Unless you’ve been doing business under a rock lately, then you know that Mother’s Day is only a few weeks away. And while it isn’t as huge as the Christmas holidays, Mother’s Day is still considered a significant event that restaurants and retailers should pay attention to.

Whether you’re cooking up your Mother’s Day campaigns for the first time, or you are looking for new ideas to spice up your existing ones, the tips and examples below will get you started.

Restaurant Mother’s Day ideas

• Advertise your Mother’s Day promotion as a rare event
• Implement offers or discounts
• Highlight your inclusivity
• Run an extended Mother’s Day special
• Consider gifts for moms
• Host a Mother’s Eve event
• Use email marketing to boost awareness and restaurant traffic
• Try something different with your Mother’s Day menu
• Offer a free meal for mom
• Try SMS marketing
• Don’t forget the cocktails
• Three mistakes to watch out for this Mother’s Day

Retail Mother’s Day ideas

• Start sending Mother’s Day reminders to your existing customers and email list
• Create a Mother’s Day gift guide
• Partner up with local flower shops, spas, jewelry stores or restaurants
• Team up with other non-competing businesses
• Encourage your customers to share their mom-centric content
• Have a special Mother’s Day section on your site (and in your store)
• Don’t forget your window displays
• Running online ads? Lead people to specific landing pages
• Offer Mother’s Day-specific products
• Offer convenience through bundles and complimentary services
• Provide value with mom-centric content

Restaurant Mother’s Day promotions and marketing ideas

Mother’s Day is on the horizon, and many restaurants are beginning to promote their brunch menus. While brunch is a long-standing family tradition for celebrating Mother’s Day and many restaurants are running similar promotions, you might be wondering how your restaurant promotions can stand out.

A consistently great menu is why your loyal guests have come to depend on you. However, freshening up the promotions and options is a great idea for drawing in some new guests, and keeping them returning year after year.

1. Advertise your Mother’s Day promotion as a rare event

If you normally don’t offer brunch but you are making an exception for Mother’s Day, make sure your biggest fans know about it. Post on social media, send announcements to your email contacts and create a mini Mother’s Day advertising campaign to get people excited about trying your limited edition brunch offerings.

Also, consider trying the opposite: if every restaurant in town offers a special brunch menu, your restaurant could plan a fantastic dinner prix fixe or tasting menu for Mother’s Day dinner. Your guests who have difficulty getting everyone together on a Sunday morning or planning around church schedules will thank you.

Check out this example from Kincaid’s, which serves a Mother’s Day prix fixe menu for the entire day.

2. Implement offers or discounts

Promotions—where moms get flowers, complimentary drinks, and other fun extras—are a nice way to make it a special meal for families on the holiday. Consider offering a complimentary dessert, specialty cocktail, or discount, like what Restaurant.com is doing below. 

For this year’s Mother’s Day, the site is offering $25 gift certificates for just $4.

According to the National Restaurant Association, roughly 87 million Americans eat out on Mother’s Day. That means there are a lot of people eating out, but also stiff competition for drawing a crowd among your nearby competitors.

3. Highlight your inclusivity

Don’t alienate moms and families by only catering to one version of what “mom” can mean. These days the role of mom can be filled by plenty of people from grandmothers to nannies to daycare providers.

Families might have two moms, two dads or multiple mom roles. The rules around what makes a family has expanded, so make sure your take on Mother’s Day reflects today’s culture. Be clear about the fact that mom and family aren’t strictly interpreted in your establishment and that all moms are welcome.

4. Run an extended Mother’s Day special

Who says Mother’s Day should be limited to that one Sunday in May? If you’re running Mother’s Day specials, such as an exclusive menu or discount, consider implementing it throughout the entire weekend. Morton’s The Steakhouse is a great example of this strategy. Instead of limiting their special to Mother’s Day only, they are running an exclusive menu item—the Filet Imperial— from Friday to Sunday. 

By extending your Mother’s Day promotion, you can attract more customers and generate higher revenue over a longer period. This approach also allows you to accommodate customers who may not be available on Mother’s Day itself, giving them the opportunity to still enjoy your special offerings. In addition, promoting an extended special can also help you stand out from other restaurants who may only offer specials on Mother’s Day.

