Last Updated on July 16, 2026
We know this can be a sensitive time. Would you like to opt out of Mother’s Day reminders?
Yes, opt me out
The move
Bloom & Wild is an online flower delivery company. Like every flower brand, they hammer email marketing around key dates. Valentine’s Day, birthdays, anniversaries. But their smartest move had nothing to do with selling flowers.
Before Mother’s Day, they sent a simple email asking customers: “Would you like to opt out of Mother’s Day reminders?”
One checkbox. That’s it.
They recognised that for some people, Mother’s Day is painful. Loss, estrangement, complicated relationships. Instead of blasting everyone with “Don’t forget Mum!” emails, they gave people a quiet way to step aside.
Why it worked
The opt-out itself was a small thing. But Around 18,000 customers used the opt-out in its first year, and positive brand interactions ran roughly four times higher than negative ones. Customers shared it on social media. The press picked it up. Other brands started copying it. Bloom & Wild got more positive coverage from that one checkbox than most companies get from an entire campaign.
It worked because it was genuinely thoughtful, not performatively thoughtful. They didn’t make a big announcement about how caring they were. They just quietly offered the option and let customers decide.
Beyond the opt-out, Bloom & Wild’s email system is built around occasion-based personalisation. Order flowers for someone’s birthday, and they’ll remind you before the same date next year. Not with a generic “buy flowers” push, but with a specific, helpful nudge. Their team built a system using Braze Content Blocks that reduced email build time by 85%, meaning they can test more, personalise more, and respond faster.
The principle
The best email marketing isn’t about sending more. It’s about knowing when not to send. Bloom & Wild understood that protecting people from unwanted messages builds more loyalty than any promotional sequence.
In a category where most competitors treat email as a blunt tool, they made it feel genuinely useful.
Steal this
Audit your email calendar for sensitive dates. Not just Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Think about any seasonal push that might hit a nerve for some of your audience. Give people the option to skip it.
Build occasion reminders into your system. If a customer buys from you at the same time each year, remind them before the date. Make it helpful, not pushy. “Last year you ordered X for Y’s birthday” is useful. “20% off if you buy now” is not.
Reduce your email build time. If every email takes hours to create, you’ll never personalise at scale. Use templates, modular blocks, and systems that let you create variants quickly.
Measure unsubscribes as seriously as opens. A low unsubscribe rate means your list trusts you. That trust converts to revenue over time. Protecting it is a commercial decision, not a soft one.
See the brand in action
Bloom & Wild showing how they turn a simple product into content worth watching.
Sources & further reading
- Bloom & Wild · bloomandwild.com
- Why Bloom & Wild’s CRM Strategy is Flourishing · Action Rocket
- Bloom & Wild Marketing Strategy · OptiMonk
Where they are now
The opt-out launched in 2019 and has since been copied across the industry. In FY2025 group revenue grew 5.9% with the UK up 10%, and UK growth hit 21% in the first half of FY2026 under the new ‘Care Wildly’ brand platform.
The Whito verdict
Bloom & Wild proved that empathy isn’t a branding exercise. It’s a retention strategy. The Mother’s Day opt-out cost nothing to implement but generated press coverage, social sharing, and customer loyalty that money can’t buy. The occasion-based reminder system drives repeat purchases by being useful rather than aggressive.
If you send emails to your customers, ask yourself: are any of them landing at the wrong time for the wrong people? Fix that first. The revenue follows.
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Frequently asked questions
What was Bloom & Wild’s Mother’s Day opt-out?
Before Mother’s Day, the flower company emailed customers asking if they would like to opt out of Mother’s Day reminders, recognising that the day is painful for some people. One checkbox, no hard sell.
Why did a simple opt-out generate so much goodwill?
It showed genuine empathy at a moment most brands treat as a pure selling opportunity. That care made customers trust and recommend the brand, which was worth more than any campaign, and the idea has since been widely copied.
What can a small business learn?
Thoughtfulness is marketing. Looking after how customers feel, even when it means selling less in the moment, builds loyalty and word of mouth that paid promotion cannot buy.
