to Fall

Posting fall-related content that ties into your marketing goals is a strategic way to take advantage of the season while still achieving your objectives. 

Here are some Fall content ideas you can draw inspiration from:

• 12 autumn crafts your toddler will love; 
• 23 fall-inspired activities you can take advantage of this weekend; 
• Host a Fall Harvest Dinner that’ll make your friends jealous. 

Give Them a Countdown Until the Holidays

Build anticipation for upcoming holidays and promos by using countdowns. Start your countdowns in August and jazz them up in September to get people excited for the October and November holidays.

Here’s a hint on how you can integrate countdowns into your Autumn marketing campaigns:

• Add a countdown sticker to upcoming holiday promos in your Instagram Stories;
• Include a countdown icon for one of your forthcoming Autumn holiday events in your advertising newsletters;
• Embed a countdown sticker into your ad campaigns to market your season’s biggest sale.

Create Special Fall Products or Services

What kind of business would you be if you didn’t provide solutions your customers look for during the fall holidays? That’s Business 101.

First of all, consider your audience. What do they need? What are they looking to buy this fall?

If you need more insights, consider contacting your audience using polls, questionnaires, and surveys. For even more data, consider interviewing your audience or hosting focus groups.

Then, create unique autumn products or services per your audience’s needs and preferences.

For instance, if your customers tire of relying on Starbucks for their pumpkin spice lattes, consider creating pumpkin-spiced desserts. That is if you already sell coffee and tea products. Remember, the key is only selling products and services relevant to your business, not just clickbait.

Host the Ultimate End-of-Summer Sale

Leaves started to fall, and your warehouse is still filled with sun dresses, water bottles, or sunglasses? Well, launch an end-of-summer sale!

Customers who aren’t ready to bid farewell to summer just yet can get summery items for a great price while you recoup some of the costs that went into producing these products. And clear your inventory space for fall products!

Ensure your offer is valuable and motivates customers to buy what they might need only in one year period. The best way – an attractive discount!

Adopt Autumn-Inspired Slogans

Fall advertising slogans can work as a catalyst for your promotional messages. If they’re good and memorable, they help to stand out from the crowd and highlight your brand image.

When creating one, follow your brand’s tone and keep the main idea you want to communicate. This way, you’ll ensure it’s both understandable and engaging. Here are a few examples you can start working from:

• Maple Dreams: Sip the Season!
• Autumn Aura: Where Leaves Inspire Style.
• It’s Sweater Weather!
• Harvest Home: Where Memories Are Made.
• Taste the Fall.
• Forest Fresh: Nature’s Best Kept Secret.
• Crisp & Cozy: Your Fall Fashion Destination.
• Leaves & Lattes.
• Falling for Flavor.
• Bringing Fall to Life.

Utilize a Trendy Autumn Hashtag

Hashtags are integral to social media, yet brands forget to use them. Given that posts with at least one hashtag get 29% more interactions, it’s quite a mistake to make!

Get seen by a wider audience and increase engagement by including fall-related hashtags in your post. It will help your audience to get the theme quicker and easily follow up on more relevant content, even better if the hashtag is unique for your brand!

Here are the most popular hashtags around autumn to give you an idea:

#fall 

#autumn 

#nature 

#halloween 

#fallvibes

#pumpkin 

#naturephotography 

#fallfashion 

#falldecor

#spooky

#ootd

Introduce a Touch of Pumpkin Spice

Pumpkin spice has been known since the 18th century. But it became a true fad unlikely to disappear in 2003 when Starbucks first introduced pumpkin spice latte. Since then, the world has seen pumpkin spice in everything from hot beverages to engagement rings. And the world still can’t get enough.

Dip your fingers into this trend and create a pumpkin spice version of your products. What you sell doesn’t matter as long as you put your creative mind to it. Including pumpkin spice non-alcoholic beer for dogs:

Design a Festive Buying Guide for the Holidays

Believe it or not, some buyers start thinking about Christmas gift shopping before the first snow. Be the first to notice these people and turn them into your customers by curating a festive holiday buying guide.

Include your products or services in the guide, but don’t miss out on excitement too! You may offer trendy products inspired by famous events, benefits for a better winter experience, or items designed for particular people. 

To keep your gift guide in your audience’s mind, create a sequence with teasers, announcements, and reminders. After all, if we think that something should be done, it doesn’t mean it’ll be done immediately.

Adorn Your Storefront with Autumn Flair

While your online presence is peppered with brown, black, and orange, your brick-and-mortar storefront deserves a makeover, too! It can grab the attention of passersby and put your visitors (and employees!) in the fall mood.

Don’t know how to decorate your storefront not to look like an autumn harvest fair? Draw inspiration from the internet (Pinterest is a good source), hire a storefront design service, or team up with a boutique selling fall decor!

