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Try These 16 Mother's Day Marketing Ideas and Watch Your Sales Grow
Say goodbye to Valentine’s Day, Women’s Day; here comes another popular and important holiday, Mother’s Day, celebrating approximately 2.2 billion mothers in the world. Held on the second Sunday in May in the US, Mother’s Day is among the most exciting times of the year for mothers, families, and especially eCommerce store owners.
In 2024, a survey conducted by National Retail Federation revealed that 84% of US adults celebrated Mother’s Day, with total spending of $33.7 billion which is expected to reach higher in 2025.
Historical total Mother’s Day spending in the US. Source: National Retail Federation
Flowers, cards, clothes, jewelry, or special outings are among the most hot-ticket items on this special day. However, while consumers are more willing to spend on something unique to give their special women, merchants are busy listing out actionable marketing ideas for Mother’s Day to get their stores noticed.
As an eCommerce store owner, are you looking for some brilliant Mother’s Day marketing ideas to make the most out of this lucrative holiday? If yes, then this article is for you.
When is the best time to start Mother's Day marketing?
Mother's Day in the US is celebrated on the second Sunday in May. Therefore, the exact date changes each year. To determine the optimal start date for your marketing campaign, you need to know the specific date for the year you're planning for.The best time to start Mother's Day marketing depends on your target audience and marketing channels, but a good rule of thumb is to begin at least 6-8 weeks before the actual date. This allows ample time for your message to reach your audience, generate interest, and drive sales. Starting earlier gives you more time for A/B testing different creative and messaging approaches.
However, you can consider a phased approach:
- 6-8 weeks out: Begin with broader awareness campaigns, focusing on building excitement and anticipation around Mother's Day.
- 4-6 weeks out: Refine your messaging, targeting specific demographics and product categories. Start running more targeted ads and promotions.
- 2-4 weeks out: Increase marketing frequency and intensify your promotional efforts. Run contests, offer limited-time discounts, and utilize email marketing to drive conversions.
- 1 week out: Focus on last-minute gift ideas and reminders, focusing on urgency and convenience.
Best Mother’s Day Marketing Ideas to Get Your Store Noticed!
1. Offer Mother's Day Gift Sets/Bundles
During holiday seasons, people are more willing to spend lavishly buying gifts for the special people in their lives; therefore, taking the value of the gift aside, customers pay more attention to the gift packaging and presentation that show how carefully the gift is arranged and how thoughtfully the giver is. Multiple small items put together in a specially-packaged gift box allow the giver to express their sincerity to the recipient, making them feel more special, valued, and cared for.
That’s why beautiful-looking gift sets in nice packaging that are customized for Mother’s Day and set at a reasonable price are definitely more appealing for gift shoppers than separately put items.
Make your stores stand out while having a chance to cross-sell your products by creating curated gift sets that include a variety of your top-selling products, all packaged together in a beautiful gift box.
Additionally, help those gift hunters out by creating a page that showcases the perfect selection of Mother’s Day gift bundles to customers. Try to offer these gift sets at a discounted price and promote them prominently on your website.
The Body Shop offers diverse Mother’s Day gift sets.
If you are new to product bundling, check out our guide to product bundles and start your Mother’s Day marketing campaign now.
2. Create Personalized Gift Options
Personalization is a great marketing idea for all special events and holiday seasons. By allowing customers to customize or personalize their gifts for their loved ones, you are showing them that you care about their needs and expectations, thus making them stay with your stores and increasing your sales. According to a survey by Epsilon and GBH Insights, 80% of the respondents say personalized experiences increase the chance they make a purchase.
Learn more: How to Sell Personalized Items on Shopify in 2023
Why that? As humans, we are prone to feeling unique when receiving something one-of-the-kind, something made especially for us. An engraved necklace, a custom-designed shoe, or an embroidered t-shirt, all deliver a feeling of uniqueness to anyone who receives it.
As a store owner, your mission is to delight your customers, because happy customers will become loyal customers. So, make sure to add personalized gift options, such as custom jewelry or monogrammed bags, to your Mother’s Day campaign ideas, and don’t forget to promote these options through social media and email marketing.
