Mother’s Day email marketing can take your business sales to the next level if you play your cards right.
Think about this: it’s a day when people are eager to spend big on gifts for the mothers in their lives. Lucky for you, you have just the right product or service to help put a smile on these women’s faces–and what better way to spread the word about this product than through email?
For that reason, today’s guide will cover everything you need to know about planning and executing a stellar Mother’s Day email marketing campaign.
Let’s start with some background information:
Mother’s Day celebration
Anna Jarvis, the founder of Mother’s Day, envisioned it as a day of simple and sincere celebration. She imagined a day when everyone comes together, wearing a white carnation badge and expressing their gratitude to their mothers. But today, Mother’s Day has become much more than that.
Over the years, the holiday has grown to be a real retail juggernaut. These days, people prefer to express their love by showering their mothers or mother figures with gifts. In the US, for instance, spending on Mother’s Day gifts reached as high as $35.7 billion in 2023. That’s twice as much as people spent in 2011, according to the National Retail Federation:
On average, each household celebrating Mother’s Day spent up to $274.02 on Mother’s Day gifts in the same year. And this trend has been consistently rising since 2018, despite the pandemic.
If there’s anything the data mentioned so far shows, it’s that Mother’s Day is sitting on money- lots of it. Your competitors understand this fact too. That’s why you need something extra to increase your share of the Mother’s sales. So let’s look at the perfect Mother’s Day email ideas to make that happen in the next section.
Related: What is email marketing?
8 Mother’s Day email marketing ideas
Now, how do you get the business of those looking to win the hearts of their mother figures with gifts? Here are eight effective email marketing campaign ideas to try this Mother’s Day:
1. Use social proof to boost conversions
A Mother’s Day present isn’t something people rush to decide on because of how special the day is. Oftentimes, they need lots of reassurance to make sure they’re choosing something their moms would love and appreciate.
Why not bring them this reassurance by incorporating social proof into your emails? This approach can help you increase their confidence in your product and motivate them to buy from you.
One of the most effective ways to use social proof in your Mother’s Day marketing emails is by including customer testimonials. When your prospective customers see how satisfied people are with your product, it’s natural for them to think, “If other people are embracing your offering this much, you must be doing something right.” So, they’ll be more likely to trust your product to be the right choice for them.
So, seek customer reviews and testimonials and incorporate them into your Mother’s Day emails like Ibex did below.
However, if you don’t have any reviews yet, ask your previous customers to give you some feedback via email. By the way, you can use our AI email generator to generate a personalized feedback request email for this within seconds.
Another thing to remember is to ensure the testimonials you use are relevant to the occasion. So, prioritize the reviews you get from women–it is even better if you can get reviews from moms. After all, the holiday is all about them. This also gives the person buying the product a good idea of how it fits their mom.
Also, you don’t have to limit yourself to reviews. You can use other forms of social proof like notable recognitions and awards. That’s effective social proof you can leverage to build trust.
Consider this example: Resy, a restaurant reservation service, didn’t shy away from mentioning they’re a James Beard Award finalist in their Mother’s Day gift guide.
Note that the James Beard Award is very reputable in the hospitality industry. So, when a company with such prestigious recognition recommends a restaurant for Mother’s Day, customers are more likely to trust and follow their recommendation.
2. Incorporate UGC for authenticity
User-generated content (UGC) is any content your customers create, featuring your product or service. This could be an image, videos, or even blogs about how they use and enjoy your offerings. Adding this content to your email is another form of social proof you can leverage to tell prospects that real people like your products.
How can you get your hands on this content? Well, simply ask your customers to share them with you. For instance, you can create a motherhood-themed UGC contest on social media. This could feature a theme where moms share their videos or images using your products.
When submissions start trooping in, make sure you go for the ones showcasing your brand positively and creatively. Then, proceed to feature them in your emails.
You can see how Lululemon does this below, for example. It features a UGC of what seems to be a mom and her children using its product in their natural elements:
One more thing. Before you use any UGC for your campaign, be sure to seek permission from the creator. This seems like a small gesture, but it can help you avoid any copyright or other legal issues down the line.
3. Create an attractive banner
Your email banner design is the first thing recipients see when they open your email. You definitely don’t want that to be poorly designed or low quality. Otherwise, the recipient might lose interest and miss the message you’re trying to pass. That’s why the appearance of your banner is extremely important.
So, start by paying attention to the images you use. Don’t rely on stock images because they often come across as generic or impersonal. Instead, invest in high-quality and professional product photography to showcase your product in the best way possible. You can add some Mother’s Day touch to it as well by featuring images of moms.
Check out this example from Cozy Earth.