5. Consider gifts for moms

Instead of (or on top of) offering freebies for moms, toss a gift into the mix too. Anything you can do to help mom feel special on her big day will help to draw a crowd. Of course, roses and flowers are a favorite as are chocolate treats and other delightful surprises that show that you care about your customers and are going out of your way to make the day as memorable as possible.

6. Host a Mother’s Eve event

Moms still like to have fun. If your restaurant is more of a bar than a brunch spot, host a Mother’s Eve bash that offers free drinks for moms and sells a fun night out before a day where mom may be able to sleep in if she wants. This way you can still capitalize on the Mother’s Day crowd in a fun and different way without having to compete for a brunch crowd with everyone else in the morning. 

7. Use email marketing to boost awareness and restaurant traffic

With email marketing, you can reach out to your target audience directly and effectively. You can send out promotional emails to your loyal customers and subscribers, highlighting your Mother’s Day specials, offers, and discounts. 

Email marketing also offers a great opportunity to showcase your restaurant’s brand and personality, by including visually appealing images, creative messaging, and enticing calls-to-action. With the right approach, email marketing can help your restaurant drive sales, build loyalty, and create a memorable Mother’s Day experience for your customers.

Need inspiration for stunning email marketing done right? Take a look at this example from Gyu-Kaku, which shows off the restaurant’s personality through whimsical (yet appetizing!) graphics.

8. Try something different with your Mother’s Day menu

Another option is to break from tradition entirely and do something unique for Mother’s Day instead of or in addition to your usual brunch.

For example, a chef’s tasting with pairings would be a fantastic event for wine lovers. Your restaurant can also plan events that create additional “out of the box” options. For instance, bars and pubs can host food and drink specials, or even live music, alongside a baseball game for sports-loving mothers and their families.

9. Offer a free meal for mom

If families are treating mom to a Mother’s Day meal, why not make it easy on them by offering some freebies? Some restaurants “go the extra mile, using the opportunity to give our free entrees, desserts, or coupons for moms,” explains a Time.com piece about a variety of national brands that gave something for free to moms on Mother’s Day. That’s also an extra bonus—offer up something for free and you’re likely to be featured for doing so which means free press for you.

10. Try SMS marketing

Texting your customers can be an effective way to encourage them to visit your restaurant on Mother’s Day. For best results, consider using limited-time promotions or freebies. 

We can see this example in action in Kape Republik. In honor of Mother’s Day, they texted their customers and offered a free crinkle with every purchase.

11. Don’t forget the cocktails

It turns out that what Mom really wants is a nice big glass of red or white. Wine sales on Mother’s Day are historically 16% higher than the rest of the year, according to data insights from Lightspeed.

This is 7% higher than Valentine’s Day—the second-highest sales holiday for vino. To capitalize on this, restaurants should be prepared to offer specials and update the cocktail list to offer sangria and other wine-centric beverages.

Consider getting creative with your beverage offerings. By giving diners unique and interactive beverage options, you can create a memorable experience that will leave a lasting impression on your customers. One example of a creative Mother’s Day beverage offering is the “make your own mimosa bar” offered by Sea Level Restaurant and Lounge at Redondo Beach. This allows customers to customize their mimosas with different juices, fruits, and garnishes, creating a personalized and fun experience.

Not too keen on a “make your own” cocktail event? Then chill down the bubbly and get ready to toast all the moms on Mother’s Day at your restaurant with these cocktail restaurant menu ideas.

Champagne cocktails to serve on Mother’s Day

We’ve found our five favorite champagne cocktails that would be perfect to add to your cocktail menu or be a drink special during Mother’s Day brunch. Even though we’re calling them champagne cocktails, there’s no need to break out the expensive Champagne for these. A sparkling wine that’s dry and crisp, like Spanish cava or domestic sparkling wines, will do just fine.

Classic champagne cocktail

Simple and classic, this cocktail makes a great aperitif. Not only is it tasty, but the sugar cube also adds a visual element that feels like a present.

• 1 sugar cube
• Angostura Bitters
• Sparkling Wine

Put one sugar cube in a Champagne flute. Lightly sprinkle the cube with bitters, fill the glass with sparkling wine. Garnish with a lemon twist before serving.

French 75

Named after an innovative piece of French artillery, this simple cocktail is a bubbly combination of floral gin and citrus.

• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 oz simple syrup
• 1 oz gin
• Sparkling Wine

Stir the first three ingredients together, add ice cubes and fill the glass with sparkling wine. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Kir Royal

Another French cocktail, named after its creator Canon Felix Kir, a bubbly-loving fellow who went on to become the mayor of Dijon.

• Splash of Creme de cassis
• Sparkling Wine

Splash Creme de cassis into the glass, then fill with sparkling wine.

Bellini

Anyone who has traveled to Venice has likely popped in Harry’s Bar to see the bar that Hemingway used to lean on. It’s this very bar that invented the Bellini. In honor of its Italian roots, this is a perfect excuse to use Prosecco as your sparkling wine of choice.

• 3 oz Peach nectar or very smooth puree
• 1 dash lemon juice
• Splash of grenadine
• Sparkling Wine

Pour chilled peach nectar into a flute and add a dash of lemon juice and a dash of grenadine for color. Fill glass with sparkling wine.

Mimosa

A classic, but that doesn’t mean it has to be boring. To make your mimosa more unique, consider making it with freshly squeezed orange juice, or add a tropical twist with some mango, pineapple or guava juice.

• Orange Juice
• Sparkling Wine

Pour equal parts orange juice and sparkling wine in a champagne flute. Garnish with an orange wedge.

No matter what you decide, be creative and have some fun when planning your promotions. The quality food your loyal guests have come to expect, coupled with some fresh ideas and twists for this year, is a winning combination for Mother’s Day marketing.

Three mistakes to watch out for this Mother’s Day

How to prepare for Mother’s Day and avoid a kitchen nightmare? You can’t afford a mistake, so read on to learn from these three common pitfalls..

Offering a new, but confusing menu options

When planning a special event menu or prix fixe menu for an upcoming holiday promotion, things can sometimes feel a bit rushed.

Here’s one place not to rush through the motions: your restaurant menu.

Many restaurants will run a special event or prix fixe menu for Mother’s Day or Easter. This is a good idea, as it takes the pressure off of the kitchen and allows for efficient prep. In many cases, it’s a well-paced prix fixe menu and it is usually well received by guests. Unless they can’t understand it.

They wanted dessert but they’re questioning what the desert has to do with it, or they wanted lox as part of their brunch order but they’re wondering what “locks” (of hair) means. Misspelling foods, ill-placed menu items and a crowded menu are examples of how your restaurant menu design can become a kitchen nightmare on a busy day like Mother’s Day.

Understaffing (or hiring new servers) for the holiday rush

Sunday is typically not that busy, right? Well if you are planning on having a Mother’s Day special event menu at your restaurant, think again.

While in some cases, Sundays are a good time to train new restaurant staff and work out kinks, Mother’s Day is a whole different story. Understaffing your waitstaff, overstaffing your kitchen or having employees that are not your top performers can spell disaster.

Take some time now to learn what you can about how you can improve server performance so you can properly prepare.

Don’t keep mom waiting

Who likes to read the Yelp review that says “I waited 45 minutes for a seat, my waiter took another 15 minutes to even bring water… and let’s not start on how long it took to prepare my food!”

Here’s how you can avoid it: don’t overbook and don’t seat tables until parties are complete.

It can be easy to overbook on a holiday—you want everyone to be able to enjoy your restaurant and the phones are ringing off the hook. But you won’t be as happy when you have a crowd waiting in the lobby because you didn’t consider table capacity.

One idea that many restaurants take advantage of is having segmented seating times on busy holidays. In the case of a brunch situation, this can work out well if you have 10 AM, 12 PM and 2 PM as options.

Retail Mother’s Day promotions and marketing ideas

First things first: know who you’re talking to

Before diving into Mother’s Day marketing ideas, take a step back to think about who you’re targeting. Ask yourself: who do you want to reach with your efforts and what are their shopping objectives for Mother’s Day?

It helps to know the individuals that your customers are shopping for. Are they buying presents for their mothers or spouses? Are they celebrating with their friends, sisters, or daughters? The answers to these questions will help you craft your messaging and audience targeting correctly.

To give you more insights into Mother’s Day trends, a 2022 survey by the National Retail Federation found that 84% of consumers intend to celebrate Mother’s Day. The top 3 spending categories (at least for 2022) include greeting cards, flowers and special outings. 

Do you see the same trends in your business? Pay attention to your shopper data to find out.

Once you have a handle on who your audience is and the people with whom they’re celebrating, you can start crafting and executing retail marketing campaigns to reach them.

