Mother’s Day is right around the corner!
Traditionally observed on the second Sunday of May in a wide array of different countries, the date as we now know it was originated in the US around 1907 by Anna Jarvis, as a way to celebrate the life of her deceased mom — Ann Reeves Jarvis, a remarkable woman in her own right, who had led and organized several women’s groups at a time when women of different social classes had very limited opportunities to come and go as they pleased.
More than a century later, Mother’s Day has morphed into not just a day where people appreciate that special lady in their lives, but also one where they shower that lady with gifts. And that’s where your online store comes in: To provide your target audience with thoughtful gifts for Mother’s Day.
The trouble is that standing out in the middle of the vast ecommerce ocean can be tricky. After all, in order to really promote a Mother’s Day campaign you’ll likely have to consider a cross-platform strategy, tackling email marketing, social media and also making some special tweaks to your store’s website.
But guess what: We’re here to help you with some Mother’s Day marketing ideas and some extra special inspiration for your next Mother’s Day campaign. Just think of us as the mom friend in your entrepreneurial journey—mom jeans and all.
Is Mother’s Day relevant for your store?
Before we show you some of the Mother’s Day marketing ideas we’ve got in store and before you start sketching out your plans for the big day, it’s worth taking a step back to stop and think:
Does having a Mother’s Day marketing strategy actually make sense for your store?
This is an important question to ask, and to find the right answer you’ll need to dive into some specifics. For instance:
- What is the common practice within your niche? The first thing you’ll need to assess is your niche, as a whole. Jewelry stores are no strangers to Mother’s Day campaigns, but perhaps a shop that sells electronic devices like wireless headphones and mechanical keyboards might struggle with a special campaign like this one.
- Have your competitors done Mother’s Day campaigns in the past? If your niche has a history of promoting good Mother’s Day marketing campaigns, then the next thing you should focus on is your competitors. Have they put out a special offer for this date over the past years? Take a look at their social media campaigns to see what they were able to achieve and evaluate what you can replicate and what went wrong.
- Can you promote Mother’s Day with your branding and tone of voice? How's your store positioned in the market? Can your mission statement and branding accommodate this type of marketing campaign? While it’s important to take part in special dates with a high sales potential, you also don’t wanna risk going too overboard with something that might seem a bit far-fetched to your target audience.
- Are your products fit to be Mother’s Day gifts? This one is also a big one to consider. While plants and crafts make up the perfect gift for moms, digital products might not necessarily be a great fit and you’ll likely struggle when the time comes to position both your products and the marketing campaign.
❤️🔥 Mother knows best: a Mother’s Day tip from Shoplazza
Having a dropshipping store or a print-on-demand store can be of great help in times like this, since you’ll have more liberty to try out new products without having to risk investing a lot of money upfront.
For instance: Let’s say you’ve already built a store that's specialized in men’s perfumes and other skincare items, like aftershave lotions and grooming. Sales are going strong and you decide it’s time to try your hand at a Mother’s Day campaign.
So what do you do? Instead of having to invest a whole lot of money in product development, you simply go to your dropshipping supplier and import a couple of women’s perfumes and colognes. Then, you market these new items as a special Mother’s Day bundle for customers who also want to gift their moms (or their partners!).
Now that we’ve cleared out the first steps, let’s take a look at some Mother’s Day marketing ideas for an online store.
Mother’s Day campaign ideas for email
Email marketing is a huge part of any store’s communication efforts. After all, it’s via email that you’re able to send out new notices about a product launch, convert abandoned shopping carts, and connect with your customers and visitors.
In terms of marketing efforts, the email strategy also stands out from the rest of the lot because it’s a powerful ally for medium and small-size shops, since it usually offers good metrics and engagement.
That’s exactly why it’s right at the top of our list for Mother’s Day marketing campaigns. And while there is a ton of content that you can create for email messages, we wanted to show you two ideas that will help your store stand out.
Be sensible
While Mother’s Day is all about love and appreciation, it can also be a painful time for those who do not have a healthy or loving relationship with their mothers or even for people who have recently lost their own moms.
So even though you’re trying to make money, it’s important to start out with empathy and honesty ― and a great way to do that is by offering your customers and visitors a chance to opt-out from receiving any messages related to a Mother’s Day campaign.
