Whether you’re a blogger or a business owner with a website, odds are you’re constantly trying to come up with ways to get more traffic and boost revenue. A fabulous way to to do that is by creating a gift guide. And, no, you don’t have to wait until the winter holiday sales season to do it. A Mother’s Day gift guide is a great way to bring more visitors to your blog or website!
Create a Mother’s Day gift guide in 6 steps
Here are the six steps for how to create a Mother’s Day gift guide on your blog or website:
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Consider some good gift items that moms will adore.
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Narrow down the list.
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Create or gather awesome images for each of the items.
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Tell people where to purchase.
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Create the actual guide.
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Publish and promote like CRAZY!
Now that you know where we’re going, let’s get there!
1. Consider the items to include in your Mother’s Day gift guide
The first step in creating a Mother’s Day gift guide is to think about what items to include in it. You don’t have to stick to the traditional gifts of perfume, candy or flowers here, either. Think outside the vase, if you will. What does mom really want? After all, she spent all those hours in labor with you that she won’t let you live down, so she deserves something nice.
If you are a mother, think about what you would actually want to receive. Ask other moms what they want, too. This could even make for a fun engagement post opportunity on social media! Asking moms for input is a great way to announce the fact you’re creating a gift guide as well. Hello, teasers!
Think about your brand, and consider items that align with it.
For example, let’s say you’re a massage therapist. Obviously, the first item on your Mother’s Day gift guide will be a massage at your place of business. However, don’t stop there. You could include aromatherapy oils, a journal, spa music and other self-care-related items.
You might create a theme for your gift guide that fits with your brand, too. A few ideas off the top of my head:
- A foodie lover’s gift guide.
- The traveler’s dream gifts.
- Gifts for the avid reader.
- Gifts for movie buffs.
Your turn — start brainstorming some Mother’s Day gift guide themes that riff off your brand.
Use the guide as a partnership opportunity
Are there other businesses that you could partner up with for your Mother’s Day gift guide?
Maybe there’s an amazing restaurant and/or salon in your area that would offer a discount for your gift guide readers. Reach out to your local business colleagues (which will be easy if you’re a member of a business networking group) to encourage their mutually beneficial participation in your gift guide project. This is no time to be shy!
2. Narrow down the list to the best items
People don’t want to browse through 50 options in your Mother’s Day gift guide. That’s too overwhelming for most readers who are trying to decide on something quickly. They want a list of 20 items or less. In fact, you could even get away with 10 or 12 items.
Consider different price points
If you’re choosing to list a dozen items in your gift guide, you could do four items each in the small, medium and large pricing budgets. Not everyone wants to spend a lot of cash, so think about items the following ranges:
- Small (10 to 49 AED)
- Medium (50 to 74 AED)
- Large (75AED and up)
Are the items in your guide more expensive than the price ranges mentioned above? Perhaps you could do two guides — one budget-friendly guide and one luxury guide.
Breaking the gift guide down by price points also will give you a natural category layout for your Mother’s Day gift guide blog post or web page.
The price point you choose for your items will also depend largely on your reader demographics.
3. Create or gather awesome images
You need great photos for the guide. Like any big block of text, a list of gift ideas can be rather mundane without photos. Don’t tell your readers to buy a product or service. Show them an image that will compel them to purchase!
You can pin the images on Pinterest and share them on Instagram, and hopefully generate buzz for your Mother’s Day gift guide as a result.
4. Tell people where to buy the items in the guide
What good is sharing a killer gift idea if the reader then has to go research how to buy it? Unless you’re only including items that you have clearly available on your own website or in your store, you’ll want to spell out the purchasing details to make buying as easy as possible for your gift guide readers. This is a given if you’re partnering with local businesses.
But what if you want to suggest items available from sellers that you’re not currently affiliated with? Ahem! Affiliate links for the win!
Affiliate programs you could consider for your product links include, but aren’t limited to:
Don’t want to join an affiliate program, or does one of your gift ideas not have an affiliate opportunity? Offer the info on where to buy it anyway. Or, you could reach out to the company that sells the product or service, and mention that you are featuring them in your gift guide. Who knows? You could try and create a referral fee or some other financial opportunity for yourself.
5. Make the guide already!
You’ve researched the item ideas, you’ve narrowed your list, you checked it twice, and you’ve compiled all the purchasing info. What’s next? Well, you have to actually create the guide now. Create a blog post or page on your website and make it pretty.
Give it a good title, draft a nice intro, list out the items, add your links, and voila! You officially have a Mother’s Day gift guide ready to share with the world.
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Give yourself a pat on the back — but understand that your work is far from done. Now for the part you must spend the most time on, if you actually want to get traffic and see results from your efforts …
6. Publish the guide and promote, promote, promote!
Announce that it’s going live, and then announce when it is live. Pin your guide to Pinterest. Add a link with an image to your Facebook page. Put it out in your newsletter. Shout it loud and proud in all the places.
Pro tip: As a way to drum up interest, tag the brands you’ve featured in any of your social media updates. Sometimes when you tag a company with a link, they will share it on their channels. More notice for your post? Yes, please! The more interest, the better!
Keep promoting up until Mother’s Day. While promoting your gift guide, take note of all the feedback you receive. What you learn could help you create an even better gift guide for the next big occasion on the calendar, like Father’s Day perhaps. Before you know it, you could have gift guides for every month of the year. The possibilities are endless.
