Direct-Marketing Ideas for Easter

Once reserved for kids and candy, Easter has become one of the most profitable holiday seasons of the year. The March/April market rush makes sense, too, since spring is in the air, and people are out and about armed with pleasant attitudes - and often, tax return money. This season of rebirth and renewal is a good time for you to kick-start your marketing campaign to boost your company's profits.

Here are a few direct-marketing ideas you can use this Easter:

Launch a new product

Everything about Easter symbolizes rebirth, whether it's in the form of religion, Easter eggs or the appearance of green leaves and bright flowers. In the same spirit, this is the perfect time to launch a new product or service, or take an old product or service and re-brand, or re-name it, to give it a fresh look and appeal to your prospects. Of course, this leaves plenty of creative marketing ideas open for your advertisements. Imagine your new product hatching out of a pastel egg on your next postcard mailing. Make sure your new product or service launch includes a great sale to attract high potential prospects. You might also want to consider putting a coupon on your direct mailers to drive consumers to your door, which doubles as a great way to track the success of your campaigns.

Hire the Easter Bunny

One of the quickest ways to get your products and services in front of people is to bring them to your business through an in-house promotion. Second only to Christmas, Easter provides an excellent opportunity to do that. Hosting an Easter egg hunt for the kids or hiring the Easter Bunny to spend the morning or afternoon at your store attracts droves of children - and their parents. Since you'll have the parents milling around while their children search for eggs or stand in line waiting to meet the Easter Bunny, this is an excellent opportunity to have an entertaining, attention-getting product display or demonstration. You could also try filling plastic Easter eggs with coupons and have one egg with a slip for a free product or service - the grand prize - to get adults into the mix. Make sure you have take-home flyers or brochures available.

Advertise

Whether you're considering launching a new product or hosting an Easter-related event, the key to success is advertising. You'll have a lot of competition for your audience's attention this time of year, so make sure you do it right. Hire a graphic designer or use attractive templates to design your postcards, door hangers, flyers, sales letters and posters and launch an effective direct-mail campaign beginning several weeks before the event or product launch sale so your audience is blanketed - and reminded. Postcards are a very efficient and inexpensive way to do this and can work hand-in-hand with other marketing efforts such as newspaper advertising. You could advertise in a newspaper several weeks before your event, for instance, and send a postcard the week before the event, and then hang door flyers the day before the event to maximize your return on investment. A well-rounded campaign that takes advantage of the opportunities and resources available to you can do wonders for your Easter profits.

Product launches and bunnies aren't the only ways to promote springtime sales. Try to think outside of the box when planning your Easter promotions. Each year marketers come up with new ideas to bring new customers in the door and keep loyal customers coming back. Above all, make sure you get the word out and market to the right audience to achieve the maximum return on investment.