Listen to our podcast on this subject right here
Regardless of whether you’re a service or product-based business, these tips will absolutely help you in the run up to the day.
IDENTIFY YOUR TARGET MARKET
While mothers will be the end-users of your services or products, you need to consider who will be buying from you: will it be her children? Grandchildren? Partner? Or are you pitching it as a self-love kind of offer where she treats herself this year? It could very well be a combination of these groups - but ultimately, identifying who the key purchaser is in this equation is the first place to start before you launch any type of campaign.
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Shot & Styled by Shout & Co. for Auckland Art Gallery
MESSAGE
Linked to your target market is honing your communication message. Marry your understanding of your target audience with what you know about your end-user to create an irresistible message. For example, targeting her children will have a very different message to when you target her partner: “score brownie points with Mum this year by buying her this!” vs “show her how much you love her with this!”. While this is just an illustrative example, it just goes to show you that while the end-user is the same person, your message needs to be tailored to who’s actually buying your goods or services.
Jot down some ideas of the key words that you could use to refine your message. You might look at things like: love / joy / thank you / treat / gift / etc.
These keywords will come in handy in a variety of ways:
Use them to flesh out your message
Incorporate them into your calls to actions
As SEO keywords on your product pages (this is ideally something you should build in months ahead as SEO is a slow burn)
Titles / headings for your ads
Graphics for your text tiles or social media images
PHOTOGRAPHY / IMAGERY
Once you know WHO you’re targeting with your communication strategy for Mother’s Day, you can start working on WHAT you’re communicating to them with. Create beautiful imagery that motivates and inspires purchasers and clients to take you up on your offer. Remember, there will be hundreds - if not thousands - of brands vying for your customer’s share of wallet so you need to stand out. We’ve found - without exception - that beautiful imagery is one of the top ways to do that. Here are some ways to create inspiring photography:
Incorporate flowers - nothing says MOTHER’S DAY like a beautiful array of blooms. But don’t limit your thinking to the fresh variety - paper / origami, dried, chocolate…. flowers come in all shapes and sizes
Hire models that represent your end user - in this case the mums (not the purchasers). They want to see their mum represented in the imagery to nudge them in your direction
While the traditional colours for Mother’s Day are soft pastels and whites, why not turn this approach upside down and inside out by using the current on-trend colour palettes instead: earthy tones and brights are particularly prevalent in the world of product photography - always using your brand colours as your guide
Props make it: your selection of props needs thought and creativity. They will largely be influenced by your colour palette: if you’ve chosen an earthy palette for your imagery, go with dried flowers and soft linens - they’ll create a cohesive look. For pinks and pastels, try buttery soft satins. For brights, so with fun fans or cut out shapes to create movement.
Layout: create your scene to shoot in landscape, square and portrait so that you can use these images in your newsletter marketing, social media, ads and instagram stories.
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Shot & Styled by Shout & Co. for Auckland Art Gallery
PROMOTION / OFFER
If you’re offering a once-off / limited edition product or promotion for Mother’s Day, let your audience know that. Use words like “exclusive” / “limited edition” / “limited time offer” / “offer expires” to encourage uptake.
ADS
Creating effective ads can only be done once you have a clear target audience, message, call to action and brilliant imagery. Create a variety of ads geared towards your various target audiences - for each one, tweak the message to suit their motivators, update the call to action to suit the message and change out the imagery. Keep an eye on your ads to see which ones are resonating with your audience and which ones aren’t converting.
NEWSLETTERS
You may consider tweaking your regular newsletter design to take into account your Mother’s Day-specific imagery. Layer in the beautiful new images you’ve taken, incorporate your message, call to actions and send it out to the various subsets of your mailing list. To really nail your newsletters:
Send out a mailer NOW to let them know your Mother’s Day offer
Send to them on the 2nd to last day of delivery cut offs
And send to them again just before delivery cut off (You may even send to non-openers so that you’re not over-sending to those who have already bought into your message)
Send out a curated email to those who have bought from you before - they’ve already bought into your business offer before
Don’t forget about your abandoned carts either! Nudge them along to finish your purchase - video works really well to encourage finalizing their purchase
If you already have one in place, update your nurture sequence in the run up to Mother’s Day to talk up your offer. If you offer a subscriber discount, this might come in handy to encourage uptake. After Mother’s Day, return your nurture sequence to it’s regular programming
Use a hook to get more newsletter subscribers: whether that’s a Mother’s Day offer that’s exclusive to subscribers or a signup discount - make it visible and enticing
GIVEAWAYS
They’re a useful mechanic but buyer, beware. Giveways can often net you loads of new followers and subscribers but you might find many of them unfollowing or unsubscribing after the giveaway has closed. Create a giveaway that builds loyalty. Users absolutely don’t want to have to jump through dozens of hoops to enter either - keep it nice and simple! Here are a couple of ideas:
Ask audiences to share an emoji that shows what fun things they love doing with their mum
Encourage audiences to share funny stories about their mum
Create a niche hashtag for this event - something that incorporates your business name into it so that’s branded. E.g. #ShoutAndCoMothersDayCelebration. Ask your audience to use it on their mum-related stories etc
Let them know that for a bonus entry into the draw, they can tag their mum (but it’s not a condition of entry)
These tips don’t just cover Mother’s Day - use them to inform all of the major social events in the calendar that matter to your business!
Need help with your event campaigns? We have a wealth of experience working on, developing and managing marketing campaigns after many years spent on the corporate world. Get in touch!
How are you preparing your brand for Mother’s Day? Have you got any special offers or promotions on? Share them with us below!
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