27 Engaging Mother’s Day Marketing Ideas

Mother’s Day is a special time of year for moms and kids across the country. But did you know it’s also one of the most important commercial holidays for your business?

Mother’s Day is one of the most important shopping holidays in Australia, besides Christmas and Easter. In fact, Mother’s Day spendings have been calculated at $1.2 billion in 2021.¹

So, while you gear up to celebrate all the moms out there, we’ve collated some Mother’s Day marketing ideas and promotions to help boost your business. Read on to find out ways you can promote your products and services in time for the big day.

1. Create a Mother’s Day Gift Guide

Gift guides make it easier for busy family members to quickly scan through and find the perfect Mother’s Day present. They’re ideal for capturing the attention of last-minute gift buyers and the millions of potential customers scrolling online.

You can create a Mother’s Day gift guide in various digital formats, such as:

• Email – send your guide to your mailing list to engage existing customers
• PDF – host the guide on your website and make it easy to share
• Blog post – create an optimized article that targets Mother’s Day keywords related to your brand
• Infographic – create an eye-catching digital design and post it on your social channels

2. Bundle Products and Services

Looking for a smart Mother’s Day promotion? Why not bundle hand-picked products and services together to make the perfect holiday gift for moms everywhere? This idea can be used for:

• Spa treatments
• Beauty salons and products
• Restaurant offers
• Cooking classes
• Retail stores – in-person and online

This idea also makes it easy for busy people to snap up a great gift, without having to shop around different retailers. Consider offering packages at a discount, compared to buying everything separately.

3. Mother’s Day Partner Programs

A partnership with another business is the ideal opportunity to increase your brand awareness and, at the same time, addressing new customer segments. When it comes to finding the right partner for your Mother’s Day campaign ideas, it’s important to keep away from the direct competition, as both sides should be able to benefit from the arrangement. Are you running a culinary business? You can always combine your Mother’s Day special with an offer in cooperation with a nearby climbing gym or any sports facility. Creative combinations can lead to greater success. Challenge your business and create a unique offer for adventurous mothers.

4. Offer Special Discounts to Kids

So many kids save up to buy something special for Mother’s Day every year. But it can be disheartening for them to be priced out of items they know their mom would love.

A couple of Mother’s Day advertising ideas that could help target younger demographics are:

• Special discounts for kids under 18 – proof of identification would be required
• A bespoke range of discounted items that let them find the perfect gift for mom

5. Promote a Gift-Wrapping Service

If you offer gift wrapping during the holiday season, why not on Mother’s Day? You’ll make your customers’ lives easier and potentially attract more patrons with a personalised service.

Promote gift wrapping options across your website, so people know the option is available when browsing and making an order – adding it to your product pages can really help here. You should also mention the service on any online advertising banners or social ads, to help spread the word.

6. Run a Groupon Campaign

Our survey shows that 80% of Australian based Groupon customers that plan to celebrate Mother’s Day will be shopping for that special day. Of those shopping, 91% plan to spend as much or more than last year — and with millions of active customers, that’s a lot of potential revenue!² This makes a Groupon campaign the perfect way to promote your Mother’s Day deals on gift baskets, gift cards, fancy dinners, wine subscriptions, or any special experience that’ll show Mom how much she’s appreciated.

By running a Groupon campaign, you can:

• Raise brand awareness
• Expand your business reach
• Attract local customers
• Build repeat business after Mother’s Day

Start growing your audience and customer base during one of the most lucrative times of year by signing up to become a become a Groupon Merchant.

7. Recognise Your “Mom” Customers

If you know which of your customers are moms, send them a special thank-you card via email and enclose a coupon for them to spend with it, too. You could even go the extra mile and send it through the mail if they are signed up for postal communication.

This small Mother’s Day promotion will certainly be remembered and is a great viral marketing technique. It shows you care about your customers and could result in a burst of word-of-mouth publicity.

