Mother’s Day (30 March) is a chance to celebrate mums and other guardians, but it is also an opportunity for brands and businesses to advertise their goods and services as gifts.

However, the day is not a cause for celebration for everybody and marketeers need to adapt their offering to ensure potential customers are not offended or upset by the messages they receive.

In short, shoppers don’t just want personalised experiences, they expect brands to communicate with sensitivity and awareness, writes Juliette Aiken, CMO at Dotdigital.

A one-size-fits-all approach no longer works. Instead, consumers want to control their relationship with brands, dictating how and when they engage.

Mother’s Day is one of those occasions where customers may wish to exercise that control due to the emotional weight it carries. While some celebrate joyfully, others find it a painful reminder of loss, strained relationships, or other personal challenges.

A flood of promotional emails can feel overwhelming or even alienating, prompting them to unsubscribe entirely rather than deepening their connection with a brand.

So, how can brands strike a balance, maintaining both empathy and engagement? The answer is in offering customers more control without severing ties.

Filtering and content muting: Customisation without compromise

Many email services will allow their users to mute certain keywords using rules, but brand email preference centres also allow users to filter out the content they don’t want for a more personalised experience. This provides a middle ground where consumers can fine-tune their engagement without the need to unsubscribe completely.

For example, a customer can choose to fine-tune the topics they receive email content about, while opting out of other topics. Providing this kind of filtering fosters loyalty and trust. It reassures customers that a brand truly understands their needs and prioritises their experience, laying the groundwork for deeper, long-term connections.

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Online florist Bloom & Wild set the standard for empathetic marketing when they became the first brand to offer customers the option to opt out of sensitive occasion emails in 2019.

But rather than treating this as a one-off campaign, they later integrated this approach into their year-round preference centre, allowing customers to opt out of emotionally charged moments, like Mother’s or Father’s Day. This proactive approach ensures that customers don’t have to relive difficult decisions each year, eliminating unnecessary emotional stress while making campaign management more seamless for the brand.

While Bloom & Wild’s approach is particularly relevant for emotionally sensitive occasions, the idea of giving customers choice over the content they receive extends far beyond florists and gifting brands. Companies in other industries, like entertainment and tech, are also using this strategy to build stronger, more personalised connections with their audiences.

Spotify gives users control over their listening experience with its ‘Don’t Play This Artist’ options, allowing them to mute specific musicians or bands they don’t want to hear. By enabling subscribers to mute content that doesn’t interest them, Spotify maintains a long-term connection with its audience. It’s a strategy that more brands could adopt, ensuring that marketing emails remain relevant without overwhelming customers or pushing them to unsubscribe entirely.

The future of hyper-personalised marketing

In today’s climate, consumers expect more than just personalisation, they’re looking for individualisation, experiences shaped by their emotions, preferences, and real-life circumstances.

The days of generic, mass-email marketing are behind us. Implementing tools like content muting and filtering isn’t just a thoughtful approach, it’s a necessity for brands that want to stay ahead in 2025 and beyond.

By embracing these practices, marketers can ensure they’re delivering relevant, sensitive and meaningful experiences. After all, marketing is about connection, and the strongest connections are built on empathy, mutual understanding and trust.