In addition, to help these gift shoppers save a few minutes surfing around, provide them with a custom gift guide that displays clear instructions for how customers can personalize their gifts.
Learn more: Shopify custom product guide
There are various types of customizations, depending on your types of products:
- Custom-designed items: Offer customizations on certain items which allow customers to personalize or modify the item based on their preferences, such as styles, colors, or other special features like symbols, names or signatures.
- Engraved plate applications: Allow customers to engrave any name, signature, or favorite words on products.
- Customized gift wrap: Offer customized gift wrap options that feature photos or messages from customers.
- Gift box building: Offer customized gift box options that allow customers to build their own gift box for their mothers, including a specific item, a custom-designed card, and a bag/box.
The Paper Store allows gift shoppers to build their own gifts for their moms.
3. Launch Limited Edition Products
One of the popular marketing strategies to significantly generate sale growth and boost brand awareness is to create a sense of urgency and exclusivity at your eCommerce retail store. And this is particularly important during the holiday seasons.
One simple way to do that is to create limited edition Mother's Day products or designs that are only available for a limited time. These kinds of short-term launches can encourage those gift hunters, especially indecisive ones, to make faster decisions, because, we, by nature, all have fear of missing out.
A limited edition product specially designed for Mother’s Day which can be out of stock at any time is a highly motivating factor for many customers during special events and holidays.
Increase the sense of urgency and scarcity by adding such features on your limited gift page as countdown timers and stock counters, which can be easily designed with GemPages’ templates. By doing so, you are prompting customers to make the purchase immediately.
GemPages’ template library allows you to add multiple features such as countdown timers and stock counters.
More importantly, do not forget to promote your limited edition product options through a popup on your homepage, email marketing, and social media.
4. Offer Free Gift with Purchase
Who doesn’t want free stuff? No one, for sure.
For gift shoppers, a free gift with purchase is a great incentive to buy as it creates a feeling of getting more for the same price.
Meanwhile, for eCommerce stores, a gift-with-purchase promotion is a great way to enhance the customer shopping experience, thus increasing customer satisfaction and retention.
There are several ways to create the best gift with purchase ideas for Mother’s Day:
- A gift for any purchase at a specific timeframe
- A gift for any purchase on a selected item or within a product category
- A gift for any purchase reaching/passing the spending amount target
- A gift for any purchase reaching/passing the item quantity target
Boots offers a free gift for purchases of a selected item.
Though anyone would like free stuff, make sure you offer something that is a good fit for your brand and that customers actually want so that they are willing to spend more to get that item.
For your Mother’s Day gift-with-purchase promotion, a scented candle or a small box of chocolates may work, just be sure that you have enough stock.
If you want to offer something special for Mother's Day to make your store outstanding, a Mother’s Day recipe collection would be a perfect gift. Create a collection of recipes for special Mother's Day treats that customers can make for their moms and make the recipe collection available for free on your website.
And don’t forget to promote this offer prominently on your website, email marketing, or social media.
5. Run Mother's Day Loyalty Program
In addition to free gifts or giveaways, online shoppers are crazy about promo codes and discount vouchers, and holidays are the most exciting time of the year for those shoppers who desire to hunt these special deals or rewards.
That’s why loyalty programs during holidays are important for eCommerce businesses. By giving discount coupons or gift cards to loyal customers, you can enhance customer satisfaction and experience, thus increasing retention and boosting sales.
Tommy Hilfiger store in Gibraltar launches their loyalty program for Mother’s Day.
Besides special rewards for existing customers, offer any customers who make a purchase during the Mother's Day season a special discount or reward for their next purchase. By doing these, you are able to get the customer to make another purchase next time and increase the potential of gaining repeat customers.
Learn more: Maximize Customer Engagement and Store Sales with Shopify Automated Emails
6. Create Mother's Day E-gift Cards
On special occasions, taking aside flowers, jewelry, cards, clothing, etc., people also look for virtual gift cards or e-gift cards as last-minute gifts to their special person, as those are practical, easy to buy, and easy to give.
