Mother's Day Marketing Ideas

Words of affirmation

For a Mom with this as her primary love language, she craves specific praise for why she's a great Mom.  Cards with handwritten, lengthy notes will be most meaningful to her. 

Quality time

These Moms want undivided attention and lots of it.  A great gift for Mother's Day may be a day spent with her family doing things together.  Maybe that's going on a family bike ride, going out to a restaurant with everyone together, or planting in the garden. Maybe a great gift for her is coupons for spending time with her like going for a walk, going shopping, or out for hot chocolate. 

Receiving gifts

A Mom who feels loved by receiving gifts wants more than some thing.  She feels most loved when she recognizes that you took the time and effort to really think through and find something just for her.  Don't stop by the drug store and pick up a card and whatever you can find.  That won't get you "full credit" with her.  She wants to know that this gift was pre-planned, not purchased in haste.

Acts of service

Moms who have this as their primary love language will feel most loved and appreciated on Mother's Day if the family does some work and chores for her or gives her coupons for things like washing the car, cleaning out the garage, vacuuming the whole house, or making dinner. 

Physical touch

These Moms want lots of hugs and kisses!  

Help customers with great ideas for Mother's Day

In marketing this is called "solution selling".  It's thinking through ahead of time everything someone needs to have an enjoyable Mother's Day. 

It's what cooking magazines do. They show photos of the "Ta DA" moment of entertaining with wonderful food set in a wonderful setting with happy people enjoying or waiting to enjoy the party.  In solution selling, retailers can do this too by helping to group all the relevant products and services (those that you sell plus those from other companies you've partnered with) to help a Dad and his kids plan a perfect day or meal for their Mom. 

• Learn more about Solution Selling and Bundling Products
• Merchandising
  

Here's an example of a bundle.  What can you bundle for Mother's Day? 

• DropYourHint.com, a website that helps Mom drop clever hints to her family via email and social media which, of course, helps Dads and kids act on those hints.

• Upselling with Good, Better, Best Options
  • Get tips on how to increase sales by presenting good/better/best options. In the industry this is known as upselling.

Know this:  These ideas of solution selling and upselling work for businesses selling products as well as those selling services.  Ideally your solution should include both products and services. 

 

For instance, let's say you are a spa. What bundles can you put together for Moms who have different primary love languages?  Maybe for the Moms who most value quality time, you offer a side-by-side massage for the husband and wife and manicures for the kids.  Then you bundle that with suggestions for things to do as a family before and after the spa "event".   Or a bundle of clothes for a perfect day off with lists of fun things to do with the family like bike paths, hiking trails, boat rides, local events.  If you're selling services like a hair salon, offer a make-over for Dads.  For the Moms who value physical touch, you can offer a massage and herbal wrap package.  For the Moms who value words of affirmation, you can create a beautiful card for the family to write on with the spa gift certificate.  You get the idea!

This works for services like carpet cleaning too.  Wouldn't a Mom whose primary love language is acts of service love it if her family organized to have all the carpets cleaned for her while they were cleaning out the garage or dusting?  She's love it! 

For the Moms who love gifts, how can you help the family personalize the gift for their Mom so she will really feel some serious thought and effort has gone into this?  Maybe that's helping them put together a gift basket with things just for their Mom.  Or something that's personalized with her name on it. 

Host a promotion for "Why I love my Mom"

Get kids (and their dads) to write in for a chance to win a prize. 

Use email, text message and Facebook to get the word out.  Those are all inexpensive. 

To get more exposure, consider partnering with the local schools to donate a portion of the money raised.  Then they'll use their email lists to get the word out about your event! 

Promote all the entries.  When you choose the winner, be sure to get a good photo of the Mom with her family and submit that to the local paper.  Invite the local TV station.  They're always looking for stories during this time of year about great Moms.  Just make sure everyone feels like a Winning Mom!

• Learn about PR and how to get the press and media coverage

TIP:  consider partnering with a local radio station to set up a trade of some of your products/services for them to use as a give away to a contest on the radio about "tell me about your mom".  And/or buy ads on the radio on Thursday - Saturday before Mother's Day to reach dads with suggestions to come by for great Mother's Day gifts at your store.  You can buy radio ads that are "announcer read" spots so there's no cost to produce the ad.  You'll find all the how-to guides here on radio advertising to help you.

 

Partner with other local businesses and your local small town newspaper to create a special edition of How to Celebrate Mom on Mother's Day

Highlight local businesses with suggestions for where to take Mom for a perfect day and include ads from the local businesses

Highlight fun and interesting things like a chocolate walk to nearby local shops that sell chocolate; an art walk to galleries; a progressive meal to several different restaurants; a day of relaxation...

Run an online survey (do this on Facebook too) to ask Moms what their favorite gifts are and then send out a press release about those findings

• Online Survey Methods explains how.  You can often do this for free.

Use Facebook to post Mother’s Day gift ideas and have people vote on what they like best. 

To get more people involved, have a giveaway.  Have them do something to enter like visit your store or look through a list of products. 

You'll be collecting customer information you can use (with their permission) to contact them with your email newsletter throughout the year. 

• Learn about Facebook Advertising and Facebook Marketing

Help procrastinators!  Many husbands and kids will want ideas for Mother's Day gifts the Saturday before Mother's Day. 

Make sure your store displays and windows are set up with merchandising and signs to promote appropriate Mother's Day gifts

Use outdoor signs on the Friday and Saturday before Mother's Day to remind people what they can get for their Mom at your shop.

Send your email list something like what Borders did on the Thursday before Mother's Day. 

Subject line was great:  Yikes!  Mother's Day is Sunday - Give a Border eGift Card. 

• Want to do this?  How-to guides to help you with Email Marketing
  

Promote and offer eGift cards!  And regular gift cards. 

Partner with an organization for single Moms

Host an event for a charity that helps single Moms at your store or restaurant.  Or host an event at the food bank and invite people to come help others.

Promote this event in your email newsletter to your customers.  Don't have an email newsletter?  This is a really cost-effective way to stay top-of-mind with your customers and generate more repeat business as well as referrals. 

• Email Marketing How-to Guide

Take good quality photos of the event and send the best photo into the local paper with the names of the people in the photo who are from the local community.

Partner with a local elementary school

The teachers usually create some project for the kids to do as a gift for Mother's Day.  How can your business appropriately sponsor something like this?  If you're a local nursery, can you donate flowers the kids can plant in pots they decorate for their Moms?