9 Great Back-to-School Marketing Campaigns for eCommerce

Summer is coming to an end and a new season starts. Schools are opening, the weather is getting chillier and we’re going back to school shopping. eCommerce stores can participate in the back to school season and promote their products with back to school campaigns.

There is a huge market growth in the sales of back to school items; clothing and accessories increased by 18%, school supplies and COVID-19 related items increased by 7%. Additionally, technology items decreased by 7%; this is due to the boom in technology sales during COVID-19. The average spending per child has increased significantly, since schooling isn’t only happening in schools, but also at home.

We have prepared the best personalised back to school marketing tips for eCommerce businesses to follow to make the most out of this marketing season.

When Is The Back-to-School Season?

Back to school season is the period before the summer holidays are over and the school season starts. Marketing campaigns for this period can start from 1 August to 30 September. After your summer campaigns preparing period, eCommerce stores should start preparing their back to school campaigns. During the summer months, back to school campaigns should be decided on and social media marketing content should be prepared beforehand.

9 Back-to-School Marketing Campaign Ideas

1. Have a back-to-school theme on your website

Back to school is a season where websites transition their summer themes into autumn themes. Changing the colours and the designs of your website will draw attention to your website. In this way, the new mood will put your customers in a different mood, which will subsequently make them want to buy new items for the new season.

Back to school themes can include:

• Displaying relevant items in your homepage, 
• Adding banners and timers for back to school campaigns,
• Using autumn colours such as neutral colours, browns, oranges, reds, yellows, greens,
• Using keywords such as school shoes, university journal, college books in your menu and product descriptions,

2. Promote back-to-school products on your landing page

At some point in their lives, most of the people have gone back to school after a long summer holiday period. Therefore, even though the individual is not a student anymore, they might feel nostalgic towards the back to school season. So that, even if back to school items may not be necessities for individuals, they nevertheless like giving them and spreading joy and for the sake of nostalgia.

Displaying back to school items on the landing page is a crucial strategy for reminding customers about the season, helping them remember it and consider purchasing the alternatives.

3. Remind your customers of back to school campaigns

The back to school season starts in the beginning of August, whilst some companies can decide to participate in the beginning of September. During August and September, you can remind your visitors and customers about your back to school products and deals.

The ways to send reminders are:

• Sending newsletters
• Sending push notifications for desktop and mobile devices
• Sending email reminders
• Including back to school banners to homepage

These reminders may provide details about the items in relation to:

• Back to school themed goods
• Coupons for back to school merchandise
• Most popular back to school items from the previous years

4. Offer personalised coupons

Customers require a motive to make purchases in this particular season. Therefore, offering them exclusive deals and coupons is the ideal way to motivate them to spend money. The discount need not be expensive; nonetheless, a particular, personalised coupon will make the buyer feel valued. Even if the customer is not a student during this season, they will still make a purchase solely to redeem the voucher.

5. Provide product bundles with complementary items to increase AOV

When we think of the back to school season, many different items come to mind. Moreover, even if people think they bought everything necessary for the back to school season, it is likely that they have forgotten some. Providing product bundles with complementary items will help visitors find related products faster and save them time searching for it in the website. 

6. Reach out to new customers via social media

Beginning at least two weeks before back-to-school ads, post on social media. Inform your audience about your back-to-school offerings, specials, and campaigns. You may, for instance, promote your back-to-school items, provide discount coupons, and start a countdown to the back-to-school campaign day. 

Don’t forget to spice up your postings with vibrant colours and engaging subtitles. Finally, point users of your social media channels toward your online store. 

Brand recognition may be effectively increased through social media. You can have a presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Youtube depending on your brand. We strongly advise adding hashtags under your posts because they are available on the majority of social media platforms.

Common back-to-school audiences for eCommerce companies:

• K-12
• University students
• Parents and guardians
• Teachers and academic staff

7. Prepare a separate search page for back to school items

eCommerce websites allow users to “pin” back to school merchandise so that they are reminded of the season each time they visit the site. In order to increase sales, websites might pin back to school related items to their search results and other frequently visited pages.

8. Provide shopping checklists

There are many items that can be put in the back to school products. And it is also possible that customers can forget what they were supposed to buy. Therefore, creating a back to school shopping checklist will make their lives easier and they will tend to buy these products from your website.

• Stationary
  • Books
  • Notebook
  • Pens and pencils
  • Journal
• Electronics
  • Computers
  • Tablets
  • Mobile phones
  • Headphones
  • Watches
• Retail
  • School Bags
  • Uniforms
  • School clothes
  • Shoes
• Home furniture
  • Chairs
  • Desk
  • Bookcase
  • Drawers

Depending on the industry that your eCommerce business is in, you can provide checklists for your customers to easily access these products from your website. 

9. Offer free shipping

Shipping is an important factor in determining the sales rates. Shipping costs may affect the purchase process and one might cancel their order just because of shipping fees. Therefore, we recommend that eCommerce companies offer free shipping during their back to school marketing campaigns. 

Free and fast shipping is a good way to make new customers try out your products. If free shipping is not possible (for example for home furniture companies), we recommend giving out a certain time when the products will be delivered. This will create more trust in the customer into buying your products.

Wrapping Up

To conclude, back to school season is reaching and eCommerce companies are preparing their marketing strategies accordingly. This is a great opportunity for eCommerce stores to reach out to new audiences and make new customers.

It is important to note that education is something that many people give high priority to. Also, even if parents don’t spend much on themselves, they are more willing to spend on their children’s education.

We highly recommend participating in the back to school season and providing your customers with the best personalised experience. At Segmentify, we offer our customers personalised solutions to make their eCommerce companies provide better experiences to their visitors. Join us and book a free trial to try out our personalised tools before the back to school season. And make the most out of this season!