In-store and online marketing ideas to consider for Easter.

One of the biggest holiday periods of the year is fast approaching. Of course, we are talking about Easter! Lucky for us, it is also the longest bank holiday break of the year as well, meaning that we get an extra-long weekend because of Good Friday and Easter Monday. To emphasise the value of Easter to the economy, total consumer spending in 2018 was projected to reach £1.2 billion in the UK, which would have been an increase of 6.7% from 2017. Whilst there is no official figure, the projection clearly showcases just how much is spent during the course of the Easter period. Some of the main spending categories during the period include getaways, confectionery, home entertainment, flowers & greetings cards.

Regardless of your industry, the Easter period presents a great opportunity for you to showcase both the products or services that you offer and your company itself. One of the main benefits of Easter is that it runs for a two-week period, due to the school holidays. Depending on your industry, this means that you can run events and showcase your products for the whole two weeks, rather than just targeting Easter weekend. You can showcase your products or services by using various different marketing channels, and a multi-platform approach will be much more successful than focusing on just one platform. Furthermore, you can also use traditional marketing techniques to maintain a good balance of both online and in-store conversions. In case you need some inspiration, here are five marketing ideas, both online and offline, that you could look to incorporate during the Easter period.

1 - Easter Egg Hunt

An easy way to get involved in Easter celebrations is to host an egg hunt. There are two ways that you can do this, one being easier than the other. Firstly, you could do an in-store egg hunt. This will be particularly interesting if you have regular footfall traffic that visits your store on a daily basis. Hiding eggs in your store could generate an increase in traffic whilst also leading to social media posts from your customers. Another option could be to host a virtual egg hunt on your website by using a plugin. This could generate some engagement on your website whilst also reducing bounce rates and allowing you to get customers to visit specific pages on your website. However, it is likely that in-store customers will be more engaged in the activity than those visiting your website.

Did you know? The largest ever Easter egg hunt was in Florida, where 9,753 children searched for 501,000 eggs.

2 - Social media competitions

A great online marketing idea that you could consider during the Easter celebration is by running a social media competition. You could run the competition simultaneously on all of your platforms, or you could focus on the platform that you have the most followers on already. If you are a B2C company then Instagram or Facebook may be the best platform, whereas a B2B company would probably see better engagement on LinkedIn. You should make sure that your competition offers an incentive that offers value to your audiences such as an Easter basket or a free product or service.

Once you have determined what the prize will be, then you can create a post. Make sure that your instructions are clear and that participants must share the post and like your company page in order to enter. The advantage of this is that not only will the competition increase brand awareness, but you will also benefit from an increased number of followers that will see your future posts. Additionally, providing a giveaway looks great for your brand and participants that do not win may still purchase from you as a result.

3 - Run paid ads

Another online marketing idea that can help improve conversions on your website is to run Easter themed paid ads. For those of you that already have paid ads that are running, all you would need to do is change the ad text to something Easter related. It could be easy as adding “For Easter” at the end of your text. For example, “Chocolate Gifts for Easter”. If you have a really creative mind, then you can use puns or some creative wording to grab the attention of search engine users. Depending on your product or service, this may not always be applicable, and you may not want to change every single one of your ads, only certain ones.

4 - Host an event

Hosting an event is also a great in-store marketing idea that you could consider over the Easter period. There are plenty of events, ranging in required commitment and time, that you could host. The advantage of hosting events, particularly those that cater to children, is that parents may bring their children along to the event whilst also purchasing from you as well. Furthermore, you should also get some great content to use on your social media platforms. Some examples: an Easter brunch, an Easter crafternoon, an Easter raffle or Easter egg decorating area.

5 - SMS marketing

Finally, we couldn’t talk about Easter marketing ideas without mentioning SMS! You could use text marketing over the Easter period for a number of reasons. You can text your customers on with a reminder of your Easter opening hours, or by offering a discount or promotion to your customers over the period. Another option could be to run an SMS competition or to direct people to your website that includes a list of Easter events or themed products. Bulk SMS is particularly useful for companies that can take advantage of the school holidays because parents may not know what to do on certain days, so your text may push them to act and visit your company.