Another thing you’ve probably noticed from the image above is the brilliant use of colors. Play around with colors to create striking or harmonious effects. Just be careful so you don’t deviate from your brand identity. And most importantly, ensure that your call to action has a color that pops out from the rest.
Enough about colors, you also want to keep your layouts balanced and simple. Let’s go back to Cozy Earth’s design. You’d find lots of white spaces, allowing the texts to breathe. That’s something you should emulate.
Speaking of texts, make sure your fonts vary in size, weight, and even style to create a sense of hierarchy. For example, your headline can be in a large, bold font, while your subheading can be in a lighter one.
4. Be Sensitive
Always bear in mind that not everyone is happy to celebrate Mother’s Day. It can be a struggle for children without mothers or even a mother who just lost a child. You have to be sensitive to this fact while launching your Mother’s Day email campaign.
A good idea would be to give your subscribers a chance to opt out of Mother’s Day-related emails before rolling out your campaign. Do this by sending them an email containing an opt-out link like Postable did below.
People remember this kind of gesture. And it can go a long way in strengthening your brand image and fostering positive relationships.
Also, note that things can change from one Mother’s Day to another. So, you can also send an email to those who have initially opted out to find out if they’ll want to remain opted out or not.
5. Offer free shipping
Consider this scenario: you just found the perfect product online. But when you get to the checkout page, you discover some additional fees, including shipping fees. Well, if you’re like 47% of other online shoppers, you’ll probably abandon your cart at this point.
That tells you shipping fees can be a real pain for online shoppers who are looking to make their mother figures happy. Taking this pain away, even if it’s just for two days like Everlane, can greatly increase their chances of buying from you.
You can also use free shipping to increase your average order value. Consider setting a condition where shoppers can only enjoy free shipping when they’ve spent a particular amount. 47% of consumers don’t mind spending more to meet this amount, as long as they get free shipping.
6. Give a memorable experience
According to the National Retail Federation research mentioned earlier, one out of three shoppers prefers giving their mother figures a gift of experience on Mother’s Day.
What this tells you is that beyond just gifting items, some customers want experiences that can help them create lasting memories with their moms. Why not suggest some experiences they can try out while highlighting the role your product or service plays in them?
See this example from Allset, a food pickup service. In their Mother’s Day emails, the brand suggested several ways people can spend more time with their moms. And of course, with food from them as the perfect gift to make the idea work:
So, if you sell a dress for instance, you could suggest something like a date night, including dresses moms can wear for that. This way, buyers feel like they’re not just getting a product, but also an experience.
7. Inject humor in your messaging
Your Mother’s Day email subscribers would definitely appreciate a good laugh. Also, it’s easier to break the ice and instantly connect with your audience when you introduce humor into your messaging. This makes them more likely to engage with your emails until the end.
Aēsop, for example, featured a light-hearted joke about the mischief toddlers are known for and some funny moments shared with mothers in their email messages.
There’s a lot to learn from the example above. For one, limit your jokes to specific places in the email. This could be the main copy, the email subject line, or even the headline. A few well-placed jokes are better than puns littered everywhere.
You should also keep your humor lighthearted. Avoid offensive or insensitive jokes that could alienate your audience. If you ever doubt whether a joke would offend your audience, just leave it out of your campaign.
8. Personalize your email messaging
Our email marketing benchmark report showed that personalized emails outperform generic ones by a mile in terms of open rates and click-through rates. So, personalization is critical if you want subscribers to click on your emails and buy from you.
But before you can personalize your offers and messages effectively, you have to conduct some research to segment your audience. We’ll cover this later on. Then, target each segment with offers and messages that match their needs.
Let’s say you run a bakery selling fruitcakes, pecan cakes, breads, etc. From your research, you might discover that a segment of your subscribers would prefer getting fruitcakes as gifts for their loved ones.
With this insight, you may proceed to target this particular segment with fruitcake-related Mother’s Day messages. That’s what Collin Street Bakery did in the example below:
You may also discover that certain audience segments have always spent less than $100 when they buy from you. With this in mind, you can consider their financial status and target them with the best Mother’s Day gift offers under $100. This will be more relevant to them which increases the chances of conversions.
6 steps to create a Mother’s Day email marketing campaign
You’ve seen examples of amazing Mother’s Day emails. Let’s now look at six effective steps to help you create a winning email marketing campaign for your own brand.
1. Identify your goal
Before you can create any successful Mother’s Day email marketing campaign, you need to know what success looks like. And that’s only possible if you approach the campaign with a goal in mind.
Your desired outcome for a Mother’s Day campaign could be to boost sales, increase brand engagement, or even strengthen relationships with customers. Note that you can have more than one of these goals, as long as they are aligned and realistic.
