The Easter long weekend is upon us. In a great twist of fate, it also comes close to running straight into ANZAC day. Savvy holiday seekers have seized upon the 10 day vacation opportunity while only sacrificing 3 days of Annual Leave.

With such a nexus of opportunity it will be a solid bet that a vast swathe of Australians will be taking time off. What does that mean for your business? Lets check out a few hacks to consider.

Exploit school holidays

Get your theme on this Easter.

This year Easter falls between Good Friday on the 19th of April and Easter Monday on the 22nd of April. ANZAC Day of course falls on the 25th. However school holidays are slated between the 13th and 29th of April. This represents either two things: Slow down or opportunity.

Whether this represents a handbrake or an accelerator depends wholly on your business.

If you run a B2C business, especially retail, that works for children or parents then exploit the opportunity ruthlessly. You will have loads of kids and adults hanging around looking for something to do – see if you can help them. Can you create a special Easter promotion? Can you try an event or class? Put your marketing cap on and think about promotion – themes like Easter can bring a lot of weight to a campaign so think seasonally.

If you are a B2B business? Well… think about either taking a well earned break yourself during a slow period or promoting a discount or special to maximise your sales in a period when competition is at its lowest. It could be a great time to snag some business while everyone is snoozing…

Make good use of your downtime

While many businesses will experience full or partial shutdown during this period of public holidays, it depends on you whether that is a good or bad thing.

When your business is forced shut, you can either make use of this time to build your business in readiness for the weeks ahead or you can take a nap. It is a prime time, if not directly making sales, to organise your business in readiness for the year. Think about:

  • Revamping your website
  • Expanding your social presence
  • Catching up on your bookkeeping
  • Reassessing your sales pipeline
  • Get your invoicing done

If you choose downtime instead, make sure you schedule the important stuff so you at least hit the ground running after Easter. Scheduling your time in a holiday period is paramount to using it to its maximum value. So ensure you have time booked in to manage the business basics meaning you can fully relax and enjoy time off with family and friends with no niggling worries in the back of your mind.

Easter as a social excuse

Theme days and holidays are a great excuse for a social campaign.

With imagery, theming and characters associated with Easter readily at hand, your campaign will be more easily assembled than a blank canvas. Drum up interest by getting creative with your social. Think virtual Easter egg hunts, guessing competitions or quite frankly any discount, 2 for 1 special or bundle deal you can think of – just wrap it in colourful tin foil and put some bunny ears on it.

Keep your clients in the loop

You should also be using this opportunity to communicate downtime with your base and wish them well over the holiday period to gather goodwill and avoid customer disappointment.

Make sure to put out your business hours over this period to avoid business bruising misinformation or confused, communication hungry clients. You might want to consider an EDM or newsletter campaign for this too.