8. Hand Out a Free Gift to Moms

Free gifts are always appreciated, whatever the occasion – but particularly when Mother’s Day arrives. Think of small items that can bring a smile to their day, such as a complimentary:

• Cup of coffee
• Glass of bubbly
• Pampering treatment
• Skincare product

You could even get a little more creative, introducing things like:

• Free meals for mothers when dining out with their family
• Couples’ spa days where mothers can enjoy a treatment on the house

9. Hold a Mother’s Day Giveaway Promotion 

If you expect steady traffic on Mother’s Day, consider giving away special gifts or discounts throughout the day. Here are a few examples of how you might do this online or in-person:

• Use Mother’s Day posts to share business promo codes on your social channels that are limited to the first 10 respondents
• Designating a table in your café or restaurant that will receive a free meal each hour
• Handing out a freebie in your store to every 10th mom who walks through the door

10. Host a “Moms Only” Event

Hosting a special event just for moms can really get your brand some publicity. Make it big enough to drive traffic towards your website, especially if it’s a virtual event, and exciting enough to generate a lot of interest.

Be sure to promote it heavily on social media in the weeks leading up to Mother’s Day and encourage attendees to share their experiences on their social channels too.

11. Create a Social Campaign Around a Hashtag

A great Mother’s Day marketing idea is to create a hashtag around a social campaign that encourages participation. You can do so much with it, including asking people to share their:

• Favorite picture of their mom
• Funniest mom story
• Best advice their mom ever gave them

Mother’s Day is also a great opportunity to target a younger customer segment. All it takes is an original idea and a clever hashtag related to Mother’s Day such as #PowerMom or #BusinessMom to promote your campaign on your social media channels. Did you know? Having a hashtag can double for tracking purposes. Simply follow your campaign hashtag to get a broad overview of who is sharing your content.

Are you running a Groupon campaign already? Draw attention to it by making use of your social media channels. As a Groupon merchant, your campaigns are also supported by advertising on a variety of Groupon platforms, allowing you to reach a bigger network of potential customers free of risks or additional costs.

12. Conduct a Poll of Moms and Publish the Findings

Polls are always a good way to get people talking. Even better, your brand becomes a part of the conversation. You can ask sentimental questions like:

• What do you love most about being a mom?
• What is the best Mother’s Day gift you ever received?

Or funny questions such as:

• What is the weirdest thing your kid(s) asked to have as a pet?
• How many times have your kids thrown up on you?

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all make it easy to create a poll among your followers. You can then publish your results on social media or even put the results in an infographic to share.

13. Offer a Deal of the Day Leading up to Mother’s Day

Target last-minute gift buyers with a daily deal in the week leading up to Mother’s Day. You can choose a different product or service each day and offer a special discount that only lasts 24 hours.

Get the word out on your social media and website with tailored Mother’s Day advertising and promotional banners. Explain why the product or service is so noteworthy – Is it a bestseller? Is it new? – and bring in those eleventh-hour sales.

14. A Special Offer for Working Mothers

As the overall number of women in management positions rises, working mothers and female leaders are becoming a standard worldwide. Russia and the USA are at the forefront, with between 38% and 55% of middle and senior management positions being held by women.³ In the United Kingdom, the proportion of women in management is around 37,2%.⁴

So how does a working mother feel about this day?

“I have to say as a working mum, Mother’s Day often creeps up on me! I am always so delighted that both my little girl and partner are so excited about the day too and spending it with them is always my best gift. That said a little ‘me time’ goes a long way to help with the mental and physical juggle of working and parenting; whether that’s an evening beauty treatment, a sneaky day at a spa or something that taps into my passion for horses I’m always open to some thoughtful gifting!” – Emma Coleman, Senior Director Communications GROUPON

To really stand out from the crowd, it is paramount to address working mothers with your campaign. A way to do so is by adapting your opening hours to office hours and even bringing your offers directly to their working place. A yoga session in the office or an after-hours offer can be particularly popular with career-oriented mothers.

While you are creating a special offer, don’t forget to indulge your customers with promotional goodies. A small gift for Mother’s Day creates commitment, positive word of mouth and can create return customers.

15. Launch a ‘Must-Enter’ Sweepstakes

A sweepstake can be one of the more expensive Mother’s Day advertising ideas, but it can have a big impact on your business and help you collect contacts for your mailing list. Host an entry form on your website or social media, then enter all the names into a random generator and draw a winner.

Struggling to think of the perfect Mother’s Day prize? Many moms would love to win a relaxing experience that gives them a break away from the kids. It could be something like a:

• Trip for two to a luxury resort
• Relaxing day at a spa
• Long weekend on the beach

16. Put Together a Mom-Focused Board on Pinterest

Pinterest can help you connect with your clients visually. For a board that makes an emotional impact with your customers, ask your employees to pin images that remind them of their moms and share it on your social channels.

Sprinkle in some buyable pins for your products or services, just to keep your retailing hat on, but really keep the focus on inspiration and nostalgia, to reach more people on Pinterest.

