Most veterans of the gift basket industry do not put much time or effort into planning and marketing for Easter sales. They feel that because of mass market retailers who have millions of dollars to spend on the production of low-end, economy, Easter baskets that you cannot compete, and they're right. You can't nor should you try to compete. However, there are ways for you to make sales during the Easter holiday season.
Most of us know of a church, group, or organization that is planning a Easter program of some sort. You can offer to sponsor the annual Easter Egg Hunt for your church or community Easter program. There are plenty of websites where you can purchase inexpensive toys, trinkets, and candies in bulk for pennies. Fill plastic easter eggs with wrapped candy and/or trinkets and you're all set for the Easter egg hunt. This type of promotion makes great PR for you, and your business, as well as giving something back to the community.
Here's a Easter campaign that I came up with and received orders as well as contacts for future events. I found a company called "Twin Sister's" that sells greeting card CDs. They were having a close-out sale and I bought several of the children's Hymns & Bible Songs CDs for $2.00 dollars apiece. I then went to my local Dollar Tree Store and purchased the Dear God Series Coloring Book and Puzzle. A miniature plastic milk crate that can be used for storage after Easter is over was used as the basket. When paired with bubbles, and Easter candy my basket was complete. Of course, it was all beautifully enhanced with spring florals all purchased at Dollar Tree.
I changed the enhancements and crate color for baskets for little boys. Pull bows that coordinated with the crate colors were used to cut down on production time, and the cost of buying ribbon for custom made bows. I now had a custom Easter Basket that I then marketed to various churches in the community.
I used the Christian-themed products as my selling point, and the fact that I included a CD really sent the idea over the top. Staff members were very impressed with the sample basket that I presented. Everyone thought the Christian theme idea was very original. Some even wanted to purchase the CD for use in their Sunday school classes.
