Mothering Sunday has become one of the most profitable events in the retail calendar. Recent years have seen UK spending top £1billion in the lead up to Mother’s Day.

Here are seven promotional ideas that can help online retailers make the most of the booming Mother’s Day market.

1. Create a Mother’s Day Gift Guide

Coming up with fresh ideas every year can be a challenge. If your website provides an inspirational gift guide for passing traffic, it might just spark an idea or prompt a browser to make a Mother’s Day purchase. If you sell products that are popular Mother’s Day gifts, make sure your list points out why you are the best retailer to buy from. Consider how you can position alternative products or experiences as potential gift options that the buyer might not have thought of.

2. Use a Mother’s Day Hashtag in Your Social Media Marketing

You should already have a solid social media marketing strategy in place that can be complemented with a Mother’s Day campaign. Creating a specific hashtag can help tie together your messaging and get people involved. You don’t want to choose a generic one – someone searching for #MothersDay will see so many results your posts will get lost among them. Instead, think about how you can tie in with your branding or create a hook. Funny or sentimental hashtags often generate high interest and engagement rates.

3. Run a Competition to Give Away a Mother’s Day Gift

A simple competition with a low barrier to entry is a very effective way to get eyes on your brand. If you have a particular product or experience you’d like to draw attention to, use a competition to showcase it and ask for a review from the lucky winner. Just be sure to check platform rules before posting your competition across social media. Running a competition can also be a great opportunity for a company that doesn’t have women as their target market to still get involved with Mother’s Day.  Collaborating with another business that can provide a suitable prize means that you can get both your brands out in front of your combined audiences. They get to showcase their product and you get to increase brand awareness.

4. Create a Mother’s Day Discount Code

You can decide how and what to discount to suit your business model. A free delivery code, money off every purchase or money off specific purchases are all possible options. Let your audience know about this through email marketing and social media channels and make it easy for them to click straight through to where they can make a purchase. This can work particularly well if you are in a highly competitive market where customers shop based on price point over other factors.

5. Encourage User-Generated Content (UGC)

As a significant number of customers get to know brands through social media, it’s a good place to drum up momentum for your Mother’s Day promotions. Encourage your audience to contribute their own UGC which has the benefit of providing content for your channels as well as fostering a sense of community among your audience. Try asking for photos of customers with their mothers, or posts about why their mum deserves a treat on Mother’s Day. Don’t forget to include a specific hashtag so you can track and highlight posts. You could even consider introducing a competition element and offering a prize for a chosen post or the post that generates the most likes.

6. Run Paid Ads to Sell Your Mother’s Day Bestseller

If you have one product, service or experience that you know would make the perfect Mother’s Day gift, consider using paid advertising to bring it to people’s attention. Of course, as with any paid advertising campaign, it’s important to plan carefully and spend wisely. Use past insights to decide which channels perform best for your business. Emotive or sentimental content can work very well in this instance. People are more likely to make an emotional purchase when prompted to think about how much they care for their mum.

7. Give Away a Free Gift with Mother’s Day Purchases

Free gifts are a great way to encourage customers to buy from you when you are selling in a crowded marketplace that relies on competitive pricing. If offering a monetary discount doesn’t fit with your business model, showing the customer how they can get added value with a free gift can be a good alternative. Go one step further and offer a choice of free gift to show that you appreciate that not all mothers are the same. Depending on the nature of your business and your target audience, you could even consider giving away a free purchase for the buyers themselves when they make a Mother’s Day purchase.

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