When someone says “holiday season” people usually think of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Easter has a ton of potential but has become a time of the year when marketing efforts fall flat.
Luckily, we’ve come up with the best marketing ideas you can use to boost your campaigns during this widely untapped season. Let’s hop right to it.
1. Host A Virtual Easter Egg Hunt
If you don’t have the space to hold an in-person egg hunt, a virtual one is a great alternative. For example, Kids Square held a virtual egg hunt and advertised it online.
This allowed them to make money while creating a memorable experience for their customers. They used their Facebook page to host it, so you can bet their follower count and engagement rate both increased.
2. Broadcast Seasonal Products
You can launch new, Easter-themed products to get your audience excited about the upcoming holiday. Promote recipes, products, or anything related to your business on your social media platforms.
For example, take this post from Morrison’s Instagram account. They use the Easter season to promote unique recipes and encourage hazelnut white chocolate spread sales.
3. Host A Social Media Photo Contest
You can get your social media followers to better engage with your content by hosting a social media photo contest.
Twin Realty Group held a photo contest and invited their Instagram followers to participate. Then, they posted the winners of their contest on their feed.
Here are some tips on how to create a strong photo contest:
- Identify your goal
- Choose an amazing prize
- Select your theme
- Create clear rules
- Make it easy for people to enter
- Pick your winners early
- Analyze your results and take notes for next time
4. Create Eye-Catching Pop-ups
Spruce up your website for the Easter holiday by creating themed pop-ups. Pop-ups work by interrupting a user’s experience, forcing them to interact with the ad before continuing on.
Pop-ups promote special sales while the user is already engaged with the site. This allows a company to encourage sales of specific products.
SiteKit has a ton of templates you can use to create eye-catching popup content for Easter. Not only will this help your website look festive, but it’ll also drive engagement and boost sales.
5. Create A Video Greeting
Sending a video greeting to your customers allows you to strengthen your bond with them. Video already grabs attention and can significantly improve your marketing efforts as a media type.
In fact, 54% of consumers said they want to see more video content from businesses.
Wave.video has templates you can use to create various Easter videos to send to customers.
The templates above are even customizable depending on your brand voice and audience. You can use those or create your videos using some pretty basic equipment.
6. Give Away Checkout Gifts
Encourage customers to spend more to receive special, limited-time gifts. Upon checkout, this can be done in person or immediately added to a digital cart.
The above example has consumers spend $100 before getting their gift, but you can alter that to fit your market.
Tips on how to choose the perfect checkout gifts:
- Make It Useful- Don’t give your customers junk they don’t want.
- Ensure It Won’t Be Too Costly- You still want to make money from this promotion.
- Make It Small- It should fit inside their bag and be easy to carry.
- Relate To Your Theme- If you’re doing this for a holiday, make sure it fits with the season.
7. Sell Limited Edition Baskets
Give your customers a “once in a lifetime” reason to shop at your store. Offer exclusive, limited edition products that they won’t be able to get anywhere else.
Creating a sense of urgency while shopping makes it more likely that consumers will make a purchase. Online sales with a countdown timer converted 9% better than the same product without a timer.
For example, Mouth has an Easter Gift Box that you can’t get any other time of the year. They have loyal customers who come back yearly to buy their limited-edition products.
8. Hold A Poll
Using social media to hold polls is invaluable to gauge how your consumers are feeling. They’re cost-effective and encourage your followers to engage with your content.
You could do a fun poll like the one below, or you can make your poll specific to your products.
The Performer Blog hosted the above poll on Twitter to connect with their followers during the Easter season.
9. Bring In The Bunny
Easter is a time when many families make it a priority to make memories they’ll cherish forever. Harness the opportunity to bring more customers into your store by inviting one of Easter’s most recognizable characters.
Businesses all over the country bring in the Easter Bunny to attract customers.
For example, Garden’s Mall brings in the Easter Bunny to take pictures with local children every year. This event brings new customers to the mall, which benefits all businesses within the establishment.
You can rent a bunny costume and hire a personable employee to wear it within your store. This will create photo opportunities for parents to post on social media, which will, again, attract customers.
10. Start An SMS Campaign
We live in an age where almost everyone carries a cell phone with them wherever they go. As marketers, it’s essential to realize its potential for our campaigns.
Take advantage of this and send an Easter discount right to your customers’ phones via SMS message.
Similar to the example above, smsbump has a ton of other sample messages you can use for motivation.
Don’t have the contact information for your customers? Here are there are a few things you can do to get it:
- Host Text-In Competitions
- Require Their Phone Number When They Sign Up For Trials
- Give An Incentive For Their Number (Free Gift)
- Offer A VIP Club Sign Up
- Require Their Number For Onboarding
- Just Ask
11. Hold Special Sales
Promoting holiday sales can help you bring in new customers while clearing out old inventory. Similar to the “limited-edition” products, placing a time limit on these sales can create FOMO in customers.
This can push them to make a purchase or in the example below, upgrade their subscription.
As shown above, Strikingly created this discount for their Easter holiday sale. You can do this too, and then promote it on your website, social media, and emails.
12. Send A “Happy Easter” Email
Speaking of emails, you can’t forget about your email list when creating a holiday campaign. Let your customers know you’re thinking about them during the season.
Sending emails like this:
- Strengthens your bond with your subscribers
- Reminds your subscribers of your brand values
- Allows you an opportunity to share important news (i.e., holiday hours, products, promotions)
- Shows appreciation to your customers
Vineyard Vines created the above email to wish their subscribers a happy Easter. You can see how a simple email like this can be effective.
13. Hold Opportunities For Gamification
Incorporating gamification into your business creates a memorable experience for your customers. The most common way to include gamification is to use a prize wheel, where customers spin for a discount.
You can use prize wheels in a brick-and-mortar store and on your website.
NisaLocally used digital and in-person marketing to promote their business during the Easter season.
You can follow their lead and promote your game on social media to let customers know about it.
14. Collaborate With Other Companies
Collaborating with other companies allows new business opportunities to come to fruition, which is especially important during campaigns.
This can help you reach a newer or larger audience that you wouldn’t usually reach. It also allows you to share knowledge and resources, encouraging new product ideas.
For example, Crocs paired up with the traditional Easter candy, Peeps, to create a unique product.
Here are some things to keep in mind when choosing who to collaborate with:
- Look for companies with similar values
- Make sure you have compatible goals
- Ensure their audience is someone you’d like to reach
- Measure potential ROI
- Check to see if they have any experience collaborating with other brands
15. Host Online Giveaways
Social media is an excellent tool for promoting your marketing campaigns. It provides a platform that has the potential to broaden your reach and bring in new customers.
Using social media to host a giveaway breaks up your feed and gets your followers excited for the holiday.
The above example from Cookie Countess shows how you can use social media to promote your giveaway.
If done correctly, giveaways can:
- Grow your audience
- Generate leads
- Increase brand awareness
- Drive traffic
- Increase engagement
- Bring in new customers
Now you have all the knowledge you need to crush this Easter season. Try combining the above tactics to strengthen your campaign and boost your results.