Spring Marketing Ideas for eCommerce Brands

Spring is in the air! Well, not yet, but it will be soon, so it’s time to spring into action (sorry) and develop your seasonal marketing plan. 

While spring is about renewal, hope, and sunshine, remember that it’s also about strategy, planning, testing, and data–which, come to think of it, renews us, inspires us, and gives us hope. 

Is data hope? 

That’s a philosophical question for another time.  

Anyhow, we’re thrilled to bring you some spring marketing ideas, as well as a breakdown of something that will greatly enhance your seasonal marketing strategies: some guidelines on approaching different age demographics in your marketing content.

Opportunity is knocking: Be sure to answer

Spring is filled with holidays. There are the big ones–we’ll cover some of them below–but also smaller, quirky holidays you may want to consider promoting if they align with your brand. 

Awkward Moments Day? International Moment of Laughter Day? Eat What You Want Day? The list is endless, often hilarious, and you might be able to make one of them an annual marketing tradition that your customers look forward to. Or, to take it a step further, you might even consider inventing your own spring holiday (if it fits with your brand). 

Consumers also are naturally primed to spend in the spring: the days are getting longer and warmer, it feels good to get out and socialize, show off a new outfit, or start a new fitness routine.

Need more spring marketing ideas? Here are some key holidays you may want to include in your spring marketing plan.

Earth Day

Being environmentally and socially conscious is probably important to many of your customers. In fact, 38% of Millennials prefer businesses whose products or services are environmentally friendly. 

If your business is green or promotes sustainability, Earth Day (April) is a great opportunity to educate customers about your positive impact, support for environmental causes, and/or the importance of choosing more sustainable products.

However, be careful: no greenwashing! Make sure your campaign is based on your brand’s authentic commitment and actions, or customers will take notice, which may reduce trust in your brand.

A simple way to start making your business more sustainable is to make orders carbon neutral. You can do this by adding a solution like EcoCart to your site. EcoCart is an eCommerce solution that encourages checkout by allowing your customers to shop carbon neutral with you via a small donation. Donations support organizations that protect forests, provide clean water, and generate wind power.

Mother’s Day

Eighty-three percent of consumers celebrated Mother’s Day (May) last year, spending $200 on average–the highest amount the National Retail Federation has recorded to date. It’s likely because there was a shift in spending from experiences like brunch to gifts like electronics, gift cards, food kits, and gift boxes. 

This trend will likely continue, so consider helping customers out with ideas for Mother’s Day with recommendations, gift guides, and product bundles.

Easter

Nearly 80% of US consumers reported they celebrated Easter (March/April) last year, spending $21 billion on food, candy, and gifts. 

Whether you celebrate Easter or not, it’s hard to resist the siren song of discounts and candy. More than half of those who don’t celebrate Easter say they shop the deals, spending about $21 on average.

Tax Day

While Tax Day (April) is the second-leading cause of headaches after spring allergies (this is not a real fact), more than 60% of Americans say they expect a refund–happy times (this is a real fact). You can expect that some of these folks will use their refund to make a purchase, go on vacation, or make a home improvement.

To find them, you can identify the “splurgers” in your customer database and targeting them with a tax refund campaign. This can be a customer segment with a higher AOV on holidays or sales days: they might fit well into a Tax Day email/SMS segment.

Campaign creative and demographic marketing: An art and a science

While creating spring-themed content for blogs, newsletters, emails, SMS, and more seems like a no-brainer, how do you know what creative will resonate most with your different audiences? 

When it comes to crafting marketing messages that will engage on specific channels, one straightforward way to break it down is to think about your audiences from a generational perspective and do some demographic marketing.

Consider segmenting your customers based on age: Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers. Although it might be possible to draw a conclusion about the customer’s age demographic based on their purchase history, we don’t recommend doing so:

Make it a point to collect birthdays as part of your zero-party data collection efforts. If you sell 18+ or 21+ products, you likely already have your customers’ birthdays/ages, but if you don’t, make it a priority to collect that data. You can do this as part of a general survey that you send to customers, or you can send customers an annual birthday discount.