With a goal in mind, it’s also easier to determine the best Mother’s Day email campaign to go for. Mind you, since you can have more than one goal, you can also roll out more than one campaign type. We’ll get to this in a second.
2. Finalize your target audience
You don’t want to send out your emails blindly to anyone. Doing this will only drain your time and resources. That’s why you need to have a broad idea of who your ideal audience is and what floats their boat. This allows you to create content that’s relevant and appealing to them.
Finding out who you’re targeting requires research. Begin by gathering data about your current customer base. Their information can give you a clue of the people you should be targeting.
You can gather this data by sending your customers surveys or analyzing the data you already have in your CRM systems. From there, you can discover demographic or behavioral patterns like:
- Age
- Purchase history
- Brand engagement
Use this information to create super personalized campaigns for the best outcomes. For example, you can use the purchase history to recommend relevant Mother’s Day gifts to each recipient.
3. Pick the type of campaign
Now, it’s time to choose the right campaign, i.e., the kind of email you want to send to your target audience. Some popular examples include the following:
- Promotional emails: their purpose is to generate urgency, interest, or sales of a particular product with Mother’s Day special offers
- Engagement emails: you can send these emails to deepen relationships with customers. For example, you can send heartwarming motherhood content, such as stories or polls.
- Appreciation emails: these are sent to mothers on your list to celebrate them on Mother’s Day and make them feel special.
Ideally, your goal should determine the kind of campaign you should opt for, as said earlier. So, if the goal is to boost sales, the perfect Mother’s Day campaign choice should feature promotional emails. That means you should send emails that offer discounts, free shipping, or other incentives to persuade prospects to buy from you.
4. Schedule the emails
Scheduling your emails makes it easier for you to reach your target audience just when they’re most likely to open them.
Our study revealed that emails received by recipients around 4 am to 6 am, record the best open rates and click-through rates. That means you should try to reach your audience around this time consistently. This feat is only possible when you schedule your posts in advance.
Moreover, scheduling allows you to take a second or even third look at your emails before sending them. This ensures that your content is error-free.
Our email marketing software has a timing and time travel feature. This allows you to schedule emails and reach your audience at their preferred time (depending on their timezone) without overwhelming them.
5. Segment your list
Remember the target audiences you defined in the second step? You still need to segment them into smaller groups based on shared characteristics. This segmentation is crucial to make your emails super-personalized.
You need research to segment your list. You can simply reach out to your subscribers with a survey to gather more insights about them.
Apart from surveys, you can also analyze your customer accounts, sign-up forms, support tickets, and web analytics. This analysis can reveal valuable data like your customers’ buying behavior, purchase history, pain points, or even budget. These are valuable pieces of information you can use to segment your list.
From your research, you can, for instance, discover those who are mothers and non-mothers on your list. Then, segment them based on this criterion. So, mothers could get an appreciation email plus a recommendation of gifts they can get for themselves to celebrate the day. On the other hand, non-mothers can get suggestions of gifts for the moms in their lives.
6. Design your email poster
Here’s the final piece of the puzzle–designing your email. At the end of the day, you need a well-designed email poster to communicate your message or offer effectively.
Earlier in this guide, we’ve seen some important considerations when it comes to the fonts, clear call to action, and visual appeal of your email poster.
Beyond the aesthetics, pay attention to the user experience as well. Make sure your design renders well regardless of the device (mobile or desktop) since people can access their emails on either of them.
That brings us to the final discussion…
Popular Mother’s Day email templates
The good thing about email posters, including the ones for Mother’s Day, is that you don’t have to design them from scratch. You can take advantage of several ready-to-use email marketing templates and just edit them to your preference.
Ensure the template you choose aligns with your goal for the campaign. Don’t opt for a free shipping template when you’re running an appreciation campaign.
That said, here’s a template you can use for a discount campaign:
Here’s another option you can use if you want to recommend thoughtful gifts for Mother’s Day shoppers:
Or maybe you just want to send a simple, heartfelt message to the women on your list on Mother’s Day. This template can serve that purpose.
You can access these templates and more on our Mother’s Day template page. You can also use our beginner-friendly design tool to edit these templates.
Build Mother’s Day email campaigns with GetResponse
Mother’s Day email marketing is a sales hotspot that no serious business should ignore. People are willing to spend money to make their mother figures feel special on this day. So, presenting your product as the perfect Mother’s Day gift for them via email marketing is a no-brainer.
In this guide, we covered eight approaches to fully leveraging this marketing strategy and looked at Mother’s Day email examples to emulate. Also, the six steps shared should help you create Mother’s Day email campaigns from scratch.
Over to you now. Go ahead and use this guide to create a successful Mother’s Day campaign for your brand this year. And if you need email marketing software to support your campaign, look no further than GetResponse. Good luck.