Spring marketing ideas to help you sell more

Spring hasn’t quite sprung as we write this (those winter storms were no joke!) but we’re starting to see signs that spring is on the way. We have already dug into some of the best products to sell in spring, so we’re not going to go back over all of those products in this post. Rather, we’re going to take a look at how you can freshen up your marketing, so that you can sell more of those products that you’ve sourced for your customers this spring.

Spring marketing dates

There are plenty of dates throughout the spring that you can use to help sell more online. The only thing you have to bear in mind is that spring holidays and dates for selling more change year on year, so be certain not to just replicate your spring calendar from last year. That’s due to Easter being determined by the moon – it is the first Sunday after the full Moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox. (Should the full Moon fall on a Sunday, then Easter is the following Sunday) The changing date of Easter also impacts on Mother’s Day, and Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day, because they are both linked to the date that Easter falls.

In 2022, key dates for spring marketing include:

* Bear in mind though that the date of Mother’s Day differs in various countries worldwide, due to those countries not linking it to the religious holiday. If you’re selling to customers internationally, then you might want to double check the date for Mother’s Day in those countries, and use targeted landing pages to promote gift products in those countries.

Create a special promotion

Once the excitement of Valentine’s Day is over, there’s a little lull for a few weeks where customers aren’t going to be looking for specific items, perhaps with the exception of Pancake Day when pans and crepe makers are in high demand. To encourage customers to start spending, create a special offer for them. Make your promotion one that is too good to miss, whether that’s a reduction in price, a product bundle, or a free gift with purchase, and make it time-bound – there’s nothing like a bit of urgency to encourage customers to add to basket. If you’re sourcing products from Avasam, on the home page, you’ll find our spring discounts, and our free postage deals that you can use to create those special spring offers.

When you’ve decided on your promotions, you have to get them in front of your customers – which brings us to our next point.

Get active on your social media

We don’t need to explain to you the value of your social media channels. Unless you’re producing social media posts of the calibre of Innocent (the drinks company that has posts that go viral regularly), or Dave (the TV channel with witty social media posts that are often shared) then your customers probably follow you because your business provided great service, and they love your products.

But being witty isn’t a prerequisite for getting active on your social media – especially if your target customer is likely to be following you to catch your special offers and so on. If you’ve decided to follow our previous suggestion and create a special offer or two, you should definitely be sharing them on your socials.

You can also use your social media channels – and especially Story posts – to find out what your customers might be looking for. If you’re considering a new range of products for your business, post on your Stories using the poll functionality to see which products might be best to source. There’s nothing wrong with sourcing all of them, of course – and if you’re sourcing from DropShipping suppliers then you might do that anyway.

Create valuable content

Your customers might already know what they are looking for before they encounter your business, but they also might be in the research stage, before they make a purchase decision. Customers that aren’t quite there yet with choosing the right product for them are the ideal target for content marketing pieces.

Let’s say a customer is looking for a garden furniture set – they might be considering solid wood, plastic, wicker, and isn’t sure about cushioning. They might search for ‘what material is best for garden furniture’ – and make their decision based on what recommendations are made by the search results.

Content marketing is a long term strategy for your business though, so don’t be disheartened if you create this content and it doesn’t start performing for you immediately. However, by creating this type of content – whether you write a blog post, or record a video – customers will start looking to your business for guidance, and eventually, buy from you.

Switch up your colour schemes

Spring is a time of renewal – so it is an ideal opportunity to refresh your marketing assets too. Depending on the colours you have chosen for your branding, you might change up the header on your website, overlay seasonal graphics, and highlight your special offers in colours at the brighter end of the palette.

Review your sales figures

OK, so this might not be strictly marketing, but in eCommerce, things always come back to the numbers – and of course, your profits. Checking your sales figures in detail allows you to identify which products are selling well, and which aren’t – and more importantly, to identify where there are opportunities for your business. Maybe your best-selling handbag could use a card holder, or a matching purse or makeup bag? Maybe a certain line of products isn’t performing for you, and you can find a replacement that you can promote.

It isn’t just your products that might need reviewing. Spring is a great time to investigate new sales channels, and to check whether the marketplaces that you’re currently listing products on are still performing how you want them to. If you’re not getting the sales you want on one or more, then after you’ve checked to see if there are any technical issues, start looking for other opportunities. There’s nothing wrong with stopping listing on a sales channel – even if it is temporarily – in favour of a new marketplace. Check out OnBuy, Wish and of course, BigCommerce as a chance to make more sales.

Expand your inventory

You can definitely make more sales with more items in your inventory – but cash to buy that stock can be tricky to find. Buying inventory doesn’t have to be a blocker to increasing your sales when you have DropShipping suppliers at your fingertips. DropShipping sometimes gets a bit of a rough reputation, but done well – with verified UK suppliers that dispatch within 48 hours – businesses can level up easily, without the issues that DropShipping from overseas presents.

Expanding your inventory with more products allows you to talk about your exciting new range on all of your sales channels, and to make more sales – which is exactly what you want for your business.

Themes to use for your spring marketing

The same themes come up year after year in the spring, but with a bit of creativity, they can be used and reworked year in, year out, or used to inspire designs for your marketing activity.

Florals for spring

We know, we know – it is hardly an original suggestion, and so much so there’s an iconic movie line about it! But it is a tried and tested marketing strategy for spring, and it can be used to promote so many types of products – from fashion items, homewares, fragrance, and of course, garden products. Adding a few images of flowers to your website, and your social media posts are a quick win – from daffodils in March, bluebells and primroses in April, and well-known meadow flowers like daisies and buttercups in May.

If you really want to make the most of the florals theme, then why not source real trees and flowers for your website? We’ve recently brought an amazing supplier of live plants and trees to the platform, as well as there being suppliers of garden furniture – log into your Avasam account to start sourcing these now.

Spring cleaning

Another obvious, but spring cleaning comes up as a theme each year because it WORKS. Customers start looking for ways to freshen up their home pretty much every single year when the days start to draw out, from cleaning, right through to DIY projects that they had put off doing over the winter. That means there are huge numbers of products you can add to your inventory to help your customers refresh their homes. We’ve rounded up some of the best homewares, DIY, and tools, as well as cleaning products to supplement your existing inventory.

Growth and rebirth

Mother Nature is pretty spectacular at this time of the year, and in addition to spring flowers, there is plenty of other inspiration to make the most of. Lambs being born, blossom on the trees – you can use almost all of them to help you sell more. Spring is known for being a time where people adopt new pets, make a fresh start after abandoning their new year resolutions, and more – so think about what your target customer might be doing to enhance their life at the moment.

If you’re thinking about relaunching your business, or creating a new range to offer your customers, spring is a great time to do so. Don’t forget, as we’ve already mentioned – with DropShipping, you don’t have to buy your inventory, and so you’re not risking dead stock if the items you’ve chosen don’t sell.