Americans spent a whopping $21.4 billion dollars on gifts for Mother's Day in 2016, with the average spend standing at $172 per person. In fact, this annual day of appreciation now ranks as the third largest retail holiday in the United States.

It's time to ditch the one-day sales and create a full marketing strategy to really capture your customers' attention and hearts. We reveal how to target your ideal audience, time your promotions to perfection, and make irresistible offers that they will be sure to snap up.

Choose the Right Audience

Every aspect of a successful marketing campaign ties back to your ideal customers. The key is to get laser specific with your targeting. Instead of general profiles such as age or gender, go for detailed descriptions of your ideal customer. Where do they live? What do they do? What are their hobbies? What is their disposable income? What are their likes and dislikes, hopes and fears?

When you get clear on the profiles of your target audience, you can use this information to maximize the effectiveness of your Mother's Day online marketing campaign through deploying the right messaging and creative style.

Choose the Right Time

Timing is everything. Launch your campaign too early and potential customers won't be ready to purchase. Launch it too late and they may have already made their purchase -- or worse -- they will not receive their orders on time.

Choose to go beyond a one or two-day campaign. Some of the large retailers (such as Pandora and The White Company) start their marketing campaigns as early as 25 days before Mother's Day. Depending on what products or services you are offering, send out a promotional email to your list at least two weeks prior to Mother's Day to catch those early buyers. You can then continue with your online campaign leading up to the date, and offer a flash-sale (with speedy shipping) a few days before to catch those last-minute buyers on a scramble to buy gifts.

It's a wise idea to create a solid Mother's day marketing schedule which states your overall campaign strategy and what will run on each day leading up to the occasion. You can use automated marketing services to ensure it all runs smoothly.

Choose Where to Advertise

Where you choose to advertise will also center around your target audience. Where do they spend most of their time online? What are their favorite websites? What social media platforms are they most active on?

Research is critical to identifying your prime advertising spots. After all, you may have the best products or services that your target audience will love, but if you're not advertising them in the right places, then it's game over.

Do you want to run Facebook ads or Instagram ads? How about video ads on YouTube or banners on a website? And, of course, you can promote on your own social media accounts too. If you choose several platforms, you can then utilize insights to see how the ads perform to better streamline your campaign.

Choose Winning Ad Creatives

You know ads that appeal to emotions work really well for Mother's Day campaigns. But do you know which designs would work best to convert emotions into sales?

With today's ad-tech advancements, largely in the field of advertising AI, marketers are equipped with tools to help produce smarter ad creatives.

Machine learning technology is powering advertisers' ability to predict the performance of their ad creatives, even before they are activated in campaigns.

At ReFUEL4, we've taken this a step further by creating the world's first online creative performance measurement technique - the Creative Optimal Rate or COR. By monitoring your campaign's COR score, you will gain actionable insights into immediate steps that can be taken to improve the three key elements of creative performance - quality, volume, and refresh.

Ultimately, this results in improved campaign ROI, saving you time and money in the long run.

Choose Innovative Ideas

With Mother's Day being such a big event, you're going to be competing against bigger brands for customers' attention. Therefore, make sure you add a little creativity to the mix.

Here are a few ideas that you can tweak to cater to your target audience:

– Run a Facebook or Instagram contest featuring fan tributes to mothers

– Create a Mother's Day gift guide and email it to your database

– Create your own unique campaign hashtag

– Bundle products to create gift packages

– Offer personalized products

– Promote fast shipping for last-minute shoppers

– Create Mother-In-Law and Grandmother specials

Mother's Day provides a way for millions of people to share their love and appreciation for one of the most important people in their lives. A successful, well-timed and personalized online marketing campaign will help your customers find the ideal gift and make that day extra special.