With every national holiday and awareness day, there’s an opportunity for brands to implement new tactics into their marketing strategy to generate sales.
With 75% of Brits projected to celebrate Easter, and spending to reach over £892 million in the UK, we spoke to fellow marketing experts to gather the top trends eCommerce brands should be taking advantage of before the Easter period rolls around:
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Undertake egg-cellent Digital PR
For eCommerce brands with Easter-related discounts and deals galore, taking advantage of shopping journalists is a good way to generate last-minute coverage and referrals to your site.
Like most holidays, the Easter season is a peak time for gift guides, with journalists covering the best gift picks from various brands and across various budgets. For the eCommerce industry, it’s important to maximise organic efforts to support sales of hero products.
Gathering the best discounts and products and forming a press release which covers key details, such as product information, creating a bespoke media list and sharing this content with relevant journalists looking to pull together gift guides like this is a sure-fire way to put your brand front of mind among consumers.
Being reactive to the news agenda is another tactic eCommerce brands should consider this Spring. Our experts recommend paying attention to the news cycle during the Easter period, considering how you could comment on topics relevant to your eCommerce business and add value to a conversation.
Twitter is also your best friend during this period. Monitor the #journorequest hashtag, and you can guarantee you will find an opportunity to get your business featured in the media.
For example, an eCommerce brand that sells eco-friendly products should consider commenting on how to have a sustainable Easter, considering that the plastic and packaging waste produced by products such as Easter eggs is considerably higher.
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Generate egg-citement with PPC
Integrated marketing agency, Fishtank, comments on PPC tactics brands can take advantage of.
Fishtank adds: “High-quality visuals, including images, gifs and videos, are key to success during national holidays. With so much competition, make sure your brand stands out from the crowd.”
Another PPC tactic to consider is reviewing past data. If eCommerce brands can analyse past performance and understand what worked best last year and what didn’t, this will help narrow down your focus and help optimise your budgets better.
Fishtank also recommends creating bespoke ad copy and implementing A/B testing for various Easter-themed messaging, ensuring that target keywords are mentioned in the headline and description to increase the relevance of the ad copy.
Creating scarcity is another way to tap into shoppers stocking up on Easter goodies. In the PPC ad, an eCommerce brand should aim to emphasise fast shopping options paired with a product deal. Additionally, adding a timer to a display ad with a countdown to when an Easter deal ends will help create a sense of urgency among consumers, encouraging them to buy.
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Draft some cracking content
During this period, eCommerce brands should drum up content that provides concise information on the products they’re interested in. Examples include taking gift guide press releases and turning them into blogs, utilising user-generated content to drive campaigns to make them relatable, and making content shoppable, particularly on social media.
When drafting gift guides and blogs for a site, eCommerce brands should ensure they’re keyword-rich to boost organic traffic. Engaging in on-page SEO will help search engines understand the content of pages so they can provide shoppers with the appropriate results. User intent should also be considered when drafting copy.
For example, if an eCommerce business knows its customers will be looking for alternative Easter egg gifts, drafting gift guides with headings such as ‘non-chocolate Easter gifts’ or ‘the best Easter gifts for kids’ would be catering to the user’s intent.
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Scramble to get creative
Landing on a website during Spring and seeing pages come to life with Easter-infused branding is a great way to engage potential customers. Fishtank suggests: “Add interactive elements to your website, e.g. an Easter egg hunt or bunnies hopping across your website, or adding rabbit ears to your logo.
“An eCommerce brand could also add an Easter-themed landing page featuring exclusive discounts and products.”
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Hop over to socials
Ramping up social activity is a foolproof tactic to undergo to generate those extra egg-stra conversions. Customers love to engage with Easter-themed content, such as chocolate giveaways and competitions. To drive traffic to the site, it’s important to include a clear call to action (CTAs) with delivery deadlines, so it initiates a sense of urgency within the customer.
Running paid ads across social media platforms should be another consideration for eCommerce brands. Shoppers will be looking for the best deals and information on the products, and by setting up social advertising, an eCommerce store will expand its reach and target people at the right place in the buying process.
The importance of planning ahead
Easter is a really important time for eCommerce websites, and we really recommend ensuring that all marketing activity is streamlined to ensure the best possible outcome in terms of sales. If this is executed properly, brands can guarantee that their conversions will see growth.
Online exposure doesn’t happen overnight, which is why businesses need to jump on these Easter trends now before it’s too late. Ideally, this type of activity should be planned months in advance of an important holiday or event, but sometimes it doesn’t work that way, and other tasks take priority. However, these fundamental tips are key if you want that extra bit of Easter exposure while you still can.
For next year, we’d really recommend planning Easter activity at least a few months in advance, so around February time. If this still seems unachievable, getting support from a marketing and PR agency would help alleviate any time pressures to ensure you’re taking advantage of these key sales periods.
For more information on how Wild PR can support your PR and marketing efforts, please visit: https://wild-pr.co.uk/portfolio/
Sources:
- Finder.com (2022 data)