Make This Easter a Great One With These 7 Business Tips

Different holiday times bring mixed opportunities for business and while for some, it may be a slower period or a bit more hectic for others, it’s a great time to employ some creative strategies to increase your customer happiness and goodwill!

Here are seven ideas to make this coming Easter holiday period a success for both your business and your customers, and provide inspiration for your Easter marketing plan.

1. Date check – when do the April school holidays fall in your state?

Easter is falling almost a month later this year than in 2018, with Good Friday starting on the 19th of April. This timing may bring a few seasonal differences to last year. It is important to think about your customers and understand their habits around this time of year in order to create the best tailored experience for them.

The school holidays provide a great opportunity to engage with families and leave them delighted with your business offerings. Have a think about how you can use communications to talk to families and offer them something fun and different.

Remember, school holidays start before Easter and vary in every state – but they generally fall mid to late April – see the table below for reference.

2. Host your own special event during the holidays 

Hosting a family or children-orientated event around Easter during the holidays can be another great way to drive traffic to your door. Kids can have most of the fun, but adults still love an Easter egg hunt, or a colouring-in competition. Make the most of this and bring customers to your door by arranging an event where they stand a chance of winning a prize, gift voucher and have some great photo ops (great for getting your business some community traction!).

As well as driving traffic through the door, events create a buzz around your products and can strengthen the relationship between you and your customers.

3. Leverage the Easter opportunity

There’s bound to be special events being organised in your community. Ask neighbouring businesses about their plans and consider cross promotion opportunities to create impact and a more festive feeling in the community. An email or brochure which identifies a range of special offers or events for the holidays can be a great attractor for families with young children, who are often looking for new activities to do during the school holiday period.

4. Create customer benefits through themed decor

Easter is a food-focused time of year. Themed specials like meal deals or gift baskets are great for the Easter season, particularly with the increased popularity of food gifting.

Are you feeling creative? Why not decorate your venue using Easter colours and imagery? It could help bring additional customers in which may help increase your transactions over this time. Eggs, chicks, bunnies, flowers and pastel colours will quickly see your space transform and get customers and staff in the mood for the holiday period.

An eye-catching window display and shop floor can also be a timely drawcard.

Place Easter gifts and items at the front of your store and make your most gift-worthy items stand out. You could even have a dedicated area of your store with gift-wrapping, to make everyone aware of special promotions and products.

5. Surprise and delight

Sometimes the simplest things create the greatest impact. Have you considered adding an extra giveaway to your normal product and services to make your customers, and their children, get excited during this holiday?

Consider offering complimentary gift cards or put out a bowl of Easter eggs at your POS. Staff could wear Easter rabbit ears or do some fun facepaint to get customers smiling.

You could also have an Easter edition menu in your restaurant where names are changed to reflect the holiday.

It’s often the small touches that make the most impact.

6. Celebrate the diversity of your community through decorations

There are many diverse cultural activities which occur around the Easter period – such as Greek Easter or Passover, a Jewish holiday.

Creating an inclusive experience for all your customers can go a long way in demonstrating customer-centricity. This might include special signage, decorations, special offers or respectful offerings themed to that occasion. Take care to consult someone from that community before deciding on your approach.

Regardless of their beliefs, most families will be impacted by school holidays during the Easter period, and so having special offers or activities for children which are holiday related rather than just Easter themed can create inclusivity and engagement.

7. Prepare for peak traffic and double check your systems are in working order

Easter can be a busy time for many businesses; use the lead-up time to make sure you’re set up to make the most of this trading period. Consider bringing on extra staff to cover any increase in orders, check your shelves are stocked and visual merchandising is up to scratch and you have enough paper rolls for your terminals and extra shopping bags.

And if you settle your funds into a Tyro Bank Account your funds are paid 7 days a week – yes, even weekends and public holidays – at a time of your choosing.

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