Advertising a Home Haunt

[OgeXam]

What is the best way to go about advertisting a Haunted Back yard?

I want to have good traffic, but not 1000 people show up.

Are there any good websites to post that I will be doing a haunted yard?

I plan to post a sign on my front lawn the weeks before. I live in front of an elementary school so I figured I would get a lot of kids seeing the sign.

Should I post something in a local paper?

[SomeThingInTheIce]

Yes, every news paper has a whats happening page but, don't call them. What you want to do is find out who does that page of the paper then send them a press release telling them what you are doing and when you are doing it and what time. Give contact info, if you are printing fliers send them one of those also. You can make filers on your home computer and then have them printed. We got 1000 for $40.00, just make sure you pass them out. We have a stack by the check outs of Center Stage and Magic and Spirt Halloween store. Good luck and Happy Haunting, Ice.

[AcoreMANNER]

The newspaper might be a bit much for just a home haunt, since you dont want a 1000 people showing up. You should post flyers, hand out flyers and like "Something" said, put a stack of your flyers at the check out area of the local Halloween store. I once got rejected though when I asked if I could leave a stack of my flyers with this one Halloween store. I was like, "Harsh!". Haunters should look out for one another.

[slash]

When i did my home haunt, I just put up signs around the neighborhood and did the flyers. I couldn't charge for it, so I didn't spend much on adverising.

[OgeXam]

Thank you for the great information!!!

[Xeverity]

Stay away from the newspapers and stick to word of mouth or flyers otherwise you will get 1,000 turning up!

Shouldn't be too hard to get a good turn out. Once you start putting the decorations up - depending on where you live and these are seen this may be all the advertising you need.

My front yard faces a street which all the kids walk down to get to school.

Once a few decorations go up that's it. When I am putting them a crowd gathers below. My house is on a hill and they have to look up!

X

[slash]

This is true. I think the first year we did one in the yard, I got maybe 20 kids. It's up to 150 now, and all I did this past year was put up 2 signs, and one in the yard a week ahead of time. It's gotten so big, I have to do just security now, and have designated scare people. I wasn't expecting that many for a home haunt!

[Ruafraid]

You didn't give us many details on the type and size of neighborhood your haunt will be located and how much trick or treat traffic you "normally" get on Halloween. How many teenagers show up ? A lot ? a few ? are there more younger kids than early teens ? That is a major factor in my opinion.

So that is where we start with what we know and if you have an active place then putting signs out just on the street corners at the entrance etc will drive a lot of people your way. Yes word of mouth and flyers at the high school and community bulletin boards (if you have those) Local Grocery Store. One thing if this is the first year you will get fewer people but once they hear and talk and know its there year 2 will be much better ( That is "if" the Haunt is good ) then it grows much larger from there.

I have done this at my home for 4 years and we had at least 400 people from 7pm to 9pm. If I did the paper I that number could jump much higher and if I put signs up at locations near my neighborhood.

I have 4 kids High School age + and word of mouth helps the best. Most people that come to "home haunts" don't find them via the web from what I have found. They want a quick scare for "free" and they move on to get more treats and many come through multiple times if you allow it. Our Haunt took about 8-10min to get through at the most.

[drfrightner]

The best way to market a home haunt without much a buget?

PR... try to get the local media to come down and see it.

Bar none #1

You should also list your haunt on haunted directories and maybe buy those featured ads that would bring you probably more than you could handle by itself.

Lastly flyers ... those seem to work very well!

Larry

[deathtrail91]

This year I am going to get some fliers made down at Kinkos. Were going to put them at local halloween stores, pizza places and a library close by.