Organize a Pumpkin Carving Challenge

A pumpkin carving contest is a fun family activity that’ll keep the kids entertained while you mingle with their parents. Invite past and current clients to a fun afternoon of carving and snacks at your office. Alternatively, promote it as a public community event on your social media channels.

If you don’t have the time or space to throw a party, you can still hand out free pumpkins to passers-by or hold a fall-themed coloring contest instead.

Distribute Customized Trick Or Treat Bags

Want to get (almost) free promotion outdoors? Halloween candy bags can become an unexpected solution! Just think, how many people trick-and-treat or give away candy each year? If it’s your branded bag that the sweets fall into in front of others, you get free brand visibility.

But don’t just slap your logo on a plastic pumpkin-shaped bag. If you create something original, people will use it for many years, continuing to spread your brand’s name. 

Consider giving the bags for free with every purchase. It may work as an additional incentive to buy from you.

Conduct a Festive Costume Challenge

Get your audience’s creative juices flowing this Halloween by inviting them to join our festive costume challenge! Why should they participate? First and foremost, it’s a lot of fun for everyone!

When you encourage social sharing, you spread the Halloween spirit but also boost your brand’s visibility. The best part? It’s a fantastic way to showcase your fall-related products.

Here are a few exciting challenge ideas:

• Create a costume inspired by [Company].
• Craft a Halloween masterpiece using [Company Product].
• Put your skills to the test by recreating our spooky [Brand Mascot].
• Snap a picture of yourself buying [Company Product] in your Halloween costume.

To make it even more enticing, offer fun prizes to motivate participation. Once the entries start rolling in, share and celebrate them with our fantastic audience!

Feature an Oktoberfest Beverage Deal

In recent years, one European holiday, celebrated in fall, crossed the ocean. And quite successfully. Oktoberfest, a beer festival, is gaining fans high and wide and is a fresh opportunity for marketers and business owners to tap into.

If you’re selling beer, this one is evident for you. But don’t hurry to put your hands down if it’s something else. Maybe you can promote snacks to go with the beer. Create a hop-smelling soap or offer water-proof clothing!

Recognize Financial Planning Month

Talking about financial planning is a smart move that can resonate well with your audience. Start by offering valuable financial tips and resources that align with the season. Consider creating content or hosting webinars that address topics like budgeting for the holidays, saving for year-end expenses, or setting financial goals for the upcoming year. This positions your brand as a trusted source of financial guidance and shows that you care about your customers’ economic well-being during a crucial time of the year.

Additionally, you can run special promotions or discounts on financial planning services or products. Encourage your audience to take action and secure their financial future with your assistance!

Initiate a Black Friday Blitz

We cannot discuss fall promotions missing the biggest of them all – Black Friday! Evidently, this occasion deserves a separate series of articles, so we’ll review the basics now.

Most people start winter holiday shopping on Black Friday, so it’s unnecessary to stick to fall-related products and services only strictly. Instead, offer discounts and deals on your most popular items and, even better – newly launched ones.

If you don’t want to drown in Black Friday noise, consider sending a series of promotions starting well before the day. When it comes, you’ve already built excitement.

Here’s an original approach – a special members-only deal:

Execute a Cyber Monday Deal Fest

When the Black Friday hurricane passes, the time for the Cyber Monday flood comes. This means more time for you to increase your revenue! Here are some points to differentiate it from just flown by sales day:

• As the name suggests, Cyber Monday is about online shopping, so put most of your marketing efforts there;
• Offer different deals from Black Friday’s. After all, if the customers didn’t use it before, why should they use it now?
• Cyber Monday traditionally offers deals on tech gadgets, software, and digital subscriptions. But generally, it doesn’t matter what ecommerce products you sell if they come with online-exclusive discounts.
• Cyber Monday appeals to tech-savvy shoppers who prefer online shopping and digital deals. So, your deals should be tailored fittingly. 

Debut a New Festive Fall Season Product

Make this fall unforgettable for your customers by offering them a unique and enjoyable experience! As the season comes around again, it’s an opportunity to add a special touch to your products or services and celebrate together.

Don’t overcomplicate things; sometimes, simplicity is the key to capturing hearts. Consider how you can:

• Bring extra comfort into your customers’ lives with thoughtful additions;
• Infuse the delightful flavors of the fall harvest into your products, tantalizing their taste buds;
• Offer entertainment options for those long autumn evenings when coziness is paramount;
• Help them create the perfect spooky atmosphere for Halloween or other fall festivities.

Remember, the little things can make a big difference in your customers’ autumn experience.

