According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), online Easter spending in 2017 reached almost $5 billion, setting a 14-year record for online sales during an Easter holiday season. Candy, food, apparel, gifts, flowers, décor, greeting cards, and balloons top consumer’s buying lists every Easter.
Email marketing strategies that cater to these wants (or, needs, in the case of Peeps!) will get you in on a cut of the billions in revenue that will be generated through online shopping during Easter 2018. Try these top five Easter email marketing strategies for your business to break the monotony of your regular marketing emails, and help your business get in on its share.
1. Host a virtual Easter egg hunt.
The Easter Egg Hunt is the quintessential Easter activity. An online egg hunt will increase customer engagement, adding a playful touch to your marketing and strengthening relationships with current and potential customers.
Consider building up to the big event with a drip campaign hinting at what is to come. Hide virtual Easter eggs in your online store, offering discounts on certain products as the treat inside. You could even host a contest, rewarding the person collecting the most Easter eggs on a certain time and date an extra-special grand prize discount or freebie.
2. Make ‘em smile with bunnies and flowers galore.
People love cuteness. Cuteness attracts attention and makes your customers smile, improving your relationship with them. Bunnies are super-cute, and Easter is the perfect time to incorporate spring imagery like bunnies and flowers into your marketing emails. Anything that evokes feelings of happiness and joy, like flowers and cute animals, will help your customers to bond with your brand or store.
3. Be Multicultural.
Today’s online world is filled with diversity. Even the American market is saturated with millions of consumers from different backgrounds, many of which celebrate Easter in their own ways. Fires, games, and certain foods and libations that celebrate the end of winter and the arrival of spring make great topics for your marketing newsletter to show you value your range of diverse shoppers, establishing and building trust with your readership.
4. Don’t be cliché.
Every other marketer out there will be using typical Easter wordplay. Resist the temptation to use words and phrases like “egg-citing” or “Hoppy Easter”. Instead, tie your product or service to Easter imagery in your marketing email creative designs.
5. Send an Easter greeting not designed to sell.
Using the same images and backgrounds you’ve been sending over the Easter season, send and Easter greeting without trying to sell your readers anything. Another relationship builder, many customers will be uplifted by your greeting and appreciate that they aren’t being sold on the holiday.
If you can touch the emotions of your customers, you will be at an advantage over other email marketers this spring. People do business with people, companies, and brands they like and to whom they are attached. The right email campaign will build trust and loyalty, improving engagement, brand recognition, and sales. Easter is the perfect time for relationship building with your customers and turning over a new leaf on your email marketing efforts.