How to Create a Gift Guide: Mother's Day Edition
We want you to put on your shopper shoes and think back for a moment. Have you ever gotten a horrible gift from a loved one? Or tried to find that perfect present and agonizingly shopped for hours without ever really finding that one item with a true wow factor?
Our team at CAKE understands your pain. That’s why we think every eCommerce brand should put together a gift guide for those extra special holidays: In this case, we’re talking about Mother’s Day. Not only will a gift guide help push sales towards some of your best-selling products, but it also ensures that your customers don’t end up in the gift-giving hall of shame.
The end result? Your customers will give better gifts and maybe even treat themselves to something too – ultimately improving your sales. Plus, those who are already super loyal to your brand may even refer you to others looking to make a gift purchase. It’s really a win-win situation for everyone!
Are you ready to learn how to create the perfect Mother’s Day gift guide for your eCommerce store? Let’s jump right in.
How to Create a Gift Guide for Mother’s Day
Of course, creating a Mother’s Day gift guide requires a little more strategy than just plopping some ideas on a page and hitting publish. You’ll want to put some thought into it and complete the steps we’ve outlined below.
Step One: Decide What Products You Want to Sell
Maybe you have a whole warehouse full of moisturizing cream that you want to move. Or perhaps you want to offer up samples of a new product when a customer makes a purchase. Make a list of the items you know you want to drive sales to, and remember to include them in your guide.
Step Two: Review Your Sales Data to Find Popular Products
Next, you want to take a look at what is actually selling in your store. Highlight a few of your most popular products. Make sure you’re choosing items that a mom would actually want to receive and not something that isn’t pertinent to your target market. Look to see if there’s a common thread between the products your eCommerce brand wants to sell more of and those that are already popular.
Step Three: Bundle, Bundle, Bundle!
Now is when you bring those last two steps together. People want to give mom a gift with a ton of value and really show her how much they care. By taking the products you want to increase sales on and bundling them with your most popular items, you’re making it easy for a gift-giver to find the right option. Another idea is to take a look at what your audience often purchases together. Then, create a nice giftable bundle, add some cute packaging, and you have a mom-approved Mother’s Day gift. After all, moms work hard and really deserve it all. Having bundled options as part of your Mother’s Day gift guide is a good way to make that happen.
Step Four: Consider Recipient Segments
Once you have a few individual products and a few bundles in mind, it is important to consider the various segments of your customer group. Think about the fact that most people aren’t buying from a gift guide for themselves, but rather trying to find something their mom, aunt, grandma, mom-friends, mom-coworkers, or wife would love.
Think of categories like moms who like to cook or the woman who is obsessed with her Peloton. Another option is grandmothers who love spa days or women who love flowers. Get creative with your gift guide options: Create personas that easily tie in your products and don’t be afraid to get silly with it. The more fun you have, the better the shopping experience for the gift-giver. There are quite a few possibilities here, and you can certainly use current trends to make this work in your favor.
Step Five: Cater to Last-Minute Shoppers, Too!
There’s always that one person who waits until 11:59 PM the night before Mother’s Day to start gift shopping. Be ready to meet their needs by including a last-minute option on your gift guide. Items like gift cards, service bookings, and more are always a great option.
Don’t be afraid to get creative here! Even virtual gift cards sent through email can be pretty and special despite not being tangible.
Step Six: Plan the Actual Creative
Here is the step where you take all of those ideas you’ve come up with and create something amazing. How are you going to make it look enticing? Is it going to be a special page on your store website or just a blog post or social media post?
How will you lay out the photos of the items and link to the product pages? Do you need to create a special category page that coordinates with your Mother’s Day gift guide? Will you need to add a tab to your main navigation? Have your graphic designer, copywriter, or other team member collaborate to get the job done. And if there’s just not enough time and too much for your team to handle, that’s where our CAKE team comes in!
How to Distribute a Mother’s Day Gift Guide
Step Seven: Decide How You’ll Get It in the Hands of Who Needs It
It’s important to remember that gift guides are targeted at people other than your typical customer. When you write one, you really want to get it in the hands of the people who need it to find the right gift for mom.
That said, use targeted paid advertising and retargeting to your advantage. For example, on Facebook, you can target ads for married people to those who have interacted with your page. This is a good way to guarantee that someone loyal to your brand is a mom, and their spouse would be looking for a quality Mother’s Day gift idea.
Step Eight: Use Email Marketing
Next, make sure you’re sending out your gift guide to your email list. This is especially true if you have segmented marketing and can narrow it down to those who spend a considerable amount each year or simply choose specific products that match your gift guide segments. Send out your guide and encourage your subscribers to forward it as a hint to their loved ones. You never know who will actually do this and whether this could end up in a sale!
Step Nine: Add a Call Out to Your Website
After all of the hard work you’ve put into creating the perfect Mother’s Day gift guide, you don’t want to keep it a secret. Instead, use a call-out on your website to draw attention to the fact it exists. There’s a good chance someone searching for that ideal item will see it and be thankful it is there.
Step Ten: Share It On Your Social Media Profiles
Gift guides make excellent social media posts. Add it to Facebook, Instagram, and even Pinterest. This is a wonderful way to drive traffic to your website organically while increasing overall brand awareness.
Step Eleven: Remember Organic SEO
What’s the best part about putting together an eCommerce gift guide for Mother’s Day? It stays up on your website all year long, even if you aren’t actively promoting it. That means next year, you’ll likely have some great organic search engine optimization (SEO) traction and will only have to make minor edits to the content to reflect current product offerings.
Wrap Up: Creating the Perfect Mother’s Day Gift Guide
If you’re looking for a great way to boost your brand’s sales this Mother’s Day, a gift guide is here to start. Not enough time or resources to make this happen? Our talented team at CAKE would love to help. Please contact us today for details.