Mother's Day Marketing

Mother's Day is a wonderful tradition that goes back almost 100 years. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that established the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day and invited Americans to display the flag outside their homes as a "public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country." In more recent years, customary celebrations of Mother's Day include cards, gifts, and taking Mom to brunch or dinner. The holiday may also offer an opportunity for real estate agents to do some discreet and tasteful marketing.

OPEN HOUSES

Some real estate agents feel that Mother's Day is simply too slow a day to make an open house worthwhile. But not everyone is lucky enough to be able to spend Mother's Day with Mom. If you do decide to hold an open house, take the opportunity to celebrate the day appropriately. Handing out a flower to all the women who attend the open house is a nice touch, for instance. The results of a recent survey indicate that the number one present that moms want for Mother's Day is a gift card for their favorite store, so you could also hold a raffle for a "Gift Card for Mom" that attendees can enter by signing in at the open house. If you collect email addresses as part of your sign-in process, send out emails that evening thanking attendees for spending part of their Mother's Day at your event.

SOCIAL MEDIA

It's always appropriate to wish your social media followers a happy holiday. And Mother's Day is certainly an occasion that you can use to engage your followers on Twitter and Facebook , or share a striking image on Instagram. A 2012 study by blogging giant Hubspot found that posts that included a photo generated more than 50% more Likes on Facebook and twice as many user comments than those with no photograph. If you can't find a good picture, get out your phone and take a photograph of the flowers you're sending to your Mom! Or you could post useful information, such as a list of the Top 10 places for a Mother's Day brunch or dinner in your neighborhood or city. Something to consider when you're sharing a link: a study by Buddy Media found that while short concise posts get more engagement than longer ones, Facebook posts that used a full-length URL resulted in three times as much user engagement than posts that utilized a link shortener such as bit.ly. It's an indication that Facebook users would prefer to see where a link would take them on the web—a sensible attitude, considering that many users are accessing the site via their mobile devices, which don't always have the same level of security that a computer does.

BLOG POSTS

Holidays such as Mother's Day can also be a boon for real estate agents who sometimes struggle to write engaging blog posts week after week. You could write about the history of the holiday, the best movies to take your mother to see, ideas for homemade gifts, or more personal posts such as “The Best Advice My Mom Ever Gave Me,” or “Why Mothers Make Good Realtors.” If you've helped a family buy a starter home recently, you could write about how happy Mrs. Garcia was the moment she walked through the door of her new house and how good you felt knowing that raising her family was going to be a lot easier in their new dream home.

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