With that in mind, as an online store owner, make sure to offer e-gift cards that customers can purchase and send directly to their moms.
You can increase your brand visibility by creating your custom gift cards using Canva; try to make these cards a good fit with your brand.
Amazon offers a wide range of e-gift cards for Mother’s Day.
7. Offer Free Shipping for Mother’s Day
Similar to free gifts, online shoppers love free shipping. We are prone to generously spend a hundred dollars for our favorite item but would hesitate to pay a few extra dollars for the shipping fee.
Free shipping can generate more sales. Number shows that 77% of customers have abandoned their carts due to high shipping fees while 84% have completed their purchases because of free shopping.
Therefore, don’t miss out on this marketing idea for Mother’s Day to boost sales.
You can either offer free shipping on all Mother's Day purchases or set a minimum purchase amount to qualify for free shipping. The former can delight customers and increase retention, whereas the latter can encourage customers to purchase more items and increase sales.
Will and Wood Skincare prominently promotes their Mother’s Day free shipping offer on their website.
And of course, don’t forget to promote your offers on your website, social media, and email marketing.
Learn more: How to do free shipping on Shopify
8. Upsell and Cross-Sell for Mother’s Day
Upselling and cross-selling both aim at boosting sales by increasing the average order value (AOV). While cross-selling suggests related products to customers that are making a purchase, upselling encourages them to purchase an upgraded/premium version of the item they originally targeted at.
If you already have a well-set website, a loyal customer base, and great marketing ideas, it’s now time to use upselling and cross-selling techniques to boost your sales further during holidays.
Employ these two sales techniques to suggest related products that may be of interest to customers purchasing Mother's Day gifts. This can increase the average purchase value and boost sales.
Check out how Adidas, a popular manufacturer of shoes and sporting goods, uses upselling and cross-selling on its website.
Adidas employs the cross-selling technique to boost sales.
There are several ways to use upselling and cross-selling effectively to make the most out of this Mother’s Day. Check out this GemPages article for a complete guide on How To Use Product Recommendation On Your Shopify Store to Boost Sales?
Learn more: How to Upsell on Shopify: 7 Proven Tips with Examples (2023)
9. Create Mother's Day DIY Project tutorial
Once again, people love personalization. No matter what kind of present it is or how much it costs, a present made especially for someone always has its own value. A customized item or a handmade gift will give the recipients a feeling of specialness and uniqueness.
Depending on the products you sell at your store, if your goodies can be put together into a DIY project to make great gifts, then here is what you should do.
Create a DIY project tutorial that customers can use to create a special Mother's Day gift for their moms. The tutorial should showcase the perfect selection of products and clear instructions on how to combine all these store-bought items into a perfect gift.
Source: Freepik
The tutorial can be available in form of written articles, videos, or infographics, whatever works for you but make sure they are engaging and easy to share.
Remember to make the tutorial available for free on your website and promote it through email marketing and social media.
10. Use Social Media to Your Advantage
Another great Mother’s Day marketing idea for your online business is to employ social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Tiktok.
People are now spending more time daily on social networks than on television; therefore, creating marketing content on your social account to introduce new products, events, or special offers for the holiday allows you to reach a significant number of people within seconds, thus increasing your brand visibility and generating sales.
There are various types of content to post on social media, but written articles (27%), videos (26%), and images (24%) are revealed to be most effective at customer engagement, in comparison with promotions, infographics, quizzes, and webinars.
For example, use Instagram/Facebook stories to showcase your Mother's Day products and encourage customers to share their own Mother's Day celebrations.
Also, you can increase audience engagement while gaining new followers by creating a social media contest or giveaway which offers a discount code or prize for customers who share the most liked messages to their mothers. And don’t forget to ask them to tag your brand.
Check out this cool contest on Twitter from Orchard World, the UK’s top fruit supplier.
Enter our Mother’s Day competition and you could be winning a real treat for that well deserving mum.
— OrchardWorld.Produce (@OrchardWorld_) February 17, 2023
Simply, like, follow and tag 4 friends in the comments section to enter.
Visit our website https://t.co/Zwk7HQWS5i
to find our full T&Cs.
