A short Five Minute Friday podcast by Ashley Alderson offering October-themed social engagement question ideas to help small businesses stop the scroll, build relationships, and keep customers top-of-mind. Ashley gives specific example prompts (e.g., "Caramel apples, yes or no or why?", "What is one scary movie that traumatized you as a kid?", "Candy corn: love it or hate it?"), explains why engagement content matters, points listeners to the Small Business Marketing Handbook and other Boutique Hub resources, and closes with an invitation to join the membership. The piece emphasizes using these prompts across TikTok, Instagram (stories/reels), Facebook groups and other channels to drive conversation rather than immediate sales.
Questions this episode answers
Ashley Alderson.
September 26, 2025.
The Small Business Marketing Handbook.
Chapters
Hey, guys. I am here with some marketing ideas to get your October rolling the right way. Now, if you have followed anything inside of membership at the Boutique Hub for any amount of time, you know, marketing ideas are one of my favorite things to talk about. And it's also Shannon Gordon on our team, one of her favorite things to talk about as well. So if you are a member, know that there are a gazillion resources inside of membership with even more marketing ideas. But I wanted to give you a couple of quick ones that were on the top of my head that I thought were fun. Now, we have a product at the Hub called the Small Business Marketing Handbook, and so I pulled a couple of my favorite engagement questions for the month of October. I love to use engagement questions for a couple of reasons. One, it builds eyeballs to stop the scroll inside of whatever channel you're on. These could be used on TikTok. They could be in your Instagram stories, they could be reels. They could be just a simple question you typed out inside of your Facebook group. But it gets your customers to stop the scroll down, notice your content, engage with you, build some relationship and some rapport with you, and be an active member of your community. And that's important because not all of your customers are ready to buy something at any given time. Right? Maybe 3% of your customers are ready to buy right now. 7% of your customers would buy if they found the right impulse buy. But that means 90% of your customers aren't even thinking about buying. And we still need to keep you top of mind by keeping them connected to your content. And, and so engagement content is really the thing that does that. So that's why it's important to use it. We've got to use it on a regular basis to keep people hooked. All right, so here's my favorite tips for October or engagement content ideas for October. All right, let's get started. We'll roll down the list. Caramel apples, yes or no or why? I mean, did every single kid lose a tooth in a caramel apple? I'm pretty sure that they did. What is one scary movie that traumatized you as a kid? Signs. Signs. Why was that so scary? I don't know. It was like the alien fingers under the door really got me. Candy corn. Love it or hate it? Yes or no? What is your favorite and least favorite Halloween candy? How about corn maze or haunted house? Cardigans or vests? What is your biggest fear? Your biggest fear, right? Going along with Halloween. How about Halloween playlist? What songs have you added leggings or pants? Is that actually true? Do you agree or do you disagree? And then show us your decorated pumpkins now literally there are about a hundred more of these. If you are looking at the video today, there are hundreds and hundreds of engagement questions in here for every single month of the year. But just going along with a couple of those questions and that theme, you could think about how many different TikToks could I make? How many different posts like this or that or polls or the little slider bar could I do in my Instagram stories? Or how many different engagement questions and stories could you start inside your Facebook group that would get your customers typing and talking again? It's not about always selling the product. Sometimes it's about just starting the conversation and keeping your customers highly engaged and building a relationship with you. So if you want even more marketing ideas and tips, the Small Business Marketing Handbook or inside of our social Sunday posts, our engagement library, our training library filled with marketing ideas or all of the things happening inside of membership at the Boutique Hub. So check it out if you haven't already. I'll be back next month with even more marketing tips. That's it for five Minute Friday, you guys. I hope you found some quick, actionable steps you can put into play in your business right away. As always, if you're not yet a member of the Boutique Hub, I would love to personally invite you to join us. It's where all of the daily conversations happen. The up to date what is working now in the industry conversations, the latest trainings, trend reports, discounts, resources, and of course access to thousands of wholesale brands that you also know and love. So please take a minute, follow the link in the show notes and we would love to invite you to join us inside of the Boutique Hub.
