If you run a small business, you have an excellent opportunity for a sales promotion coming up this Sunday 8 May…

it’s Mother’s Day!

Mother’s Day is a prime opportunity to up-sell walk-ins, ramp-up retail sales, and convert a surplus of bookings into loyal clients.

According to Australian Retailers Association, the nation is set to spend $754 million on Mother’s Day this year. That influx of retail spending will largely go towards flowers, food, alcohol and clothing, which make up our top gift choices.

The association (ARA) also notes,

“whilst it’s an important day to celebrate the immense contribution of mums and the sacrifices they make, Australians will also use the day to acknowledge other significant people in their lives. Around one in four people will purchase gifts for people who are not their birth mothers, including mothers-in-law, wives or partners and other family members.”

Today we share our top tips for capitalising on the occasion and the last-minute things you can do to prepare.

Master your messaging

As with any marketing and sales endeavor, crafting the perfect messaging to nail your audience will be pivotal to success. Make it genuine and relatable while voiding clichés and potentially offensive or tone-deaf messaging.

Whether your business is bricks and mortar, e-commerce, or service-based, first thing’s first—make sure the tone of your messaging is on-point.

  • Mother’s Day campaigns should never be about stitching someone up. Your social media and advertising in the lead-up should focus on making women feel good on an emotional level – the best gifts should pamper, nurture and empower the receiver.
  • Make it personal with a story telling approach. Start a conversation – you can use Instagram and Facebook to share the best advice your mum ever gave you.
  • Occasions like this are also a great opportunity to show your clients your altruistic spirit by giving back to the community. Studies confirm that cause-related marketing that tugs on consumers’ hearts has a much higher engagement rate to standard marketing initiatives.

Get your promotions on

Once you have a master message to broadcast, get your ducks in a row to promote it. Spend time crafting some accompanying social posts, or physical promotion material for retail settings. And it’s not to late to add simple chalk boards with an Instagramable message in your store. These are a swift, cheap and winning solution.

Questions to ask yourself:

  • Which products or services lend themselves specifically to Mother’s Day?
  • What kind of promotion or discount can I quickly concoct?
  • If using ecommerce, do I have a promotion code ready at the checkout?
  • If in a retail space, what can I do to enhance the store to encourage walk ins?
  • Can I donate a portion of my Mother’s Day profits to a worthy women’s cause?

Play to your business offerings and your strengths by curating a special offer that brings value and delights customers without breaking your margins. Maybe it’s free shipping or a gift with any purchase. Perhaps it’s a complimentary drink or meal if you bring your mum along.

At the end of the day this is a quick win to pounce on, so don’t spend too much time deliberating, when decisive action can be taken to boost cash flow.

Make a racquet on socials with queries that beg answers

Special days like Mother’s Day are a gift when it comes to social promotion.

On top of your promotions, and sales initiatives, try to garner some online interaction! The best way to do this is to encourage responses to questions. So go right ahead and fire off a social media query to your audience:

  • What’s your mum’s best advice?
  • What do you remember most about your mum when you were little?
  • What has your mum always wanted that she never bought herself?
  • Tell us what your mum has done for you that nobody ever knew about?

Organise your invoicing systems

In the lead up to special occasions you need to be organised. If your business is invoice based, ensure:

  • your credit controls are tight
  • you create an immediate and hassle-free eInvoicing process
  • rely on eInvoicing (online invoicing) over manual methods.

Creating an efficient eInvoicing process, will encourage instant payment, automatic reminders and integrations with your accounting software and bank accounts. In turn, this will shorten turnaround times, reduce admin, and ensure you have high visibility over all invoices.

Forecast your profits

If you’re lucky and professional, you should experience an uptick in business. Are you prepared?

Being able to create—and act upon—accurate forecasting is imperative to ensuring you have a handle on your cash flow.

Indeed, forecasting can head off potential issues before they occur. Thankfully, accounting software is sharper and more reliable than ever, making forecasting easy.

As with basic reporting, generating a cash flow forecast is easily achieved with your cloud accounting software’s data history insights.

Follow up by asking for feedback and reviews

In 2022, there’s almost nothing as important as online feedback from clients. When researching online, potential customers will almost certainly have a peek at your reviews.

Offering your customers a promotional deal then asking them for feedback is a great way to increase your Google Reviews.

According to Review Trackers:

  • 94% of consumers say a bad review has convinced them to avoid a business.
  • ‘Review Interaction’ (which entails actions like searching for and filtering reviews or clicking to expand and read an entire review) is up by 50% from pre-pandemic levels.
  • The most common filter applied is to see only companies with 4-star ratings and higher. So, there’s a big difference between being a 3.9 rated business and a 4.0, even if it’s a slim margin.

Remember, if you delight your customers, you can then be confident when it comes to eliciting and encouraging positive online feedback. This will pay future dividends in trustworthiness, new patronage, and repeat business.