Ghost tour marketing ideas you can use this week

Updated October 31, 2026.

Here are seven ideas for a ghost tour owner. None needs an ad budget or a new tool. Each one starts from what is already public: your town's history, your booking page, and the businesses along your route. Pick two and do them this week.

1. Start from the archive, not the legend

Ask your local library or historical society what is on record about the stories on your route. Write each one in about 90 words: what happened, when, and what stands there now. A story like the hotel fire on your route is a good fit. The write-ups feed your videos, posts and booking page.

2. Label the legend as a legend

Ghost stories are folklore. Keep two lines for every story: what the record says, and what people say. A fire the archive dates is record. A line like "some guests say a cold spot hangs on the stairs" is legend. Say which is which, on the tour and in every post. Never state a haunting as fact. Leave living people and their families out of the legend.

3. Turn one story into one short vertical video

Read one 90-word story aloud over still images: archive photos, a picture of the building, a map. Aim for 30 to 45 seconds. Add captions so it works with the sound off. Open with the strangest recorded detail, and end with where and when the tour meets. Use your own photos, or ask the archive which images you may use and how to credit them.

YouTube's help page (read October 31, 2026; it prints no update date) says, "You can now create YouTube Shorts up to three minutes in length." Instagram's help page (read October 31, 2026; it prints no update date) says, "You can record and edit videos up to 20 minutes with Instagram Reels." Those are ceilings, not targets.

If you use an AI voice or AI-made images, check each platform's label rule before you post. YouTube's page (read October 31, 2026) says, "We require creators to disclose AI-generated or altered content that seems realistic."

4. Plan for the dates that are not Halloween

October is the obvious hook. Winter and the off-season need their own. Write down the next four dates a post could hang on: the first dark evenings of winter, Christmas week, the anniversary of a fire or a founding in your town's history, the first warm weekend of spring. Match one story to each and write the posts now. Check each anniversary against the archive before you post it.

5. Trade a mention with one neighbor

Pick one business at your start or end point: a pub, a cafe, a hotel, a bookshop. Ask whether you can tell their building's story in a short video and tag them, and whether they would share it or keep your flyer by the counter. Ask before you film inside or use their name, and check your city's permit rules.

6. Search Google for your own tour

Search Google for your tour's name, then "ghost tour" plus your town. Look at what a stranger sees. Is there a listing? Are the meeting point, days, season dates, phone number and booking link right? Fix what is wrong at its source: the listing, your website, your social bios. Give every profile the same name and the same one link.

7. Let the booking page answer the first questions

Open your booking page on a phone, as a stranger would. The top should say where you meet, how long the tour runs, the price, what happens in rain, who it suits and the next dates. Add one line on the stories: "Stories mix recorded history and local legend."

Want a hand with the videos?

Waymark Social makes narrated vertical videos about a tour's own town and stops. Email your tour name and town to ellis@waymarksocial.com and you get two things back by email within 3 business days, free: a written audit of your public profiles, and a 30-second sample video about your town. The sample is labeled a sample. Its narration is an AI voice, and so is the narration in the paid videos.

If you want help after that, there are two packages. Both are month to month.

• Story Shorts, US$399 a month: 4 narrated vertical videos (30 to 45 seconds) about your town and stops, with captions and post text for each. You post them, or we schedule them through a scheduler you connect.
• Managed Social, US$799 a month: 8 narrated videos and 8 graphic or carousel posts, a monthly content calendar, scheduling through a scheduler you connect, and a short monthly report.

Prices are in US dollars and all-in for our work. If we schedule your posts, any fee your scheduling tool charges is separate. Everything is by email, with no calls or paid ads. We describe the work and don't promise followers, views or bookings.

Ask for the free audit and sample video

Not for you? Skip it. The ideas above are yours either way.