Note: Consider letting customers opt out

Mother’s Day can be a sensitive topic for some consumers. Depending on your customer base, it may make sense to give people the opportunity to pause Mother’s Day marketing messages.

This may feel like a counterintuitive practice, but some experts believe that it can actually improve subscriber retention in the long run.

As Kate Muhl, a marketing analyst at Gartner told Morning Brew, giving people the ability to opt-out is a “retention move” that allows brands “to stem the tide of people who are frustrated, hurt and triggered by your [emails], and opt out altogether.”

It can also help you get to know your subscribers better.

According to Josh Pierry, CEO of digital marketing agency Pierry, the practice gives brands more information on the preferences of their customers, which can ultimately be used to create a more relevant experience.

“If someone wants to opt out, that’s a data point and something we get to know about a consumer,” he told Morning Brew.

Need inspiration on the types of “opt out” messages to send out? Here’s an example from Tea Drops.

Mother’s Day promotion ideas

Now that we’ve covered some industry trends surrounding Mother’s Day, let’s look at the ways in which you can help your customers celebrate. Here are some campaign and promotion ideas to try in your business. 

1. Start sending Mother’s Day reminders to your existing customers and email list

Lindsey Winsemius, Vice President at digital marketing tech company ApogeeINVENT, recommends that retailers take advantage of email marketing to put themselves in the radars of their customers.

“Use email marketing tailored for Mother’s Day. If you have a special deal, or even if you don’t, create an email marketing campaign with Mother’s Day as the theme,” she says.

“You could include a list of gift ideas for Mother’s Day, highlighting your most popular products. This helps ensure your consumers are thinking about your business when it comes time for them to buy a Mother’s Day gift.”

You might also want to include a calendar or table that shows when customers need to place their orders (if they’re shopping online) and what shipping option to select if they want their purchases to arrive on time.

One store doing this well is Casetify. Take a look at their email above. Not only did Casetify send out an effective promotion, but they also enclosed a handy shipping cut-off guide to so customers know their order deadlines.

2. Create a Mother’s Day gift guide

You most likely have customers who aren’t sure what to buy on Mother’ Day. Help them out by creating a gift guide that allows people to shop according to:

• their budget (e.g, “Gifts under $50”)
• the receipient (e.g., mom, wife, friend)
• interests (e.g., techy moms, pet lovers, etc.)
• product category (e.g., apparel, accessories, homeware, etc.)

The jewelry retailer Alex and Ani does this incredibly well. Alex and Ani published a well-organized gift guide to help shoppers find the perfect present for their loved ones.  Products are organized based on different parameters so it’s easy to browse for gifts.

3. Partner up with local flower shops, spas, jewelry stores or restaurants

Don Uselmann of Saks Fifth Avenue advises merchants to partner up with businesses such as flower shops, spas, jewelers, and restaurants.

“At Saks, our customers were coveted by others and often the store would approach a local restaurant who would provide gift cards at no cost.”

The shop would then run a gift card promo (i.e. “Spend $100 on mom and get a $25 gift card to ABC restaurant) to encourage people to buy. The store benefits because of the increased spending, and the restaurant wins as well because it gains new customers.

This arrangement can work both ways. If you want to increase traffic in your location, consider teaming up with local merchants that see a lot of business on Mother’s Day (flower shops, restaurants, spas etc.) and send them free gift cards to offer to their customers, and hopefully drive traffic to your location.

4. Team up with other non-competing businesses

In addition to the business types we mentioned above, you can also get in touch with retailers in your area (preferably ones that complement your business) and see if they’d be willing to hand out your store gift cards or coupons in their location.

For example, if you own a spa or sell wellness products, you can team up with a shoe retailer and have them give away coupons for a free foot massage for every $200 purchase.  Again, this creates a win-win situation for both parties. The shoe retailer encourages shoppers to spend more, while you get added exposure and potential customers.

You can also create a contest with your partners. Check out this example from New Zealand-based apparel retailer The Shelter.

They held a contest encouraging customers to share their favorite thing about their mom in order to be part of their Mother’s Day window installation. In addition, one commenter was given a chance to win a prize pack filled with goodies from other merchants. Prizes include spa treatments, lingerie, Turkish towels, coffee, and more.