Ends Midnight on 7th March 2023. pic.twitter.com/1zaQHYHlxF
11. Run An Effective Advertising Campaign
Advertisement is a no-go in your Mother’s Day promotion campaign.
Of course, setting up an advertising campaign is not as easy and low-cost as social media marketing or email marketing. In order to generate sales, it requires a financial investment; however, advertising is a great marketing idea to deliver your messages to your target audience who are interested in your products and have greater potential to become a customer.
Run an ads campaign to boost your sales and brand awareness. Remember that there is no way your competitors would miss out on this marketing idea, so it's important to keep up to remain competitive.
In order to have an effective advertising campaign this Mother’s Day, here are several strategies you can use:
- Identify your target audience
- Evaluate your existing brand visibility
- Hire skilled professionals for high-quality ads
- Set up the right time and place for your ads
- Boost reach on social media ads
- Evaluate your advertising strategy
- Set up your ads in different angles
- Combine with content marketing and email marketing
Learn more: How to Grow Your Shopify Email List with Website Popups?
12. Run Mother's Day Email Campaign
In addition to popups on your website or Mother’s Day interactive posts on social media, don’t forget to promote your products and all the special offers that your stores are running through email marketing.
Email marketing is here to stay as it is a low-cost and powerful marketing option. Email offers direct and personalized communication to your target customers, easily getting them up-to-date with anything new or special at your store, especially during the holiday season.
A McKinsey & Co. survey reveals that when it comes to customer acquisition, email is 40% more effective than social media, namely Twitter and Facebook.
Create an email campaign that features your Mother's Day products and includes all your special offers or discount codes. Make sure to segment your email list to target customers who are likely to be interested in your Mother's Day products.
Ann Taylor’s email marketing idea for Mother’s Day
More importantly, make sure to create mobile-friendly emails; you don’t want your customers to miss out on your offer just because they cannot read it while using their smartphones.
Also, regardless of any Mother’s Day email marketing ideas you use, try to include graphics in your emails, as emails with graphics are revealed to easily capture customers’ interest and are more likely to generate clicks than emails without any.
13. Craft Mother's Day marketing campaigns with emotional depth
Make your Mother's Day ads focus on the feelings of love and appreciation associated with the holiday. Share stories about moms and families to connect with people on an emotional level. A video showing different kinds of moms or stories from customers about great Mother's Day gifts would be really effective. This way, you're not just selling something, you're reminding people of what Mother's Day is all about.
14. Partner with nonprofits
Partnering with a charity that helps mothers or women is a win-win. It helps the community and makes your company look good to customers. You could donate some of your sales or create a special product to support the charity. People like to buy from companies that do good, so it's a great way to show you appreciate moms and help others at the same time.
15. Host a simple event
To celebrate Mother's Day, you could host a free event for your customers. Offer free food and drinks, music, and a raffle. Set up a fun photo booth where people can take pictures and share them online. Give away small gifts or have a craft activity where people can make Mother's Day gifts.
16. Have a countdown
To encourage quick action, use a countdown timer on your website and social media to show customers exactly how much time they have left to get your Mother's Day deals. Regular reminders in your posts will also help create a sense of urgency and encourage purchases before the offer ends.
Make This Mother’s Day Memorable For You and Your Customer!
Another holiday season is coming to town and is here for you to conquer.
Mother’s Day is a popular and important holiday for children worldwide to honor their beloved moms, and a great commercial opportunity for eCommerce businesses to grow their stores.
As an eCommerce store owner, you do not want to lag behind and miss out on the chance to implement the best marketing ideas and make the best campaign that your customers greatly enjoy.
First, diversify your gift options, from gift sets, personalized gifts, and limited edition products, to e-gift cards and handmade gifts. Then run effective marketing campaigns, from free gifts with purchase, loyalty programs, free shipping, and product recommendation to social media, advertising, and email marketing.
Each Mother’s Day marketing idea has its own room to take effect. All you need to do is start setting up your Mother’s Day campaign now and make this your best holiday ever.
FAQs About Mother’s Day Marketing Ideas
