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Download the Easter Egg Hunt Tool Kit
WHAT is this?
This is a ready-to-steal idea to run a Dog-Friendly Easter Egg Hunt in your community. The idea is to hide eggs, each containing smelly dog treats (so the dog is drawn to the egg– I used freeze dried liver). Also inside the egg, is your business card, a unique number and a brief explanation of the rules.
In the rules, the finder is instructed to come to your location (for me it was our shop / studio – if you don’t have a location you can partner with a business nearby) in order to discover what PRIZE they have WON based on the NUMBER in their egg. You have a pre-populated list of numbers and associated prizes – and you (or your partner at the location) simply gives them whatever prize is on the list next to their number.
Tool Kit Includes:
- Sample List of prizes: I printed these out, kept them on a clip board and filled them out as people came in – make SURE to get people’s email, and ideally, take a photo of them collecting their prize (and note who is in which image so you know who is who later)
- Sample Inserts: I used a full sheet of paper and had them printed front/back, 2-up, 2-down on the page (so basically, take a piece of paper and fold it in half and half again, that was the size of the insert. Includes is my sample one to copy AND an .ai file you can actually use/ modify if you want.
- Checklist: What to buy/make/prepare for a successful event
- Font: I have included the font I used in the inserts – you’ll need this if you want to open the file in Illustrator (install the font first).
WHY do this?
This is a great way to create a fun, feel-good event for dog parents at Easter, when human kids seem to get all the attention. This event can generate significant buzz (and is ideally suited if you live in a community or smallish town where news travels fast). The key to this is to keep it simple, and to have a few BIG prizes among lots of small ones, and to COMMUNICATE that there are big prizes to be won when you’re promoting the event (both IN the eggs and in the marketing).
WHAT are the BENEFITS?
- Surprise + Delight: For existing or potential customers… This is a great way to get new customers, and to create customer loyalty.
- Buzz: local press, local social media, community word-of-mouth – the most powerful way to impact consumer behavior.
- Foot Traffic: If you have a physical space – this is a GREAT way to get people through the door!
- Leads: As a part of the process, you will get people to opt-in to your mailing list – each qualified email on that list is valuable.
- Partnership: Use this as an excuse to get in touch with other dog businesses – BUY (don’t ask for donations) prizes from them to include and/or ask them to be the location and benefit from the dog-friendly footfall. CONSIDER the size of their audience and if they will be willing to SHARE + AMPLIFY the stuff you’re posting on social media.
- Brand Awareness: This is a bit of ‘brand awareness’ exercise (which often means you have to spend without too much consideration to what you’ll make in return). It’s a fabulous way to get your local community aware of you + interested in what you’re up to.
- Revenue: One option is to give away a prize that is easy to ‘up sell’ or that could potentially lead to revenue later (ie: a free photo session with $100 print credit but you KNOW they’ll want more). But the real financial gain will come from the word-of-mouth / press / buzz you generate from the event. Done well, you’re pretty much guaranteed to benefit financially in the future based on this one marketing tactic.
HOW do I promote it?
Don’t over think this. It should be fun, spontaneous, playful and easy to manage. Prepare the eggs and prizes in advance. Prepare your social media in advance, and schedule what you can on Facebook and Twitter. Prepare the prize list and prizes so that it’s easy on the day(s) to delight your customers, engage with their dogs, etc.
Photos.
One of the great keys to this marketing exercise – is photography. You want to have GREAT images to use as a result – your own, and user-generated too (ideally submitted/shared on social media). This is very helpful if you run the event again next year (so you have images to use to promote it), super important to get the hype going (using the methods below) which is one of your primary aims of the event. Using images in the follow-up is especially effective – to make those who participated feel special, and to give those who didn’t participate a HUGE case of the FOMO’s (thus making them more attentive to your offerings in the future so they don’t miss out again!)
Email.
Like any event, it’s a good idea to let your biggest fans know what you’re up to. The best way to do this is to do a series of emails, carefully written to be short, peppy and effective at getting them excited to come participate. If you want to give this event a try this year without email GO FOR IT! That’s what I did the first time, it was a last-minute idea that I threw together and just did all my email in the follow-up
- Save the Date: A few weeks before in your ‘regular’ newsletter so they can ‘save the date’
- Gentle Reminder: A week before perhaps along with some other tidbit of news or some ‘behind the scenes’ photos of you preparing the eggs or prizes
- Build Desire: Try to get them excited about some big prizes and make them feel how FUN the event will be
- Encourage action: Time a mail to go out when you’ve hidden the eggs so they can get out there and find them – encourage them to take photos of any eggs they find and interact with you on twitter or instagram (both great for immediate updates with photos!) – this is also a GREAT way to get them to follow you if they don’t already!
- Follow-up: A week after, or in the next regular newsletter, be sure to tell them about all the prizes that were won, show off photos of happy dogs + happy people
Sample Emails.
Here is the newsletter (March) where I first mention the egg hunt…
Subject Line: “Exciting news, free gifts and a favour to ask of you…”
Here is the newsletter (April) where I announce the egg hunt…
Subject Line: “doggie easter, bubbly & our first SALE ever!”
Bonus: Mail Chimp Stats
You’ll see my audience was small but engaged – both emails had decent subject-lines (nearly 50% open-rate) Notice though how many MORE clicks the March email had because I asked my audience to DO more:
Facebook.
Facebook is the place for people to engage with your story. Post photos – ask questions – brag on behalf of winners… these are GREAT posts to boost!
Chances are you have more people on Facebook than Instagram, so there can be cross-over with your images (but not too much – keep it fresh) Here are a few of the Facebook posts (and images) we shared throughout our easter egg hunt weeks…
Twitter.
Twitter is ideally suited to spread breaking news. Your event is breaking news! Use it to document the stages of the event (hiding, finding, prize collecting etc.) to engage your community and make them a part of the fun. Be sure to encourage and support your fans + winners to do the same! Here are some tweets related to our easter egg hunts…
Instagram.
Instagram is a wonderful place to tell the story leading up to, during and after the event. Capture the prep, the hiding and the happy prize winners – consider a specific hashtag for the event and invite your people to use it!
[P.S. Last year I tried using REAL eggs. I thought this was clever because hard-boiled eggs are actually quite healthy for dogs – they can eat them whole! But for the sake of the event, I don’t recommend real eggs. I used a little candy-stripe baggy next to the eggs but the parks people thought they were trash and started throwing them away! Luckily I was still in the park and I caught them! You don’t have the same worries with plastic eggs – people know what they are and why they’re there – but I find the ‘open me’ tag helps intrigue and encourage them to actually open it!]
Signage.
Take any opportunity (with flyers, chalkboard or sandwich boards) to shout about the event during the week before. Don’t underestimate the old-fashioned poster for its power to build awareness and encourage people to participate! Don’t spend a lot on this – but don’t overlook it either!
What Else?
There is a BIG chance that not all the eggs will be found. Sometimes the dogs just pick them up and crunch them and they get thrown away, or people simply don’t realize there is more to it than treats and a business card (but hey, they have a dog and now they have your card, and you just surprised + delighted them!)
Don’t worry too much about complications with the eggs. I did a ‘sweep’ after they were hidden to be sure there weren’t any left – and picked up any debris I found associate with them (abandoned egg bits, that kind of thing) to avoid any litter issues.
I found that if a non-dog owner finds one, they either tell a dog owner about it, or take it to one they know. So that’s not a problem either.
