Fall is in the air, and I couldn’t be more excited. Sometimes it feels like when the leaves change, so does the market which makes it a perfect time to reach out and host a digital event for clients, friends and family that will make memories for a lifetime.

What sort of digital event am I talking about? Halloween of course!

Loved by families everywhere and a personal favorite; Halloween provides a great opportunity to create memories and stay top of mind by hosting your own Halloween events.

Create Memories With A Digital Halloween Party

Hosting a Halloween party for your clients, friends and family allows you to create great memories together, which is one of the best ways to build real relationships. So, let’s create some great memories!

We’re going to do this in 2 parts.

First, host a competition for various Halloween related activities like, Pumpkin Carving, Costumes and Decorations. Then, send your clients, friends and family a small kit to help them participate.  

The Competition

Let’s get your competition underway. Keep in mind, this competition isn’t about finding the best pumpkin or costume in your group. It’s about making sure as many people have a great time as possible. So, get creative with subcategories for each activity. For Pumpkins, include prizes for things like, the scariest, funniest or celebrity look alikes. For decorations include prizes for indoor, outdoor, homemade and “budget” builds. You get the idea.

Your goal is to give away as many prizes as possible. As small as it might be, a prize, especially one someone had to work for goes a long way in creating great memories. It’s also a great bonding experience for the people who participate as a team. So, have some fun and brainstorm your own set of prizes to give away. 

Once you’ve come up with all of your prizes, it’s time to create a spot for your audience to submit their photos and videos. The easiest way to do this is to set up a Facebook group to which you’ll invite everyone when you’re ready. Your Facebook group should be focused on your event but you are sponsoring it too, so it doesn’t hurt to include some subtle branding to remind people.

A Halloween Hub 

Facebook groups are pretty easy to set up as your Halloween Hub and in this case you really only need a name, a description (including instructions), and a banner image to be successful.

• Group Name
  Keep it simple and focus on your event. Since you’re the one sponsoring, it’s important to include a reference to your name or real estate business, but make sure your event remains the star of the show. Some great examples and ones you’re welcome to use are:
  • Springfield’s Halloween Extravaganza (sponsored by Jane Smith, REALTOR®)
  • Springfields’s Halloween Spook-tacular (presented by ABC Realty)
  • Springfield’s Virtual Halloween Haunt (hosted by Jane Smith, REALTOR®
    
• Group Description
  Your group description should include a welcome note, instructions and any rules for your Halloween Extravaganza. This can be modified and copied directly from the template that’s included below..
  
• Membership Questions
  When people request access to your group, you’re able to automatically ask them a set of questions and review their answers before approving them. This is a great opportunity to collect some information about your group so you can easily deliver prizes and market to them later. So, include questions asking for their email, physical address and their favorite part about Halloween.
  
• Banner
  Use something Halloween themed for your banner. There are plenty of great free options on sites like Pixabay. I’ve included an example below and the base image so you can make your own. 

Your Halloween Party Welcome Kit

Now that you’ve created your event, it’s time to invite everyone and make it as easy as possible to participate. To do this, it’s best to send a Halloween Extravaganza Welcome Kit. This will include your invitation, instructions for posting submissions and some fun Halloween ideas and templates to help them on their way.

Your invitation and instructions are pretty straightforward but the ideas and templates are really where you can shine. By providing assets that families can use for years to come, you place yourself in a central role as they make lifelong memories.

So, what sort of things can you provide that they can use for a lifetime? These are things like pumpkin carving stencils, instructions for inexpensive do-it-yourself decorations, or even a resource for costumes.

Ideally, your templates should match up with the competition that you’re putting on so you maximize the amount of engagement you get from the group. 

Your Invitation

Great invitations to events like we’re talking about usually follow the same format, and for good reason – it works. Start with the special offer that you’re making including any prizes. Then include simple instructions so they can participate. Follow up on any concerns by explaining what you’ve included in your kit to help them get started. Finally, follow up once again with your invitation and great offer.

Rather than go into a lot of detail since invitations could be an article all on their own, I’ve included a template for you to use to host your very own Halloween Extravaganza.

When you do host your own, I would love an invitation to join in the fun!

** PLEASE NOTE: Pumpkins usually only keep for about 7-14 days once they are carved, so we recommend starting promo for your event around October 15th each year as folks are gearing up for the holiday! **

All Year Fun

The best part of all is, you now have an engaged group of people making lifelong memories to grow throughout the year, and for years to come. This should be one of the many great memories you develop with your clients, friends and family. As always, the key is in the follow up though. Once you have engaged people, it’s important to keep that bond going, and you must nurture the relationship in order to turn any of these contacts into a sale down the road.

Keep in mind that you were able to engage this particular group with “lifestyle” themed content, not real estate themed content. So when you design your follow up, you’ll want to stick to the same type of value to keep them engaged and coming back. 

If you have just 15 minutes a month (much less time than it will take you to design an entire follow-up campaign), you can customize and send the Service For Life! Agent Newsletter, which is literally packed full of the same type of prizes, contests and lifestyle content too (did I mention it also uses the most comprehensive set of built-in sales triggers on the market?!) Check it out here for yourself