17. Offer Free Shipping as a Mother’s Day Promotion

Husbands, dads, and busy adult children everywhere will thank you for keeping shipping costs down – particularly as lots of purchases will be made online. Though this may seem like a potential hit to your revenues, in the long run, it’ll hopefully attract more people to your website.

18. Raise Money for Disadvantaged Moms

A great idea is to create a Mother’s Day fundraising campaign and donate a portion of all sales on the day to a local charity or non-profit that works with disadvantaged mothers.

Shoppers may be more inclined to choose your business if they know they’ll be helping people at the same time and will feel good about buying from your brand if it benefits moms in need.

19. Advertise a Mother’s Day Experience

Experiences are everything at the moment, with everyone wanting to make the most of their time. Promoting experiences you can’t get at home and can only be purchased around this time of year would make a smart Mother’s Day marketing idea. For instance:

• A wine shop could sell custom, private tasting classes
• A restaurant could create a very small virtual cooking class with their chef
• A boutique could sell fashion makeovers for moms

20. Offer Mother’s Day Gift Cards

For the siblings who can’t decide on a gift, or kids who want to let their Mom choose for herself, gift cards can be the saving grace of many holidays. So, if you’ve not set up a gift card policy or service, it’s maybe time to start thinking about it.

Be sure to remind your audience that you offer them and give out bonus points if gift cards are emailed upon purchase – for those last-minute gifts.

21. Host a Mom-Daughter Makeover Contest

Remember when moms everywhere would help their daughters with makeup when they were younger? Now it’s time to turn the tables.

If you’re a beauty salon and have a healthy following on social media, encourage your followers to share photos of them giving their Mom a special Mother’s Day makeover – remember to include a hashtag to promote the contest.

Don’t forget to offer incentives for people to share too, like a special promo code or giveaway.

22. Retain Customers with an Additional Offer

If you run a special Mother’s Day campaign, then don’t let that be the end of your marketing efforts. The objective of running any promotion is to encourage repeat custom, so give people another incentive to come back to you. For example, if you’re offering a:

• Free coffee for moms, hand over another free coffee voucher when they collect it
• Free drink with their meal, offer a 20% discount off their next bill
• Free beauty product, give them a discounted treatment voucher when they receive it

23. Create Mother’s Day-Themed Dishes

Do you run a café, restaurant or bar? Nothing shows moms that you care about their special day more than a themed menu for Mother’s Day.

There’s a couple of routes you can take with this Mother’s Day marketing idea:

• Rename a few of your signature dishes to make them Mother’s Day-themed
• Go all-in and create special, limited-time dishes specifically for Mother’s Day
• Curate a set menu for Mother’s Day dining and advertise it a month before for early bird bookings

24. And Don’t Forget About Cocktails

If you’re a bar or offer bar services in your restaurant, why not drop in a few unique cocktails specifically for Mother’s Day? Get your finest mixologists on the job and think about offering them as part of a bespoke menu for the occasion.

These can also be transferred to at-home cocktail kits, for mothers and families celebrating at home.

25. Sell At-Home Mother’s Day Experiences

Speaking of at-home celebrations… The recent pandemic has shown customers how to make the most of their living spaces for special events. So, make sure you have something in place for those who prefer to celebrate at home, such as:

• Create beauty treatment packages that can be used at home
• Offer takeout or collection services for set Mother’s Day meals
• Run online virtual events for experiences such as cooking or cocktail-making classes

26. Mother-Daughter Discounts

Precious family time may have been hard to come by for many in the past couple of years. Because of this, those special moments should be as accessible as possible for mothers and daughters this year.

Offering a special discount for joint bookings, such as a Mother’s Day spa treatment or makeover for two, can help bring customers in who want to celebrate together.

27. Offer Additional Hair Treatments for Moms

As your  salon’s financial margins are hopefully picking back up, why not offer additional treatments for mothers at your store? If you’re able to balance the books in time for Mother’s Day, then this could win big on your social channels.

Advertise across Instagram and Facebook that mothers can enjoy use of product samples when they come in for their usual cut and dry. Run this campaign in the weeks leading up to Mother’s Day to get the most traction among your customers.

Pick one or several of these 27 Mother’s Day marketing ideas and give your customers something to smile about. Plus, become a Groupon Merchant today for even more seasonal marketing ideas that can help grow your business at peak times of year.