By Jim Rudall, head of EMEA at Intuit Mailchimp
The start of the calendar year brings a flurry of key commerce moments, including Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Easter. With a relative lull over the summer months until we reach Halloween, Black Friday / Cyber Monday and Christmas, it’s crucial that retailers get these early moments right.
This year, consumer spending for Mother’s Day is set to reach £2.4 billion – a 5% increase from 2024. This presents a significant opportunity for retailers to capitalise – but turning encouraging intentions into tangible results is a whole other challenge.
Retailers must ensure they market the right products to the right audience through a multichannel approach, for example one that combines email marketing with SMS for direct and consistent engagement. Doing so at the right time, alongside tailored customer service, is key. But perhaps even more important is to ensure marketing strategies are thoughtful – especially around potentially sensitive calendar moments such as Mother’s Day.
Building and strengthening customer relationships is a year-round job and one wrong turn can potentially unravel that long-fostered relationship. The challenge is made all the more difficult by the starting position – nearly a third (32%) of UK consumers trust brands less than ever.
Here are three strategies for retailers who want to make effective, yet considerate marketing campaigns around Mother’s Day.
- Be mindful and respectful
Research shows that when it comes to engaging with UK customers via email, personalised content is the most popular (60%). This provides an opportunity for marketers to give customers what they’re looking for. And for many, this includes thoughtful marketing initiatives. Personal preference is often determined by lived experience, and over half (56%) of British consumers appreciate thoughtful marketing, such as the chance to opt out of communications around Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
While it can be deemed risky to send opt-outs that are irrelevant for the majority, it’s by the unfortunate few that this kindness and consideration is deeply appreciated – and the gains often outweigh the risks. Further, this strategy can be a long-term relationship-builder; sometimes, the send isn’t about the sale, and it’s important retail marketers don’t forget that.
- Put yourself in the customer’s shoes
The competition for attention and engagement from customers is at an all-time high, and customer relationships are more important than ever before. Building a little empathy into your messaging can go a long way. In many cases, showing customers you care can be as simple as a thoughtful statement.
Empathy statements can take numerous forms. From building rapport (“we value your feedback”) to responding to pain points (“I understand the issue here”), even simple language shifts can be highly effective at demonstrating authenticity and establishing mutual trust. Working these messages into your campaigns can be key for demonstrating that you are focused on helping the customer—not just on your bottom line. What’s more, the benefits are mutual; if you’re willing to go out of your way to help your customers and show empathy, you may have more success boosting your conversion rate.
- Engage on a deeper level
Almost two-thirds (62%) of UK consumers are happy to share their personal data so long as they see value in return. If you’re asking customers to share new information with you, consider approaching it less like a transaction and more like a conversation, one where everyone contributes and all sides learn a little something new.
Honeywell Bakes is a great example of this approach. A renowned bakery in Northamptonshire, known for its handmade, sustainable approach to baking, the marketing team piloted an opt-out campaign around Father’s Day in 2021 – sending a mailer that invited subscribers to click a link that opened a pre-typed email asking to be excluded from Father’s Day emails. They anticipated a few dozen requests at most, but instead received more than 400.
The following year, the business offered the option to opt-out of Mother’s Day promotions. This time, however, the team saw an opportunity to more deeply engage with their audience by asking for personal information such as name and birthday. Marketing coordinator Gemma Goode introduced the campaign with her own moment of connection: “Each time I write an email to you, I am reminded that I don’t know your name,” she wrote before sharing her own name, title and photo.
Year-round strategies for year-round benefit
It’s never been more important to make customers feel seen, and retailers should approach each customer interaction with empathy and curiosity. Mother’s Day offers a valuable reminder of the pillars behind good marketing, but these should of course be remembered all year around. By focusing on emotional engagement, brands and marketers can strengthen connections and drive sustained growth.
