10 Mother's Day Marketing Ideas for eCommerce Businesses
We love the mothers in our life. According to Search Engine Journal, Americans spend $21.2 billion on Mother’s Day vs $12.5 billion for Father’s Day.Not only are people buying gifts for moms, they’re buying gifts for every type of mom in their life:
- Mother or Stepmother – 63%
- Wife – 23%
- Daughter – 10%
- Sister – 9%
- Other relatives – 9%
- Grandmother – 7%
- Friend – 6%
- Godmother – 2%
(Tip: make sure to target those types of moms in your marketing)
What type of gifts are people buying for moms?
- Greeting Cards – 80%
- Flowers – 67%
- Special outings (ex: dinner) – 54%
- Clothing – 36%
- Jewelry – 34%
- Personal Services (ex: spa day) – 21%
- Electronics – 14%
- Housewares – 19%
- Books/Media – 20%
- Gift Cards – 44%
Source: TheShelf
When Should You Start Promoting for Mother’s Day
People are procrastinators. They like shopping last-minute for gifts. I usually recommend to start promoting your campaigns 3 to 4 weeks prior. It will allow people to decide what to buy and take into consideration shipping times.
List of Marketing Ideas for Mother’s Day
These ideas are perfect for retailers of all sizes. They’re easy to implement and don’t require huge marketing budgets. What’s important is to start early and plan ahead with the right tools.
1. Create a Mother’s Day Gift Shop
Launching a gift shop is one of my favorite ways of showcasing items for any type of holiday including Mother’s Day. I use tools like Wireframe.cc to plan the layout of the shop and graphic software like Canva to create visuals.Your gift shop should target the different type of moms people buy for as mentioned above while and allow shoppers to browse by price and highlight key products and categories. Don’t forget to also include beautiful lifestyle images showing actual mothers using the products.
2. Create a Mother’s Day Gift Guide
Let’s face it. Every year, we struggle finding the perfect gift for mom. I personally love it when retailers put an effort in helping me find something special to buy.Having a gift shop is perfect but sometimes, you need to assist shoppers by giving them ideas based on what type of mom they’re buying for. If mom loves yoga, she will like certain gifts vs others. If mom is an author, she will like to receive books or a Kindle as a gift.A guide should target different Mom personas (ex: yoga lover, teacher, cook, lawyer, entrepreneur, speaker) and provide gift ideas for each type.
3. Create a Mother’s Day Email Series
Email will play a big role in promoting your Mother’s Day marketing campaign.Make sure to send an email launching your gift shop with a special coupon if needed. Send an email highlighting your gift guide. Send an email that includes bestsellers or most popular items.
4. Create a Social Media Campaign Using #Hashtag
Selfies are easy to share and people love doing so. Leverage your social media network to launch a Mother’s Day giveaway by having your followers share and tag a picture of themselves with mom. This type of campaign can help raise brand awareness as well as promote your Mother’s Day gift shop or gift guide.
5. Launch a Mother’s Day Giveaway
Hosting a giveaway not only helps you raise awareness of your Mother’s Day promotions, but it’s also a great way to gain new email subscribers.Make it easy for people to join the giveaway by using popular giveaway tools.
6. Create Pinterest Boards with Mother’s Day DIYs
Another great way to support your marketing efforts during Mother’s Day is to inspire shoppers with great DIYs for mom. One way to accomplish this is by creating Pinterest boards and pinning ideas to them.From there, you can embed these boards directly onto your website and link to them within your email marketing campaigns.
7. Create Mother’s Day MEMEs & Quotes for Social Media
A creative way of raising brand awareness for this holiday is by creating fun and entertaining visuals for people to share on social media. You can use tools like Canva or Picmonkey to create Mother’s Day quotes, popular sayings, jokes or even share popular celebrity moms which inspire people all around the world.Not sure what to share, get inspired by searching Mother’s Day Quotes on Pinterest and create similar posts.
8. Create a sale with a Mother’s Day exclusive coupon
Everyone loves coupons. Create one exclusively for Mother’s Day. A coupon can offer a discount on select items or store wide discounts during your Mother’s Day promotions.This will also allow you to track the performance of your marketing campaigns.
9. Offer free shipping on select Mother’s Day Gift Ideas
An easy way to impact the sales of Mother’s Day is by giving shoppers free shipping on select items you’re promoting. It’s a great incentive that will help you highlight key products you want them to buy.
10. Create interesting Mother’s Day content without focusing on selling
Remember that not everyone is going to buy a gift from your online store. Don’t ignore those types of shoppers. Why not inspire them in making this special day even better through educational content.Share with them dessert ideas, how to write a poem for mom, how to setup the dinner table or how to clean the house while mom is resting. Be creative.
Bonus Marketing Tips for Mother’s Day
- Copywriting is key. Add references to mother’s day within all your copy including headlines
- Remind website visitors and current customers about Mother’s Day by sending out emails
- Offer convenience by bundling products to offer more value
- Create a section on your website dedicated to Mother’s Day
- Make use of Mother’s Day landing pages to support your ads across the web. Send traffic directly to them.
- Create Last-Minute email campaigns for procrastinators.
- Remember mobile shoppers who research and compare prices. Make sure your campaigns look good on mobile devices.
- Promote gift cards for last-minute shoppers
Happy Selling!