Gen Z: No BS, and make ‘em laugh

Gen Zers are the most digital-savvy and connected generation–so distinct from previous generations that brands often work with Gen Z-specific marketing agencies, like our friends over at electrIQ Marketing.

Brandon Amoroso, founder of electrIQ, advises: "Gen Z cares more about how many views their TikTok got and when the next NFT drop is coming out, so how do you connect with an audience that prioritizes the digital world over the real world?

Experiences.

Gen Z shops great experiences more than any other generation. It's not about the utility of the product, it's the emotion or feeling it elicits, and more often than not it might not even be a physical product."

Heed his advice! 

Gen Z is a crucial demographic, comprising more than 20% of US consumers and 40% of global consumers.

Gen Z has a strong BS filter and an appreciation for those who tell it like it is. They know how to comment and share in ways that train search algorithms to curate feeds and deliver them the content they want. 

Also, 90% of Gen Zers believe that businesses have a responsibility to address environmental and social issues and that they can use their purchasing power to express their beliefs (they might, for example, respond well to an Earth Day promotion).

Tactics that have worked with Gen Z include story-driven campaigns; funny videos and GIFs, images, and emojis, as well as engaging how-to tutorials. This group looks to influencers on social media and wants to engage and connect with brands via social and SMS. If you have a trending Instagram video, you can consider downloading and posting it on other social platforms like TikTok to maximize your reach.

Millennials: Entertain and personalize

Millennials (Gen Y) are currently the largest demographic in the US, comprising nearly 22% of the US population.

Like Gen Z, Millennials are tech savvy, socially and environmentally conscious. They’re more likely to care about what brands say about them than Gen Z, who cares less about brand names. 

They also highly value authenticity as well as personalization. In fact, 60% of Millennials are willing to provide their personal information to brands to receive more personalized ads, so they should be a focus for zero-party data collection.

Tactics that have worked with this demographic include videos (70% of Millennials say they trust brands with videos about their products more than those without), user-generated content (UGC), inbound marketing (e.g., educational blogs, how-to videos), influencer marketing, and ways to collaborate on developing product/services. 

How to reach them?

Millennials use a wide range of social platforms; one survey reports they use six platforms at least once a week: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and, increasingly, TikTok:

TikTok has changed! In 2021, TikTok surpassed Google as the most popular site on the internet in 2021. TikTok is now a crucial marketing channel to invest in regardless of the demographic, so when you think of TikTok, don’t think only of Gen Z. 

Gen X: Give them a deal

While Gen X makes up just under 20% of the US population, they are currently the highest earners, bringing in more mean income than either Millennials or Baby Boomers. They have a lot of purchasing power but tend to be cautious spenders and on the lookout for discounts.

Tactics that have been effective with this demographic include social media campaigns (particularly on Facebook), email campaigns, inbound marketing (e.g., educational blogs, how-to videos), and loyalty and rewards programs. They are less swayed by influencers, UGC, and recommendations, and they like to do their own research.

Baby Boomers: Be meaningful

Don’t disregard the 65+ crowd. Baby Boomers have the highest purchasing power of any generation and hold more than half of total US household wealth. 

They also spend more online than Millennials do! 

As you may expect, brands matter to this generation–they know what they like. Less tech savvy, this demographic can feel like their privacy is being invaded when they encounter ad retargeting.

Tactics that have worked with this demographic include longer-form video (e.g., educational, slower paced), inbound marketing (e.g., informative blogs), emotional content that taps into what they may feel is important and meaningful, such as time with family and friends, and social media (i.e., Facebook and YouTube).  

Air out those fresh ideas for spring

Take full advantage of the calendar and the inspiring imagery and fresh design that spring brings us. But also take a strategic approach to leveraging your data, particularly your zero-party data. 

It’s your strongest competitive advantage to successful spring (and other seasonal) marketing, and it will catapult your brand toward better 1-to-1 personalization: getting the right message to the right customer at the right time. 

Need some help? Daasity makes data analytics like performance metrics and customer segmentation for demographic marketing easier, so you can spend more time on developing and executing amazing ads, and less time drowning in spreadsheets and headaches. You might even notice a spring in your step.

We’re happy to show you how–contact us.