Cashback My Advertising Pays Review: 6 Ways To Use Social Media To Make More Business This Easter

According to the National Retail Federation, more than $16.4 billion will be spent in the USA, before and during the Easter weekend - on apparel, decorations, gifts, candies, food and flowers. Businesses that seek to achieve success during this period need to, according to Facebook Insights, target women of all ages and consumers who are 18 to 34 in particular, as they are the most important drivers of the Easter conversation.

In the U.S. and U.K., where the holiday is celebrated with chocolate Easter eggs and candy baskets, this time is especially lucrative for the confectionary industry. But experiences from Australia or the Philippines, where the holiday is mostly associated with travel, show that you don't necessarily need to sell candies to make cash. Restaurants, hotels, travel agencies, florists and clothing stores are using this time to showcase their spring offers and advertise their deals at a place where their customers plan, celebrate and share their experiences widely and instantly: social media.

If you have already started filling your shelves with traditional spring and holiday merchandise, but still don't know how to attract your customers, check out these few Easter ideas. You can organise these ideas in your store and promote them on social media with the help of a simple and free design application called Content Creator. This application allows you to create eye-catching social media covers, posts, ads and other types of promotional material that will make you stand out and achieve eggcellent sale results this spring.

1. Embrace the spirit of Easter

Easter is known as the time of the year when light, pastel colors are in high demand, so use their gentle power to decorate your social media profiles or create digital Easter cards.

Play with Easter motifs such as eggs, bunnies or simple spring flowers, as they will set the proper tone and gently remind your customers that the holiday is just around the corner, and that they should start planning what to give or how to spend those days with friends and families.

We have prepared several Easter-inspired design templates, but if you want to change existing designs and add some personal touch, feel free to do it! Content Creator's designs are customizable so you can opt for different colors and font styles that match your brand.

2. Host an Easter Egg Hunt

The best way to create buzz and drive massive traffic to your business in a single afternoon is to hold a family-focused event such as an Easter Egg Hunt. If you want to try out this idea in your store we suggest you hide plastic eggs with messages, funny tips and discounts for your products that are redeemable on any purchases made that day. Even if you don't have an actual physical location you can hide digital eggs in different places on your website and award the person that finds them first.

To successfully publicize and promote your event, remember not to put all your eggs in one basket (no pun intended). Embrace multiple social channels and create sponsored Facebook posts, Carousel ads or simple online banners using one of Content Creator's ready-made Easter templates.

Customize your visuals just as you would decorate an Easter Egg by changing background color or shape color. When it comes to the selection of font we suggest you stay with the script font family, as they are perceived as more friendly, personal and relaxed.

3. Be ready for Easter sweet cravings

Baskets of chocolate eggs and the excitement of unwrapping them is one of those things that make Easter mornings so awesome. Almost 90% of those celebrating this holiday will spend their money buying candies for friends and family, so retailers are motivated to prepare special time-bound offers that create a sense of urgency and inspire customers to act immediately or risk missing out on a good deal.

If this is something that your business can benefit from, gather several items that make good gifts and put them together in a gift basket. Inform your audience on the special offer with a custom-designed ad and make sure you emphasize words such as "discount", "sale" or "special offer" with bigger size or different font color.

Remember to brand your post with your logo as that will build trust and help viewers understand where the offer is coming from. The logo should ideally be placed in the corner of the photo where it will make a quiet but consistent statement, without being too distracting.

4. Spring into savings

Easter brings spring weather that reminds us how it's time for renewal and a fresh start. It's out with the old and in with the new, and the industry that takes full advantage of this "spring fever" is clothing retail. The invitation to clean out closets and make room for a new wardrobe is very effective, as almost 45% of those celebrating Easter say that they will spend their money on clothing purchases. If you want to learn from their experience and motivate people to come in and spend money in your store, treat Easter like every other major holiday that deserves special time-limited discounts.

You can choose to give a discount to "bunny" marked images or you can have some Easter fun by giving customers a chance to determine their own Easter discount. For example, place a large format sticker on the floor to measure long jump distance, and right before checkout have customers see how far they can jump and give a discount based on distance. To maximize the impact of your sale try to promote your Easter deals weeks before the holiday through social media, emails or any other channels you feel will make the best results.

Spring makes people think of the warmth of the sun and happier times so adjust saturation and brightness of your photo and use bright colors to put people in a good mood. For more inspiration check out the templates we have prepared in Content Creator and follow our simple and quick instructions.

5. Gather families around your table

The National Restaurant Association estimates that around 33 million Americans choose to dine out for Easter, which reflects a cultural shift toward enjoying holiday meals with family and friends in restaurant settings rather than at home. To seize this lucrative opportunity in an industry where the competition is fierce you need to give your customers a compelling reason to visit your restaurant over another. This is why you need to start thinking on time about special Easter menus, timely reservations and ways to make this experience kid-friendly.

Once you create your special Easter offer, the best way to promote it is to create an ad that will showcase your delicious Easter food or your restaurant as a place where families can relax and spend time together. Arrange text in a way that respects the principles of visual hierarchy and gives bigger size to the most important pieces of information.

The easiest way to achieve this hierarchy and play with different fonts is to use Content Creator ready-made templates. They will help you create focus, and make your message stand out by leaving enough white space that significantly improves readability of your message.

6. Celebrate the Easter long weekend

A long Easter weekend means that there is more to the holiday than egg hunts and chocolate binging. With all that free time people will be looking for events that will keep them busy, so hop on this opportunity and organize parties with special incentives that will help you stand out from the crowd. Outfit your street team in bunny costumes to attract attention and hand out club card flyers to invite customers in, but don't forget to harness the power of social media and attract a wider audience.

Start by creating a Cover Photo that will share the spirit of celebration and help you communicate basic details about your special offer. Bring the focus to a certain part of your image by applying one of the filters from Content Creator (such as Vignette) and using one of the templates from our Easter selection.

Since local is the name of the game, invest in geo-targeted ads that ensure that only users within a specific radius from your club see your ad. This will help you save money and showcase your ad only to the ones that can really come to the party. If you are using only Facebook or Instagram advertising, remember the 20% rule according to which your copy should not cover more than 20% of your photo.

As you can see Easter is a highly anticipated holiday that offers a great chance to get creative, so make sure you don't get left out of the conversation when your followers and customers are getting excited about this day. Put these ideas to use with the help of Content Creator and celebrate in the spirit of the holiday with your social fans.

Guest Author: Aida Gadzo is a Social Media Strategist at contentcreatorapp.com. She helps small and medium businesses master the "what", "why" and "how" of producing and delivering engaging digital and social media content that will activate audiences and drive sales.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post for Content Creator.

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