Etsy is a great example of how brands and marketplaces can acknowledge and show their support for people who struggle during Mother’s Day. Before launching their Mother’s Day messages, they sent this out to all their customers. In this example, the person who wishes to stop receiving those messages simply has to click on the black call-to-action. It’s a simple message, but it speaks volumes to the people who received it.
Create gift guides
If you’re looking for ways to boost your store traffic, consider creating special gift guides where you share some Mother’s Day gift ideas.
This is a great opportunity to showcase some of your best-selling items and those new special new arrivals, too. You can also get creative when it comes to how you’ll display the products inside the guide and think up some categories like:
- Price range: This is the more “traditional” division that you’ll usually find when browsing through gift guides. You can start with the lowest price range and then work with at least three or four different pricing categories, to showcase all the store has to offer.
This type of categorization usually helps customers identify what products they can afford, which means they’re able to quickly decide whether or not your store is capable of offering the Mother’s Day present they’re looking for. - “Mom types”: Since it’s a Mother’s Day campaign we’re talking about, why not take a fun approach to the topic and sort your gift guide according to some classic mom types? This can work really well for garment stores, for instance. You can select flowery and loose dresses for the “boho mom”, chic blazers and stilettos for the “chic mom”, fitness apparel for the “yoga mom” and so on.
❤️🔥Mother knows best: a Mother’s Day tip from Shoplazza
To make the gift guide even more enticing, consider throwing in a limited time offer or a special promo code alongside it. This will help customers make the decision to click on your call-to-actions and acquire your products.
Rupi Kaur’s gift guide for Mother’s Day is both aesthetically pleasing and a masterclass on how to showcase enticing product photos and descriptions.
Mother’s Day video for TikTok
TikTok is reaching that stage that both Facebook and Instagram reached a couple of years ago because there’s no escaping it anymore. During the past couple of years, brands have flocked to the platform and many have thrived there, creating new content that allows them to engage with their followers and customers in different and exciting ways.
So if you’re thinking about creating a social media campaign for Mother’s Day, we recommend prioritizing TikTok ― especially because it’ll allow you to explore a wide array of video marketing formats.
Take, for instance, Burt’s Bees TikTok account. Just this past month, they’ve put out two completely different promotional videos that are about moms and for moms.
The first one is a more traditional marketing video, announcing a new “Mommy + Me Matching Pajamas” collection. You can see it’s beautifully made up, and it has a really professional and businessy side to it―but, at the same time, it highlights the selling points of the product.
The second one, though, is on a completely different level and serves a completely different purpose, too. In fact, it’s the result of a partnership between the brand and influencer Shantel Smith, and you can see how the video is filled with relatable content for mom’s everywhere:
Both of these TikToks are really good examples of Mother’s Day marketing ideas, since they allow the brand to engage with their followers and customers on different levels: While the first is more “salesly”, the second one gauges the “relatable” aspect of being a mom.
Don’t forget to set up things in your shop!
Before we show you some other Mother’s Day campaigns and ideas for social media posts, it’s important to remember that your shop’s online store also needs some tweaking to accommodate your marketing campaign.
To illustrate some of the possibilities you can explore, let’s start with Anthropologie. The brand created a special “Mother’s Day Gift Shop” inside their product section, and nested that under the “New” category on their menu.
Once their customers click on that button, they’re redirected to the shop and can then sort through a pretty diverse catalog that includes bags, aromatherapy goods, jewelry, makeup, and decor items.
If you don’t think creating a whole mini shop inside your store is a feasible option for your business, you can take another page from Burt’s Bees book and concentrate on exclusive items and/or special bundles of products.
This works especially well for stores that sell items like makeup, jewelry and skincare, but it can also do wonders for those who sell plants, decor items, stationery goods, and even apparel.
You can see that Burt’s Bees also has a Baby & Mama category, where they sell exclusive products, gift sets and the baby clothes featured on the TikTok we showed earlier.
🌷Need some extra tips on website configuration? Check the following blog posts:
- How Do I Write a Great About Us Page?