Provide Complimentary Shipping

As the joke goes, people will gladly pay $14.99 for an item with free shipping but resistantly for a $12.99 item + $2 shipping. But as with any joke, there’s an important truth – free shipping works wonders in motivating your audience to buy from you.

If you’re willing to boost your sales, create a killer combo and offer free shipping with every deal. We promise it’s better than magic.

Show Support for Movember

November is also known as Movember, a fantastic cause to raise awareness for men’s health issues. And your company, too, can become a part of it! The easiest way is to run a special promotion or event throughout November, where a portion of your proceeds go directly to the Movember Foundation.

If that looks like the least you can do, consider creating limited-edition products or merchandise themed around Movember. And, of course, a good portion of revenue goes to the cause. 

There’s little not to love about this approach. You demonstrate commitment to a worthy cause and build a strong sense of community among your customers, showing that your business stands for more than just profits during this season of giving and awareness.

Collaborate with a Charitable Organization

If a heartwarming and impactful fall marketing strategy is your cup of tea, try collaborating with a charitable organization. Here are the steps toward meaningful partnership:

1. Identify a cause that aligns with your brand’s values and resonates with your audience;
2. Create a campaign that combines your product or service offerings with a charitable initiative;
3. Promote this partnership through your marketing channels, emphasizing the positive impact customers can make by engaging with your brand;
4. Afterward, share with your audience the positive results of the collaboration and thank them for participating in a good cause.

Launch a Veteran’s Day Online Campaign

Veteran’s Day falls on November 11th and serves as a beautiful opportunity to honor the sacrifices of our veterans while engaging your audience.

If you wish to show appreciation on this day, create a campaign that genuinely pays tribute to veterans. It might be sharing heartfelt stories of veterans to highlight their achievements, challenges, and the valuable contributions they’ve made. 

It’s even better if additionally, you tie your products or services into the campaign: offer exclusive discounts or promotions for veterans as a token of your gratitude.

The key to a successful Veteran’s Day campaign is to balance expressing appreciation, sharing inspiring stories, and offering meaningful incentives that resonate with your audience and make them feel part of a larger, caring community.

5 Fall Email Marketing Examples

Fall might be considered a ‘downtime’ before the holiday season rush. However, sending the right email at the right time to the right audience can transform the season into a prosperous time for your business. 

With that in mind, here are five successful fall marketing examples:

1. Fall Colors: J.Crew

If you work in a seasonal industry — such as fashion — you probably have products with fall colors and patterns. You can quickly revive the fall vibe by curating these products in a simple email — as J.Crew does.

J.Crew invites you to see its new arrivals with colorful product photography, minimal copy, and call-to-action buttons.

2. Halloween: Harry’s

Halloween is a complex tradition for many brands to capitalize on, especially if your products aren’t remotely spooky or entertaining.

But brands like Harry’s find creative ways to link their products to the spooky season, even if you’d never associate it.

They’ve used classic horror characters and placed them in scenarios that anyone reading the email can relate to — shaving and grooming. It gives a light-hearted feel, and the copy references Halloween with each image.

3. Black Friday: Lou & Grey

Black Friday is most likely the biggest part of your fall email marketing campaign. It’s the peak period for online stores. And you need to have the best Black Friday emails to ensure success.

Here’s an example from Lou & Grey: 

It’s an eye-catching, inspirational Black Friday email. The colors are vibrant, catchy, and clean. The copy is minimal, but you get the main idea: shop now because the 50% off everything deal is about to expire.

4. Thanksgiving: Estee Lauder

Since Black Friday traditionally follows Thanksgiving, the latter doesn’t usually get its own sale. But Black Friday has evolved from being a single day into an entire week of offers.

Many businesses now use Thanksgiving as a gateway to their Black Friday sales to get a head start.

Estee Lauder is one such example:

5. Coziness: Bed Bath & Beyond

Coziness is an excellent theme to leverage during fall — especially for bookshops, outerwear brands, and furniture companies.

Here’s an example from Bed Bath & Beyond showing how you can highlight the coziness theme in your fall marketing emails:

Bed Bath & Beyond uses the coziness theme to focus on what’s good about staying indoors and recommends relevant beddings with curated categories.

Key Takeaways

Hopefully, by now, you’re brimming with ideas for your fall marketing campaign. But before you embark on your creative journey, grab a summary of what we’ve discussed:

If this article left you craving for more, you might find interest in these reads too:

• Marketing Campaigns: 30 Digital Examples from Top Brands
• 19 Holiday Marketing Ideas & Examples of Promotion Campaign  
• What is Omnichannel Marketing? Definition, Tips & Examples
• Thanksgiving Email: 18 Templates to Impress your Customers

The article was written by Vesta Oldenburg, a writer from Sender, in collaboration with Brad Smith from Codeless.