5. Encourage your customers to share their mom-centric content

Mother’s Day isn’t just about giving gifts. The heart-warming stories or photos that people share about their moms also play a big role during the occasion. This year, give your customers the chance to tell you more about their moms (so you can drive engagement while you’re at it).

Here’s an example from dress shop eShakti. For Mother’s Day 2017, the company ran a giveaway to encourage customers to share photos and stories about their moms.

Users could submit photos and stories (along with a relevant hashtag) via various social networks for a chance to win eShakti gift cards.

Here’s what made the giveaway even more interesting: everyone was a winner. To further entice people to join, eShakti gave away $20 coupons to every single contest participant. To get their discount, all customers had to do was email the eShakti team a link to their social media post.

6. Have a special Mother’s Day section on your site (and in your store)

Make it easier for Mother’s Day shoppers to find what they’re looking for by adding a special Mother’s Day section on your homepage. According to Winsemius, this is another good way to get sales around the occasion.

“Create special deals around Mother’s Day gifts. Highlight these special deals on the homepage of your ecommerce website so visitors see them as soon as they reach your page.”

One retailer doing this well is Zazzle.com, which now has a great-looking banner on its homepage highlighting their Mother’s Day “Just for her” offer.

Note that this tip can also be applied in brick-and-mortar stores. If you’re running Mother’s Day specials or are promoting products as gifts, consider having a specific section in your shop where people can find all the mom-centric products they need in one place.

Check out this example from the Barnes & Noble in Carbondale:

Or how about this one from Molto Bella Boutique in Florida? This lovely display shows that you don’t always need signage to make a “Mother’s Day” statement. Sometimes, fresh flowers would do!

7. Don’t forget your window displays

Make no mistake, people will turn to retailers for Mother’s Day gift ideas. Put your store on their radar by sprucing up your store for the occasion. Make it clear that you’re selling something for Mother’s Day by spelling it out on your windows.

Why not get yourself a lovely (but inexpensive) “Happy Mothers Day” decal and stick it on your shop’s window?

And don’t forget to show off your best mom-centric products so passers-by can see exactly what you’re offering.

8. Running online ads? Lead people to specific landing pages

If you’re running PPC ads for specific Mother’s Day keywords, you should consider creating special landing pages for your campaigns, instead of just letting people click-through a generic homepage.

“A landing page is a direct sale page that generally highlights a single product purchase,” Winsemius explains. “It is optimized to make sales, and is the best way to use a PPC campaign because it allows you to select very specific key terms, like Mother’s Day gift ideas.”

9. Offer Mother’s Day-specific products

Consider selling limited, mom-centric products at your store. If you make your own merchandise, for example, you could create specific flavors for Mother’s Day.

Take Chantal Guillon, a café and bakery with a couple of locations in San Francisco. Chantal Guillon specializes in macarons, and to celebrate Mother’s Day, they’ve created a limited edition Mother’s Day flavor for the occasion.

10. Offer convenience through bundles and complimentary services

A lot of shoppers need help finding the perfect Mother’s Day gift, so try to assist them in any way you can. Why not offer bundles complete with giftwrapping services, to give people a convenient shopping experience?

That’s what natural skin care store Scrubz is doing. According Roberta Perry, president at Scrubz Body Scrub, they make it easy for shoppers to give their products as gifts by “offering free gift wrapping complete with a customized card.”

Scrubz even has a special section on its site for Mother’s Day recommendations, filled with individual items and bundles alike.

11. Provide value with mom-centric content

Consider creating non-salesy content for Mother’s Day. If you have a blog or newsletter, why not share useful mom-centric content with your audience?

For instance, if you’re a craft store, you could put together an article about Mother’s Day decoration ideas. Or if you’re selling food and cookware, a Mother’s Day recipe roundup could be a good way to go.

Check out what GrubHub did last year. For Mother’s Day 2017, GrubHub created a roundup post of Mother’s Day-inspired dishes from the restaurants on their platform.

It was an interesting post, and it even had internal links to pages directing potential customers to the right restaurants.

See if you can do something similar this Mother’s Day. Create a piece of content (that’s genuinely interesting and helpful) and if you happen to mention a product that you sell, throw in a link so people can find it.

Final words

Successful events like Mother’s Day can be the difference between building a loyal customer base and a bad reputation. With a bit of planning, you’ll build loyalty for years to come.

Want to learn more about how technology can help improve your restaurant’s customer experience? Chat with one of our experts now.