11 Effective Easter marketing ideas and promotions to boost your sales

The Easter season is an ideal time to implement an effective communication strategy and make changes to your merchant site. As with any holiday or event such as the start of the school year, this period is a good time to develop communication campaigns, regardless of what you sell.

Brands that have nothing to do with chocolate can also take advantage of this opportunity by redoubling their creativity to improve the customer experience, enhance their reputation and increase their conversion rate.

By using simple and smart marketing techniques, you can make the most of this festive season. So what can you do at Easter to get customers in ecommerce?

Launch a product

Easter is a symbol of birth and renewal. It’s therefore an excellent opportunity to launch a new product, announce a change, or communicate about a new or improved item with an optimal marketing plan.

Get people talking about you

Easter is also an opportunity to deliver a powerful non-commercial message. The objective is to deliver, in a traditional or offbeat way, a message that is relevant to the context and reminds your customers, prospects, and your community.

Create events

For Easter, you can create events with original games and contests to improve your brand image. But don't forget about offline experiences! For example, a B2B brand can consider a chocolate tasting with its best customers. But you’ll see that creativity can go much further...

Let's illustrate these concepts with concrete marketing communication actions.

13 Easter marketing campaign ideas to delight your customers

1. Give your homepage an Easter makeover

We all know the importance of the homepage of an ecommerce site.

That's why you can customize its design with the Easter theme!

A nice-looking page can become a real competitive advantage and an added value for your business, whether you’re looking for Valentine’s Day marketing ideas, St. Patrick’s Day marketing ideas, etc. It will serve as a hub for all your products related to this holiday and will highlight all your offers. For example, you can organize this page as a category and assign all products with the label "Easter" to it.

A wide variety of products can be added to this page. Baskets, chocolates, candies, clothes, jewelry, kitchen and dining accessories, merchandise, toys, costumes, books, CDs, and much more!

Another way to spruce up your homepage for Easter is to add a fun themed pop-up to alert users of a special sale or other offer on your site. As a pop-up works by interrupting the visitor’s experience, requiring them to click on the pop-up to learn more or close it, be careful not to go overboard with this tactic. Encountering too many pop-ups can quickly become annoying to users and push them to head to a competitor’s website.

Easter shop on the Chewy site

2. Provide gifts at checkout after minimal spending

A top marketing idea used by companies throughout the year, providing gifts at checkout after shoppers spend a certain amount is an effective way to encourage your customers to spend more at Easter, as it feels like they’re receiving something for free!

This type of campaign can be as simple as automatically gifting shoppers a complimentary item after their shopping carts add up to a specific total, or you can opt to create multiple tiers, where people will get increasingly valuable gifts as they spend more. 

For instance, say that you sell pet products. You can set up your Easter marketing campaign to allow your customers to receive a sample of pet food after spending $25. The next tier might entail getting a pet toy after spending $40.  

3. Design a virtual Easter egg hunt

Easter is also a great opportunity to get your audience involved. For this, the traditional egg hunt is a must.

You can set up this activity directly on your website to make it more attractive and increase your traffic!

To do so, hide eggs on your online store and offer gifts for the winners. The easiest way is to place pictures of eggs on the different pages of your online store, sharing the clues with your customers through different channels. A commercial strategy that your customers will love!

This concept is very beneficial for generating traffic to your online store.

You can encourage consumers to discover your ecommerce site by hiding eggs on its different pages.

You just need to launch a quiz contest in your communication plan with simple questions such as "On which page of the site is the orange egg hidden?" or "How many eggs do you have on the homepage?"

Egg hunt by Banana Republic

4. Host an online giveaway 

Another holiday marketing idea that’s sure to be popular with your audience at Easter is to host an online giveaway via social media. This tactic makes it possible for you to connect with current and potential customers alike, allowing you to get new followers, increase brand awareness, and boost future sales for your business.

With this kind of content, you can create an Easter-themed giveaway, with the prize being an item from your online store or something else that your audience would appreciate. Make this promotion as effective as possible by requiring that participants follow your business on a specific social network, like the post announcing the giveaway, and tag people in the comments to expand your reach. 

