Boost Sales: Effective Easter Email Marketing Strategies for 2024

Easter falls a bit later this year — on April 21st — which means you have extra time to pull together an Easter-themed email campaign.

More than $18 billion in spending is potentially at stake, and email campaigns are beginning to show up in inboxes now.

So, pardon the pun, but hop to it, and investigate how an Easter campaign could help you generate extra revenue.

Easter by the numbers

The National Retail Federation surveys U.S. consumers and has a whole set of statistics that predict how they’ll spend this Easter.

Below are key statistics from the NRF’s 2019 survey of U.S. consumers:

• Total spending is estimated at $18.1 billion.
• 8 in 10 Americans say they plan to celebrate the holiday.
• Per-person spending is estimated at $151.
• 9% said they planned to spend at least part of Easter Sunday shopping online, while another 8% planned to shop in stores.
• Food ($5.74 billion) is the No. 1 purchase, followed by $3.27 billion on clothing, $2.9 billion on gifts and $2.5 billion on candy.

In the U.S., Easter is one of the top spending holidays after the Christmas/Holiday season, behind Back to School, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day but ahead of Father’s Day and Halloween.

In the UK, Easter ranks higher – it’s second only to Christmas in spending because it falls on a four-day “bank holiday,” or public holiday.

Easter and email

Easter is a busy time for email marketers, which is another reason you might want to dip your toes into creating an Easter-themed holiday campaign, even if your brand isn’t a natural fit with Easter.

Here’s what we saw in the MailCharts database with Easter promotional campaigns for 2018:

1. Most campaigns were sent before Easter Sunday, although some brands sent directly on Easter, and others continue to send even several days after the holiday.

2. Easter emails begin showing up in the inbox well before the holiday.

The graph below shows the frequency of Easter-themed email campaigns in 2018, when Easter fell on April 1.

It shows how early marketers began sending campaigns as well as how long after the holiday they continued to land in the inbox.

3. The percentage discount is by far the most popular Easter promotion, with discounts of 20% to 30% being the most popular.

Easter campaigns help you connect and compete

A quick glance through your own inbox in the weeks leading up to Easter will show you how seriously many brands focus on Easter.

Besides being a key event on the Christian calendar, Easter is also a popular time for travel, getting families together and moving headlong into spring.

Many brands that don’t have an obvious connection to Easter-themed merchandise can tag along with the general interest in the holiday by changing the email template color palette to Easter-friendly colors – greens, pastels – and adding Easter-themed artwork as appropriate.

If your brand has never sent an Easter-themed campaign before, consider the benefits to adding an Easter email this year:

1. Easter is a popular holiday, and participants are in a shopping mood.

As we noted above, Easter is on the radar for 8 of 10 Americans, even the ones who don’t participate in traditional activities like going to church (just over half will attend services) or hunting for Easter goodies (65% won’t be doing an egg hunt).

But almost everybody who plans to celebrate Easter will be out shopping before the holiday.

Sending an email with even a subtle Easter theme will help your messages connect with people who have the holiday on their minds and might otherwise scroll past your message if it’s just business as usual.

2. An Easter campaign is a timely reason for sending another email to subscribers.

On one hand, you need to stay in touch regularly with your subscribers. On the other, you don’t want to annoy them by sending too many emails.

Sending a holiday-themed email allows you to capitalize on the moment with a message keyed to the day, especially if you sell products that fit in with the holiday theme.

If your brand doesn’t have that natural tie-in, sending a simple message saying “Happy Easter” can add some variety to your regular email schedule.