'Net Features : Mother's Day

Five Mother’s Day Social Strategies

Allison Howen — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:00:00 GMT

Sunday is Mother’s Day, which not only means that you still have time to pick up gifts for the most important ladies in your life, but also that brands have put their Mother’s Day marketing campaigns into full force across all social networks.

In fact, every holiday, event and change of season provides marketers with a timely promotional angle. And naturally, all brands take a different approach in their holiday-related campaigns. For example, a retailer typically promotes products as gift ideas, while content publishers create relevant content or contests to increase engagement. Yet, the best and most complete strategies combine multiple techniques in order to cater to every fan and followers’ preferences.

Website Magazine located five stellar Mother's Day social examples to offer inspiration for this holiday and future ones, too. Remember, Father’s Day is just around the corner…

Goal: Get People Talking

Brand: Seventh Generation

Social Network: Facebook

Strategy: Seventh Generation took to Facebook to ask a feel-good question and remind us how important moms are in our lives. The company’s use of an image to assist in asking the question “What is the best advice your mom has ever given you?” certainly grabs fans’ attention better than a text-based post and most likely leads to better engagement rates. Additionally, these fan interactions help Seventh Generation foster better relationships with its customers, as well as helps to increase brand awareness.

Goal: Generate Conversions

Brand: Sephora

Social Network: Pinterest

Strategy: Retailers and Pinterest go together like peanut butter and jelly, as this social network has proven to drive valuable traffic to e-commerce websites. Beauty company Sephora is taking advantage of this influential social network by creating an entire board devoted to Mother’s Day gift ideas. Not only do these featured items take visitors directly to product pages on Sephora's website when clicked on, but many of the images also include the hashtag, #mothersday, in order to increase the product's and Sephora's visibility on the pin boarding social network.

Goal: Boost Follower Numbers

Brand: ExtraTV

Social Network: Twitter

Strategy: Giveaways and contests are always a good tactic for increasing your social following, so why not combine these promotions with a timely event? Not only does this strategy from ExtraTV help the brand obtain more followers, but since the company asks for retweets, it also increases their visibility. Plus, this strategy will ultimately leave the two winning followers very happy.

We're giving away 2 @bfflco gift bags for #MothersDay! Follow @extratv & RT this message for your chance to win! bit.ly/MDWin
— ExtraTV (@extratv) May 7, 2013

Goal: Increase Brand Awareness

Brand: Google

Social Network: Google+

Strategy: Another feel-good strategy comes from Google, who has chosen to use Sunday’s holiday as a way to shamelessly promote its very own social network. That said, this video is very relatable (almost a tear-jerker), and truly shows how technology can be used to connect with the most important people in your life.

Goal: Improve Visibility and Engagement

Brand: Beats By Dre

Social Network: Twitter

Strategy: Advertisements are always a good way to increase your brand’s visibility, but Beats By Dre takes this strategy a step further by using an interactive and timely Promoted Tweet to reach new audience members. In fact, once someone clicks on the link to make a #Pillconfession (Pill is the name of one the company’s wireless speakers), they are directed to the company’s website where they can explore products and interact with the #Pillconfession campaign by posting a Mother’s Day confession either on Twitter or Facebook. Additionally, visitors can view the confessions of other consumers at the bottom of the webpage, which features an interactive collage of tweets and posts.

Got a #pillconfession? Make yours on beats.is/PillConfessTW. Apologies to moms everywhere! twitter.com/beatsbydre/sta…
— Beats By Dre (@beatsbydre) May 2, 2013

Mother’s Day Marketing Tips for Merchants

Allison Howen — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:00:00 GMT

The mother of all holidays is quickly approaching, which means that merchants should be focusing their marketing initiatives on all of their gift-giving customers.

Mother’s Day madness is in full force because the big day is less than a week away, which means that there is related content floating all over the Web – from sales and promotions to inspirational photos and videos. Let this act as your wake-up call! Although merchants should have already started their marketing campaigns, it’s not too late to get started or to step it up a few notches.

Here are three tips for implementing a Mother’s Day marketing campaign onto your website:

A Mom-optimized Website
If you haven’t already, it is time to optimize the customer experience of your website for Mother’s Day. This means featuring the best-selling and most appropriate gifts on your landing page, as well as adding a special Mother’s Day section to the top of your menu bar.

By doing this, you will cut out the guesswork for your customers and enable them to find exactly what they want. Merchants can also provide special coupon codes or free gifts for purchases that exceed a specified amount.

Nordstrom’s provides a great example of a Mom-optimized website by prominently featuring a “Gifts For Mom” section in the menu bar, as well as featuring “Mother’s Day Gifts Under $100” on its landing page. Look through your analytics data from last year at this time to see just what was driving traffic and generating sales.

Email Marketing
This is an especially good week to put your email list to good use. Merchants should be promoting last-minute gift ideas for the big day via a series of email suggestions. Remember to use catchy subject lines that convey both the immediacy and importance of finding the perfect gift.

I have been the recent recipient of many Mother’s Day-themed emails, including this Smashbox message, which reinforces the limited amount of shopping days left and prominently features free shipping – which could be the determining factor of a sale.

Social Media Marketing
Social Media is a marketer’s best friend, especially for pushing sales when there is limited time left to make purchases in time for a holiday. If you are lucky enough to be one of the first businesses with the Facebook Offer feature at your disposal, waste no time in taking advantage of it this week by offering a coupon that will push them to your website and/or brick-and-mortar store.

Additionally, aside from normal promotions on social sites like Facebook and Twitter, merchants can leverage newer sites to step up their social game. For example, merchants can create a Mother’s Day pinboard on Pinterest to keep consumers thinking about the holiday and encourage gift ideas.

Nine West not only used this strategy for Mother’s Day, but also made a contest out of it by enabling website visitors to win gifts after they have followed the company on Pinterest and re-pinned images from the “Nine West Hearts Mom” board.

Mother's Day Shoppers Trust VeriSign Seal

Linc Wonham — Fri, 07 May 2010 13:15:00 GMT

Lesser-known e-commerce businesses are taking advantage of the new VeriSign Trust Seal to give Mother’s Day shoppers added incentive to visit their sites before the holiday. The world’s most recognized online trust mark, the seal costs less than $25 per month and ensures daily malware scans and the Seal-in-Search feature that instantly recognizes trusted sites in search results.

Merchants such as Momma’s Candy Store, BeautiCreams.com and Chef’s Resource are among those looking to increase customer confidence, traffic and conversions in the days leading up to Mother’s Day. “We want customers to know that they can do business with us and have confidence in us,” said Kandice Sullivan, owner of Momma’s Candy Store.

Priced at $299 for a one-year license, the VeriSign Trust Seal indicates that a website has passed VeriSign’s daily malware scan and authentication process, which helps promote a safer Internet by guiding consumers to sites that value and support online safety.