You could also use this digital marketing strategy to launch a contest on social media, requesting that your followers send in their best Easter jokes, photos of them with the Easter bunny, ideas for spring products, etc. This can help increase engagement with your audience as well as serve as a source of user-generated content to post on your social media in the future.

5. Advertise a special Easter promotion

Consumers appreciate a good sale any time of the year, and Easter is no exception!

While it may not be as busy of a shopping period as, for example, Christmas, Easter still offers an excellent opportunity to increase purchases from your current customers, attract new people to your business, and clear your inventory shelves for new products.

The details of your promotion are going to depend on your specific needs as well as your audience. Whether you opt to create a “Buy 1, Get 1 Free” offer, provide a promo code for 25% off everything on your site for the entire month of April or just for Easter Sunday, or give a discount code for your newest release, it’s completely up to you. 

Just like with your Christmas marketing, don’t forget to advertise your promotion in advance of when it starts and be clear about the specific details to prevent frustration on the customer’s end.

Plants.com Easter sale

6. Launch a poll on social media

A good way to boost engagement on your social media platforms is to launch a poll for your audience to participate in. As with many of the types of content on this list, there’s plenty of room for creativity when it comes to creating an Easter poll.

Use this cost-effective idea to gauge customer interest in potential products to release, obtain insights on how to improve your current offerings, or determine which new services shoppers would like to see available on your website ahead of the holiday. 

Another option is to go a different route and design a fun poll that’s completely unrelated to your products but still linked to Easter. Ask your followers about their favorite holiday dishes, how they celebrate, or what kind of candy they enjoy the most. 

7. Sell limited-edition products

Another one of the best Easter marketing ideas is to offer limited-edition products for sale on your website. Depending on your particular niche, you might be able to create Easter-themed items, e.g., t-shirts with Easter puns, bunny-shaped candy, candles in spring scents, etc. that would appeal to your customers. The fact that these goods will be limited edition and exclusive to your store will create a sense of urgency and push shoppers to make a purchase.

However, even if your niche and Easter don’t go hand in hand, you can still take advantage of the limited-edition idea to boost sales for your online store. Opt instead to put together product bundles or baskets for consumers to buy for themselves or gift to others. 

To further encourage shoppers to buy these limited-edition creations, be sure to offer them at a small discount, making them less expensive than purchasing each item individually.

IKEA limited-edition chocolate bunny, self-assembly

8. Share Easter recipes

Besides Easter eggs and chocolate, there are all kinds of dishes that people enjoy preparing and eating for the spring holiday. A great way to engage with your target market is to share delicious Easter recipes, be it on social media, via an email newsletter, or on your blog. 

With this type of content, you’ll want to be sure to include relevant visuals and clear instructions to help your audience recreate your shared recipes successfully and boost engagement even more. You might even consider creating a how-to video for added visual appeal, especially if a recipe is a bit on the complicated side. 

Don’t have any amazing Easter recipes on hand? Not a problem. You can also source them from your family, friends, or even your customers! 

9. Send a “Happy Easter” greeting via email

Email marketing continues to be an important strategy for brands looking to connect with customers in an easy, cost-effective way. Why not take advantage of this useful form of digital marketing during the Easter season to send your subscribers a thoughtful holiday greeting? 

Sending an email to wish the people on your subscriber list a happy Easter serves several purposes. First, it shows your appreciation for your customers and lets them know that you’re thinking of them. In addition, email marketing offers the opportunity to alert or remind them about an upcoming special sale or promotion on your ecommerce site. It also allows you to promote your brand values and share exciting news concerning your business and its offerings. 

To help your Easter emails stand out in the sea of messages your subscribers are likely to receive at this time of year, be sure to include strong subject lines that capture the reader’s attention and make them want to open the email to learn more. Interactive elements, high-quality visuals, and video content can all aid in bolstering the appeal of your Easter messages.