- 7 Proven Heatmap Tactics to Increase Ecommerce Sales
- What Are Store Domains & Why You Need One
- How Do I Create a Good Contact Form?
Mother’s Day campaign for Facebook
Facebook has become a staple of any marketing campaign that wants to be featured on social media, and even though some stores are slowly starting to move away from it there’s no denying that it’s still a powerful tool for advertising and organic growth.
In terms of Mother’s Day marketing campaigns, our suggestion is to use Facebook to publish different types of static ads. You can do something along the lines of what jewelry brand Catbird did and post a cute thank-you video with pictures of your staff and their moms and/or mom figures:
This is a lovely way to show customers the human side of your brand, while also acknowledging your staff.
Another option is to create a visually-striking shoppable post and incorporate some of the products you already sent out in the gift guide. Stationery shop Fred Aldous, for instance, has kept their Mother’s Day campaign simple and yet irresistible:
Celebrate Mother’s Day on Instagram and Pinterest
If you think TikTok is way too new and Facebook is way too old for your ideal customers, then we suggest taking your Mother’s Day marketing ideas to Instagram and Pinterest. Both platforms rely heavily on visual content, and both offer great ways to engage with followers.
When it comes to Mother’s Day campaigns for Instagram, our suggestion is to create content that either highlights personal stories from moms that have some connection with your brand or that sends out a deeply sincere message to moms everywhere.
Case in point #1: This amazing post from Sweaty Betty ticks all the right boxes.
First, it acknowledges that motherhood comes in many forms. Then, it shares a message from an influential mom (and features her in the post). And then, invites followers to take part in a new giveaway the brand is offering.
And, to make it even more awesome, it ends with special hashtags.
Case in point #2: This carousel post is from influencer Courtney Garland Hawkins. Her Instagram is all about educating pregnant women and new mothers alike on everything related to motherhood ― from nursing hacks to warnings about dangerous toys and a whole lot more.
Her Mother’s Day campaign is simple, yet powerful. And it involves simply sending out a message to acknowledge her followers and readership, and thank them for all the good they’re doing in the world.
Mother’s Day marketing ideas for Pinterest
Pinterest, for its part, can also be used in two different ways. You can either create special boards with Mother’s Day gift ideas or use them to share content you’ve posted on other channels, like your brand’s blog or YouTube channel.
Sweaty Betty is also a good example in this case, because it uses Pinterest to announce new features on its blog. Here, we can see how the brand excels at connecting the two things that are part and parcel of any Mother’s Day campaign: the moms and the brand’s products.
🌷Wanna learn more about how you can use Instagram and Pinterest to boost your sales? Check out the posts below:
- Quick Guide: Get Ready To Sell On Social Media
- How to Write the Perfect IG Bio to Attract Followers
- How to Make Money on Pinterest: Everything You Need to Know
❤️🔥Mother knows best: a Mother’s Day tip for creating new content
Before we wrap up this guide with Mother’s Day marketing ideas, it’s also worth covering some extra tips for when you start creating content for your own campaign.
The first one is: Think up a trend that allows you to collect some user-generated content. This can be a great idea to create a very special Mother’s Day campaign, because you’ll also be helping your customers show their love in a more public manner.
A good example of engaging trends can be found on Ana-Luisa’s TikTok. The jewelry brand is constantly putting out videos that replicate some viral content, like this one:
You can take another page from Ana-Luisa’s and make videos where you share some Mother’s Day gifts according to some other trend or special event. In the TikTok below, we can see the brand recommending Mother’s Day gift ideas based on the MET Gala looks:
It’s not just about sales: It’s about caring, too
Brazilians have a saying that goes something like this: At the end of the day, mom is the person who raised you.
Simply put, it means that a mom is a person that cares for you. The one that asks you to take an umbrella with you because it might rain. The one who brings you homemade soup, just because. The person who scolds you when you do something wrong.
A mother doesn’t have to be someone that’s related to you by blood. It doesn't need to be the woman who brought you into this world―and it also doesn’t have to be a person biologically identified as female.
Being a mom is much more than that (and pet moms can certainly agree to that, too!). So we’ll leave you with this inspiring campaign that Sephora put out last year, in the hopes that it’ll illuminate your next Mother’s Day campaign.
